Minakami Tomohiro (水無神知宏) is an odd one, he basically surfaced to write a little gem by the name of Crescendo, a romantic visual novel that takes place in the span of only four days, and disappeared from the field of visual novels to write light novels or something. He is really good so I wish he came back and wrote more stuff for me to read though.
It’s just before graduation and Ryou has to come to definite terms with many relationships he has built over the years. There is a girl who has feelings for him, there is another for whom he had feelings once but lost the chance to confess, then there is a school nurse whose maturity and life experience he respects, an unlikely friend whom he happened to save a few times, and finally his sister-in-law who has taken care of him ever since their parents died.
Flashbacks probably take as much, if not more time, than the present story. However, the method works very well to give weight to relationships you jump in seemingly at their twilight. The visual novel is well-written, fast paced and explores relatively complex romantic relationships. It is over before you know it, but every second of it feels meaningful, beautiful and is entertaining, with no filler whatsoever. I swear, in an hour, Crescendo can tell a better character arc than most visual novels do in their entirety. It is also a bit reminiscent of shoujo manga in atmosphere; some of its tasteful erotic scenes even written from a female perspective.
Anyway, a marvelous if a bit short gem. Recommended for anyone interested in romantic visual novels. You won’t be disappointed.
| Positive: | Negative: |
| Attractive character designs | Doesn’t attempt to be anything more than a tasteful romantic story |
| Elegant piano music | |
| Interesting, likable, fairly complex characters | |
| Fast pace | |
| Good romantic story | |
| Fairly gripping plot | |
| Tasteful erotic scenes, some written from female perspective |
Visual novel & other stuff impressions 
I’m not so sure… quality varies greatly from one route to another. The imouto route, for instance, made me swear to never again touch such material. Kaori was alright, especially the shocking dinner at the elegant restaurant -Ryou, you dumbass! Yuka, okay, though it’s not for everyone I guess, it’s very extreme and hit or miss. Kaho… it was kinda erased from my memory, sorry! Kyouko, standard and poor.
“Gem” may be too much, not bad (but depends on the route), just average material.
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Really? Hm, a big part of what made Crescendo so enjoyable for me was how well it was written on sentence level that made its relatively simple romantic plot just a pleasure to experience.
I heard that its translation is pretty terrible, so I wonder if reading it in English gives a different impression.
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Don’t remember quite clearly about the translation. As you say, original Japanese is another matter. I’m talking about the general design of events, scenes, and whole characters. Also the novel is very old so there’s the nostalgy factor.
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