Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na
Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na, also known as Crescent Love, is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by August and first released on September 22, 2005 for Windows. It was later ported to the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. A manga illustrated by Hoehoe Nōmiso was serialized in Dengeki Daioh between the November 2005 and May 2007 issues. A 12-episode anime adaptation titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Crescent Love aired in Japan between October and December 2006. The anime is licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America and was released on June 1, 2010.
Gameplay
Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na is a romance visual novel in which the player assumes the role of Tatsuya Asagiri. Its gameplay requires little player interaction as much of the game's duration is spent on reading the text that appears on the screen, which represents the story's narrative and dialogue. The text is accompanied by character sprites, which represent who Tatsuya is talking to, over background art. Throughout the game, the player encounters CG artwork at certain points in the story, which take the place of the background art and character sprites. Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na 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 seven main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. Every so often, the player will come to a point where he or she is given the chance to choose from multiple options. Text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. 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. After the completion of the six heroine routes, the final scenario called Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na is made available. Throughout gameplay, there are scenes with sexual CGs depicting Tatsuya and a given heroine having sex.
Plot
Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na centers on Princess Feena Fam Earthlight from the Kingdom of Sphere on Earth's moon. It was decided that she was to live on Earth in a homestay with the family of the primary secretary to the president of the United Nations so as to get more knowledgeable of Earth in order to better prepare herself for her succession as the Kingdom of Sphere's next queen.The background of the story explains that humans landed on the moon long ago intending to create a new home for themselves called the Kingdom of Sphere. However, the relations between Earth and the Kingdom have worsened things and a war called the Oedipus war started. Once the war was over, it was decided that the city of Mitsurugasaki in Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan, where the story takes place, under the rule of the United Nations, be developed as the center of diplomacy with the Lunar Kingdom, which, currently, has closed its doors to the world. This central lunar junction port city, which has the only spaceport within the United Nations with ships going to and coming from the Lunar Embassy, is, as its name suggests, the gateway which connects the Earth and the moon. Although tensions have temporarily eased now, relations between the two worlds is still in a situation when the story begins where caution must still be taken.
Characters
Main characters
;Tatsuya Asagiri;Feena Fam Earthlight
;Mia Clementia
;Mai Asagiri
;Natsuki Takamizawa
;Sayaka Hozumi
;Wreathlit Noel
;Midori Tōyama
;Estel Freesia
Secondary characters
;Karen Clavius;Jin Takamizawa
;Samon Takamizawa
;Lyones theo Earthlight
;Cefilia fam Earthlight
;Chiharu Asagiri
;Cynthia Marguerite
;Fiacca Marguerite
Anime original characters
;Takeshi Takano;Jürgen von Klügel
Development and release
Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na is the fifth title developed by the visual novel developer August. The project was overseen by game director Rune, and the scenario was written by four people. Taku Sakakibara, Hiroyuki Uchida, Hideaki Anzai and Runa Okada. Character design and art direction for the game was provided by Bekkankō, and CG supervision was handled by Fujihisa Satomi. The game's background music was produced by members of Active Planets.Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na was released as a limited edition on September 22, 2005 for Windows; the regular edition was released on December 22, 2005. Aria and HuneX released a PlayStation 2 port titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Brighter than dawning blue on December 7, 2006, which removed the adult elements of the game and introduced two additional heroines. The PS2 version was later ported back to Windows titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Brighter than dawning blue for PC on September 18, 2009. A sequel to the story established in the PS2 version titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Moonlight Cradle was released as a limited edition on February 27, 2009 for Windows; the regular edition was released on September 18, 2009. Premium packs were later released containing both Brighter than dawning blue and Moonlight Cradle. Aria released a PlayStation Portable port titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Portable on February 25, 2010. A version compatible with Windows 7 was released on July 29, 2011.
Adaptations
Drama CDs
A set of six drama CDs were created based on the video game Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na -Brighter than dawning blue-, entitled Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro na ~Fairy tale of Luna~ #1-6 released between April 21, 2006 and September 22, 2006 at roughly one-month intervals by Marine Entertainment. Two additional drama CDs based on the anime adaptation were released on October 25, 2006 and December 22, 2006 respectively.Print media
A seven volume light novel series, written by Tasuku Saika and illustrated by Bekkankō, was published between May 1 and November 1, 2006. Three volumes of a collection of short stories serialized in Dengeki G's Magazine titled Official Heroine Story: Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na Koisuru Shunkan, written by Runa Okada and illustrated by Bekkankō, Mika Takeda and Keitarō Kawagashi, were released between September 30, 2006 and March 30, 2007. A light novel titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro: Lavender Eyes, written by Saya Amō and illustrated by Bekkankō, was published on December 20, 2006.A manga illustrated by Hoehoe Nōmiso was serialized in MediaWorks' Dengeki Daioh magazine between the November 2005 and May 2007 issues. Two tankōbon volumes were released: the first on September 27, 2006 and the second on May 26, 2007.
Anime
Directed by Masahiko Ohta and written by Takashi Aoshima, a 12-episode anime adaptation of Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na was animated by Daume titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Crescent Love. It aired between October 4 and December 20, 2006 on TBS Japan. Sentai Filmworks distributed the anime as Brighter than the Dawning Blue. The original soundtrack for the anime was released on January 26, 2007 by Geneon Entertainment with 28 tracks.A badly animated cabbage in the third episode generated an Internet meme in Japan where people on 2chan posted fanart of Feena with the spherical cabbage with concentric leaves and, changing two kanji symbols, referred to the series as Brighter than Dawning Green -Cabbage Love-. Eventually, the DVD version of the anime was given a smoother look and visibly better animation. The aforementioned badly-drawn cabbage was also redrawn correctly.