What was your first gay furry vn? It seems like such a simple question, but it can be easy to forget what we started with once we get deep into a new genre of entertainment.
However when it comes to gfvn's, for most there is only one answer: Morenatsu.
Morenatsu is perhaps the most well known of these types of vn's, and this mainstream-ish status is what has made it the gateway for many of us into the rest of the fandom.
It pretty much created the genre, and for these and many other reasons it holds a special place in the fandom's heart.
But how did Morenatsu achieve this status? And more importantly, what does Morenatu have to offer that other vn's don't? Well let's find out as we do a deeper dive into the game that never stays dead for long.
Foreign Roots:
First we should probably discuss Morenatsu's long and turbulent history, as other than being entertaining by itself, it also sets it far apart from practically all other gfvn's.
Morenatsu originally started development in 2003, and as its name would suggest, came from Japan. For a long period of time it was only available here in Japanese. That would change much later on with the addition of an English translation and port overseas.
Even after localization however Morenatsu managed to keep its distinctly Japanese roots, seen in the common references to Japanese food, clothes, and cultural traditions. This would prove to be a smart idea as countries like the US craved everything Japanese from anime to video games.
Arguably the wacky Japanese influences are what made Morenatsu popular with more than just furries at the time, as others could enjoy anime-style characters as if this were like an anime show.
Despite this great success in entering the US, the team that made the vn would get slower and slower between updates. Eventually the project was abandoned entirely, with some routes not finished at all.
That wasn't the end of the story however, as various developers throughout the years worked on trying to finish it.
First a Ren'py opensource code port called Morenatsu Revival was created to make it easier to create new content as well as a better translation.
Next a new team attempted to remaster the game and finish the unfinished routes and called it Morenatsu Revisited, but that project also fell through and was stopped.
Luckily however the team that made revisited decided to redo the project and do a full on remake of everything even the sprites, now called Homecoming. This project also continues to this day, but sees its fair share of delays.
With such a confusing history, I don't really blame anyone for not knowing, and we can only hope this apparent "Morenatsu curse" doesn't continue.
Minasato, the humble setting:
With the history out of the way we should discuss what is one of Morenatsu's biggest impacts: creating the archetypal small furry town.
Minasato is on its surface a very simple setting. Calling it a small town pretty much describes everything about it, save for the fact that it is located in Japan. It has some shops, farmers, rivers and everything you'd expect from such a place.
Its japanese influence saves it from being more forgettable, giving them japanese food, buildings, and the occasional festivals.
Even with the the cultural influence, Minasato is still fairly generic town. But in a way that was the goal.
The writers made Minasato generic in a way that made it charming, its simplicity creating a feeling of nostalgia rather than boredom.
They did this by not making the town feel too busy, by emphasizing the simple natural aspects like the rice fields, the forest, or the river. There aren't too many people to interact with either so it helps create the feeling of a tight-knit community.
The music/sounds used also help create this, such as with those now infamous cicada noises you hear in everything made in Japan.
This makes Minasato rather brilliant in its simplicity. So brilliant in fact that a majority of future gfvn's try to emulate Minasato in some way, they try to recapture the feeling of nostalgia and serenity that Minasato could bring.
Even the vn's that focus on bigger cities usually try to mimic this feeling of closeness and a tight-knit community as it just makes the player feel good on the inside, like they can already imagine themselves there.
That's why I put so much emphasis on Minasato's importance.
It is one of the biggest ways that Morenatsu influenced its successors and I find it is an aspect of this vn that often goes overlooked due to its surface level simplicity.
Characters Wrapped in Their Culture:
Now I get to the part of Morenatsu that comes to mind for most when thinking of this game, the characters. Of course the problem that arises is that some of these characters don't have finished routes, so it wouldn't be possible to do detailed analyzes of every character as some wouldn't get one.
However what I will do instead is go over the characters and how they add to the overall charm of Morenatsu itself.
So let's start off by introducing the cast shall we, we have:
Torahiko- The canon love interest tiger and "best friend who has loved you from the beginning" archetype
Shin- The introverted cat who likes to keep to himself.
Tatsuki- A naughty dragon that drinks too much sake.
Kouya- The typical bad boy wolf who might have more to him than first appears.
Juichi- The martial arts bear and probably wins the award for the "strong silent type.
Shun- A very small wolf-boy and the route you should avoid.
Konosuke- The tanuki who is the token chubby nerd of the group.
Kyoji- The well mannered and wise dog.
Sotaro- The soccer playing-lion with a heart of gold.
Yep that's all nine characters. It should make sense why some routes were never completed (and why it'd take too long to go over each one in great detail :).
As I mentioned before, what makes these characters a bit different from your average furry characters is that they were made by people from Japan.
Most of these vn's were made by people in the US, and thus have easily seen american roots (such as using standard american colleges or the midwest for their setting).
This will inevitably create characters that have cultural ties to the culture of the people who created them, and Morenatsu is no exception. Therefore the first and most interesting thing about these characters from a cultural standpoint is their body type.
Most of the characters fit into one of two categories: skinny(twink) or big(bear). This is most likely the influence of yaoi and bara, subcultures of gay body preferences and masculinity, with the former having skinnier men with less masculine appearances and the latter having beefier men with hyper-masculine traits.
These genres are quite popular in gay culture in Japan, but their popularity has also exploded in the west as well. So much so that bara as a concept has even kinda become the main way that these furry vn's express male characters, and in a way we have Morenatsu to thank for popularizing the concept.
The other main cultural influence on these characters comes from Japanese anime. Anime more so than most other mediums tends to greatly exaggerate personality traits, often to an extreme degree to make it funny.
And this can be seen quite clearly in the characters, from Torahiko being the stereotypical himbo to Tatsuki who makes drunkenness a personaity trait to the very reserved Juichi.
At first these traits may seem too ridiculous. Some may even think it harms the characters in the long run, and I suppose I would slightly agree with that argument in certain cases.
However, once you get past that seeming one-dimensionality, the game does reward you by making the characters more complex. In time you get to see how all the characters are struggling with usually very deep issues ranging from internalized homophobia to parent problems and even more.
These issues help the characters feel more unique and by making you the person who helps solve the issues the game creates a deeper connection between you and the character.
Pretty much all vn's have continued in this mold as it works so well to get you invested in a character, beyond just the simple sexual component of a relationship.
Ensuring that these characters will stick in your mind for quite a while.
The Thematic Power of Melancholy:
So we have discussed the roots, setting, and characters that made Morenatsu so beloved today.
Yet there is one more component that made Morenatsu so powerful, on an emotional level, and is in my opinion why it resonated with so many people: its overarching theme of melancholy.
Before you start laughing at the idea that Morenatsu, a furry dating sim, could possibly have a theme just consider that a theme doesn't always need to be some deep message about society.
A theme is more or less the core ideal that ties any piece of writing together, and that is just as true for vn's as it is for novels.
Morenatsu therefore chose a very simple theme, but one that would have more impact on its players who might've thought it was just a silly dating sim at first.
And that theme is of course melancholy.
What is melancholy? Whenever I hear the word I will always think back to the book Because of Winn Dixie.
That's for a good reason as that book gives melancholy a physical form, that of a piece of candy that while not sweet isn't bitter either.
The candy makes you sad, not the depressive kind of sadness, but a more pensive one that makes you reflect on certain aspects of life.
You are sad because you become acutely aware of the passage of time, and how fleeting it can be. That is melancholy.
How does this relate to Morenatsu then? Well what Morenatsu cleverly does at the beginning is that it says you will only be spending the summer in Minasato before you will leave your friends and have t0 go back to the big city.
It functions as a sort of hidden time limit. At first you play through the game carefree, oblivious to the passage of time around you and just enjoying hanging out with your friends.
Yet once you reach the middle of the game (Day 15) the realization that you are halfway done hits you like a truck.
You start slowly panicking, as the days you have left shrink rapidly, and this is compounded by the fact that the game skips a week or two for some routes, making time feel even more compressed.
Before you know it you are on the last day, and finally understand that you won't be staying with the characters you've come to love. You feel an pensive sadness, because you are happy of the time you have spent with them, but underestimated how quickly that time would end. That is melancholy.
Morenatsu takes it a notch further by having your character reflect on the time he spent in Minasato when he's on the bus home, and by the time the screen fades to black you feel a certain emptiness, and understand the importance of holding on to memories.
This theme of melancholy pervades the entire game, from the characters who reflect on their futures together and how long until they meet again to the town itself which creates that nostalgic memory in your mind.
I won't say the game is perfect, but the decision to use this theme elevated it greatly, and a whole generation of fans grew up on this poignant writing technique. So much so that many vn's now will try to emulate this feeling of melancholy by also having time limits and the understanding that you aren't always with these characters at the end.
Nowhere is this influence more clear than with Adastra, which uses a similar tactic at the end with you staying on Earth as Amicus stays amongst the stars.
And look at how well this tactic worked to make Adastra one of the most beloved vn's, a perfect example of how Morenatsu's lessons can still lead to success even today.
Shortcomings:
I know I have been very positive about the experience so far but it wouldn't be fair to go without addressing some of its shortcomings that held it back a bit, as it is an older game so it is bound to have at least a few.
Of course the main critique is that the game was never truly finished. It is hard to be invested fully in some characters if you never see the end of their story, and that can make the quality of the characters to appear very lopsided at times.
Their is a remake like I said which will hopefully fix this issue but unfortunately the base game will never be complete.
Another complaint is how the game forces you to only spend time with one character if you want their ending. This can make a game about reconnecting with your childhood friends feel a bit shallow if you are only really connecting with one of them.
And then there is the potentially problematic moments with Shun and rape bits that shouldn't have ever been included as they are just so starkly different from everything else in the game (and are of course immoral if that wasn't obvious).
Other than these complaints however I can't really think of any significant issues that ruined the game entirely, and that's due to how the game's strong points came together to create a rather charming experience despite its clear flaws.
An Example for the Future:
Do I consider Morenatsu a masterpiece of the furry vn genre? Well, not really. Do I consider it a classic? Definitely.
From the nostalgic simplicity of Minasato, to the surprisingly complex characters, and even to its central theme of melancholy; Morenatsu understands what it set out to achieve.
Morenatsu's impact on all other furry vn's cannot be overstated. It was the first and had so many bright ideas that it is no wonder that people keep using Morenatsu as a reference to see what they can add to their own vn's.
In a way this vn will always be in a league of its own because of this, and while it may not be my personal favorite or my first, Morenatsu set the standard for what a gay furry vn is.
And I couldn't be more grateful to it for creating such a wonderful community.
(Also if you are planning on discussing this on discord then send me a dm so I can join in :).