Key, creators of famous visual novels such as Clannad and Kanon, has announced a new visual novel project, entitled Angel Beats!
The game will have characters designed by artist Na-Ga, and a surprise return storyline by senior writer Maeda Jun (Little Busters!, etc.).
Fans have immediately noticed something strangely familiar about the design of the main female character:
Fans can’t but notice resemblances to a certain egomaniacal schoolgirl who was once the subject of a minor cult. Nobody would accuse Na-Ga of plagiarism (probably), but the resemblance is certainly uncanny…
Regarding the game itself, Maeda, who had written many of Key’s game scenarios, and also acted as a musical composer, had earlier said he was retiring from story writing after the release of hit title Little Busters! to concentrate on music. This unexpected turn of events naturally is well received by fans.
Thus far, not much information about this game has been released. G’s Magazine will run a special 8 page article on the game in it’s upcoming June issue. A promotional video is also visible at Angel Beats! website.
Interview from Dengeki G:
Summary of Interview:
* Around the time when work on Little Busters! was finished, Jun Maeda was approached by Aniplex’s Toba(?) who said that he wanted to work together. The official presentation was in October of 2007.
* “The story takes place in the afterlife.” “The main characters are all dead persons.” “Battles are a highlight [of this series].”
* The main characters have all led unreasonable lives previously, and belong to the SSS (Shinda Sekai Sensen, Dead World Battlefront), which battles angels(Angel?) in order to rebel against God, who had bestowed them such a fate. Their leader is Yurippe.
* The SSS members use guns and the angels use supernatural forces in battles that unfurl.
* The main characters have led unreasonable lives and then died, and thus are rebelling against God. The story of their rebellion against God is intended to hopefully convey a feeling of “life is wonderful, and even though it is unreasonable at times, it is still precious.”
* Na-Ga was chosen by Maeda at the beginning of 2008.
* Yurippe’s design is supposed to be that of a girl with “a demanding(?) personality, an air of leadership and long hair.”
* Maeda: “Since my current favorite heroine is Persona 4’s Yukiko Amagi, heroines obviously should have hairbands!”
* About 30 or so characters (including minor characters) have been designed.
* In the SSS, in addition to Yurippe, there’s a Decoy Squad and a Tsurikichi.
* The Decoy Squad “Girls Dead Monster” (GalDeMo for short) would put on a sudden live event to grab everyone’s attention and Yurippe and the main squad would carry on their battle plans. A(?) tsurikichi is a professional at baiting.
* Na-Ga: “I’ve completed the designs, so right now I’m just waiting to see if there’s more work to be done.”
* Maeda: “I’ve finished the general structure of the story and the plot for all the episodes.”
* Opening and Ending Themes are currently in production. If possible, Maeda(?) would like to have a hand in the composition of all the vocal songs. GalDeMo song(s) are also slated.
Staff:
Planning: Jun Maeda
Director: Yutaka Yamamoto (Ordet)
Series Composition: Jun Maeda
Character Design: Na-Ga
Lead Animation Director: Satoshi Kadowaki
Prop Design: Keiko Nakaji
Color Setup: Kazuko Nakajima (?)
Art Director: Atsushi Morikawa
Art Setup: Emi Kesamaru (?)
Cinematographer: Takeshi Hirooka
Editing: Kentarou Tsubane (?)
Music: Jun Maeda, Shinji Orito
Sound Director: Hiromi Kikuta
Production Assistance: Ordet
Animation Production: A-1 Pictures
Production: Aniplex
So this is an original project between Jun Maeda/Aniplex/A-1 Pictures, KyoAni isn’t involve here so whatever Key game KyoAni plans on adapting it won’t be affected/delayed by this.
Anyways looking forward to this. Considering this is being writen by Jun Maeda who’s the writer for Key games and it’s being directed by Yutaka Yamamoto who directed Kannagi, this may turn out to be pretty good. Music should be great as well since it’s being done by Shinji Orito who did music for Air/Clannad.
Anime, eh. Heh, too bad, I was hoping it’d be another game along with Rewrite. Well I guess this is good too. And hey, maybe Key will make it into a game down the road. Plus since Kyo-ani isn’t involved then I don’t have to worry about them getting bogged down again by shows I don’t feel like watching.
Sweet, Maeda’s back. And I was afraid Key’s stories would go downhill after he left, but I guess at least one more game will grace his name.
Oops, forgot to put my name down. The anom comment above is made by me, hahaha.
Willing to bet KyoAni commissioned this so they can milk even the Haruhi likenesses for all they’re worth.
Does Key still do ero?
Hahaha, uh, Key has always done ero. The only non-ero game they made that didn’t get an ero version that I know of was Clannad, and they made an ero sequel of sorts of it in the form of Tomoyo After, based (obviously) after Tomoyo’s storyline in the original Clannad.
Oh ya, there was also Planetarian, that wasn’t ero either. But it was pretty short compared to their other games, so I don’t really think it counts.
HOLY s♥♥t ITS HARUHI
/sarcasm