Title: アオナツライン
Developer: Giga
Release Date: 29th March 2019
Age Rating: 18+
Length: 15+ Hours
Links: VNDB
Oikawa Tatsumi is your average student who spends his days peacefully with his childhood friends Miki & Chihiro. The three of them have been fielding ideas for their final summer vacation before they have to focus on studies, etc.
Out of the blue one day, a recent transfer student Yui calls out to Tatsumi and asks that he meets her on the school rooftop after school. Thinking that it’s a romantic confession, he heads up but Yui asks to join his friends for their summer plans. Add into this a kouhai Kotone who later ends up joining suddenly the group of three has changed drastically.
Dealing with these shifting relations and navigating the trials and tribulations of youthful innocence, the group’s summer vacation now starts…
Thoughts
Whilst I haven’t exactly had the best experience with Giga’s games, it was nonetheless sad to hear news of the brand closing operations earlier this year. In the run up to March, they had quite a few sales so I picked up pretty much their entire back catalogue which includes the summer themed Ao Natsu Line. Was this a typical Giga landmine ™?
Ao Natsu Line is a story about youth – the folly, and the brilliance of it. Given most eroge players are working adults, this gives the game a fond nostalgic feel as you long for those carefree, wistful days of summer with little responsibility. The game’s atmosphere was excellent and I really liked the island setting of the game – I wished I could visit some of the locations, haha.
One of the real strengths of this game is the characters and the way the writers handle the group interactions. They really do a great job of capturing the change in relations when adding the new girls and overall a lot of the conversations feel quite real.
The common route was a joy – each chapter had almost a self contained story/goal that fed into the main story and was a truly engaging read.
Yui
With regards to the heroine routes, they were a little variable but were typically of good quality. The first heroine is Yui, a young lady who recently transferred from a private all-girls school and requests to join in with planning the summer vacation. She’s a little bit of an airhead but is a really kindhearted and sweet girl, who is surprisingly keen to keep the group focused on their goal. I found Yui’s route to be a little over-dramatic at times but it did indeed parody the romantic dramas that she adores so much, which I found to be quite fitting. She was probably my favourite heroine.
Kotone
Kotone is an underclassman who joins the friend group when she is befriended by Yui. Kotone used to be a little nerdy before attending highschool so decided to try to change herself to fit in with her classmates and is struggling. Kotone has a tendency to be a little negative and is not a big fan of Tatsumi in the beginning. Kotone was actually a pretty interesting and developed character – her chapter of the common route was a real highlight. Sadly, her individual route was a little bit of a letdown for me.
Miki
Miki is Tatsumi’s childhood friend and is one of the original group of three (alongside Chihiro). She’s a bright and cheerful girl, who cares deeply for her friends. The group often hang out at her family’s cafe where she helps out part-time. The childhood friend archetype is one that has been done a thousand times and can feel stale. However, Miki has to have one of the best childhood friend routes I’ve ever seen – the game takes its time to show plenty of flashbacks and how their relationship has changed over the years. This makes the confession scene so satisfying! Her route as a whole really encapsulates the feeling of “youth” the writers were going for and is genuinely a wonderful experience. 10/10.
The side characters in this game were fairly limited but played their part in the story. The final member of the friend group Chihiro in particular was incredibly likable and a great character in his own right.
I must say that the more games I play illustrated by Umiko, the more I appreciate their art-style. There’s a nice softness to it that I enjoy. The artwork in Ao Natsu Line was generally of high quality, although some of the CGs perhaps looked a little simplistic. There was a good amount of artwork though so it can be forgiven.
The soundtrack is another are where this game truly excels – the BGM consists primarily of piano tracks which do a wonderful job of conveying the atmosphere of a scene. “Standing in the line” was a personal favourite but I enjoyed most of the BGM.
However, the area where I was most enamoured with was the vocal tracks – from the bright opening song from Kotoko setting the scene, to the personalised heroine ending songs, and finally the gorgeous true ending track, the OST in this department was utterly incredible. My favourite of the bunch was probably “結び目” from Yui’s route but all of the songs are worth a listen.
Conclusion
My Score: 8/10
Ao Natsu Line is overall an extremely solid slice of life, coming of age story set in summer with a great cast of characters. I particularly enjoyed the common & Miki routes – it was one of the few childhood friend routes that really delves into how the transition from childhood to adolescence and then adulthood changes the relationships around us in a believable way. Chihiro also gets bonus points for just being a great friend. The other heroine routes were still decent, but struggled in comparison to Miki.
I’d definitely recommend this game to people interested in the characters or themes. The only problem is that with Giga going bankrupt it makes it a little difficult to buy the PC version. On the bright side, there is a console port made by
Considering just how many Giga games I have on my backlog, I suppose I will get around to playing more of their games eventually. I particularly want to play the Kiss series so maybe those next. What I’m more excited for though is the scenario writer and artist combo from this game will be working on Wonderfool’s upcoming Kanata no Ningyo Hime – I’m very hyped for this game and hope it’s even a fraction as good as Ao Natsu Line!
Thanks for reading~
Source
