As most who have read my blog and other ramblings of eroge may know, Green Green was the first eroge I played and completed. I can admit now that my understanding of Japanese was nowhere near what it is now, so I've been thinking of giving it a second look for a while.
Even after all this time, I'm a little surprised at how little the populace knows about the series as a whole, as most people I've come across seem to know only the anime and that abomination known as Erolutions. The fact that in its day it was generally well-received (after all, it did spawn not only the anime but two sequels, a couple of short novels and audio dramas) seems to be tossed aside by Groover closing its doors sometime after Green Green 3 came out.
Rather than dwell on the direction the series took over time, I think we should first take a look at one of the adaptations of the game that started it all. I originally planned to do a really long review to cover both ports, but I realized they shared a lot of the same content. That and the PS2 loading times were killing me. Since I've covered pieces of one of the two ports in rants, I'll focus on the other for this review.
Game: Green Green ~Kanenone Dynamic~
Green Green ~Kanenone Dynamic~ was one of two PS2 ports for Green Green that were released on April 24, 2003 by WellMADE in collaboration with Groover. Much like the PC version, both games feature scenarios by Yamaguchi Noboru and Kuwashima Yoshikazu, with character designs by Katakura Shinji. Milktub also returns to provide music and sound direction.
The player takes the role of Takasaki Yuusuke, a second year student attending Kanenone Gakuen (lit. Sound of bell academy). The school itself is known as a "paradise for men", where boys can grow and develop with no interference from the outside world (a result of the school being in a forested region with nothing but trees and mountains as far as the eye can see). While our protagonist tries to get through daily life, his three hormone-driven friends (Ijuuin "Bacchiguu" Tadatomo, Ichibanboshi Hikaru and Tenjin Taizou) tend to get him in trouble from time to time. Though Yuusuke isn't bothered by the lack of girls and other things teenage boys are prone to think of, his friends insist that their youth is wasted away in an all-boys school. As luck would have it, a bus full of girls arrives along with the announcement that Kanenone Gakuen will undergo a one-month trial with female students in preparation of going co-ed.
Amidst the excitement and numerous misadventures, we are presented with seven heroines for Yuusuke to meet, get to know and potentially fall in love with as he and his equally clueless friends get a crash course on what girls are really like.
