Kira Kano (きら☆かの) Review

I’ve had this nagging question for a while now: what exactly is up with this company called Azarashi Soft? They’re constantly doing collabs with different companies and teams, while their own games are all template-ridden “XX girlfriend” romance stuff. So I looked into the company’s background, and it turns out it’s no small deal. Skipping the long story, the parent company of “Azarashi Soft” was actually the precursor to Key, and they also made the fairly well-known game One.

Maybe it’s because they’re a big enterprise, or maybe it’s nostalgia, but the company is still active in the visual novel industry, just now as “Azarashi Soft.” Recently they did another collab with a company that has history — Lump of Sugar, which always seems half-dead — and put out this new game, Kira☆Kano, that looks like it’s chasing the youth trend but actually ends up chasing nothing.

One of the things young people like these days is watching VTubers and streams, so Kira☆Kano went with that theme too. It tells the story of a protagonist who, as a top VTuber, gets found out by a classmate by accident, the two keep it a secret, and sparks of romance fly. In today’s terms, the protagonist gets doxxed.

From my description you might think the game sounds like it has an interesting plot, but I left out some details. If I tell you those details and you still haven’t lost your original enthusiasm, that’s proof the game is genuinely good.

First off, the “protagonist” in the game — the one who’s the “top VTuber” and even gets doxxed — is the male lead, not some “female streamer” like you’d imagine. And the game repeatedly stresses that the male lead isn’t a VTuber but a “Virtual performer.” He gets doxxed when he’s hiding on the school roof streaming and the heroine spots him. And wouldn’t you know it, our heroine happens to be a devoted fan of the male lead’s VTuber persona, and then the two get together. As a devoted fan, she wants to try a virtual debut too, the male lead provides technical support, and the pair successfully becomes skin-suit streamers in the virtual world, raking in the viewers’ cash.

There’s also a branch for another heroine who can’t be romanced (maybe she’ll get her own volume later). She knows the male lead’s identity but doesn’t say anything normally, and she also knows his past: he debuted before, found idol industry competition brutal, and quit to become the VTuber he is now.

I have to say, a lot of the game’s setup is pretty realistic, especially the part about being a trainee in an idol group and then quitting to become a skin-suit streamer. Whether it’s getting demoted for dating, running away due to depression, becoming a top and getting all chuuni insisting the skin suit is a分身 of its master, or falling out with the old agency and having to put on a virtual skin because you can’t use your real identity…

Anyway, the whole point is that VTubers all have their reasons, and after doing it a long time, maybe they stop dreaming their own dreams and sometimes feel like they are the skin suit.

But that little bit of realism isn’t enough to save this boring game. The developments are outrageously clichéd, and the game has to make the male lead the skin-suit streamer who gets doxxed by the heroine, which is totally counterintuitive. Normally it’s female VTubers who get doxxed — who the hell wants to watch a male VTuber shake his ass dancing these days? No matter how you interpret it, it doesn’t sit right. And what’s even more baffling is that the game deliberately avoids the word “VTUBER” itself, repeatedly stressing the male lead is just a “Virtual performer,” even abbreviating it to VP over and over. I don’t know if it’s to avoid copyright or to create a new standard, but all it brings is awkwardness.

The game isn’t long, the romance is clichéd, and the heroine’s obsession with making a skin-suit debut — if it’s not a MyGo reference, then I can only assume the writing is too poor to produce a decent story. Sometimes I even feel the team behind this game doesn’t understand the subject and never watches VTubers, just stiffly applies stereotypes about VTubers to this theme and makes a game to pander to trends and get it over with.

All in all, Kira☆Kano has nothing going for it except Moekibara’s art without animal ears… oh right, the game forcibly adds animal ears via the virtual avatar. Of course Moekibara can’t survive without animal ears. Other than that, there’s basically nothing worth praising. If you want a reason to play it, maybe it’s that the game is so short it adds one to your yearly game count.

Pros:

• Moekibara’s art/animal ears
• Short length, quick to clear without wasting your time

Cons:

• Looks like a VTuber theme but is totally detached from reality

• Ancient, clichéd romance plot

• Too expensive