The History of Leaf: Pioneer of the Visual Novel Genre

Рет қаралды 80,890

Күн бұрын

This is a video where I talk about the history of Leaf, an adult PC developer that pioneered the visual novel genre and influenced an entire generation of creators in Japan during the late 90s and early 2000s.
I played and enjoyed the Utawarerumono sequels when they were localized back in 2017 and I began looking into Leaf’s history with the idea of making a video after seeing the announcement for Monochrome Mobius last year in November. I wanted to make this video because visual novel developers like Key and Type-Moon have gotten a lot of attention from English-speaking fans but Leaf seems to often be forgotten despite a few of their titles being fairly popular in the West.
A large majority of Leaf’s catalog is only available in Japanese, especially their older titles, so I did not talk much about the stories of each individual game. Instead I stuck to mainly describing the history behind the studio and its influence on the industry. I do not know Japanese myself so I relied on machine translation tools to get some of my information, so there may be mistakes. I did the best I could but I provided a list of my sources in case someone wants to dig through what I found and double-check my facts. Let me know if I messed anything up.
-Chapters-
00:00 - Introduction
01:49 - Leaf’s Beginnings
13:32 - Leaf’s Salad Days
24:28 - Leaf’s Influence
31:39 - Leaf’s Fall from Grace
42:57 - Leaf’s Experimental Years
51:16 - Leaf’s Comeback and Departure
1:00:33 - Conclusion
-Sources-
I couldn’t fit my full list of sources in the description so I listed them on my blog instead: www.giantbomb.com/profile/bow...
-Music-
Azusa - Kizuato by Azusa Kashiwagi (Leaf Visual Novel Series Orange Soundtrack)
未来に向かって - Growing up by Yasumasa Kitagawa (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 2 ALPHA)
Night in Way by Naoya Shimokawa (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 2 ALPHA)
Visions of a Distant Day by Kojiro Nakashima and Kouta Kato (Kamaitachi no Yoru)
During a Lesson by Naoya Shimokawa, Shinji Orito, and Shinya Ishikawa (Shizuku)
True End by Naoya Shimokawa, Shinji Orito, and Shinya Ishikawa (Shizuku)
Sea Breeze by Osamu Ishikawa (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 2 ALPHA)
通常AVG by OdiakeS (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 4 Pop'n 2000)
Brand New Heart by Kazuhide Nakagami (To Heart)
男の子のテーマくだけふでっちMix by Ishisan (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 4 Pop'n 2000)
Invisible Wings by Suebashi (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 3 Metamorphic)
オープニング by STB (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 4 Pop'n 2000)
Lonely Cinderella by M.S (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 3 Metamorphic)
RADIO KILLER by Rikei Hirashima (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 2 ALPHA)
Monochrome Mind by Junya Matsuoka (Tasogare)
Midnight Rainy Dance by Sepia Iro no Sora (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 3 Metamorphic)
Irregular by Junya Matsuoka (Tasogare)
Kaleidoscope by Shinya Ishikawa (Tasogare)
幻 by Kiyoko Yamada (KIYO) (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 2 ALPHA)
Ptolemaic System by CHEMOOL (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol 1 VOLTAGE)
BADEND Crossover Arrangement by Manack (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 4 Pop'n 2000)
Take Me With You by Yuuichi Sasaki (Ebi) (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 3 Metamorphic)
Heart to Heart by Kazuhide Nakagami (ToHeart2)
Brand New Heart Music Box Version by Kazuhide Nakagami (To Heart)
Utawarerumono Opening Theme by Susumu Mameda (Utawarerumono)
休日のテーマ by Suebashi (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 4 Pop'n 2000)
そして愛する者の名を呼び by Kanna (Unison LABEL Sound Collection Vol. 4 Pop'n 2000)
翔 - Brand New Heart by 八霧 (Fresh Foliage: Leaf & Key Arrange Music Album)
Sunshine Day by Shinya Ishikawa (Heart Session: Cool Weigh, To Heart Arranged Album)

Пікірлер: 369

@TectonicImprov Жыл бұрын

Babe wake up. New video about a niche Japanese developer that is actually pivotal to the medium

@lukethekuya Жыл бұрын

Who are the other niche Japanese developers pivotal to the medium?

@Murasame Жыл бұрын

My gf heard this while I was sleeping to it and she called me a nerd.. :'(

@waypastlame Жыл бұрын

@@lukethekuya peep Elf. YU-NO is a hugely important game in the history of Japanese video game storytelling

@Vulpas Жыл бұрын

I don't think "babe" exists if saying this lol

@johnross5098 5 ай бұрын

I'm not sure if they count as niche. They're one of the biggest VN brands out there

@peterpayne2219 Жыл бұрын

I TRIED so hard to license Queen of Heart through JAST USA, but the staff was terrified that they’d get into trouble. I should have tried harder to convince them. I have so much regret around that game…

@Sofiaode18 Жыл бұрын

Thanks Peter for founding JAST! So many niche games wouldn’t have been localized if it wasn’t for you.

@SecretIdentityStudio Жыл бұрын

As a Key fan, Key and Leaf always seem to go hand in hand in industry history and Japanese fandom, but English-speaking fans seem to completely forget Leaf (and see Key as old hat, e.g. "uguu" becoming derogatory shorthand for moe, which always gets on my nerves). Thank you for making this!

@Kaimax61 Жыл бұрын

to be fair, they themselves (aquaplus) has forgotten about Leaf.... when's the last game made by Leaf, go to their website and it's just a green clone of the aquaplus website... I love Leaf as you can see who I am using as my avatar, but Aquaplus has been super focused on Utawarerumono.

@DoTtA1123 Жыл бұрын

I think the thing this channel has taught me the most is the difference between Eroge-Adventure games, Dating Sims, and Visual/Sound novels. In the west, we might just lump these all together as 'Visual Novels', but as you continue to show, all of these types of games are very different with very different histories and beginnings.

@guidedbycthulhu Жыл бұрын

This channel is criminally under-subbed for the quality of content you're producing.

@Priomful Жыл бұрын

I was just about to say the same thing.

@one8576 Жыл бұрын

Because he makes over-edited videos with meandering content and never actually shows how they are "so influential" to begin with.

@doggerlander Жыл бұрын

Most people just dont care about visual novels

@Murasame Жыл бұрын

@@one8576 no way, it's because it's niche af.

@epicalexfurry4377 3 ай бұрын

33:05 This part is hilarious to me, imagine if more sites could just let people “quarantine” certain fandoms. I think that would actually improve a lot of sites

@bornanime3255 Жыл бұрын

Never realise how much of a titan of the gaming industry Leaf was. Like, they really helped inspire, contribute and kick off so much. The entire anime, manga and gaming landscape would be drastically different without them. Incredible.

@LumiRev Жыл бұрын

i haven't heard of a single one of these titles but i'm invested as fuck

@Christopherjazzcat 2 ай бұрын

White Album 2 has some incredibly written characters. I highly highly recommend it. Get the deluxe version with all chapters and extra content. It's more important to the story than you think. You can find the translation add on, on a certain database for the medium, that (V) mentioning (N) gets (D) comments (B) automodded for some reason...

@electrosphere5581 9 ай бұрын

For me any aspiring developer should watch this video. To understand Leaf's struggle to make it big and leave their mark on the market. And more importantly, to not just to see their beautiful case of success, but to also see the troubles and hardships they went through after being launched into stardom. I think it's important to learn from such troublesome stories as well, not just their case of success.

@leoroberts7327 Жыл бұрын

I'm losing my MIND so much game history has fallen into place for me. Amazing work.

@AmelieDoree Жыл бұрын

Perfect timing since I'm working on a video about something very closely related to Leaf!! Very excited to watch this ^^

@bowloflentils Жыл бұрын

Awesome, I hope you like it and I can't wait to see your video :)

@tonk82 Жыл бұрын

Wow... you have a great channel. You got yourself a new subscriber :P

@DandyCrocodile Жыл бұрын

omg my two favorite niche VN channels communicating?

@nekonekopanicnekonekopanic7335 Жыл бұрын

This comment lead me to sub can't wait to watch

@OtakuVs Жыл бұрын

The opening to this video made me feel real good 😌✨

@chris-cu3kl Жыл бұрын

Only learning about otaku culture in the modern social media landscape past the classic text forums, I really love how you captured this scene in history. I learned about comiket and doujinshii through Genshiken but couldn’t delve deeper because of how much i could even learn about it. I was surprised to hear how the roots of melty blood and french bread come from related fan projects as a fighting game fan who is only arcsys deep into anime fighters.

@EbullientSMP Жыл бұрын

A video on one of my favorite VN developers in the industry? You are a hero! This is an awesome video highlighting probably the most overlooked "great" in terms of VNs in the western sphere. Leaf offers such a big variety of quality stories of all kinds, it's a shame most of them aren't even translated

@bowloflentils Жыл бұрын

Thank you! And yeah, it is a shame that so much of Leaf's catalog is trapped behind a language barrier. It seems like some fan groups where trying to translate their games back in the early 2000s but only a few of them were ever finished. I feel like if more of their games had been translated back in the day, the company would have a larger presence in the English fandom today (like Key and Type-Moon).

@wanghosom Жыл бұрын

My brain can't even comprehend how you managed to research all of this stuff, you are a legend man!

@slowyourroll1146 Жыл бұрын

A new Bowl of Lentils vid is always welcome surprise in my notifications! I'm also surprised to hear just how many of the titles I have in the backlog were created by Leaf, can't wait to watch this one

@clifto5187 Жыл бұрын

While i was aware that leaf's utawarerumono, to heart, and white album 2 were regarded as legendary classics, i didn't know that they were also what caused the conception of even more legendary titles like the fate, higurashi, and key titles. Hearing about their humble beginnings and ups and downs was a freaking blast. You my friend have just earned a new subscriber.

@mamaharumi Жыл бұрын

Wish we could get more of their work translated, I love the artwork and aesthetics. Same goes for a great deal of retro visual novels.

@artificialnightsky3.33 8 күн бұрын

Wonderful video! Leaf is a development studio that I hold close to my heart, even if I have not played that many of their games. I found out about Leaf after wanting to learn more about the anime adaptations for Comic Party, only to find out it was based on bishoujo games from the same developer as To Heart! After that I watched the To Heart anime then played To Heart 2 and became a huge fan of their work. Their titles are, as you point out, not defined by much commonality between them. But regardless there is an appeal within their work that beckons to me. Learning about the history of Aqua Plus/Leaf was really worthwhile and I appreciate the effort that went into this video.

@kaishmuper Жыл бұрын

Awesome documentary. That 2ch part was wild, wasn't expecting all that drama.

@Vulpas Жыл бұрын

That was a pretty surprisingly emotional story about a niche hentai game company from the 90's. The Utawaromono series is great but it's the only one I played.

@Kougeru Жыл бұрын

Watching this right after they announce an upcoming Utawarerumono event is exciting. Likely a new game in the franchise. It's also interesting to remember the PC market was dying in Japan back in those days, while now PC has grown over 3 times in size in the last few years alone. Still praying for White Album 1&2 official translations 😭😭 Also, wow... The amount of research and care you put into this video! Amazing work!! I do wish you would've mentioned Suara at least once since she's done music for almost all of their works lol

@bowloflentils Жыл бұрын

Yeah, I thought about mentioning Suara but I decided to focus more on Leaf's games. But looking back, I could have at least mentioned her in passing at some point.

@dorcasmutton6335 Жыл бұрын

Holy shit, Rance was dethroned once in the character popularity polls before he was banned for being too OP? What a revelation!

@meguminblast Жыл бұрын

God I wish more Leaf VNs were tled, I read a bit of ToHeart PSE and the SoL atmosphere was so fun. Shizuku was actually the first VN I ever read in JP and even though I found it average, it has a special place in my heart for that. Thanks for talking about Tasogare, I was curious why I never heard anyone talk about that one.

@GervasiusMC 8 ай бұрын

watching 16bit sensation made me come back here, love this video so much

@Hanami63 Жыл бұрын

I knew of Ryukishi07 doing Leaf Fight cards (that's basically where the design for Rena and the Angel Mort outfit came into existance I believe) but had no idea that the creators of ToHeart were the ones that created that TCG in the first place.

@peterpayne2219 Жыл бұрын

Nice video. I’m Peter Payne, the founder of J-List and JAST USA. Totally subscribing to your channel now!

@Motsuribayashi Жыл бұрын

Your channel is heavily underrated. The content you produce is exactly up my ally, looks like i found a new favorite youtube channel. Keep up the good work!

@pepemosu3867 Жыл бұрын

I've always had such high respect for Leaf despite my only experience with their games being the officially localized Utawarerumono series. Fond memories of seeing CGs of To Heart and To Heart 2 flooding the Internet almost 20 years ago back in high school. And then White Album 2 with it's excellent anime adaptation and the fan TL on my ever-growing VN backlog. Anyone who has delved enough into the VN scene knows the immense influence Leaf had, and I'm sure even other fans like me who haven't read most of their works have the same level of respect. I'm also amazed how you could gain so much info even up to fan reactions and scandals, as I imagine most of these are hidden way deep in various Japanese message boards. If you're ever interested in making a similar video for Key I'd be willing to help out, and can hook you up with contacts from the former Kazamatsuri org who can also help with a lot of the research!

@bowloflentils Жыл бұрын

When I was researching fan reactions to Leaf's games I actually got a lot of that info from Japanese fan wikis, timelines that chronicled the Leaf fanbase, and various interviews. And as for Key, thanks for the offer but I don't think I'll be doing a video on them any time soon. A lot of their games are on my own backlog that I need to get to someday.

@pepemosu3867 Жыл бұрын

It's interesting how those wikis documented everything up to the scandals. Truly a sign of their impact as well. And hey, no worries :) best of luck on the backlog (to both of us lol)

@animonarch3858 Жыл бұрын

For some reason I cryed at the leaf's comback part I never played a leaf game I just got into Vns too for now I played clannad and fate/stay night anyway I love this video and you got a new sub keep up the great content my guy

@DisasterMillennial Жыл бұрын

so what you're saying is that Leaf is responsible for Ryukishi07 being in charge of Silent Hill F's story. This is incredibly fascinating to learn about as someone who read White Album 2 a few years ago when its English fan translation was released in full. Hopefully more of their works can be translated in the future, even those controversial ones. I'm curious about Routes. I wonder if Leaf fans saw what happened to the Tsukihime remake getting released exclusively on console and going "oh no... it's happening again"

@Ninjacatmuffin Жыл бұрын

While watching this video, I was amazed by how many properties I've heard of despite not being familiar with Leaf. White Album, To Heart, Comic Party, and Utawarerumono are examples (all because they had anime adaptations?). Thank you for this educational video

@fmsyntheses Жыл бұрын

Without hyperbole, this is one of my favorite videos I've ever seen on this website.

@thegondola9877 Жыл бұрын

As someone who doesn't play visual novels or even particularly care for their history/cultural impact, this video was so fantastically well-researched and put together that it was engrossing all the same. Even the list of sources linked in the description alone is staggering in how thorough you've been. Which, considering you don't speak japanese, is all the more impressive (I did not spot any immediately apparent errors in that regard, for what it's worth). I'd also like to thank you for using そして愛する者の名を呼び where you did, because it's a haunting song that was perfectly utilized, and I'm grateful to know about it now. Bravo!

@YourFavoriteSon1 Жыл бұрын

This is an incredibly wonderful video. The editing and narration are fantastic. Very informative and well written, keep up the good work!

@Ririi0528 Ай бұрын

amazing video. I now see Leaf games in a different way now. I should try playing their older games once my Japanese gets better.

@LightFykki Жыл бұрын

It must have been such a treat to grow up during the golden age of Visual Novels. I remember it only partially here in the West, but for us it already came during its twilight. A great retrospective video, I truly enjoyed it.

@Zero_Tester 2 ай бұрын

I have commented on this channel long time ago,but since this was my new prfile,i wanted to express my appriecation again, Great video and well researched,imo if any newer VN want to learn more about the history of VN,they should go atleast watch this video

@brandonwaters4955 Жыл бұрын

such a great video!!

@zuttoshow Жыл бұрын

Fantastic as always

@astrades2601 Жыл бұрын

After twice watching of Nihon Falcom documentary i must say this video it's another greatly showed fascinating history from japanese video games world.

@moejuggler6033 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the excellent video!

@konstiyo Жыл бұрын

I really appreciate this video. Thanks for your work.

@shiftywastrels7991 Жыл бұрын

This is a lovely video, thank you.

@densus7209 Жыл бұрын

This is a great video!! Thank you for all your time making this!

@galladite4924 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing this! Great video!

@jamly3465 Жыл бұрын

Great work, very informative!!

@heinzlopez2657 Жыл бұрын

Amazing work!

@user-tj3gs6xw5u 9 ай бұрын

Perfect documenting work!

@myanimeroom9350 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing. I've learned a lot today.

@masufu935 Жыл бұрын

Great work!

@ignyi1 Жыл бұрын

Very informative, great stuff

@Floura0100 Жыл бұрын

I love this channel! So looking forward to watching this.

@CJ-xn1sx Жыл бұрын

great vid!

@Ayryvyl Жыл бұрын

Great video!

@animegirl20 Жыл бұрын

Fantastic video!

@PowerfulMint Жыл бұрын

Daaaaaaaamn this video was such a ride. Nice work!

@mestreluk Жыл бұрын

Amazingly well narrated, edited, put together!

@porsupollo9349 Жыл бұрын

I love your content, great videos.

@siderealrose Жыл бұрын

Such a badass story I loved it thank you

@ArtemioUrbina Жыл бұрын

Love your work man Thank you

@monogari4798 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your hard work! Your videos are always a joy to watch.

@CushionSapp Жыл бұрын

Very intriguing. Thanks for enlightening me.

@rayo329 Жыл бұрын

Great video, hope to see more

@malhawkeye6427 4 ай бұрын

Another great video!

@Moonbunbunn Жыл бұрын

This is amazing

@lebihantristan Жыл бұрын

Thank you sooooo much for this video. That was like very interesting!!!!!

@theotherkid5832 6 ай бұрын

I can't put into words how much I love this video

@Flarban Жыл бұрын

splendid, this will go very nicely with in the 30min+ playlist

@arbelnox Жыл бұрын

Your videos are always so well researched and entertaining! Glad to see you back with another one. Keep up the great work!

@shyangate8172 Жыл бұрын

Always look forward to seeing your videos. They really scratch all the right itches when it comes to my interests plus they're always well researched and edited. I appreciate all the effort you put into these.

@Lcirex Жыл бұрын

Thank you for another wonderful deep dive vid. I feel it's important to learn about and Archive interesting bits of history like this. So good job.

@Nifrigel Жыл бұрын

This is the best documentary I've seen in years.

@nya798 Жыл бұрын

Beautifully crafted video It was so cool and interesting to watch

@waia6605 Жыл бұрын

Awesome video, I'm even more excited to start going through the work of this studio

@-hir0yat0-25 Жыл бұрын

Thank you very much~! This is really great, both the information and presentation are awesome!

@Ta0ru_ Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the great video! Was really interesting seeing how many different properties and ideas Leaf had a indirect hand in helping being established, looking forward to seeing more interesting well researched videos like this one.

@hummusprince 5 ай бұрын

i regularly come back to this video, it's one my favorites on yt thank you for this incredible work

@lentlsoup Жыл бұрын

Super cool and informative video. Subscribed :)

@aguywithaname Жыл бұрын

Wow this video deserves more views. This is a great documentary

@Supahvegetah 8 ай бұрын

This video is incredible. You covered so much that I had no idea about, please continue to make videos, your work is so important!

@bw000m Жыл бұрын

fantastic video! i hadnt heard of a lot of this stuff before watching, its fascinating to learn about this side of the game’s industry

@Alberto-kb6iy Жыл бұрын

I seriously hope you keep up it with this kind of golden content. I will use every bit of strenght in my hands to share this to the world. Thank you!

@nikkidoujin4142 Жыл бұрын

thank you very much. i hope the history of leaf is never forgotten.

@hitagi8308 Жыл бұрын

man this video was so fucking good!! thank you for your detailed work

@jordiekirk4985 Жыл бұрын

Can't even imagine the time it takes to put all this together! Fantastic job as always! Love that you give a spotlight to such niche and brief moments in gaming history.

@GigaFullsMash Жыл бұрын

amazing work, really love learning about the history of aspects of gaming history which I barely engage with, particularly in such an informative and engaging format

@aseem481 Жыл бұрын

fun fact in one of the endings of Touhou: Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream on PC-98, Multi from ToHeart appears in the cutscene, with a censor bar over her eyes, and her name censored in the dialogue as a joke.

@yuuohta Жыл бұрын

I adore the way you put this video together!! Definitely inspiring me to finally start scripting my own niche video essay abt a web series!!

@nainetsu Жыл бұрын

I'm thankful you decided to create such an impressive video about Leaf/Aquaplus history for english audience, who unfortunately don't know too much about this amazing company, but I hope your video reaches a lot of people and they start becoming more aware of its background. Once again, thanks for putting so much passion and work into these videos!

@rydercloud Жыл бұрын

I’ve always loved Leaf/Aquaplus though its a shame we don’t get much aside Utawarerumono from them, especially Leaf sorta being dead for close to 12 years now.

@theotherkid5832 6 ай бұрын

This is one of the best videos on the platform 🙏

@CreeperShorts Жыл бұрын

hell yeah, 1 hour of visual novel goodness!

@ObjoGaming Жыл бұрын

This was a great video! Always a pleasure to see these pop up in my sub box. I appreciate your dedication to telling stories from the Japanese games industry that rarely make it outside of Japan.

@Cneq Жыл бұрын

This deserves 100k+ views and 10k likes, truly the best documentaries on youtube for visual novels/jrpgs. Hope you keep making these.

@jacktrick Жыл бұрын

This video was great! Super well-written, well-researched, and well produced! Thanks for sharing this wonderful history lesson.

@Shank._. Жыл бұрын

This is top notch content. Thank you!

@kageakiminato8536 Жыл бұрын

Man, this video completely absorbed me, I only ever read 2 routes of Toheart2 but when you used the soundtrack in here I got chills. Perfectly editted. So many classics to read and not enough hours in the day....

@Kaimax61 Жыл бұрын

Why hasn't the youtube algorithm suggested this channel earlier. Damn. Any way Great work, as you can see from my avatar, I totally love LEAF, sadly they haven't made anything new since Aquaplus went super focused on utawarerumono. I came in from To Heart 2.