To Heart (トゥハート Tu Hāto?) is a Japanese visual novel by Leaf/Aquaplus released in 1997 for the PC.[1] It was later ported to the PlayStation and given voice acting.[2] A second PC version, titled To Heart PSE was released containing the PlayStation version as well as omake games. The new computer version and PlayStation version had the adult scenes removed. It was adapted into a 13-episode TV anime by KSS in 1999.[3] A second anime, To Heart: Remember My Memories began airing from October 2004.[4] To Heart is an influential visual novel with a large cult following; it has been the inspiration for a great deal of fan art in the dōjinshi community. To Heart is credited to helping launch Aquaplus/Leaf from obscurity and secure its success in the visual novel market. To Heart expended its cult following to non-visual novel players when the KSS anime and PlayStation version was released. Furthermore, the original anime was one of the first cases where an anime adaptation of a video game would prove to be successful among viewers whom did not play the game. The KSS anime became a stepping stone for famous voice actresses in regular anime, but ~Remember My Memories~ and the To Heart2 anime did not receive as much praise as the original anime series. A similarly titled Japanese drama, To Heart - I want to die loving (To Heart ～恋して死にたい～ Tu Hāto ~ koishite shinitai?) has no actual relation to the game. However, the scenario writer acknowledged in a magazine interview that the popularity of the To Heart series did influence the title and story, and he drew on elements of To Heart when writing the drama of the same name.[5]
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History
- May 23 1997: To Heart: Leaf Visual Novel Series No. 3 Released (18 up)
- March 25 1999: PlayStation version released (All ages)
- April 1 1999: Anime version begins airing
- June 24 1999: Anime ends
- October 27 1999: Drama CD Piece of Heart released
- August 23 2000: Piece of Heart re-released, after previous distribution ceased following some legal confusion
- June 19 2003: Original PC version repackaged and re-released
- June 27 2003: To Heart PSE released (All ages)
- October 2 2004: To Heart ~Remember my Memories~ starts airing
- December 28 2004: To Heart2 and To Heart are released on the PlayStation 2 as a special bundle
- March 27 2007: The American (region 1) DVD of To Heart Volume 1 released by Right Stuf International
Significance
Before To Heart, the visual novel genre was dominated by ELF Corporation. The company utilized science fiction and fantasy concepts, and stressed on the importance of story background. Visual novel players often concern themselves more about the overall story, rather than paying attention to the main character's personality and emotion. To Heart was one of the first games that specifically allowed and encouraged the player to fall in love with normality, and started the trend of school-related visual novels. Players sympathize with situations that leading characters are in, and concern themselves more with characters, instead of the overall story. Main script writer Tatsuya Takahashi's idea of "visual novel" is widely adopted today by many Japanese games, regardless of the genre.
Name spacing
The original PC release of the visual novel was titled "To Heart", with the spacing. However, the anime and the PSE versions later changed to the format used today: "ToHeart" without any space between the words. The English release of the anime uses "To Heart". ToHeart2 was also released without any spaces, which is the format officially used today.
Visual novel
To Heart was originally released on the PC on May 23 1997 as a hentai visual novel love adventure: the third in its series. Produced by Aquaplus/Leaf, it is credited to having helped to lift the company out of obscurity. In 1999, two years after the original PC release, To Heart was converted to the PlayStation and released. All adult scenes and themes were removed from this version, however full voice acting and omake games were added. Four years after, the game was again re-released on the PC, which was known as the PSE version. The version here used the PlayStation version as the basis for its conversion. The game was included in the special To Heart2/To Heart bundle, which was one of three packages that To Heart2 was released with. The game was made for the PS2 and is not available individually.
Anime
Two anime series have been produced and released: To Heart and To Heart ~Remember My Memories~. The first was known for its watercolour-like art, as well as slow-paced, slice-of-life storytelling.
The second series was released five years later in order to generate interest in To Heart2, and coincided with the marketing blitz that To Heart2 was receiving. The anime's storyline continued from the original series and completed the actual story (deviating from the game). The future of Akari, Hiroyuki and Multi were also shown. All voice actors and actresses for the game were used for the anime.
Characters
- Hiroyuki Fujita (藤田浩之 Fujita Hiroyuki)
- Akari Kamigishi (神岸あかり Kamigishi Akari)
- Shiho Nagaoka (長岡志保 Nagaoka Shiho)
- Multi (マルチ) a.k.a. HMX-12
- Serio (セリオ) a.k.a. HMX-13
- Tomoko Hoshina (保科智子 Hoshina Tomoko)
- Serika Kurusugawa (来栖川芹香 Kurusugawa Serika)
- Ayaka Kurusugawa (来栖川綾香 Kurusugawa Ayaka)
- Lemmy Miyauchi (宮内レミィ Miyauchi Remii)
- Aoi Matsubara (松原 葵 Matsubara Aoi)
- Kotone Himekawa (姫川琴音 Himekawa Kotone)
- Rio Hinayama (雛山理緒 Hinayama Rio)
- Masashi Sato (佐藤雅史 Satō Masashi)
Character design differences
There are several design differences between the game and the anime:
- The eyes of the characters are more slanted in the game. The eyes were made more rounded in the anime, but in ~Remember My Memories~ they reverted to the original game design; something that Hiroyuki remarked in the sixth omake episode of the first anime series.
- In To Heart ~Remember My Memories~ characters' hair color changed, for example Hiroyuki's hair, which turned from a dark brown to a greenish blue.
ToHeart media
Omake
There were several games and fan made products that have used the To Heart franchise.
- Leaf Fight
A card based game featuring the heroines from ToHeart, along with other characters in the Aquaplus/Leaf franchise.
- The Queen of Heart
A fan-made 2D fighting game made by Watanabe Seisakujo (later French-Bread), the same group that would later create Melty Blood. The original version featured To Heart characters fighting against one another in a comical parody of the King of Fighters.
See also
References
- ^ To Heart at MobyGames. Retrieved on 2007-05-29.
- ^ To Heart at GameFAQs. Retrieved on 2007-05-29.
- ^
- To Heart in the Anime News Network encyclopedia
- To Heart in the AnimeNfo.com encyclopedia
- To Heart in the Internet Movie Database
- To Heart in the TV.com database
- ^
- To Heart: Remember My Memories in the Anime News Network encyclopedia
- To Heart: Remember My Memories in the AnimeNfo.com encyclopedia
- ^ To Heart drama influence
External links
- To Heart Official Site
- Heart-r.net To Heart ~Remember my memories~ Official Site
- To Heart English release Official Site
| ToHeart Series | |
| To Heart General Information • ToHeart2 General Information | |
| Games | |
| To Heart • Multi's Going Out • ToHeart2 • ToHeart2: Another Days | |
| Anime | |
| To Heart • To Heart: Remember My Memories • ToHeart2 | |
| List of To Heart characters | List of ToHeart2 characters |
| Media | |
| List of To Heart Media • List of ToHeart2 Media | |
