Review: Back to the green (Green Green PS2 KD)

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.



The Players

Chitose Midori C.V.: Yamanaka Sara The girl that is fixated on Yuusuke. Midori is introduced along with the girls that come to Kanenone Gakuen for the one-month trial. While the other girls tend to do their own thing and start off hostile towards the boys, Midori seems to take most of their antics in stride and insists that everyone should try to get along. While she may seem like a simple girl, she's actually very intelligent and a lot more astute than she lets on but proves to be very unfamiliar with a lot of the things Yuusuke & co. take for granted in everyday life. In addition to her easygoing demeanor, her main interest is in Yuusuke himself. Our protagonist is a bit put off by some of her quirks, as she seems to know a lot about him (despite having never met her before) and is a bit forward when given the chance. Spoiler: Midori actually came from the distant future to be with Yuusuke. As revealed throughout the course of the game, Midori actually arrived at Kanenone Gakuen as a child when she accidentally traveled back in time. While she waited for her opportunity to return home, an older boy (that turns out to be our protagonist) took care of her, and she develops a crush on him. Before heading back, she makes Yuusuke promise that he'll let her be his girlfriend when she grows up, and thus returned as a teenager to collect on the promise.

Kuchiki Futaba C.V.: Gotou Mai (under the alias Fujimasa Eriko) A girl from a privileged background. Contrary to the other heroines, Futaba starts out unimpressed with Kanenone Gakuen and the boys that attend the school. Her disdain grows as she is witness to some of the mindsets of the boys and how much their hormones get the better of them, leading to several antics where she's on the receiving end of gropes and other unwanted advances. Due to her intolerance of the boys, Futaba is seen as a sort of leader figure among the girls. She won't stand for anything that seems to disrespect the girls, while also paying no heed to the built-in hierarchies of the school. For their part, the boys (in particular Yuusuke and Bacchiguu) are surprised by her disrespectful demeanor, and often mention that she is very much "unlike a girl". Her strong personality has attracted Ichibanboshi to her. While she doesn't like talking about it, Futaba's family practices onmyoudou and has the ability to manipulate plants. Aside from being able to communicate with plants, she can also alter their shape to create familiars that do her bidding.

Kuchiki Wakaba C.V.: Mannaka Yukiko Futaba's sister. Wakaba is a first year student that makes a reputation for herself thanks to her willingness to do people favors. The requests grow stranger as her story progresses, ranging from buying everyone in her class lunch to doing people's laundry for them to some rather questionable things. Yuusuke in particular finds it odd that she simply does as she's told without any hesitance. For her part, Wakaba justifies her behavior by saying that she lives to serve. Most students unsurprisingly think of her as a slightly weird girl but gladly take advantage of her willingness to do things for others. Much like Futaba, Wakaba has special powers in connection to plants, and her main responsibility is the protection of her older sister. Aside from her ability to talk to plants, Wakaba can use her ever present cactus to cause her targets to hallucinate. Spoiler: Wakaba's route repeatedly hints that she is not what she seems. It is eventually revealed that she is actually a plant familiar that Futaba created many years ago using the very cactus our heroine carries. This is why she follows orders without question and has such a deep connection to the flowers and other plants around Kanenone Gakuen.

Minami Sanae C.V.: Suzuki Saori (under the alias Sugimoto Saori) A frail first year student. Sanae is introduced as a girl that runs into Yuusuke in an incorrectly-labeled bathroom. As he continues to run into her, our protagonist notices that Sanae is often by herself and tends to watch things from the sidelines. She eventually begins to open up to Yuusuke, telling him that she has a poor constitution. As testament to this, she has to take a lot of pills on a daily basis (which she claims are just vitamins). Unlike other first year girls, Sanae doesn't understand a lot of the situations and antics that Yuusuke & Co. go through. In a way, she's very inexperienced with people as a whole, and doesn't seem to like large groups. On a side note, Sanae's appearance awakened the dormant lolicon inside Tenjin, who becomes obsessed with making her his imouto (little sister). Spoiler: In truth, Sanae has been sick her whole life, and has spent most of it in the care of doctors. Aside from medicine, she underwent numerous operations that seem to barely prolong her life. Being aware that some don't expect her to live to see adulthood, she was allowed to attend school for the sake of "making memories"; the catch being that the medicine that allows her to do so takes a huge toll on her body. In a way, Sanae compares her life to a book that suddenly turned to the last page.

Iino Chigusa C.V.: Suzuki Mariko The teacher that arrived with the girls for the one-month trial. Chigusa meets Yuusuke during one of his attempts to cut class by sleeping in the nurse's office. At first, our protagonist mistakes her for a third year student and tries to chat her up. His attempts to hit on her lead to Chigusa calling Yuusuke "nanpa-kun" in public as a way of getting back at him. Despite showing a degree of leniency unseen in the other teachers at Kanenone Gakuen, Chigusa is very serious and no-nonsense when it comes to dealing with the students. She starts off readily enforcing the rules prohibiting relationships between the male and female students, often saying that "children" should focus on their studies and not be distracted by puppy love. While sticking to the rules, she actually disagrees with the administration's approach to integrating girls into the student body. As the friction between boys and girls continues to escalate, Chigusa ends up taking matters into her own hands by hijacking the school's intercom system (using the alias "Green Green") and encourages both sides to get along, and even fall in love if they so choose.

Kusunoki Kaori C.V.: Maeda Konomi Kanenone Dynamic heroine. Kaori is introduced as a girl Yuusuke sees standing on the roof of the gymnasium, only for her to take a plunge into the ground and somehow come out unscathed. Yuusuke quickly picks up on the fact that Kaori doesn't react to things like most girls would. He is also put off by her ability to switch herself between her serious, normal, deadpan self and a cute persona she uses to catch boys off-guard. Things don't really get started until Kaori decides to hold a sort of contest, promising to make the winner her new boyfriend. While most need no convincing to sign up, they eventually learn that Kaori likes strong boys and has designed the contest with numerous hazards that end up scaring all but the most resolute. In turn, while Yuusuke ends up being the winner, the boys learn they're better off when they see the harsh physical activities Kaori forces on our protagonist in lieu of going out of "dates". Spoiler: Kaori is actually a ninja that ran away from her village to get away from her father and the fiance he had chosen for her. The reason she puts Yuusuke through harsh physical activities is her way of training him to become stronger so that he can help her fight off her father's agents, who eventually come to Kanenone Gakuen to take her back home.

Ibuki Mina C.V.: Oomoto Makiko Kanenone Dynamic heroine. Mina is substitute teacher that begins working at Kanenone Gakuen to stand in for a teacher that went on maternity leave (or so she claims). She was originally suspected to be a squatter that was stealing food from the cafeteria. Despite her playful demeanor, Mina has a tendency to deal out harsh punishments for anything she perceives to be an affront to her. This includes people disagreeing with her, calling her out on some of her more air-headed ideas, or not complimenting her on her looks (something she penalizes Yuusuke for by ordering him to run 500,000 laps around the school). As we eventually discover, Mina is not really a teacher, but a vagabond that decided to learn about being a teacher by forcing her way into Kanenone Gakuen. What she lacks in academic skills she makes up in other areas (like somehow being extremely lucky when making bets) and shows a knack for picking up new trades (she manages to disarm a bomb and later reveals to have figured out how to make one).

Haruno Arisa C.V.: Yoshitake Noriko Sub-heroine. Arisa is the stereotypical "ugly girl that thinks she's incredibly beautiful" and part of the supporting cast. Much like Futaba, she has a problem with the way the boys at Kanenone Gakuen behave and finds their actions vulgar and irredeemable. Most routes have her become the love interest of Bacchiguu (after he accidentally says he loves her), causing her demeanor towards the boys to change. She is also an option for Yuusuke if the player pushes things a certain way (Arisa jumps to the conclusion that Yuusuke is in love with her, and he eventually relents after trying to deny it and her not believing him). While Yuusuke starts out hesitant to take this supposed relationship seriously, something changes his mind, if only temporarily.

Komidori C.V.: Yamanaka Sara Sub-heroine. A little girl that Yuusuke and Midori find while on a walk in the forest. When she reveals that she can't "go home" for another month, Midori ends up convincing Yuusuke to let her stay in his dorm room. Komidori is not her real name (the only thing she says is that she can't tell her real name), as it was given to her by Yuusuke after learning her favorite color is green. Spoiler: This is actually the child version of Midori, who would live with Yuusuke for one month, develop a crush on him and get him to promise her that he'll let her be his girlfriend when she grows up.

Plot, Structure & Changes

The story begins at the end of June going into July, and to give the player an idea of the role the protagonist plays, starts off with Yuusuke writing a report assigned to him as punishment for setting off fireworks inside the dorms. In reality, his three friends were the real culprits, but Yuusuke ended up taking the blame. While the boys engage in fruitless attempts to enact their "youth" (read: meet women and lose their virginity), everything changes when a bus full of girls arrives on school grounds. The crew ends up discovering that Kanenone Gakuen is trying to go co-ed, and as an experiment have allowed female students on school grounds for one month to see how things go. The idea is to test the stability of the student body, specially in light of Kanenone's reputation as a "paradise for men".

The story progresses daily from there, centering on the interactions between the characters. Route progression is determined by dialogue choices (some of them with time limits) as well as interactions picked by the player using the map screen (populated by character portraits to show who the player is choosing to interact with). As with most dating sims and eroge, there are flag events and choices that are required in order to progress routes, and failure to progress the story of any one girl by the end of July leads to the alone ending.

While the transition to PS2 hurts the game because of loading times, the original routes for the PC version of Green Green have been kept intact. Because the ero scenes in the original game were so late in the routes (almost to the point they felt tacked on), the scene swaps in the PS2 ports for the original heroines are relatively seamless. Chances are I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference if I had never played the PC version.

Something I forgot in all these years is how bittersweet the routes in Green Green were as a whole, and while the PS2 routes tried to remain true to that style of writing they sort of fell short. Kaori's route in particular felt like it dragged on, and Mina's route was a bit disconnected (even with them revealing that Mina and Chigusa know each other).

One thing that took me by surprise is the inclusion of sub-heroines. Aside from Arisa (who I'm convinced used magic to temporarily change her face) and Komidori (whose story ends on a semi-dark note), we also have a student named Komori Itsuki that is revealed to be of the "girl that pretends to be a boy" archetype. I'm a little surprised that particular character was never brought back and did not have a fleshed out route (since Itsuki's ending is a variation of the alone ending).

Artwork

Character designs are provided by Katakura Shinji. As this is some of his earlier stuff, faces are not as round as in his later works (Edelweiss, KiraKira, Dengeki STRIKER) nor do we have characters with huge ears. This said, there is plenty of variety, even if its easy to pick out what was added for the PS2 ports and what was original art from the PC version of the game.

Audio & Video

Seeing that the PS2 ports came out relatively soon after Green Green's original release, the original cast sounds pretty much as they did for the PC version. New lines were obviously added for interactions between the original heroines and the PS2 heroines, and I could find no issues with the voice acting.

The original BGMs by milktub remain intact and are used no differently than in the PC version. The only real changes in the score involve the ending themes, as five new endings were composed for the original heroines in addition to the endings for the PS2 heroines. They also threw in Kanenone Heaven as the ED for Arisa and the alone ending. A version of Green Green performed by YURIA was used for Itsuki's ending. While the new endings were okay and Kanenone Heaven is very catchy, the only song I found myself really liking was Wakaba's new ending, wish.

As for video, the game uses the same opening movie as the PC version of the game.

Omake

Surprisingly, the only extras for clearing a route are a scene selection mode and the option to play the ending song for heroines already cleared. It's odd that this game would not come with a CG selection menu, but seeing that this was on PS2, they probably thought it wouldn't serve a purpose. In addition, Arisa's route opens up after clearing the game twice and Komidori's route opens up after getting Midori's ending.

While not in-game extras, both PS2 ports had a limited edition that came with bonus audio dramas.

Verdict

In trying to not be blinded by nostalgia, I will say that while the game does hold up after 12 years, there are some flaws that are present in the port that are as exclusive as the two heroines added. It really boils down to the fact that while the original five routes are solidly told, the extra scenes for the new heroines and sub-heroines do feel a little tacked on. It seems the original game simply did not have enough room for extra characters and interactions between said characters. They tried to cover for this during certain scenes, but I still can't shake the feeling that Mina and Kaori are just very detached from the other members of the cast.

The other issue is more connected to how the game was marketed. The reason it has the subtitle Kanenone Dynamic is because it supposedly focused on more action-oriented stories (as opposed to those routes added in Kanenone Romantic). On that end, the game falls short because the Kaori and Mina routes weren't exactly action-packed. They do fit in with the rest of the routes by playing into the "nothing is what it seems" theme that Green Green rolls with, but the premises and resolutions are par for the course with the original five routes with nothing to really set them apart. Combining this with what I know of both ports leads to the question "couldn't they have put the four new heroines on one disc and sold us the game once?".

Even with its flaws, I have to admit I could give this a recommendation, in part because of the original five routes and in part because unlike most seinen games, Green Green does not use the overdone "beginning of a long journey" type endings. Most endings make you look to the future while trying to be a little more realistic (given the setting, you can't really have a "happily ever after" ending).

If you can't stomach ero-scenes and still want to see what all the fuss was about, it might be a good idea to hunt around for this or the other port, Green Green ~Kanenone Romantic~. It'll take some effort to find, but I feel it would be worth it in the end. Anyway, that's my two cents on the matter.

-Moroboshi Yuumei
I am totally not preparing to review Green Green Overdrive Edition...