A Kana Love Affair
Okay, well – you clicked, you get. As promised, here's the story of how I discovered the bittersweet pleasures of Kana ~Little Sister~.
I first came across a mention of the game some time in 2002. I don't know where or why I happened across it. All I knew was that the premise intrigued me, and the descriptions of the game as a powerful emotional experience (rather than just a mindless romp with the emphasis on sex) impressed me.
(Note: the purpose of this website isn't to summarise the game's plot for you. Why would you want to read fanfic about Kana if you haven't played the game? But if you do need a quick primer on KLS, the game's Wikipedia entry is here.)
Still,
it can be expensive importing games from the US to Australia, and the price
deterred me for a long time. However, I finally managed to get it on sale
at a time when I had disposable income, and played through it the first time
in early May, 2004.
I got Ending 5 the first time – 'Memories'. And I cried my eyes out.
I was compelled to keep going, however. With the aid of a walkthrough, I braved the terrors of the non-intellectual endings. Ending 3 ('Out of the Maze') haunted me the most. Ending 2 ('Recollection') was nice, but didn't hit me as hard as Ending 5.
And Ending 1...
The game calls 'The First Farewell' (Ending 1) the 'best ending'. I'm not sure what to make of that. Sure, there are some very obvious plot points that make it less sombre. But I cried the hardest when I got Ending 1. For a 'happy' ending, I didn't walk away feeling all that happy.
And so, one night, I turned on my computer, sat down, and started typing. I wasn't intending to write anything very long or very involved. I just needed to deal with the way I felt about Ending 1.
I wrote a fanfic. I didn't mean to write one – to me, it was just therapy. Personally, it's the first time I've written a story as a direct response to how much I fell in love with a computer game character. =)
I've gotten feedback on that first fanfic that suggests I've tapped into a sort of communal Kana fantasy that many Ending 1 survivors share. And that's all I could ask for. I want to share what I felt.
So, in short, these stories are for those people. And for myself.