Last Modified: February 19th, 2006
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Kana Imoto (Kana Little Sister) is a bishoujo dating sim game developed by Digital Objet (the same studio behind games such as Crescendo) and originally released in Japan in 1999 and the English translation of the game was released by G-Collections in 2002. The game was one of the first to focus on storyline rather than characters and it progresses mainly through the dialogue between each of the characters, along with the flashbacks of Taka. The game was one of the first to follow tragic events and made players feel emotionally involved, which means that these events can sometimes hit hard to those who play the game. A full playthrough of the game without skipping will take a played five to ten hours, there is around 30 choices that can be taken at various points during the game to change the ending that the player recieves. The English translation of the game comes full uncensored, unlike the original Japanese version.
The game was originally released on the Microsoft Windows platform, the game was ported to the Mac OS in 2001 and in 2003 the company Panther Software announced that it was planning to release an Xbox version of the game, although after a large number of delays the project was eventually cancelled in May 2005. Due to the hentai content of this eroge, it is not available in a wide range of stores and can usually only be found online, due to this rarity the game is not well known amongst Western fans of h-games. Although the original editions that were published by Digital Objet are no longer produced, a new version named Kana Okaeri was released in 2004, with new designs for each character and the addition of voices.
You play through the game as the character Takamichi Toudou (most commonly referred to as Taka). You are twenty years old and you have a younger sister named Kana who was born two years before you. She was always in the hospital a lot as a child, this is due to a tragic but deadly disease that she has, and nobody knows what will happen to her. Heart-wrenching scenes lay ahead as the game progresses through her childhood and your feelings for each other begin to change. The question that remains is whether you would do anything to protect your little sister... even ...
Takamichi Todo - The twenty year old protagonist of the story, he is the older brother of Kana and has looked after her ever since they were young. As the two progress through life together, his feelings for his sister begin to change, into something more. An eventual plot twist reveals that him and Kana are not related by blood, which removes the implied incest in the themes of the game.
Kana Todo - The eighteen year old younger sister of Taka has a terminal disease (renal insufficiency, the failure of the kidneys) and is forced to spend a lot of her time in the hospital, she is only allowed to go home and spend time with her brother for brief periods before she starts to be ill again. She is very deeply attached to her brother, and due to both her illness and her shyness she rarely attends school or goes out.
Yumi Kashima - After crushing Taka's feelings at school a number of years ago, nineteen year old Yumi has returned, and Taka's feelings for her are still the same as when he had a crush on her in the past. He does not like what she did to him in the past and avoids her when he can, spending more time with Kana. She has always had a crush on Taka, but usually not talked about it.
Miki Kondo - This is the thirty year old head nurse at the hospital Kana is treated at, she is primarily responsible for the care of Kana and thinks of Taka and Kana as part of her family due to caring for Kana since she started the occupation of nursing. She is very bold and is not afraid to make decisions.
Yuta Ito - This eighteen year old boy is in the same class at high school as Kana. When he was younger he used to bully her along with the rest of the class, which has meant that she now dislikes him, but as he has grown older and more mature he has now grown to love her and wants to protect her whenever Taka is not around to do so.
By playing through the game and taking different options you can get six different endings, each one different. The choices will determine the relationship between Taka and Kana and her view of life. Some of the choices will also determine Taka's relationship with other characters, such as Yumi. It must be said that due to the game's emotional nature, fans do not regard any of the endings as 'happy' and is has been complained about that none of them offer complete closure to the story that players have dedicated so much of their time to watch through.
The six endings can be placed into four categories, these are listed below:
A CD named 'Kana - Imoto - [Special Sound Album]' was released on the 27th of September 2001. It was a vocal song album containg three of the songs used in the game, and five extra 'image song' tracks that were not previously released. The CD is still in print and is most commonly available for 2286yen (around $20) from Japanese music export stores online. The theme song to the game is named Shiroi Kisetsu.
The 2004 released remake of the game, Kana Okaeri was released with a full soundtrack. 'Kana Okaeri Complete Music' was released on May 18th 2005 and was only sold in Japan, fans in other countries can obtain it via specialist shops that will import it for a premium. The list price for the import of this CD is usually around $31.49 but can go as high as $55.00 and it contains 23 tracks.
The Xbox version of the game was almost completed when cancelled, this can be seen on various websites that show most of the CG scenes in the original game had been brought up to date with new artwork. The character design of Kana and Yumi was shown to change, and it was implied that every character had been modified. Some fans claim that the delays to the project were not the main reason for cancellation, and some believe that the work that had been completed on the work could easily be picked up and completed by another team, although the chances of this happening are unlikely, especially with the successor to the console (the Xbox 360) already having been released.
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