is a Japanese

adult An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social an ...

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

developed by

Circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

and was first released on July 27, 2001 for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

as a

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

, followed by a

DVD-ROM 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 ...

release on August 31, 2001. It was followed by two all-ages consumer ports for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

, retitled as ''Water Summer'', and the

Dreamcast The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...

on July 18, 2002, which was subsequently followed by an all-ages version for Windows, released on July 25, 2003. An expanded version, entitled , was released in Japan on September 24, 2004 with the adult content found in the original version, followed by a European release on April 25, 2009, and was again ported to the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

, entitled , released on August 30, 2007 with the adult content removed. The

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game. The term applies to both video games and Tabletop game, tabletop games. Gameplay is the connection between the player and the game, the player's overcoming of challenges, and t ...

in ''Suika'' follows a linear plot line, which offers pre-determined scenarios and courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the main female characters. ''Suika'' has made several transitions to other media. A

light novel A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging. The abbr ...

was published by

Paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm ( ) is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. The word ''paradigm'' is Ancient ...

in November 2001 and a set of four drama CDs were produced between August 2002 and January 2003. A four-episode

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...

created by Moon Rock was released between February 25, 2003 and June 25, 2003 as three DVDs containing one episode each, followed by a DVD box-set released on April 25, 2004 containing an extra episode, and was subsequently licensed for sale in North America under the title ''Wet Summer Days'' by Kitty Media.

Gameplay

The ''Suika'' visual novel is divided into four chapters which contain different stories and characters, though all take place in the same rural town known as Tokiwa Village. In a short prologue upon starting a new game, the player assumes the role of Hiroshi Inaba as he arrives back in town for his annual visit of friends and family. It is here that the two heroines for the two upcoming chapters are seen through his eyes. In the first chapter, the player assumes the role of Akira Kazama and centers around his interaction with the first chapter's sole main heroine Itsuki Minase (voiced by Minami Nagasaki). In the second chapter, the protagonist is Souji Kamishiro who interacts with the second chapter's two main heroines Sayaka Shirakawa (voiced by Kanon Torii) and Mie Wakabayashi (voiced by Junko Kusayanagi). In the third chapter, the player plays as Yoshikazu Masaki who interacts with two heroines, Akane Masaki (voiced by Yura Hinata) and Touko Kyouya (voiced by Komugi Nishida). In the fourth and final chapter, the player returns to Hiroshi Inaba. This chapter centers around his interaction with a heroine who remains nameless throughout the story (voiced by Hiyori Haruno in Original and Azumi Nakatani in A.S.). ''Suikas

requires little interaction from the player as most of the game's duration is spent reading the text that appears on the game screen, which represents either

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

between the various characters or the inner thoughts of the protagonist. After progressing through the text, the player will come to a "decision point" where he or she must choose from multiple options. The time between these decision points varies. Gameplay pauses at these points and depending on which choice the player makes, the plot will progress in a specific direction. There are five main plot lines the player experiences—one for each heroine. The player must replay the game multiple times and make different choices during decision points to view all five plot lines. One of the goals of the original version's gameplay is for the player to enable the viewing of hentai scenes depicting the given protagonist and one of the heroines having

sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

Development

''Suika'' is the fourth project developed by the visual novel studio Circus, and the second by their Northern subdivision. The producer for ''Suika'' was Tororo, president of Circus, who was also one of the two music composers, the other being Kometto Nekono. The planning for ''Suika'' was headed by Mikage, and was one of the two scenario writers along with Ichirō Go. Art direction and character design was split between Naru Nanao and Takanon Ikuta. Programming for the game was provided by Takanori. Tororo, Mikage, and Naru Nanao went on to create titles such as ''

Da Capo Da capo ( , , ; often abbreviated as D.C.) is an Italian musical term that means "from the beginning" (literally, "from the head"). The term is a directive to repeat the previous part of music, often used to save space, and thus is an easie ...

'', with the latter two later collaborating to help develop Minori's '' Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two''.

Release history

''Suika'' was first available to be public on July 27, 2001, as a

for

, containing adult content. It was followed by a

release, with various technical improvements, on August 31, 2001. Both versions were released as both a limited edition and a regular edition. The limited edition contained an

arrange Arrange is a mythological figure from the Aboriginal Australian creation myth of the Alyawarre people for Karlu Karlu. In the myth, the figure Arrange, who is also referred to as the devil man, comes from Ayleparrarntenhe. Arrange was making ...

soundtrack album, a calendar, in addition to a T-shirt included in only the DVD-ROM release; the regular editions did not contain the aforementioned extras. The next year, the original releases of ''Suika'' were followed by two consumer console ports for the

, renamed as ''Water Summer'', and the

. Both versions were published by

PrincessSoft PrincessSoft is a Japanese company. It specialized in the development of visual novel video game ports for use on home video game consoles such as the PlayStation 2 and the Dreamcast. It has two imprints: ''Primavera'', which specializes in female ...

, and were released on July 18, 2002 as both a limited edition and a regular edition, with the adult content found in the original release removed. The limited edition of both the PS and the DC version were limited in quantity, with fifteen-thousand units manufactured for the PS version, and twenty-thousand for the DC version. It was subsequently followed by an all-ages version published by S.O.F.T., released on July 25, 2003 for Windows. An enhanced re-release based on the all-ages version, entitled , was published by Circus in Japan on September 24, 2004 with extended scenario and the adult content found in the original version. The game was ported to the

in limited and regular editions on August 30, 2007 under the title with adult content once again removed. The game was released downloadable on the Internet in English published by the European-based company MangaGamer on April 25, 2009.

Related media

Books

The was published by SoftBank Publishing in October 2001. A

written by Tasuku Saika with illustrations by Takanon Ikuta and cover illustration by Naru Nanao was published by

in November 2001 and covered the story from the fourth chapter in ''Suika''. A guide book entitled was published by SoftBank Publishing in September 2002.

OVA

An adult-oriented

series was produced by the animation studio Moon Rock, executively produced by

Toshio Maeda is an erotic manga artist who was prolific in the 1980s and '90s. Several of Maeda's works have been used as a basis for original video animations (OVA) including '' La Blue Girl'', '' Adventure Kid'', '' Demon Beast Invasion'', '' Demon Warrior ...

, and directed by Yasuhito Kikuchi. The studio adapted ''Suika'' initially over three episodes which were released on three separate DVDs and VHSs between February 25, 2003 and June 25, 2003 in Japan. A DVD box-set containing the first three volumes and an extra episode was released in Japan on April 25, 2004. The OVA series was licensed and released subtitled in English by Kitty Media as a single DVD containing the four episodes on August 17, 2004.

Music and audio CDs

The original visual novel and the ports to the PlayStation and Dreamcast each have two pieces of

theme music Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

, one opening theme and one ending theme. The opening theme is "Fragment: The Heat Haze of Summer" sung by Kamin in the original Windows version, and by Yozuca* in the two ports. A

maxi single A maxi single, maxi-single, or maxi CD (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song. Maxi singles are often mistaken for extended plays (EPs), especial ...

containing the opening theme sung by Kamin was released by Circus on July 15, 2001. The ending theme is "Fragment: Thought to Wish to the Starlit Sky" sung by Miwa Kōzuki in the Windows version, and by Rino for the ports. Both songs were written and composed by Tororo. The ''Water Summer Original Soundtrack'', the soundtrack for the PlayStation and Dreamcast versions, was released by Circus on August 11, 2001. A

remix album A remix album is an album consisting of remixes or rerecorded versions of an artist's earlier released material. The first act who employed the format was American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson ('' Aerial Pandemonium Ballet'', 1971). As of 200 ...

entitled was released by First Smile Entertainment on December 19, 2001. The ''Suika Original Soundtrack'' for the original visual novel was released by PetaBits Records on October 26, 2007. The updated release of ''Suika'' entitled ''Suika A.S+'' has three pieces of theme music, one opening theme and two ending themes. The opening theme is "Fragment: Luminous Ver" written and composed by Tororo and sung by Miyuki Hashimoto. The first ending theme is , and the second ending theme is ; both ending themes were written and composed by Chiyomaru Shikura and sung by Ayane. The PlayStation 2 version entitled ''Suika A.S+ Eternal Name'' has four pieces of theme music, one opening theme and three ending themes. The opening theme is "Fragment: Shooting Star of the Origin" written and composed by Tororo and sung by

Minori Chihara is a Japanese Voice acting in Japan, voice actress and singer who has had roles in several anime series.Doi, Hitoshi"Chihara Minori" ''Seiyuu Database''. January 3, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2011. She is well known for her voice role as Yuki ...

. The first, and main, ending theme is "Fragment: Eternal Infinity", also written and composed by Tororo, but sung by Jun Mirono. The second ending theme is sung by Yozuca*, and the third ending theme is sung by Kazco. A vocal album for the PlayStation 2 release of ''Suika'' entitled ''Since Fragment'' was released by Lantis on July 25, 2007. The OVA's opening theme is "Fragment: The Heat Haze of Summer" by Kamin and the ending theme is by Naotarou Moriyama. The original soundtrack of the OVA series was released by Frontier Works on August 23, 2003 containing one disc. ''Suika'' was adapted into four drama CDs released between August 30, 2002 and January 27, 2003 by

Movic is a Japanese company which specializes in the publication of trading cards, figures, CDs, and other general media related to the anime industry. Movic is a part of the Animate (retailer), Animate group. Anime involved in *''Oh My Goddess!, Ah ...

. Each CD covers each of the four chapters in ''Suika'' starting with Minase Itsuki's story in chapter one, and ending with the story of the nameless girl in chapter four.

Reception and sales

According to a national ranking of

bishōjo game A or is "a type of Japanese video game centered on interactions with attractive girls". ''Bishōjo'' games are similar to ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' books in the way of narrative, in which the game tells a story but the player may make c ...

s based on amounts sold in Japan, the limited edition of ''Suika''s CD-ROM release premiered at the second place out of fifty when it was first listed on the chart, and was then dropped to the fortieth in the next ranking. While it did not appear in the next ranking, it appeared again on the chart one month later, at the forty-eighth place, making its final appearance on the charts. The regular edition of the CD-ROM release premiered on the charts at the seventh place twice since its release, and dropped to the twenty-first in its next and last appearance on the charts. The DVD-ROM release premiered on the charts at the seventh place, before dropping to the forty-eighth place in the next, making its final appearance on the charts. When ''Suika A.S+'' was first released, the limited edition release premiered on the chart at the second place, and did not make any further appearances, while the regular edition release debuted and made its only appearance on the charts at the thirty-seventh place.

References

External links

Circus' official ''Suika'' website

MangaGamer's official ''Suika A.S+'' website

*{{ann, anime, 4502, Wet Summer Days 2001 Japanese novels 2001 video games 2003 anime OVAs Bishōjo games Drama anime and manga Dreamcast games Eroge Japan-exclusive video games Lantis (company) Light novels PlayStation 2 games PlayStation (console) games Romance anime and manga Romance video games Video games developed in Japan Visual novels Windows games PrincessSoft games Circus (company) games MangaGamer games