Narcissu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Narcissu | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | stage-nana |
| Publisher(s) | insani (English version) |
| Designer(s) | Tomo Kataoka |
| Engine | NScripter (JP) ONScripter (EN) |
| Platform(s) | Mac OS X, Linux, Windows |
| Release date | 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Visual novel |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media | Download |
| Input methods | Keyboard, Mouse |
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Narcissu (ナルキッソス Narukissosu?) is a free visual novel by the dōjin group stage-nana, telling the story of a terminally ill young man and woman.
The work was originally written in Japanese by Tomo Kataoka, and subsequently localized and translated into English, Chinese, and Korean, by various fan translators. Unlike most fan translations, however, this was an authorised work. Both the original Japanese visual novel and its English version were released as free downloads over the Internet.
Narcissu is an experimental work: it uses minimalist graphics in a very narrow window, and includes two full scripts, one accompanied by a voice track, and the other adapted to work without voices. In the English translation, different translators translated each version, to provide different perspectives on the story.
The original Japanese version uses the NScripter engine; for the English localization, the open source clone ONScripter was used instead, as this has been modified to support English.
A prequel named Narcissu -side 2nd- was released on May 15, 2007.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The anonymous protagonist is diagnosed with lung carcinoma shortly after his twentieth birthday, and is admitted to hospice care at a hospital in Mito, Ibaraki. There he meets Setsumi, a woman a few years his senior, who is also terminally ill. Finding that they both reject to die either in hospital or with their families, they run away together in a Honda Integra belonging to the protagonist's father.
They travel west across Japan's many highways and prefectures, initially not knowing where to go, but later collectively decide on taking the narcissus fields of southern Awaji Island as a somewhat arbitrary destination. When they eventually reach this goal, Setsumi's condition begins to deteriorate rapidly despite medication, and in a final act of self-determination, she takes her life in the ocean.
[edit] Influences
Narcissu is both stylistically and thematically similar to the opening chapter of Gin'iro, a commercial title by the same writer, Tomo Kataoka; he himself describes it as essentially a modern-day version of his earlier work (Gin'iro begins in medieval Japan).
On a level more familiar to Western audiences, the work has much in common with road movies; the screen layout is even intended to evoke a cinema screen. Many of the scenes and events of the story are road-movie clichés, and the ending, in which the physical journey itself is explicitly linked with the metaphorical journeys the characters have undergone (their lives, their self-discovery), is typical of the movie genre.
[edit] Soundtrack
The soundtrack for Narcissu includes 12 tracks, composed by various authors, and provide a soothing and refreshing background for the eloquently-written story. They are arranged as follows:
- "The Emerald Sea" - Composed by MASA.
- "The Silver Coupe" - Composed by Ebi.
- "Narcissu -instrumental-" - Composed by Ebi.
- Untitled, from Shūmatsu no Sugoshikata - Composed by Masashi Yano and arranged by Kometto Nekono.
- "I'm Right Here (vocal ver.)" - Performed by Mari Mizuta, composed by Hirofumi Ishihashi and with lyrics by Tsukasa Umitomi.
- "Lamune 79's (from 'Lamune')" - Composed by Elements Garden and arranged by Kometto Nekono.
- "#1 Route" - Composed by Sentive.
- "7F" - Composed by Sentive.
- "Sakura (from 'A 120-Yen Spring')" (incorrectly listed in-game as "Eightmoon") - Composed by Ebi and Arranged by Hitoshi Fujima.
- "The Emerald Sea (ver.2)" - Composed by MASA.
- "Scarlet" - Composed by Noriyasu Agematsu and arranged by Hirofumi Ishihashi.
- "Narcissu ~Setsumi's Theme~" - Performed by REM, composed by Ebi and with lyrics by Tomo Kataoka, the author of Narcissu.
