Key

Key is a branch of the company Visual Arts, which is located in Japan. Formed in July of 1998, it makes visual novels, and has made some very prominent games of the past couple decades. Its first three visual novels, Kanon, Air, and Clannad (released in that order, starting in 1999), have even had anime adaptations, all of which have had very good success, and are arguably Key's most well-known titles.

Key also has its own sub-section, titled Key Sounds Label, which creates and produces the music used in all the titles they make.

There will be articles on all three of those (ony the anime adaptations only for Kanon and Air will be covered in the respective articles; Clannad's article will include the game as well as the anime), and it will be seperate from this article. In this post, I will talk about things that Key seems to put in all of their products, as well as some differences between them.

(A picture containing all of Key's current products as of May 20, 2009.)

The characters in each of the products are varied in personality and background, as is typical in any story. What is different from anything Key makes and anything else is that although some characters may have horrible or sad histories, the level of effect their past has on them is very little. They are not mopey. They have all moved on for the most part.

The past has different effects on stories between the titles, though. In both Kanon and Air, the past becomes an integral part of the story, where the characters are trying to remember so they can help their future. In Clannad, the only time the past is ever brought up is when an event from the past hinders a path in the near future. In Clannad, though, the hindering past is used only enough to wrap up reasons, then it is set aside so the story can move on.

A particularly unique occurence between titles released by Key is that they use advanced forms of autoscopy. It can be loosely described as an "out of body experience", although autoscopy is a specific case in that experience, being that they acutally projecting their concience into the physical world.

The advanced form that Key does in which I refer to is more of a specifically direct form. Each has a literal physical manifestation of themselves wandering around as they always would, and can interact with objects and people as if they themselves were present.

(The main girls of Kanon.)

There is only one character in each of the titles that experiences the phenomenon. Each has a specific task that they feel must be completed at any cost. As they come closer to completing the task, the realization of their actual medical condition slowly dawns on them in some form or another, and when the task is completed, they vanish.

Differences come down to something quite specific between each of the titles. And those specifics will be mentioned and discussed in the articles covering each title. However, I will mention that the level of knowledge of their predicament, the situation, and how long they are around for varies greatly between the three titles.

(The main girls of Air.)

One thing Key did for the first two titles (Kanon and Air) was that they had adult content; that is, there were some sex scenes in the games. The animes of each, as well as later release versions of the games, have no adult content. And additionally, Key minimalized the amount of said content so that the player would focus more heavily on the stories of each character than the gratuities that come with them.

Clannad was released at the very start as a visual novel for all ages; it was focused so heavily on story that it is currently Keys' second longest game, being only 4000 words shorter than its current longest. The anime, which is by far longer than the anime adaptations of the first two titles released, is also made for all ages.

(The main girls of Clannad.)

Key is currently creating an original anime, titled Angel Beats!, but no new news about that has been released since the announcement on May 27 of this year.

Key may be small, but they have produced titles that are very well known, even if they have not been seen or played. The titles (at least the anime adaptations) should seriously be checked out. They are so deep, so well written that anyone would be missing out on some of the best stories ever written otherwise.

~Koubo