Studio Key Works Studio Key - Information Thread

Well, I'm hesitant to call them "Studio" Key, since I've never seen it used anywhere but for this forum. But regardless, let me explain a bit about Key.

First of all, their web page is this, if you can read Japanese. I visit it every so often to see if there's anything new from them (even if I can't understand it), and to steal graphics. >.>

Anyway, Key has released a small number of series so far, and they've proven themselves to be a top-notch producer.

Known best for the hentai games Air and Kanon, which have since been remade as plain adventure games, and later as anime series in their own right, these two series have won fame among various anime communties.

That's certainly not all they've done, in any case. Key has also created a third adventure game, named "Clannad," as well as a fourth, named "Tomoyo After - It's a Wonderful Life" or something similar.

In addition to that, I can tell you of a kinetic novel named "planetarian." It plays similar to their other games, however in a kinetic novel, you simply have to watch the story unfold before you. There's no need to make choices or decisions at all.

Series by Key tend to fall in the shoujo genre, being focused more on the plotline, and on the emotional developments of the characters and their interaction with others. Violence, action, and the like have precious little space in a Key series.

Don't let this persuade you into thinking that Key is bad, by any means. Some of you may not find its work to your taste, of course.

A Key series typically revolves around a male, who meets one or more females along the way. While this is the typical formula for a love comedy, such as Love Hina, and Saber Marionette J, these series tend to follow a very different path. (Although sex does occur in the H-games. )

I'm not going to tell you much more about the paths their anime follow, as that would be spoilers! Suffice to say a Key series is thick with emotion, laced with sorrow, and steeped in deeper meaning. These are series you need to see twice or more to fully understand. These are series that improve with repetition, rather than losing effect.

In any case, if you haven't had a chance yet to see something of Key's work, I strongly suggest you do. Most is available at the time being around the net, through the magic of BitTorrent, therefore your only excuse is that you don't have enough space on your hard drive!



Now, one final thing to say, as I am going to be moderating this forum for the time being, I'd like to ask that you tag your threads appropriately, with the proper series included in the title. I know I'd hate to click a thread about Kanon thinking it's about Air, for example. And of course, post, post, post!

I'd like to see you guys adding information to this thread, so I'll leave it open. I can't know everything of course, so you're welcome to add anything you'd like that I might have missed.