Visual Novel: Kira Kira

As a supplement to Kevin's massive composition of Visual Novels, I decided to do a blog post on Kira Kira, which is my #1 Visual Novel. I decided to do this because, first of all, I have a lot to say about it, and secondly, Kevin has not read it himself yet and was not able to compose a personal opinion of the game as a result like he was able to do for many of the other Visual Novels he has listed.

Kira Kira is a Visual Novel about music and, more particularly, about bands, making a band, being in a band, etc. I mention this now so that I can provide a bit of a background as to why this Visual Novel matters so much to me.

When I was going through Elementary and Middle School, I was suicidal. I had been bullied to the point of mental breakdown and destruction and killing myself was the only out my younger self could perceive. This period of time lasted for roughly two to two and a half years. I will spare the details, but this was a really critical point for me in my life. I did not know how to overcome these challenges: the bullying, how to cope with the bullying, and, most importantly, how to overcome myself and my mental state that suicide was the only salvation available to me. However, towards the end of this period of time, I started discovering music to which I could relate emotionally.

Particularly, Red was the most impactful to me at this time, having just debuted. Stone Sour also played a part in this and helped as well, having also just debuted back then. My favorite English band to this day, Five Finger Death Punch, debuted a bit later than these two and thus only helped after I had overcome a large portion of my obstacles, but they also played their part in helping me. Needless to say, I can honestly attribute a large portion of my being alive to this day to music, particularly these bands. Their music became a vital coping mechanism for me back then when I needed something onto which I could cling. As a result, music has become a rather meaningful hobby in my life.

Now then, back to Kira Kira. Kira Kira, as I said previously, is a game about music and the bands behind the music. So it is pretty obvious to see that, unless the game was really terrible, this was already going to be quite a read for me. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

Kira Kira starts with a traditional high school setting and at first, minus the intro, the involvement of music is not readily see-able. Eventually the plot gets rolling and the involvement of music presents itself, but the characters in the Visual Novel are not as into the music scene as one would first expect. They have to learn along the way and get taught the 'tricks of the trade' so to speak. There is a large learning experience for both the reader and characters simultaneously. That being said, as this 'learning' is happening, there are a large number of embarrassing events that occur that quite honestly made it painful for me to read at times (I suffer from second-hand embarrassment to a rather extensive degree). At this point, my expectations had dropped for the potential of the Visual Novel. I did not know where it was going to go, but given the start of the game, I was not sure that I wanted to know. I had to push through the game and, to some extent, force myself to keep going. But once I finally started to see the 'innards' of the game, so to speak, I realized that, yes, I do want to keep reading. From there it was quite a ride all the way to the end. Once again, needless to say, I was not disappointed.

This game uprooted the very foundation of everything music for me. How I listen to music, how I appreciate music, how I think about music, how I care about music, everything. Literally everything music was turned upside down on me by the time I was done with this Visual Novel. I had a whole new level  of appreciation and understanding of music that I did not consider possible before I had read Kira Kira. The amount of impact that that Visual Novel has had on my life is immeasurable. To this day, I listen to music differently than how I used to listen to music. The same applies for appreciation, thinking, caring, etc when it comes to music. The impact that Kira Kira had on me will undoubtedly be forever lasting. It has changed my life permanently and I would not have it any other way.

Kira Kira is not single-handedly responsible for this, however. The company that made Kira Kira, Overdrive, did another Visual Novel titled Deardrops. What little bit of foundation Kira Kira Kira did not manage to uproot for me, Deardrops supplemented it and did just that. That being said, Deardrops was not nearly as groundbreaking in terms of its impact when concerning music; Deardrops is #5 on my personal list of favorites (out of 22). Regardless, it is another Visual Novel with high recommendation from me.

So if anyone out there has a remarkable interest in music and Visual Novels, Kira Kira (and Deardrops) are for you.