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Key News Blog Discussion
#9

There are events so revolutionary and impacting in people’s lives that such people can make a clear distinction between “before” and “after” such event. Two of them are Key related

1.- When I first watched Air TV, got in love with the OP (Still one of my favorite songs ever), and while I didn’t understand many thing in the first watch, there were a second… and a third… and even a fourth!
Shortly after the second watch, I became interested in whatever information I could find about Air and Key. I met EFZ where I could expand into Kanon and the Tactics era VNs; met with the other VNs (LB! didn’t existed back then) and discovered with some sadness that the original Air VN had H-scenes. But, despite it’s flaws, I fell in love wih Itaru-e. When I saw this scene (Summer Arc required past this point) in the anime, (And later, in the digital copy of the Air VN artbook), I knew I was onto something special.

Up until recently, Key was about great music that fitted the mood of the events; cute, loveable heroines with their problems, the acquired taste of Itaru-e and the more mysterious and supernatural feel to the stories. Also, they managed to make me, a normally stoic person, cry.

2.- Several years later, with all the Key related anime seen at the time, I started with the VNs. First it was Planetarian. Then, Kanon, and then, Little Busters!. As I played through the routes, I started thinking that there was more to Key than what was mentioned in the last paragraph. The connection with the VN was so deep; the conflicts, so relatable, and the synergy between the Little Busters!’ members, so unparalleled, that it kept me reading it fast enough to advance, but slow enough to enjoy the little perks in every route. Rin almost made me leave my current waifu in order to make her the new one. And Refrain! If Aozora made me cry, Haruka Kanata (and the scene in which it appeared) made me depressed for the next 3 weeks, crying in sleep the day after, dreaming nightmares about the events nearing the end and crying at random intervals during work.

Refrain required past this point

It also defied my usual selfishness. Now that I’m improving myself. I can’t stop thinking about them. Not only the LB!; all Key (and Tactics) characters and their stories are now part of me and I can’t see myself changing that in the short… heck, even into a somewhat distant future!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JDAM_Cid

Edit: Sorry for the inconvenience from days ago. Forgot about the spoiler tags u.uU

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#10

@Takafumi Oh sorry about that. Actually, the tweet was linked on the original blog article, it’s just that this forum copy failed to update.

@Kanon, @Uni and @JDAM_Cid, please include your twitter handle in your post. Thanks!

#11

Hey surely those images are spoilers?

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#12

Retweeted my twitter name is @StephenDodds5

What Key means to me: Hmm well I don’t really wan’t to go down the whole “Key changed my life!” route but it did have a lasting effect on me. Especially Little Busters! and Clannad. They taught me so much that I thought I all ready knew, the meaning of friendship and family which is what I assume a lot of people all ready know about including myself but it made me look at it totally different if that makes sense? Well it does to me anyway! The story’s are superbly written and the scenes get everything right from crushing heartache to a joyous happy occasion for me everything is spot on and their stories are the only ones that have really left any mark on me.

Long may they continue!

EDIT: Also think this is a fantastic idea! Can’t wait for it to start!

1 Like
#13

Key is the best company ever. No one could create better stories or music.
Not always a story can make you feel such sadness or hatred towards a character (or even mixed feelings like the one I felt towards Sakuya during Shizuru’s route). Somehow every Key story has taught me something to become a better person.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Andreaalmp

#14

Twitter @sumiacani

What’s Key to me? Excellent stories. Simple.

#15

Hmm, the first Key VN I played was Kanon it was maybe the 3rd or 4rth VN I readed just make one route and not even the route that I wanted the most because I didn’t get to it. But well the the most remorable memorry was when a poster of the prom is disblayed and it says that the VN is from 1999 and I thought: “So old” and then I opened the description and the translater says: “Yes it is realy so old”. He caught me.

The next was Little Busters and thats a Hell of a VN, first I only played two routes Kudryafuka and Kurugaya. Kud was first Was realy good but “Spoiler Warning!” the image where she hangs on the chain mostly naked was not my type. But Kud is realy lovable. My PC has a Kud theme and more important I even use the Wafu in my normal Language.

Kurugaya is more interesting she is a lot like myself. Not to emotional. But still with some emotion I can’t even remember when I was the last time realy angry, but I can be pissed by people. But it tough me one thing it could be fun to be with other humans.

The refrain route I played too, after a year I think. Downloaded a savegame. Don’t like it when I have too playsoo many routes just too unlock other routes. I don’t wan’t to overwrite the emotions I had when my first route was finished. But back too the route, pretty amazing isn’t it?

The last Key VN I read is Rewrite but that’s not so my type. First too get the two routes I have too read others that I didn’t want. And secondly after a while it goes a overboard with all that fantasy stuff. But Yoshino is a hell of a character, realy like him.

That’s long desu ne?

And that Yoshino in my Username doesn’t stand, mostly for Yoshino from Rewrite.

Twitter: @SaYoshino

#16

You can make spoiler tags using [spoiler]*[/spoiler]

Also, did you say Yoshino?

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#17

That’s one of my favorite memories of Kanon too. The TL notes were great.

#18

What is Key to me… hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… (Starts sweating) AHA! (slams fist against palm) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvv8y3VmgUE#t=43

@Barda278

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#19

Retweeted and posted in the introductions!

What it means to me… well, it was indirectly the largest factor in having me start learning Japanese. Once I’d read Little Busters, it just really clicked with me. Nothing had really ever made me cry like that, so it really touched me in a way that I felt was absolutely unique. As a side note, only Little Busters made me cry like a baby, is what I mean. The impact was just beyond amazing for me, and so, here I am, learning Japanese and reading mostly Visual Novels during my free time.

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#20

One of my nice & simple reasons why I cherish Key a lot, is because they changed help me changed my identity.

Twitter @KyouKeiKen

#21

you should go take a look at the General Visual Novel Topic (General Visual Novel Topic) I always find it interesting to see what VNs other people are reading and what they think of them. Do you read any VNs in Japanese yet or are you still not comfortable with that?

#22

Twitter: ProBlackbird

Keys means everything for me, I even want to read all Keys released VNs.
They have great storylines and some of them have really good comedy like Clannad.
I also looking forward for Angel Beats.
CGs arts looks so awesome in it, hopefully we can get more news about it.
I haven’t read Planetarian yet, but when steam release is out I will start reading it, win or not I probably will buy it anyway. :frowning:
I wish everyone a good luck to everyone that is participation in the first competition.

#23

Yeah, I haven’t read too many. I only started reading about 3 or 4 months ago. I’ve also been sorta cheating, in the fact that I haven’t completely finished anything I’ve started, only doing a single route. Things I’ve " Your Diary (Yua’s route), Cocoro@Function (Mina’s route), and the exception of the EX routes in Little Busters, in which I just did all of them. I’m not 100% confident yet, since I still need to ask questions on occasion. I’ve mostly been targeting somewhat easy reads.

#24

I won’t be participating in the planetarian giveaway, since I believe that it should go to someone who would need to get it free more than I do (since I already have money set aside for this one).

Still retweeted that tweet, and hope some of my followers catch wind of it!

2 Likes
#25

I did the same~ Retweet for publicity! (Not even sure if I’ll be getting Planetarian any time soon though.)

#26

Key, to me, is like my emotional armada. It makes me sad because of all the angst-y experiences the main characters feel but at the same time, it gives a happy ending that makes me feel all fluffy and accomplished even though I didn’t do anything. I’m a big cry baby but Key productions like: Planetarian, Air and Clannad just really broke my emotional dam and I don’t think I will ever recover or want to. Key productions have a good story flow and really will give you lots of tears.

Twitter: @scarfedxbrownie

#27

Been lurking here,this is as good reason as any to finally create an account.
I’ve read a fair amount of visual novels,so for me Key is another vn producer among many others - but what makes him special is the ability to invoke emotion from the reader. He spends a fair amount of time(at least in those I’ve read) just letting you become antiquated with the characters before unexpectedly throwing some major tragic event,so you actually feel kind of sad when it happens to them. There are other sad visual novels(others,at least imo,even sadder) but I’ve yet to read something that so well creates a good environment for all this to happen in - most just seem to throw their characters in fitting generic places rather than constructing a full area.
So,for me,Key most notably makes visual novels with good story and that have some unique aspects.
Twitter: @xkomachi

#28

Guess I’ll write something too.

It goes without saying that Key means a lot to me (as some of you can probably tell). I was first introduced to the Kanon anime by a staff member of a fansub group I used to work in long ago, and immediately I fell in love with them because of the beautiful aesthetics and emotional story. That led me to go on to play some of their works and watch their adaptations. The heartwarming and touching stories has also kept me from falling into depression in the past, and led them to become some of my favourite literary pieces (and shows, I guess) ever. Looking back, being able to more fully experience these touching stories in their original form is also one of the reasons why I strived to improve my Japanese, and so in that sense, I owe a lot to Key.

I won’t participate in the prize giveaway since I kind of already have a copy, but good luck to everyone else! And if this is allowed, I challenge Clannad Man to write a post too.

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