It’s that time of year again, when a northern hemisphere chill is in the air and thoughts turn to girls in red dresses with white trim, and the presents they bring to bishoujo game fans, both naughty and nice.
Holiday-themed bishoujo games are a pretty small genre; far more common are fuyuge, or winter themed games (examples include G-Collections’ Snow Sakura and Peach Princess’s Snow Drop). When Christmas appears in them, as in anime, it’s typically in the context of exchanging presents, and maybe a tradition fabricated for the event (Love Hina Christmas Special, anyone?).
Despite this there are certain Japanese traditions associated with the holiday: Christmas cake, fried chicken, and the Santa suit together form the three arms of the holy trinity of Japanese winter holiday icons. In recent years, a new otaku tradition has sprung up as well – spending Christmas evening with ones’ favorite 2D girl.
Do you have any memories, traditions, or experiences you associate with bishoujo games in the winter holiday season? Comments are below!
Bishoujo Topics begins a series of columns where we discuss themes found in the Japanese bishoujo universe, as well as issues in the visual novel industry. Comments and suggestions for future topics are welcome!
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PULLTOP’s Shirokuma Bell Stars, released today, seems to be the only attempt at the genre in the last few years. It looks very shiny, and the staff working on it are excellent, but beyond that, I’m not sure how much substance it’ll actually have.
For fuyuge in a more general sense that feature Christmas, I’m playing Palette’s Mashiroiro Symphony at the moment. Although Christmas is one of the more important days in each of the paths I’ve cleared, in a similar way to Snow Sakura, the scenes still aren’t the most memorable parts of the game. The only eroge I’ve tried so far that left a lasting impression in that sense was Leaf’s Tenshi no Inai, where all of the paths end on Christmas Eve. None of the five true endings are as depressing as they could (should?) have been, but Yukio’s in particular was very well done.
I loved Snow Sakura game, it is one of my all time favorites… I live in Wisconsin USA, so I know what they are talking about with the cold lol, but that’s not the reason I liked it so much, I liked it because it is something that could happen in real life. and it wasn’t based around sex, but more of the romance. it’s a very sweet story.
Snow Sakura… 1st VN ever!!!
Yeah, I also love that game.
Snow Sakura ne~
A fine title… But…
The absence of gore, sorrowful fairwells, and most important of all… Twins for twincest event scenes… ^_^
Still one nice title although I’m not all for romances that much. But that’s just me…
Say… Any chances of translating and/or porting this one…?
Site:
DL-site:
This is my kind of ” Christmas Present ” heh heh… ; )
Ah, yes, Snow Sakura is a great game to play this time of the year. Well, it’s a great game, period. All that snowy romance generally leaves me with a warm glow inside. It’s a little late for Xmas,now, but, remember, a few scenes also take place on New Year’s Eve. And then there’s Osoujisuru, which we’ve sort of gotten an early start on in the Bamboo house.
i never really played snow sakura, it sounds awesome i can’t wait to play it.