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Japanese visual novels as a literary movement: an analysis (and why I want to tag it diffently)

//tw mentions of SA, CSA, trauma, ptsd, and queerphobia (homophobia, transphobia)

(CG from Sakura no Uta -Sakura no Mori no Ue o Mau-, III. ZYPRESSEN by 兎桐茸子, 2015)

I'm gonna start using some tags like "#jvn" (Japanese Visual Novels) or "#nvl" (ノベルゲーム, lit. Novel Game) for my posts with JP visual novels, since that's where my interest mostly within the larger scope of "visual novels" lies. I'll explain in greater detail why I have these opinions a little bit further into this post, but please believe me when I say I'm not like prejudiced or just a weeb or something.

I'll throw a tl;dr at the bottom.

As a quick aside, in terms of other potential tags, "#eroge" isn't allowed for obvious reasons (even if the term isn't specific to NSFW works), and "#adv" (アドベンチャーゲーム, lit. Adventure Game) is far too specific and used way too often.

So my hope is that maybe others who are interested in talking about these works specifically (especially in the source language) could connect through this, but yeah who knows, I'm still extremely new to this site and maybe there's already a tag that exists.

But as to why I want to see posts about Japanese visual novels specifically; I'm moreso interested in them as a literary movement. With a lot of JVNs/eroge, I typically view as grossly falling under the styles of either postmodernism or new sincerity, and that's primarily the movements I enjoy with traditional literature as well (but moreso postmodernism). I should note that I use a more colloquial definition of "postmodern" than some, so there might be some people that disagree with me.

I wouldn't actually describe any of these works to really be within these literary movements of course, since the medium was invented in the mid-1980s and the early works were primarily genre fiction, or if anything literary, modernist or contemporary.

(Rance -Hikari o Motomete-, MSX 1989; this series in general serves as a good example of something that's more genre fiction / modernist)

The actual JVN literary movement I would describe as something stemming from postmodernism that's expressly concerned with...

...sexuality in various forms through topics of:

queerphobia, especially in more contemporary works, and is explored often through explicit events in-story (Nukitashi 1 + 2 (2018-2019) discuss homophobia and transphobia in great detail respectively. The latter's entire point revolves around transness, and it's considered one of the best contemporary VNs) and sometimes through metaphor and allegory (SubaHibi (2010) is filled with themes of queerphobia and LGBT+ self-actualization, but it's not something that's brought up explicitly all-too-often, even if its an integral part of the work)

sexual trauma with SA (SubaHibi, again, and SayoOshi (2001) are both well-known for this) and CSA (Nukitashi 1 + 2 also both explore this in-great detail.) It's often explored explicitly through the omnipresent thing known as "H-Scenes." It definitely could be argued as fetishistic, but from my personal experience with the medium it's far more often a device used to invoke disgust and empathy in the victim, and I imagine is supposed to evoke something "à la Nabokov." Basically, I wouldn't call it "pornographic" in this usage, in any capacity.

There's plenty of works that just contain positive depictions of queerness as well, I don't really have much to say on them but some examples are Monkeys!¡ (2021) and H2O -FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND- (2006)

I just need to mention Watanabe Ryouichi somewhere, he's written like 3 trans characters at this point, plus he's written about queer characters in everything he's touched, including the super-popular Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm series (2014-)

...employing heavy usage of intertextuality through:

referencing literature in poststructuralist manners (Night on the Galactic Railroad (1934) by Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933) is a popular one, alongside the various works by Natsume Souseki (1867-1916) such as I Am a Cat (1905-1906) and stuff from his teaching years, such as the famous phrase 「月が綺麗ですね」 (lit. "The moon is beautiful," fig. "I love you.")

referencing and showing homage to other visual novel works as either gags (I keep citing it but Nukitashi 1 + 2 do this a lot, see below for some examples) or simple supporting evidence for arguments (Chaos;Head Noah (2009) does this a lot with various "denpa" genre games, one example is that it just directly quotes SayoOshi in its opening) or postmodern "vibes," plus as a means to evoke literary paradox for various reasons (KeroMakura's entire library (1999-) does this in everything)

(Nukige Mitai na Shima ni Sunderu Watashi wa Dou Surya Ii Desu ka?, 2018; my favorite VN series of all time... it's primarily a political satire of Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic Party, that's concerned with topics in sexuality and mental health. The chapter titles are all referential gags for the most part, with the ones for Route 3 primarily being from visual novels, Kamen Rider and Gundam.)

...having other shared thematic interests:

Many visual novels are concerned with "boundaries" that exist between various dichotomies. SayoOshi is pretty famous for having extended segments where the protagonist just lists various dichotomies in his head. In my opinion, the most foundational work that explores this idea is the rather famous CROSS†CHANNEL (2003). I imagine it stems from the aforementioned Miyazawa's Night on the Galactic Railroad, especially due to that work being a cornerstone of modern Japanese literature. I would suggest watching the 1985 film adaptation even if you have no interest in visual novels, since it's a very important work to Japanese media as a whole, and just an amazing amazing experience.

Poststructuralism is a pretty omnipresent idea within JVNs, I imagine because authors want their audiences to become more literate lol. Famous examples of this include SubaHibi and Umineko no Naku Koro ni (2007-2010)

Epistemology and theory of history in general are pretty common things that are examined and explained throughout JVNs, notably through works like Tsui no Sora (1999), which has some amateurish but fun segments with Laplace's demon, Spinoza and Nietzsche; Full Metal Daemon Muramasa (2009) which concerns itself heavily with contrasting Marxist and Nietzschean ideas; and Kitto, Sumiwataru Asairo Yori mo, (2009) which I can't really even gesture at without overexplaining it.

I didn't have another section to bring this up, but stylistically they do really unique things with language. Lots of hyperspecific word choice due to the idea of 言霊 (lit. Kotodama; fig. power of word choice?) and heavy wordplay for both gags and actual significant stuff.

(Kitto, Sumiwataru Asairo Yori mo, 2009; explicitly invokes kotodama, and it serves as the primary literary device it uses to explore its topics.)

For the examples I picked above, I picked works with the strongest supporting evidence, but a lot of these elements are nearly omnipresent throughout visual novels, especially topics with sexuality and the concept of "boundaries." I'll put some examples of works that really evoke the "visual novel" movement for me below without explaining much, separated into the "movements" (moreso style) each work falls under, but keep in mind it's all just subjective and my opinion.

More "postmodern" works:

ATRI -My Dear Moments-

H2O -FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND-

Subarashiki Hibi ~Furenzoku Sonzai~ (I think some people would disagree here, since it draws on Wittgenstein's early works extremely heavily, but the entire work is also about using the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus through a postmodern interpretation ABOUT poststructuralism, and not just as it is wholesale. So yeah, as confusing as that sentence is it's a pretty apt description I think lol)

Basically everything else by KeroMakura

Rewrite (maybe?)

Sayonara o Oshiete ~Comment te Dire Adieu~

TRianThology ~Sanmenkyou no Kuni no Alice~

More "new sincerity" works:

Nukitashi 1+2

Hentai Prison (this is in the same series as Nukitashi, but it's far more concerned with mental health issues. Explicitly touches on cluster-b disorders pretty often, from a lens of trauma)

Kitto, Sumiwataru Asairo Yori mo,

CROSS†CHANNEL

Monkeys!¡

Marco & The Galaxy Dragon

(Marco & The Galaxy Dragon, 2020; HARUKAZE's games in general are probably some of the best works that could be called new sincerity that I've experienced)

Now on the contrary, EVNs I've encountered / gone through are primarily genre fiction, and I don't use that term to disparage it or anything, but it's a fitting descriptor. Please don't use "genre fiction" disparagingly because it makes it hard for everyone to talk about books. The more literary works are primarily modernist from what I've seen, with of course some DDLC-inspired metafictional stuff on the side too (which usually keeps closer to modernism than postmodernism or anything, sometimes even just using it as aesthetic for genre fiction. This part is actually meant to sound a little disparaging, sorry genrefic fans.) Ultimately though, not really my cup of tea. I really do enjoy genre fiction with other mediums such as games, film, TV, and even concept albums, but when I'm reading: I definitely prefer literary fiction. Like it's literally just a taste thing.

I'm talking out my ass with this point, but from what I know the EVN scene is somewhat adjacent to the IF (Interactive Fiction) one, but the latter exists as a far more postmodern movement? I haven't experienced much IF so take this with a big grain of salt, but it seems like a super cool doujin sort of scene, rather than the JVN space in the west primarily being from a standpoint of consumption and interpretation. So yes, I am just a feeble-minded consumer!

From my Twitter group I was mostly with, I think this is generally the case for a lot of people. Our friend group kinda started with all of us reading Subahibi, so we had a lot of people who really like stuff more in-line with postmodernist literature. I came from a background of authors like Pychon, Vonnegut and such (and to note: ryukishi07) before really getting into the subculture, so I have a lot of bias there as well.

(I don't know why but I felt like it was appropriate to put a picture of Vonnegut here, even if he really has nothing to do with this post.)

I could probably say a lot more, like in regards to how visual novels are more like theater than books or how interactive elements add a new layer that literature often can't, but that's not entirely specific to JVNs I don't think it's necessary here. Do let me know if that interests you, since I have a lot of thoughts on that.

If you got this far though this insane rambling, thank you so much. Would appreciate RBs and stuff since I want to both reach more people, and also I want to maybe see if people start reading JVNs from the way I described the literary movement? Regardless, thank you!

Also listen to this, it's straight fire:

Trans rights anthem from a Japanese porn game yo!!!

tl;dr Japanese visual novels exist in a completely different literary movement than EVNs, and the western fanbase for JVNs is also moreso based on consumption while EVNs are moreso based in production. I basically just think it'd be nice if JVN fans used tags like "#jvn" and "#nvl" alongside the typical "#visual novel" tag.

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the artist also known as Swaggervest