is a Japanese

adult An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

developed by Clochette. It was first released for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

PCs A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or techn ...

on May 27, 2011. ''Kamikaze Explorer!s story follows the main character Keiji Hayase, and takes place in the future, where the younger generation use a special power called Metis. The

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pla ...

follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the five female main characters by the

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

. ''Kamikaze Explorer!'' had overall very good sales, charting as the best-selling visual novel at the time of its release, and the fourth best-selling visual novel of 2011 according to Getchu.com. Various media based on the game has been produced, such as two

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

adaptations which serialized in

ASCII Media Works ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...

' ''

Dengeki Hime was a Japanese magazine published monthly by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks) publishing information mainly on adult visual novels. The magazine started as a special issue of the now discontinued ''Dengeki Oh'' in 1997, and in 2001 it be ...

'' magazine, an

art book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

, music CD, and

merchandise Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more i ...

Gameplay

''Kamikaze Explorer!'' is a

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

in which the player assumes the role of Keiji Hayase. Much of its

is spent reading the text that appears on the screen, which represents the story's

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...

and

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

. The text is accompanied by character sprites, which represent who Keiji is talking to, over background art. Throughout the game, the player encounters

CG artwork Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great deal ...

at certain points in the story, which take the place of the background art and character sprites. ''Kamikaze Explorer!'' follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction. There are five main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, and text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. Some decisions can lead the game to end prematurely and offer an alternative ending to the plot. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices to further the plot to an alternate direction. Throughout gameplay, there are scenes depicting Keiji and a given heroine having sex.

Plot and characters

In the near future, the living areas for humans reduce due to climate and terrain changes. As if in unison, some of the younger generation develop special powers called "Metis". There are many types of Metis, from magic barriers to being able to breathe under water. was constructed to train and develop those students with Metis. , the protagonist of ''Kamikaze Explorer!'', doesn't have any powers, but he was scouted by an agent from the school and ends up attending the school. He is then recruited into Argonaut, a club for helping people with their problems. Keiji befriends many people during his stay at Suminoe Academy, one of them being his classmate , a popular and friendly female student whose Metis is

Aegis The aegis ( ; grc, αἰγίς ''aigís''), as stated in the ''Iliad'', is a device carried by Athena and Zeus, variously interpreted as an animal skin or a shield and sometimes featuring the head of a Gorgon. There may be a connection with a d ...

. Her parents died in a car accident during her childhood, resulting in her going to an orphanage, before being enrolled at Suminoe Academy. He also meets , the granddaughter of an important figure involved in the establishment of Suminoe. Mishio is very confident and refined, and is somewhat arrogant. Her Metis is Prominence. Keiji has a younger sister who enrolls at Suminoe, called . Manami, who is sometimes nicknamed "Mana", is very energetic and outgoing, but possessive of her brother. Her Metis is Penetrator. Keiji has a childhood friend called , whose Metis is

Mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes asso ...

, and is also Fūka's best friend and roommate. Unlike Fuuka, Kotoha does not care for studying, as she tends to be quite mischievous and carefree. The last heroine is , the discipline committee leader who means well, but it overly strict, especially to Keiji. Her Metis is Umbla.

Development and release

''Kamikaze Explorer!'' is Clochette's fourth work, after ''Amatsu Misora ni!''. Hitoshi Oshiki designed the characters in ''Kamikaze Explorer!'', whilst background art was drawn by Sasanqua, Katsuhiko Hino, and Studio Tulip. Three people worked together to write the scenario: Aku Himenogi, Toujaku, and J-Sairo; Himenogi also planned and drafted ''Kamikaze Explorer!''. The trial version of the game was first made available for

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote s ...

on the ''Kamikaze Explorer!'' official website on April 7, 2011. Adult content was still included in the trial. A limited edition of ''Kamikaze Explorer!'' was released for a

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

Vista Vista usually refers to a distant view. Vista may also refer to: Software *Windows Vista, the line of Microsoft Windows client operating systems released in 2006 and 2007 *VistA, (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) ...

/ 7 PC as one

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

on May 27, 2011. ''Kamikaze Explorer!'' was again released on August 26, 2011, but as a regular edition.

Adaptations

Print

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

by Ooi Masakazu was published in the January 2011 issue of

' ''

'' magazine. Another manga illustrated by Achumuchi has serialized in ''Dengeki Hime'' starting from the November 2013 issue.

Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines su ...

has released the compiled chapters into a

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

volume which went to sale on June 13, 2014 under ASCII Media Works' publishing imprint

Dengeki Comics is a manga publishing label affiliated with the Japanese publishing company ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks) and is aimed at a male audience. Aside from the main Dengeki Comics label, there is the related Dengeki Comics EX label, which ...

. A 119-page

under the title ''Kamikaze Explorer! Visual Fan Book'' was released by

Enterbrain , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing founded on 30 January 1987 as . Magazines published by Enterbrain are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strategy ...

on November 4, 2011. The book contains story and character explanations, staff interviews, a

glossary A glossary (from grc, γλῶσσα, ''glossa''; language, speech, wording) also known as a vocabulary or clavis, is an alphabetical list of Term (language), terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. Tradi ...

for the terms in the visual novel, pinups, and more.

Other media

There are three main pieces of music used in ''Kamikaze Explorer!''. The opening theme is "Explorer World" sung by NANA, two ending themes; "Believe in You" sung by

Hiromi Satō is a female Japanese singer and songwriter from Iwate Prefecture. She has performed for songs for video game, games and anime, such as ''Mizuiro'', ''Please Twins!'', ''Green Green (anime), Green Green'', and the ''Galaxy Angel'' games. She has ...

, and a grand ending theme called which is sung by

AiRI Airi is a feminine given name used in several cultures, including Estonian, Finnish and Japanese. The Japanese name can be written as 愛里, 愛李, 愛莉, 愛理, 愛梨, 藍梨 or あいり in hiragana). In Estonian and Finnish the name is de ...

. A ''Kamikaze Explorer!''

original soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of ...

CD was released by Bell on January 27, 2011, containing all songs and BGM used in the game. A character sleeve collection has been released by

Broccoli Broccoli (''Brassica oleracea'' var. ''italica'') is an edible green plant in the cabbage family (family Brassicaceae, genus ''Brassica'') whose large flowering head, stalk and small associated leaves are eaten as a vegetable. Broccoli is cl ...

notably depicting ''Kamikaze Explorer!'' heroines Fuuka and Saori. A ''Kamikaze Explorer!'' character card box collection was released by Broccoli on July 20, 2012.

Reception

In 2011, ''Kamikaze Explorer!'' has ranked four times in the top ten in national PC game pre-orders in Japan. The rankings were at No. 6 from January to March, and No. 2 in April. ''Kamikaze Explorer!'' premiered as the No. 1 game sold on Getchu.com, a major redistributor of visual and domestic anime products, during the month of its release, and No. 26 in June. On the website, ''Kamikaze Explorer!'' would go on to chart as the fourth best selling visual novel of 2011. The 2011 Moe Game Awards gave ''Kamikaze Explorer!'' gold prizes for graphics, character design, and eroge (pink). ''Kamikaze Explorer!'' also won silver prizes for the grand prize, and for BGM.

MangaGamer MangaGamer is a video game publisher specializing in the English localization and distribution of Japanese eroge and visual novels. It is run by Japanese-based company Japan Animation Contents. History MangaGamer was originally envisioned as a c ...

has shown interest in localizing the visual novel in English.

References

External links

Official website
at Clochette
''Kamikaze Explorer!'' opening demo movie
(Clochettesoft) at

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

*{{vndb, 4942, title=Kamikaze Explorer! 2011 video games ASCII Media Works manga Enterbrain manga Eroge Harem anime and manga Harem video games Kadokawa Shoten manga Kadokawa Dwango franchises School life in anime and manga Seinen manga Single-player video games Romance anime and manga Video games developed in Japan Visual novels Windows games Windows-only games