Visual novels are games that depict a series of narratives through illustrations of characters and text. It adopts an animanga art style, and the interactivity of these games can be at the viewers’ choice, meaning you get to choose what you want the character to do. However, there are visual novels (kinetic novels) that can be read like actual books, such as Umineko, Higurashi and Muv-Luv Alternative, and involve very little choice, if any at all.
Visual novels were quite popular from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s in Japan but have fallen out of style in favour of other mediums like anime, manga, and other video games. It was always considered a niche in the West, but it’s gaining a bit of steam online—at least discourse-wise.
This leads us to the question, what do we think of visual novels, truly?
The perception of visual novels by the layperson is general confusion, people considering them boring, and/or viewing visual novels as mostly pornographic material for “weird” otakus, and while there are a lot of visual novels that do carry quite a bit of adult content (eroges), many fans of the medium argue that the narratives and storylines in anime and manga, even in a light novel, do not go as deep as those in a visual novel—thus justifying the appeal.
I agree with them, it is very elaborate; most visual novels can be anywhere from five to 10+ hours, with some of the classics reaching around 50-100 hours long. These visual novels are left with compact detail and integrity, meaning there is little to no filler for the intended target audience, ideally. Of course, this is something that is beneficial towards visual novel fans; if it falls into the wrong hands, these people will consider it boring and a waste of time. To clarify, not everyone is willing. However, none of us were raised as fans of visual novels. We simply gave it a chance because we were open enough.
In fact, this all depends on a person’s tastes. There are probably tons of visual novels that feature nothing but formulaic character tropes with banal character development and solely focus on lewd depictions of female characters. This is where vndb.org comes in handy; it filters a tag system for people who want to find a visual novel just right for them and avoid the poor writing. Visual novels on this site are ranked, and it’s usually skewed to stuff with better storytelling.
Now, why do creators make visual novels? For one, creators may be inspired by another visual novel itself. After all, the most popular Western instance of a visual novel, Doki Doki Literature Club, was influenced by Higurashi.
More importantly, I believe people create visual novels because visual novels are a great form of artistic expression. Sure, one might point out how it typically has a low-budget nature compared to other games and anime, but I argue that this allows for more risqué and daring choices by creators, ones that would be vetoed by a typical video game, manga, or anime company. This allows for more artistic freedom and lack of restriction.
Yes, this is a double-edged sword, evidenced by the infamous Euphoria, and less known titles that I won’t mention here. However, it tends to work. A Western visual novel, Katawa Shoujo, in its early development, was shared on 4chan, and it’s centered around a young man and five other young women living with varying disabilities—talk about daring, eh?
Visual novels are a black sheep in the art of both visual media and literature; they exist in the intersection of both and yet are extremely niche in both departments. Why is this? In my field of view, we in fact overestimate how relevant (not culturally important or influential, mind you) visual novels actually are. People in otaku circles online, like TikTok, Twitter, Discord, and Instagram, tend to talk about titles like Saya no Uta, Chaos;Head, Class of ’09, and YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story, creating the illusion that visual novels are more relevant than they actually are. In all honesty, most of us, especially if we are young, are merely interacting with the surface here.
I wonder if I’m projecting when I say people that interact within this sphere are suffering from some sort of FOMO.
To answer my earlier rhetorical question, visual novels take a huge chunk of your time to read; users online may talk about them, but they aren’t interacting with them. I promise I’m not trying to make this a “poseur” or “tourist” rant post. This criticism includes me; I have not played a lot of what the visual novel community considers good to great (I promise, I will play The House in Fata Morgana and Ever17 some day, heh), and yet I participate, anyway (with mindful consideration, of course).
I insist, I understand because initially I didn’t want to play visual novels either, I had my preconceived biases as well. I would rather prefer a manga, an anime, or even an actual book as it combines all three, as well as music when I’d rather just have one. Now, this begs the question. Why do we read visual novels?
I like visual novels, but don’t get me wrong. It’s completely understandable if someone discards it completely without giving it a try, and likewise for visual novel fans, anyone who solely reads visual novels and discards other mediums is doing themselves a disservice.
I mean, the majority of them are untranslated, anyway!
Let me clarify, my enjoyment for this medium is recognizing that I like visual novels because they are suited for me. I love its compact design and its contingence with otaku culture. As a result, I will argue against visual novels being an inferior medium. It’s a hasty, dismissive generalization, and the tweet above is a false analogy that works on misinformation. Manga and anime that is depicted from a visual novel, is far more condensed and dare I say, reductive.
Also, comparing visual novels to traditional books, knowing they pace and develop characters, is erroneous. The visual aspect of visual novels is lost on someone who criticizes from this angle—visual novels tend to visualize characters, scenery, objects while books spend time trying to illustrate this in words. As a result, visual novels like The Fruit of Grisaia and CROSS†CHANNEL, two stories known for its psychological depth will spend its time developing the meticulous character narratives, and let the visuals, well, be visualized.
Take an example like School Days, which only depicts one of the bad endings in anime. It is considered a 5.51 on MyAnimeList, which is incredibly low, while it’s a 6.58 on VNDB.
Higurashi is condensed from a nearly 100-hour-long visual novel to roughly 20+ episodes as an anime, completely cutting storylines and arcs that were in the visual novel.
It’s a shame that Higurashi’s sound novel aspect, which emphasizes atmosphere through music, sound effects, and silence rather than focusing solely on a text box, cannot be replicated in anime. Consequently, they make do, but of course, it’s a far cry from the original iteration.
Of course, there are near-true adaptations like the Fate series, depicting a good set of variations that happen in the visual novels; however, this takes a copious amount of time and effort to achieve, which is why it’s not done more often. Steins;Gate is another example of a well-received anime based on a visual novel—it is one of the few 9+ rated series on MAL.
Key have also released several anime that are considered a 7+ on MAL, which are Kanon, Little Busters, Clannad, and Air. In any case, these are exceptions—not the rule. Visual novels can only be considered inferior in your opinion if you believe anime, manga, video games or even a book itself, holds more merit inherently; even then, the argument doesn’t hold.
Outside of Umineko, my favourite visual novel is KeroQ’s Wonderful Everyday (Subarashiki Hibi), a melancholic psychological story with a multifaceted cast. What initially intrigued me was the story’s exploration and depiction of the human psyche. The delicate mind and the fragility of our connections, paired with abrupt contradictions in both tranquil ‘yuri’ and slice-of-life moments, to utter despair and hopelessness—it left me speechless, and I’m not just saying that. Each chapter opens with a different perspective and tone that is gradually set in, woven with a narrative that forces the reader to confront the deeper corners of consciousness. It is 40-50 hours long and took up a significant portion of my time in 2024, but I did not regret it. Not one bit.
For the record, I still believe that visual novels will remain a niche medium. The lack of gameplay is a dealbreaker for most people who enjoy video games, and the amount of text is a dealbreaker for most anime and manga fans.
I recently finished 13 Sentinels, an ADV/graphic adventure that is influenced by visual novels but features actual mecha gameplay. It’s a lot of fun, and I like how they illustrated each aspect separately. On that note, there’s a reason why Ace Attorney, Muramasa, and Danganronpa are so popular: they’re ADVs, or something tentatively similar, the Persona series, rather than traditional visual novels.
It’s also worth noting that eroge isn’t particularly popular in Japan. Most anime adapted from eroge drop the overt sexual elements in order to achieve greater commercial success. I believe that visual novels’ underground status stems from a confluence of these factors.
In all honesty, I do not want visual novels to become mainstream. Not in the sense of gatekeeping; it makes no sense to devote time and energy to advertising outside of the otaku subculture, given how inextricably linked visual novels are. It is by design.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_novel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_game#History_of_Japanese_adventure_games
https://anilist.co/activity/477162334
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5GoykMJLYk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_iUuWd5Fq4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k778IJ5pdWw
https://youtu.be/uT90_EdtgGg
https://x.com/melonc0la/status/1879170965521015149
https://vndb.org/
https://myanimelist.net/
https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9471
https://nichegamer.com/reviews/13-sentinels-aegis-rim-review/
https://www.giantbomb.com/shizuku/3030-69917/images/
https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/1eo366a/do_you_think_some_people_overestimate_the/
https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/1lc4fe8/do_you_ever_think_about_why_you_read_visual_novels/
https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/va3953/what_do_you_think_is_the_main_reason_visual/
https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/g3dwtx/whats_the_appeal_of_visual_novels/
https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/10f6wvh/are_visual_novels_really_dying/
All images/gifs taken from vndb or are personal screenshots, if not, they are sourced.
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