Cavallaro, Dani
2010
Anime and the Visual Novel: Narrative Structure, Design and Play at the Crossroads of Animation and Computer Games

There is a recent trend for creating anime series and anime movies based on visual novels.
Visual novels are fairly static games that rely heavily on text and often there is not much player interaction beyond clicking on “next”.
Video games have become so powerful as a storytelling form that they influence other storytelling forms.

8
“In the context of anime culture, the phrase “visual novel” (“bijuaru noberu”) designates a multibranching and interactive ludic experience that enlists the player’s creativity alongside the production studio’s own artistry and thus transcends the boundaries of other types of more controlling videogaming. The visual novel typically articulates its narrative by means of extensive text conversations complemented by lovingly depicted (and mainly stationary) generic backgrounds and dialogue boxes with character sprites determining the speaker superimposed upon them. At certain pivotal moments in the story, more detailed images drawn especially for those scenes and enhanced by more cinematic camera angles and CGI are included. A visual novel’s ending alters according to the player’s choices at key turning points, which provides a motivation to replay the game and opt for alternative decisions each time. Pictorial sumptuousness, vibrant palettes, meticulous devotion to plot depth and character design and development are absolutely vital aspects of the medium.”

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“In placing the interactor in a finely grained imaginary setting wherein he or she is required to deploy both text-analysis capabilities and puzzle-solving skills, the visual novel forges an innovative way of presenting and receiving the narrative experience.”