Aoi Shiro Promo Post !
AKA, basically my excuse to try and get people into this fandom!
Aoi Shiro is a yuri/shoujo-ai Visual Novel (here) originally in Japanese but translated pretty well with an English patch available here. You can also watch the partial Let's Play (covers Migiwa's route) or this person's playlist which covers the whole game afaik. Also, you can access the official translation script as a .doc here.
From Wikipedia:
The Seijou Girls Academy's Kendo Club is traveling to Shoushinji for summer training camp. Near there is an island, Urashima, where a demon extermination took place long ago. They arrive around the time of a festival which honors a god that is worshipped by the people of Urashima, it celebrates the onitaiji and ensure another year of health for the people. Around the time of the festival, the weather around Urashima worsens and storms will come.
A few days into their training Osanai Syouko finds a girl washed up on the shores near the location of the training camp who can not speak and doesn't seem to know much about herself. Aoi Shiro's story varies greatly based upon the player's decisions, which not only affect the flow of the story but also the ending the player receives, several of which suggest romantic feelings among the female characters.
Basically, Aoi Shiro's the story of a girl's Kendo team going on a school trip to an island with a buttload of supernatural history, and where the Kendo team captain Syouko has a mysterious past slowly revealed throughout the game, with bits and pieces depending on the route you take. Also, the team's manager has a mysterious illness with a supernatural cause; there's another girl staying at the temple who's quite intriguing; the team finds an amnesiac girl lying washed up on a beach; there's a mysterious person living in the forest, and Syouko's own cousin who she looked up to like a sister and thought was dead reappears. There's heaps of exploration of in-game mythology, Japanese culture and the romances are varied and altogether awesome. There are demons in the forest, a Sword which possesses people, and some cool old guys who fight things. (Honestly, the only males in the game are basically cool old guys, or the villain. Take that how you will.)
On to the characters! (At least, the ones I nominated for YT. I might add the others later.)
Syouko Osanai
Miss Main Character, Syouko's a fairly reasonable, practical person who has some serious memory troubles about some traumatising incident in her past. She's the captain of the Kendo team and is fairly good with a bokken or sword. Also, if you're not following a walkthrough, she can die a lot, mostly in really stupid ways (drowning, man, drowning); save a lot, is all I'm saying. She's completely oblivious usually, but gets kind of flustered when someone obviously flirts with her (Kohaku, I'm looking at you); she's always up for a challenge and can be quite stubborn when it comes down to it.
Kyan Migiwa
Migiwa's the mysterious girl staying at the temple with the rest of the Kendo team. She's brash and cheery and competitive, and really stirs up the competitive spirit in Syouko (they've got an awesome rivals-to-friends sort of dynamic). She prefers to fight sneakily (loves ninja wire, this girl) but she can hold her own head-to-head as well. She's got a lot of martial arts training, she works for a mysterious organisation whose purpose sets her after the Sword. This background puts her in contact with Kohaku in a few routes.
Kaya
AKA, Natsu-nee-san! Kaya's the older cousin of Syouko, and treats her a bit like a little sister (so the romance path is a little incestuous, if you're into that). She basically taught Syouko Kendo, and is a Kendo champ herself; she gets into a ton of fights in this game. Syouko thought she was dead, but she's back! Only, she's kind of not really back, and she's obsessed with getting the Sword - to everyone else's detriment.
Kohaku
Kohaku's another mysterious girl Syouko finds in the forest, and she spends a while thinking Kohaku's a spirit or something. Kohaku's clever and dismissive and snarky. She's actually really old, but stuck in a young body, and part of her purpose is to safeguard - but not use - the Sword (once she finds it). She's worked with the Suten a few times, so in some routes she pairs up with Migiwa. She's a fantastic swordswoman (swordsperson?) and gets into a few fights along the way - she's definitely not fussed about killing you if you're being an impediment to her purpose, so you'll probably die a few times thanks to her.
Um, and I made a wallpaper for myself, so I'll add it here. Haha. *awkward*
1366x768 | 1600x900 | 1920x1080
Anyway, as you can tell, this whole game is startlingly pretty and has heaps of awesome characters and an interesting plot, so you should definitely go play it !
Aoi Shiro is a yuri/shoujo-ai Visual Novel (here) originally in Japanese but translated pretty well with an English patch available here. You can also watch the partial Let's Play (covers Migiwa's route) or this person's playlist which covers the whole game afaik. Also, you can access the official translation script as a .doc here.
From Wikipedia:
The Seijou Girls Academy's Kendo Club is traveling to Shoushinji for summer training camp. Near there is an island, Urashima, where a demon extermination took place long ago. They arrive around the time of a festival which honors a god that is worshipped by the people of Urashima, it celebrates the onitaiji and ensure another year of health for the people. Around the time of the festival, the weather around Urashima worsens and storms will come.
A few days into their training Osanai Syouko finds a girl washed up on the shores near the location of the training camp who can not speak and doesn't seem to know much about herself. Aoi Shiro's story varies greatly based upon the player's decisions, which not only affect the flow of the story but also the ending the player receives, several of which suggest romantic feelings among the female characters.
Basically, Aoi Shiro's the story of a girl's Kendo team going on a school trip to an island with a buttload of supernatural history, and where the Kendo team captain Syouko has a mysterious past slowly revealed throughout the game, with bits and pieces depending on the route you take. Also, the team's manager has a mysterious illness with a supernatural cause; there's another girl staying at the temple who's quite intriguing; the team finds an amnesiac girl lying washed up on a beach; there's a mysterious person living in the forest, and Syouko's own cousin who she looked up to like a sister and thought was dead reappears. There's heaps of exploration of in-game mythology, Japanese culture and the romances are varied and altogether awesome. There are demons in the forest, a Sword which possesses people, and some cool old guys who fight things. (Honestly, the only males in the game are basically cool old guys, or the villain. Take that how you will.)
On to the characters! (At least, the ones I nominated for YT. I might add the others later.)
Syouko Osanai
Miss Main Character, Syouko's a fairly reasonable, practical person who has some serious memory troubles about some traumatising incident in her past. She's the captain of the Kendo team and is fairly good with a bokken or sword. Also, if you're not following a walkthrough, she can die a lot, mostly in really stupid ways (drowning, man, drowning); save a lot, is all I'm saying. She's completely oblivious usually, but gets kind of flustered when someone obviously flirts with her (Kohaku, I'm looking at you); she's always up for a challenge and can be quite stubborn when it comes down to it.
Kyan Migiwa
Migiwa's the mysterious girl staying at the temple with the rest of the Kendo team. She's brash and cheery and competitive, and really stirs up the competitive spirit in Syouko (they've got an awesome rivals-to-friends sort of dynamic). She prefers to fight sneakily (loves ninja wire, this girl) but she can hold her own head-to-head as well. She's got a lot of martial arts training, she works for a mysterious organisation whose purpose sets her after the Sword. This background puts her in contact with Kohaku in a few routes.
Kaya
AKA, Natsu-nee-san! Kaya's the older cousin of Syouko, and treats her a bit like a little sister (so the romance path is a little incestuous, if you're into that). She basically taught Syouko Kendo, and is a Kendo champ herself; she gets into a ton of fights in this game. Syouko thought she was dead, but she's back! Only, she's kind of not really back, and she's obsessed with getting the Sword - to everyone else's detriment.
Kohaku
Kohaku's another mysterious girl Syouko finds in the forest, and she spends a while thinking Kohaku's a spirit or something. Kohaku's clever and dismissive and snarky. She's actually really old, but stuck in a young body, and part of her purpose is to safeguard - but not use - the Sword (once she finds it). She's worked with the Suten a few times, so in some routes she pairs up with Migiwa. She's a fantastic swordswoman (swordsperson?) and gets into a few fights along the way - she's definitely not fussed about killing you if you're being an impediment to her purpose, so you'll probably die a few times thanks to her.
Um, and I made a wallpaper for myself, so I'll add it here. Haha. *awkward*
1366x768 | 1600x900 | 1920x1080
Anyway, as you can tell, this whole game is startlingly pretty and has heaps of awesome characters and an interesting plot, so you should definitely go play it !