The History of Leaf: Pioneer of the Visual Novel Genre

[@TectonicImprov]

Babe wake up. New video about a niche Japanese developer that is actually pivotal to the medium

[@lukethekuya]

Who are the other niche Japanese developers pivotal to the medium?

[@Murasame]

My gf heard this while I was sleeping to it and she called me a nerd.. :'(

[@waypastlame]

​@@lukethekuya peep Elf. YU-NO is a hugely important game in the history of Japanese video game storytelling

[@Vulpas]

I don't think "babe" exists if saying this lol

[@johnross5098]

I'm not sure if they count as niche. They're one of the biggest VN brands out there

[@peterpayne2219]

I TRIED so hard to license Queen of Heart through JAST USA, but the staff was terrified that they’d get into trouble. I should have tried harder to convince them. I have so much regret around that game…

[@Sofiaode18]

Thanks Peter for founding JAST! So many niche games wouldn’t have been localized if it wasn’t for you.

[@LumiRev]

i haven't heard of a single one of these titles but i'm invested as fuck

[@Christopherjazzcat]

White Album 2 has some incredibly written characters. I highly highly recommend it. Get the deluxe version with all chapters and extra content. It's more important to the story than you think. You can find the translation add on, on a certain database for the medium, that (V) mentioning (N) gets (D) comments (B) automodded for some reason...

[@SecretIdentityStudio]

As a Key fan, Key and Leaf always seem to go hand in hand in industry history and Japanese fandom, but English-speaking fans seem to completely forget Leaf (and see Key as old hat, e.g. "uguu" becoming derogatory shorthand for moe, which always gets on my nerves). Thank you for making this!

[@Kaimax61]

to be fair, they themselves (aquaplus) has forgotten about Leaf.... when's the last game made by Leaf, go to their website and it's just a green clone of the aquaplus website... I love Leaf as you can see who I am using as my avatar, but Aquaplus has been super focused on Utawarerumono.

[@guidedbycthulhu]

This channel is criminally under-subbed for the quality of content you're producing.

[@Priomful]

I was just about to say the same thing.

[@one8576]

Because he makes over-edited videos with meandering content and never actually shows how they are "so influential" to begin with.

[@doggerlander]

Most people just dont care about visual novels

[@Murasame]

@@one8576 no way, it's because it's niche af.

[@DoTtA1123]

I think the thing this channel has taught me the most is the difference between Eroge-Adventure games, Dating Sims, and Visual/Sound novels. In the west, we might just lump these all together as 'Visual Novels', but as you continue to show, all of these types of games are very different with very different histories and beginnings.

[@bornanime3255]

Never realise how much of a titan of the gaming industry Leaf was. Like, they really helped inspire, contribute and kick off so much. The entire anime, manga and gaming landscape would be drastically different without them. Incredible.

[@AmelieDoree]

Perfect timing since I'm working on a video about something very closely related to Leaf!! Very excited to watch this ^^

[@bowloflentils]

Awesome, I hope you like it and I can't wait to see your video :)

[@tonk82]

Wow... you have a great channel. You got yourself a new subscriber :P

[@DandyCrocodile]

omg my two favorite niche VN channels communicating?

[@nekonekopanicnekonekopanic7335]

This comment lead me to sub can't wait to watch

[@leoroberts7327]

I'm losing my MIND so much game history has fallen into place for me. Amazing work.

[@electrosphere5581]

For me any aspiring developer should watch this video. To understand Leaf's struggle to make it big and leave their mark on the market. And more importantly, to not just to see their beautiful case of success, but to also see the troubles and hardships they went through after being launched into stardom. I think it's important to learn from such troublesome stories as well, not just their case of success.

[@OtakuVs]

The opening to this video made me feel real good 😌✨

[@chris-cu3kl]

Only learning about otaku culture in the modern social media landscape past the classic text forums, I really love how you captured this scene in history. I learned about comiket and doujinshii through Genshiken but couldn’t delve deeper because of how much i could even learn about it. I was surprised to hear how the roots of melty blood and french bread come from related fan projects as a fighting game fan who is only arcsys deep into anime fighters.

[@epicalexfurry4377]

33:05 This part is hilarious to me, imagine if more sites could just let people “quarantine” certain fandoms. I think that would actually improve a lot of sites

[@wanghosom]

My brain can't even comprehend how you managed to research all of this stuff, you are a legend man!

[@EbullientSMP]

A video on one of my favorite VN developers in the industry? You are a hero! This is an awesome video highlighting probably the most overlooked "great" in terms of VNs in the western sphere. Leaf offers such a big variety of quality stories of all kinds, it's a shame most of them aren't even translated

[@bowloflentils]

Thank you! And yeah, it is a shame that so much of Leaf's catalog is trapped behind a language barrier. It seems like some fan groups where trying to translate their games back in the early 2000s but only a few of them were ever finished. I feel like if more of their games had been translated back in the day, the company would have a larger presence in the English fandom today (like Key and Type-Moon).

[@clifto5187]

While i was aware that leaf's utawarerumono, to heart, and white album 2 were regarded as legendary classics, i didn't know that they were also what caused the conception of even more legendary titles like the fate, higurashi, and key titles. Hearing about their humble beginnings and ups and downs was a freaking blast. You my friend have just earned a new subscriber.

[@Esskaden]

I've watched this video 3 times over the year when i go for a walk. Its such a vibe

[@WaniArman]

Thank you for this hour long video essay on this. This is very informative and helpful. Visual novel is my favourite game genre and watching its history from where this genre starts is very important. Now I have more appreciation for the game that I already love so much. This is a side of internet that I'm glad for stumbling about.

[@shai2O]

Yeah I agree with you! I also stumbled into visual novels (:

[@slowyourroll1146]

A new Bowl of Lentils vid is always welcome surprise in my notifications! I'm also surprised to hear just how many of the titles I have in the backlog were created by Leaf, can't wait to watch this one

[@pepemosu3867]

I've always had such high respect for Leaf despite my only experience with their games being the officially localized Utawarerumono series. Fond memories of seeing CGs of To Heart and To Heart 2 flooding the Internet almost 20 years ago back in high school. And then White Album 2 with it's excellent anime adaptation and the fan TL on my ever-growing VN backlog. Anyone who has delved enough into the VN scene knows the immense influence Leaf had, and I'm sure even other fans like me who haven't read most of their works have the same level of respect. I'm also amazed how you could gain so much info even up to fan reactions and scandals, as I imagine most of these are hidden way deep in various Japanese message boards. If you're ever interested in making a similar video for Key I'd be willing to help out, and can hook you up with contacts from the former Kazamatsuri org who can also help with a lot of the research!

[@bowloflentils]

When I was researching fan reactions to Leaf's games I actually got a lot of that info from Japanese fan wikis, timelines that chronicled the Leaf fanbase, and various interviews. And as for Key, thanks for the offer but I don't think I'll be doing a video on them any time soon. A lot of their games are on my own backlog that I need to get to someday.

[@pepemosu3867]

It's interesting how those wikis documented everything up to the scandals. Truly a sign of their impact as well. And hey, no worries :) best of luck on the backlog (to both of us lol)

[@kaishmuper]

Awesome documentary. That 2ch part was wild, wasn't expecting all that drama.

[@fmsyntheses]

Without hyperbole, this is one of my favorite videos I've ever seen on this website.

[@Kougeru]

Watching this right after they announce an upcoming Utawarerumono event is exciting. Likely a new game in the franchise. It's also interesting to remember the PC market was dying in Japan back in those days, while now PC has grown over 3 times in size in the last few years alone. Still praying for White Album 1&2 official translations 😭😭 Also, wow... The amount of research and care you put into this video! Amazing work!! I do wish you would've mentioned Suara at least once since she's done music for almost all of their works lol

[@bowloflentils]

Yeah, I thought about mentioning Suara but I decided to focus more on Leaf's games. But looking back, I could have at least mentioned her in passing at some point.

[@meguminblast]

God I wish more Leaf VNs were tled, I read a bit of ToHeart PSE and the SoL atmosphere was so fun. Shizuku was actually the first VN I ever read in JP and even though I found it average, it has a special place in my heart for that. Thanks for talking about Tasogare, I was curious why I never heard anyone talk about that one.

[@LightFykki]

It must have been such a treat to grow up during the golden age of Visual Novels. I remember it only partially here in the West, but for us it already came during its twilight. A great retrospective video, I truly enjoyed it.

[@animonarch3858]

For some reason I cryed at the leaf's comback part I never played a leaf game I just got into Vns too for now I played clannad and fate/stay night anyway I love this video and you got a new sub keep up the great content my guy

[@mamaharumi]

Wish we could get more of their work translated, I love the artwork and aesthetics. Same goes for a great deal of retro visual novels.

[@Vulpas]

That was a pretty surprisingly emotional story about a niche hentai game company from the 90's. The Utawaromono series is great but it's the only one I played.

[@nainetsu]

I'm thankful you decided to create such an impressive video about Leaf/Aquaplus history for english audience, who unfortunately don't know too much about this amazing company, but I hope your video reaches a lot of people and they start becoming more aware of its background. Once again, thanks for putting so much passion and work into these videos!

[@rydercloud]

I’ve always loved Leaf/Aquaplus though its a shame we don’t get much aside Utawarerumono from them, especially Leaf sorta being dead for close to 12 years now.

[@米津-b6y]

Thank you for picking up Leaf. I am glad that people overseas appreciate it as well. It seems that among the younger generation of Japanese people, only KEY are highly rated, but Leaf has many good games as well, so please try it!

[@lelouch6865]

just finished watching and man this made me cry especially at the wa2 part, I absolutely adore aquaplus' works and falcom and I found this video really good, really can't thank you enough for making this

[@Motsuribayashi]

Your channel is heavily underrated. The content you produce is exactly up my ally, looks like i found a new favorite youtube channel. Keep up the good work!

[@thegondola9877]

As someone who doesn't play visual novels or even particularly care for their history/cultural impact, this video was so fantastically well-researched and put together that it was engrossing all the same. Even the list of sources linked in the description alone is staggering in how thorough you've been. Which, considering you don't speak japanese, is all the more impressive (I did not spot any immediately apparent errors in that regard, for what it's worth). I'd also like to thank you for using そして愛する者の名を呼び where you did, because it's a haunting song that was perfectly utilized, and I'm grateful to know about it now. Bravo!

[@Ninjacatmuffin]

While watching this video, I was amazed by how many properties I've heard of despite not being familiar with Leaf. White Album, To Heart, Comic Party, and Utawarerumono are examples (all because they had anime adaptations?). Thank you for this educational video

[@shai2O]

This is so fascinating, as I know little tidbits of information on some visual novels from just unhealthily browsing hours upon hours on VNDB, and seeing how these other works are connected is just so interesting to me. What a great video!

[@artificialnightsky3.33]

Wonderful video! Leaf is a development studio that I hold close to my heart, even if I have not played that many of their games. I found out about Leaf after wanting to learn more about the anime adaptations for Comic Party, only to find out it was based on bishoujo games from the same developer as To Heart! After that I watched the To Heart anime then played To Heart 2 and became a huge fan of their work. Their titles are, as you point out, not defined by much commonality between them. But regardless there is an appeal within their work that beckons to me. Learning about the history of Aqua Plus/Leaf was really worthwhile and I appreciate the effort that went into this video.

[@peterpayne2219]

Nice video. I’m Peter Payne, the founder of J-List and JAST USA. Totally subscribing to your channel now!

[@YourFavoriteSon1]

This is an incredibly wonderful video. The editing and narration are fantastic. Very informative and well written, keep up the good work!

[@DeadJosey]

This is such a good video on the history of this company

[@jno7]

Absolutely Amazing Video! Than you so much for making this!

[@wertville]

I was hoping for a video like this, so I'm glad that you covered it! Leaf has always been a mysterious company for me, since they inspired everything I like in Visual Novels (Tsukihime, 07th Expansion), but also exited the medium just as I got into it. When they started bleaching their Eroge past a few years ago I got really sad because I thought I'd never be able to (legally) experience their roots, but this video at least helps me understand how they got to where they are today. Excellent video, as always.

[@GoldenPincers]

This was a blast and very enlightening. There were many things I was unaware of about Leaf and Aquaplus, so I'm glad I found this. I didn't realize Leaf was essentially the beginning of an entire sub-culture that many of us take for granted. I love the Utawarerumono series and recently finished Mask of Truth, which I loved. I might try To Heart 2 at some point, since there's a translation of it. Amazing work on this video essay and for spreading knowledge on this company. Thanks a lot!

[@systemrestart120]

Oh my god...... so surreal to see a video about this crop up on my feed. I've been trying to hunt down archives and info on old VNs I read way back in 2005-2012 era, many of which seem to have vanished into the ether....... you don't find a lot of people talking about this era for some reason, even though some Very interesting stuff was being produced, and not even just stuff coming out of Japan. Thank you for this video

[@Hanami63]

I knew of Ryukishi07 doing Leaf Fight cards (that's basically where the design for Rena and the Angel Mort outfit came into existance I believe) but had no idea that the creators of ToHeart were the ones that created that TCG in the first place.

[@GervasiusMC]

watching 16bit sensation made me come back here, love this video so much

[@hummusprince]

i regularly come back to this video, it's one my favorites on yt thank you for this incredible work

[@piplup12]

the amount of research that went into this must have been bonkers. Thank you for this!

[@theotherkid5832]

I can't put into words how much I love this video

[@pixel-7388]

First thing I thought after finishing this is WHERE IS THE LIKES. Seriously underrated, great video!

[@Ririi0528]

amazing video. I now see Leaf games in a different way now. I should try playing their older games once my Japanese gets better.

[@TheDethy]

As someone who started their long journey into anime fighting games with PC Doujin fighters such as The Queen of Heart 98, looking back on all of these familiar characters and series means a lot to me personally. Thanks for bringing back a lot of good memories about browsing old anime and VN fan webpages.

[@francie3169]

It's honestly really impressive how far leaf's influence went despite me not knowing anything about that Really nice video and honestly is probably what's gonna make me start playing aquapazza the fighting game more That game is kusoge as hell and I've heard great things haha

[@elidasilva5558]

I was checking out new anime just now and saw the Utarareromono series that's out and found this video out of nowhere and then see you talk about It and the history of VNs. How serendipidis

[@renaiaspiration]

I'm fresh off of the Danganronpa series and it was fascinating to learn some history relating to the visual novel genre, I can't believe that such strong fanbases existed even back in the day. Really lovely video, now I can better imagine through how much evolution the genre went through

[@Rancid220]

What a great video! So much was unbeknownst to me during the 90s. I absolutely loved Comic Party and ToHeart 2 during my youthful days. Little did I know also If it weren't for Leaf's influence, we wouldn't have amazing works from Key studio.

[@Alberto-kb6iy]

I seriously hope you keep up it with this kind of golden content. I will use every bit of strenght in my hands to share this to the world. Thank you!

[@Alpheus_09C]

Just wanted to let you know, im loving your content. Most of this stuff was before i was even born but somehow this makes me nostalgic about what could have been had i been born in opposite side of the world. I really enjoy the old visual novels and these types of videos keep it coming

[@palamecianrider7385]

Utawarerumono's story is just brilliant and I just love the White Album series.

[@kageakiminato8536]

Man, this video completely absorbed me, I only ever read 2 routes of Toheart2 but when you used the soundtrack in here I got chills. Perfectly editted. So many classics to read and not enough hours in the day....

[@koopashell10]

i forgot why or how i subscribed to you but wow, i'm glad you're still making videos.

[@theotherkid5832]

This is one of the best videos on the platform 🙏

[@fey2450]

One of the best video essays I've watched in recent memory. Huge fan of how you keep introducing these people and groups related to Leaf who would later become massive forces in the industry like it's nothing, it only further cements how important of a company they were. I'm self admittedly a huge fan of the first White Album game, its profound take on loneliness and relationships being one that struck me very closely and got me interested in the rest of the company's offerings. Hopefully one day everyone will be able to read more of the company's old offerings in English, be it officially or through fan efforts.

[@lelouch6865]

I oh Didn't realize how influencial Leaf was and couldn't have imagined it'd be to this extent This video is eye opening

[@GeneralVan]

Man I haven’t thought about To Heart and Uta in forever. This video was fun to listen to and I’m glad Leaf got a great video dedicated to it!

[@koopanique]

What an interesting video. The story has success, drama, tragedy, twists. Makes me want to try several of the mentioned VNs.

[@millasgameroom]

This is great. You can't understand the history of visual novels without understanding Leaf, and their parent company, Aquaplus. This developer needs more love and Aquaplus should definitely localise some of these older, iconic titles for the West.

[@mii9010]

A very lovely video, I feel wiser every time I watch a Bowl of Lentils video!

[@astrades2601]

After twice watching of Nihon Falcom documentary i must say this video it's another greatly showed fascinating history from japanese video games world.

[@Kofu_ku]

Seeing all those familiar names showing up because of Leaf's influence was insane, awesome video.

[@osonhodeleon]

This video proves how much I love Visual Novels, Video-Games and Japan. Amazing.

[@nath7690]

As someone who just recently become crazy with utawarerumono game because anime this video is god send like literally! Thank you so much!!!

[@jurgendieter5238]

Amazing work. Really loving the commertials and interview footage. But honestly you did such a good job with everything. Pulling out these 20 year old websites, it really suprises me sometimes how these are still online.

[@bowloflentils]

Thank you, glad you liked it. Many of the websites I used in my research were actually no longer online. Thankfully we have tools like the Wayback Machine to look at dead sites.

[@ArbitraryWater]

This video was super informative and fills in a lot of the knowledge gaps I've had about VNs as a genre. More importantly, I'm impressed by the number of times you said "ToHeart2" without laughing.

[@BLACKDISC]

Great video! I had no idea Leaf had such a large impact on the industry and I enjoyed hearing you talk about it

[@GervasiusMC]

I've always wondered how Frenchbread got themselves commisioned by TYPE-MOON themselves on making a Tsukihime fighting game, but now I know the full story. Great video, shame that my knowledge of Aquaplus is limited to White Album 2, I definitely need to dig in more.

[@shyangate8172]

Always look forward to seeing your videos. They really scratch all the right itches when it comes to my interests plus they're always well researched and edited. I appreciate all the effort you put into these.

[@ThatFreikugel]

What an excellent video. Figured I'd watch it for a few minutes, but then ended up watching the whole thing.

[@Nifrigel]

This is the best documentary I've seen in years.

[@aitakute436]

Amazing video! This really made my day. I really appreciate when people take the time to cover niche topics that they’re passionate about. I remember reading the To Heart manga when I was a kid and that was how I found out about Leaf and visual novels. It’s a shame that Leaf is so often neglected/forgotten in Western fan communities.

[@fourteenroads9738]

Banger video, I cannot even imagine how much time and effort went into creating this. Great script-writing, I can't believe that I just watched an 1 hour long video, it felt like 10 minutes. Thanks for making this, and hope to see more!

[@Supahvegetah]

This video is incredible. You covered so much that I had no idea about, please continue to make videos, your work is so important!

[@BalmungHH0]

Man, I had no idea about the 2ch backlash Leaf was getting in the early 00's. From my POV only knowing of Leaf years after those things, I somehow had the impression that era must've been relatively smooth-sailing for them, before some kind of vague gradual decline I didn't know the details of. Little did I know how much they were struggling to get by in those days... Thanks for the history!

[@Kindi001]

man this one hour video really fast to end. im listening this video while working in my office but suddenly stop when in the part about problem Leaf had. its really make me sad about it. while in experience my first VN is by eternal, its Eien no Aselia the all age port from PS2. its really mind blowing experience for me so i search for another VN that have same feeling in some online local forum, and they recomend me 2 tittle, Utawarerumono and Muluv Alternative. well i want smack that person in the head for recomending me Mu luv alternatif without knowing what this story about but Utawarerumono was really hit my spot.

[@clumsypenguin]

Another super high-quality video about a subject I'd never known about! Keep it up, your channel needs a ton more attention

[@arbelnox]

Your videos are always so well researched and entertaining! Glad to see you back with another one. Keep up the great work!

[@DisasterMillennial]

so what you're saying is that Leaf is responsible for Ryukishi07 being in charge of Silent Hill F's story. This is incredibly fascinating to learn about as someone who read White Album 2 a few years ago when its English fan translation was released in full. Hopefully more of their works can be translated in the future, even those controversial ones. I'm curious about Routes. I wonder if Leaf fans saw what happened to the Tsukihime remake getting released exclusively on console and going "oh no... it's happening again"

[@HermesPasser]

Loved every second of this video. The timing could not be better since i just bought Utawarerumono's bundle

[@Draggao]

The amount of dedication that went into this video is insane, i really appreciate how well put this was. I'm not actually a fan of leaf titles, but knowing the industry story and it's influence in the industry was very surprising, honestly i don't know what to say except that it was surprising. Anyway, you earned a subscriber pal, keep the great work up.

[@Turbo_Waitress]

Ahh this was fantastic! Thank you for making this. I remember when I first got into VNs, To Heart came up. But as I got more into them, Shizuku and Kizuato started popping up and I kept hearing how dark they were compared to TH. Leaf definitely seems to have made a major impact in VNs and it was interesting learning about their history.

[@yabuki2923]

watching this with my Multi-chan figure. thanks for diving deep and sharing the info on such interesting subjects!

[@Cneq]

This deserves 100k+ views and 10k likes, truly the best documentaries on youtube for visual novels/jrpgs. Hope you keep making these.

[@Sophilautia]

Thanks for the awesome video! I've always known of Leaf by name but never bothered to do much research into their history before, since very few of their games made it outside of Japan, Aquaplus aside. This is all super interesting, and provides a valuable look the origin point of the modern day 'Visual Novel' / bishoujo text adventure game. Really awesome stuff! I'll be sharing this one around.

[@hurrdurr6455]

You are the best eroge content creator I've seen on this platform. Glad to see someone who is so devoted to eroge games to this day, although the genre is stagnated and slowly dying. I'd like to hear about what you can say about Overdrive, truly a company with very interesting history.

[@nitoniwatori]

Thanks for this great documentary, I really like White Album it is happy to hear that writer of White Album 2 accept job because he is also fan of the first one.

[@PowerfulMint]

Daaaaaaaamn this video was such a ride. Nice work!

[@TBoneTony]

Got both AquaPlus Fighting game as well as Tears To Tiara 2 games on the PS3 knowing about their visual novel history despite not being able to play their earlier games due to language barrier and unable to find their official releases on PC. I first started playing visual novels via the DVD format games like Phantom of Inferno and Hourglass of Summer via the western releases of Visual Novels on DVD format published by Hirameki during the mid 2000s. Lucky to get a few because by the time I finally tracked as much as I could at the time, Hirameki the Western Localizer was already long gone as they closed their doors in the same year I started collecting their visual novels on DVD. So when I heard Aqua Plus, I instantly knew of the company and was happy to know that Leaf was the Visual Novel company they made their adult games under on the PC format. Also knowing that their earlier games was on the PC Engine format, knowing how they were home to many console eroge games, that is a nice bit of history they were part of.

[@Esskaden]

This vudeo was a great video! It was really informative and kept entertaining throughout. The background of VM is so interesting in their roots

[@Irisposting]

This is perfectly timed because I was thinking about Leaf a couple weeks ago. One of my favorite VN songs is E-Junk from Routes, but it's just about impossible to find these days, I looked for the soundtrack the full version was on and it's so out of print I love Leaf so much

[@lugail46]

What an actually incredible video, dare i say, one of the most underrated videos and probably channels on youtube

[@hakureiararagi6640]

Agreed ! It's a shame this channel is so underated

[@aguywithaname]

Wow this video deserves more views. This is a great documentary