Studio Mebius’ SNOW strikes me, personally, intimately, as a relic of a bygone time. A specific “cutesy” aesthetic belonging to a specific period. A carefully crafted presentation that was, in its day, designed to evoke a feeling of nostalgia only to become itself nostalgic, decades later.
‘Tis is a game from the early Key/Visual Arts era of “Sad Anime Girls”, the primeval form of 21st Century Moe, if you will, and definitely quaint by today’s standards. To be more precise, it’s the style of Hinoue Itaru (Kanon, AIR, CLANNAD and basically every title made by Key) that has inspired an entire generation.
This way of designing female characters, with large eyes fairly distant from the centre of the face, really small noses and mouths, used to be the dominant look between the late 90’s and the early 00’s, until it was eventually “polished” into something less uncanny. Hinoue herself would slightly alter her style by the time Little Busters! was out in 2007. By that point, we had already entered the Haruhi Suzumiya era of Moe.
In truth, I do not know anything about SNOW outside of having kneejerk reactions to its “familiar aura.” I was drawn to it by the unexpected yearning for The Aesthetic and the melancholy it evokes - just the pure vibes. The character designs and art direction are courtesy of one Asuka Pyon, whose style remarks upon Hinoue’s but still comes off as sufficiently distinct.
You can already see some of that aforementioned polish in this game compared to the titles that directly informed it but it’s still a long way from what VN heroines will look like a mere three years from its original 2003 release. This “outdated” presentation feels, ironically, much more visually striking nowadays thanks to the benefit of temporal distance. Any perceived flaw becomes a desirable trait when enough time is allowed to pass: Iconography is fueled by nostalgia and Moe is a showcase of its power.
Apropos of nostalgia, the power thereof, things becoming iconic in one’s own memory and Key/Visual Arts single-handedly defining a generation, here’s the OP for the 2006 adaptation of Kanon by Kyoto Animation.
This introduction encapsulates the mood, the ethereal atmosphere of this aesthetical era: an abstract yet tangible landscape, and soundscape, akin to a vivid dream of a memory of a dream. That is precisely, immaculately the energy I get from the subject of this essay.
So, let us discuss it properly.
Part 1: Do We Have Kanon at Home?
SNOW opens in the exact way I expected it to open: a white background, a sad lullaby, words appearing and fading in succession, a feeling of loss being established… and then the dream is interrupted by a girl accusing me of having stolen a glance at her underwear.
Ah, yes, it’s as if I have never left.
Shenanigans ensue as our lead, one Kanata, gets mistaken for a ghost by every single person in town after he was misdiagnosed with a case of Death by Rockslide. Incidentally, the “doctor” responsible for the diagnosis stole 5000 yen from his wallet to buy candy.
Yes, she is a love interest.
Anyway, the actual premise is, in fact, indistinguishable from a Key visual novel. You have a small, quaint setting teeming with forgotten memories and quirky datable options, some supernatural elements working as a thematic backdrop, magical realism and so forth.
In fact, Sumino, the girl introduced as the main heroine, reminds me of Misuzu from AIR in almost every regard down to her vocal tick. Thus, I can easily foresee what’s going to happen. I already know all the high jinks belie an inevitable sadness.
It’s a testament to how ubiquitous these stories and characters were more than an accusation of unoriginality. If anything, I appreciate the attention to details in this game, such as Sumino’s arms being partially visible at the periphery of your vision to indicate the player’s avatar is carrying her on his back.
A little girl throwing snowballs at you results in the screen being smudged right at the centre. Particles of frost adorn the heads and shoulders of many a sprite, illustrating how the environment affects them.
Subtle yet effective elements like these help paint the picture of a lived-in, gorgeous snow-covered world - which looks even more stunning in the suffused hues of twilight. The environment is just as much a character as the humans who inhabit it. The humans themselves are funny and brimming with charm - archetypical though they may be.
However, as the hours began to pile and I cleared the first two routes, a thought gnawed at the edge of my mind: SNOW’s derivativeness was a little too noticeable, precariously dancing atop a thin line between homage and outright rip-off.
Characters, arcs, whole narrative paths, the overarching structural progression are lifted piece-by-piece from the aforementioned Key works and rearranged just enough to pass as their own entities. The obvious inspiration looks too similar to copied homework.
I couldn’t possibly spend thousands of words detailing all the ways in which said homework had been copied but I did already point out the suspicious similarities between Sumino and Misuzu. You may add into that mix Makoto’s story from Kanon being repurposed for the character of Asahi - pictured below.
Mind you, I am not disgruntled by the seeming lack of creativity. I am annoyed that I have basically been reading a lesser version of something that had already impacted me. Having experienced these tales before, it was blatantly obvious the direction they would take. Let me tell you, being able to predict all the major twists that were about to unfold (which are specifically designed to be tear-jerkers), only made me more keenly aware of the manipulation.
I will choose this moment to reveal an interesting fact about SNOW’s writing team.
Leaving aside future console ports and the so-called Plus Edition, the original game was penned by Mochizuki Jet, Jinno Masaki and someone named Klein, with Suzumoto Yuuichi in the role of assistant writer. Apparently, three out of the four names listed above had this very title as their first professional credit. In the specific case of Klein, this and Dark SNOW (which is real) were their only ever credit in this industry. The big exception would be Suzumoto who had previously worked on AIR and then would go on to write for CLANNAD, Planetarian and more. In short, they had an experienced Key/Visual Arts scenarist in their midst.
Now, I am not going to speculate how much his influence was felt all throughout the game’s development but we do have an undeniable notion to consider here: its connection to Key, to AIR, specifically, runs much deeper than what I initially surmised. Which means that, for the sake of philology, I must open a small parenthesis on a few relevant points.
Part 1.5: AIR
This essay is turning out to be a lot longer than I intended it to be so let me speedrun through this segment.
AIR came out in the year 2000. It’s a huge hit, instant classic, all-time beloved title, many accolades, all that jazz. It had cute girls, sad girls, supernatural girls and a lot of heartache. There’s a genre-bending twist in the latter half that re-contextualizes the entire premise whilst setting the stage for the true conclusion. Up to that moment, the game played like a “normal” visual novel with its heroine-specific routes.
We must keep this information in mind as we dissertate SNOW’s own narrative structure, what it takes from AIR and, more importantly, how it differs from it.
Part 1.5.1: Legend
Studio Mebius’ visual novel is a much more rigidly structured game than one might think given the familiar framework - as in, dating, flag events, etcetera. At first, you only have access to two routes but, eventually, an extra mode by the name of Legend becomes available.
Legend reveals the truth of this world. Much like its primary source of inspiration, it’s the Big Twist that lays out the narrative and thematic foundations, both reframing what you’ve read thus far into a larger connective tissue as well as setting up the remainder of the story. The main difference is that said twist doesn’t come before the end. Rather, it’s available as early as the aftermath of the first heroine’s route. From that moment onward, every character’s path is unlocked linearly, one at a time.
This is where the VN gets good. The timing for the revelation was bold but it paid off. Having full knowledge of the girls’ backstories, their intertwined dynamics, fates, and a whole plethora of unresolved emotional scars before my avatar gets to even know them, made their respective arcs more compelling. Their conflicts gained legs and their characterizations felt genuinely tragic.
This does not retroactively salvage the first portion of the game but it does make me appreciate the many, subtle ways in which the diegesis utilized its language of choice, its creative use of assets and interactions (yes, that includes Kanata carrying Sumino on his back), to foreshadow its major emotional turns. It’s a rigidly composed narrative for a reason!
To properly convey to you just how effectively that early revelation coloured my perception, I will have to discuss, in the vaguest possible terms, the route that actually broke me.
Well, that’s what I would be saying if I didn’t have yet another tangential segment to awkwardly slather all over this essay before I can even hope to carry on. Here it is!
Part 1.5.2: I Do Not Much Care for This
There is something I personally find disturbing about the nature of the romantic dynamics - and it’s indicative of a broader issue with Moe romance. Most of your dates feel less like lovers and more like dumb children you are tricking into having relations. For example, Sumino and Asahi, the initial obligatory options (whom, I must stress, are both fictional characters and not kids) act in a way that is purposefully designed to elicit a paternal reaction from the reader, a desire to “take care of them.” On its face, that isn’t necessarily a problem. However, I never realized how much worse it gets in the context of erotic scenes. These girls know nothing about sex and are so helpless about it the male lead has to be the one to “clean them up”, afterwards.
I, emphatically, have not enjoyed the ero portion of this eroge.
Hence why, I was positively floored when the game decided to forgo that element entirely for that one scenario.
Okay, the time has come. No more prefacing. No more tangents.
Let’s finally talk about Ouka, the little girl who accuses me to be a pervert every time I restart the game.
Part 2: The Girl Who Cried 'Panties’
What you must understand is that, even before the added context from Legend, Ouka represented a fascinating genre subversion in her own right, for she is not a dating option. She is the Fatherhood Route.
Before she becomes available, you can access all the scenes meant to be her flag events, which play out as you would expect a fun outing between a parent and his child to do. You can build a snowman together, buy her some snacks, teach her not to eat the sparrows her cat kills for dinner, etcetera. The paternal emotions are meant to be taken literally in her case - as opposed to the other, less salubrious examples.
It is only after you view Legend and complete a certain other route that Ouka’s story is unlocked… and by then, you must be aware of what her deal is. That is how SNOW makes you experience True Despair.
It’s all because of the knowledge you have accrued, burdening your heart and consuming your mind. You have had the chance to enjoy blissful quality time with your future adopted child, wondering what her story might actually entail, and when the day arrives for you to see it through, you will already know how it ends.
And so, you spend more fun-filled months with this child of yours. You get together with Sumino who acts as the mother in what is, in essence, a redo of her own route. All the while, you never stopped dreading what might come to pass.
Until it comes to pass.
I have underestimated how insidious this game is. The manner by which I was subconsciously lured into feeling affection towards a virtual daughter is nothing short of diabolical.
Ouka is a character that has perpetually existed in the periphery of the common route. She is literally the first to “greet” me every time I hit that New Game button, no matter what. It’s an act that I am forced to perform due to the way the visual novel is structured. I remind you, new routes are unlocked in a linear progression so I cannot reload saved files to access them!
I have to see her face. I have to encounter her as she plays at the old shrine on my way to plot progression. She’s always there. I’ve grown used to her adorable childlike antics, a recurring, cozy feature of this wintery wonderland. Then the twist happens, and then her story must reach its conclusion.
Even as I knew about its direct inspirations, even as I expected the VN to subvert its own framework because AIR did it first, even if it was over-reliant on established tropes, Ouka still destroyed me.
Worse, it broke me specifically because I was aware of what was coming but I was “tricked” into caring.
That is the mark of manipulative good storytelling. That is how you make use of the narrative language at your disposal to deviously guide a reader down the path of emotional annihilation, regardless of how “prepared” they might think they are. I would argue that my earlier assessment about its derivative nature made my fall even more grandiose!
You would think her tale to be the final note on this journey, and it did certainly feel like it, but it wasn’t. The whiteness that used to cover the land in the main menu has vanished, replaced by luscious green hills and flowers in full bloom. Yet, there’s a little bit more left, waiting to be addressed.
Part 3: Winter is Leaving
To reiterate, SNOW is structured around the Legend segment, with the routes available before it and the ones that follow. Putting them all together reveals, at long last, what is the thematic thrust of the entire diegesis. This was, unsurprisingly, a story about processing grief.
Most visual novels of this specific ilk tend to gravitate over the themes of Loss and finding the strength to move on through Love, so this is nothing new. Losing a loved one is the most universal of human experiences, after all.
Specifically, this is about how the sorrowful memories of your past may influence your future, the place where you should be finding your happiness. The first half of the game illustrated the trauma of loss, the powerlessness of standing in the middle of unfolding tragedies, both present and retroactive.
The second half is about healing, retaking control of your life after what transpired, letting go. You are done wallowing in your past guilt. Now, you must look ahead and forgive yourself. You are not fated to suffer forever. Grief is not meant to linger for centuries.
In a way, all three routes that follow Legend could be seen as the True Ending, each bringing a decisive conclusion not just to their respective heroines but to the overarching themes. Ouka’s route, in particular, with its greater emphasis on just how painful dealing with this process can be, brings the journey full-circle. The regrets that blanketed the land have melt away, leaving room for the hopes of Tomorrow - by the way, the snow was a metaphor, in case you didn’t get it.
Which is why I find it peculiar that Meiko’s story unlocks afterwards.
She is the character that has carried this whole game on her shoulders. If Ouka existed in the periphery of the common path then Meiko was a constant presence all throughout the diegesis. For context, she is the quack who stole my money.
I understand why her arc needed to be last. Her resolution was, by far, the most unambiguously positive. Her liberation from the chains of fate, empowering. Every loose end gets tied up with a neat bow. She makes sense as the “Final Girl.”
However, Ouka is simply impossible to follow and she has a much stronger resolution when you link her to Sumino’s route. Meiko may represent a fitting conclusion to the overall narrative but Ouka is the true emotional denouement, in my estimation.
They both work as the definitive ending in their own right. It’s just a matter of preference. I cannot say the same for the so-called Mysterious Girl route which unlocks concurrently to Meiko’s.
You see, the version of the game I played was actually the 2006 re-release known as SNOW: Plus Edition. It adds a completely unnecessary, superfluous scenario, which I have dubbed “New Ouka+.”
I do not have anything to say about it other than what I have already stated: it’s tacked-on “bonus content” and having it being the final note on this novel felt wrong and more than a little bit vexing. You do not need to engage with it. It’s only there if you wish to reach 100% completion.
So, my conclusive thoughts on SNOW are, all in all, mostly uplifting. It’s definitely one of the best “AIR-likes” out there. It might draw from the well one too many times, especially at first, but it eventually comes into its own splendidly.
Whilst every character was precious and layered, I do lament how some of the heroines did get the short end of the stick. Asahi had it especially rough as her own scenario could just be skipped entirely if you played Sumino’s first. Her screen time is basically inexistent anywhere else.
I was not especially thrilled by her story (for reasons I have explained) but the way she was shoved aside does not seem fair in the slightest. She deserved better. I also think Shigure was underutilized even though she gets one of the three main endings.
Nevertheless, I am glad I gave it a chance. It was akin to me confronting my own past memories, rekindling those long-asleep emotions. The familiar tears welling up, my nostalgia being validated - for once. This was “Sad Anime Girl” art of the finest wine and I recommend it.
On that note, I must give major props to the team of fan-translators who brought this title to the English language. Their curious choices of onomatopoeia never failed to bring a genuine smile to my lips.
I wish you all a merry “Fungo Eroge”!
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