Kinkoi Thoughts

I love Kinkoi to death and think it's very worth checking out as a Key fan. Saga Planets recently broke off from VisualArts, and it's clear they aim for basically the same audience as Key, but they do also have their own distinguishing quirks and methods. When Kinkoi is at its peak, I easily put it on par with my favorite Key games, but the areas that make it distinctly different from a Key game are how comedy and the thematic core are handled.

SagaPla makes eroge. I know that sound like an obvious statement, but it's important to their identity. Kinkoi and several of their other games have all-ages versions, yet eroticism still runs in their veins. For example, when Ouro the MC moves into the school dorm, Best Girl Reina comes along to look through his stuff for porn. Now, not only does she find some porn, she finds way too much of it. And seeing all that, she quickly figures out our protagonist's primary sexual fetish, and of course she shares that with all the girls in the dorm. I love this scene, but you'll never see a Key protagonist who casually brings a moving box full of eroge and eromanga to his school dorm. This, to me, is quintessential eroge-type comedy. You see, the eroge market has evolved in a fashion that most of the standard galge coming out are very burlesque(See Cawelti's essay on genre evolution). I can't count the number of scenes in this game where there's a conversation about porn or eroge tropes and stereotypes. Then we got Ayaka, my third favorite character, who is an incarnation of pure burlesque. She isn't just a parody of eroge tropes, but also a parody of the main heroine of this very game; that's some good shit.

Now let's talk about the real reason you should read Kinkoi: Soma Ria. I love most of the cast, but I wouldn't recommend this game if it wasn't for Ria. She is angry, rude, and chain-smokes, but she's also very smart, determined, and does not take shit from anyone. Because the main heroine is the princess Sylvie, Ria is made to be the opposite of a princess. Ria is the central character of Kinkoi; most of the stuff in the game exists to serve her narrative. She's around for all the routes because she's Ouro's closest friend, and her job is often to smack some sense into him literally and figuratively. Ria is of course also the one who explains to Ouro the theme of the story, in the common route nonetheless. SagaPla themes are similar to Key but generally more specific which is a BIG plus in my book. The theme of Kinkoi is perception and appearance; it's a story about how we are seen and perceived by ourselves and others. It's a story where half the characters are literal aristocracy, and appearances are extremely important to that. Among politicians and rich folk, there's obviously a lot of phonies who show off for the sake of attention, but what Kinkoi and Ria emphasizes is that making yourself look good isn't strictly a bad thing. It can also be about wanting to be the best possible version of yourself. This theme takes a lot of forms throughout the story. For one, the game has a very gaudy visual style with golden yellow being the primary color, and that is tied into the character giving their all to be who they want to be. There's also constant talk about being mindful of your golden time, not to let opportunities slip by. Kinkoi is not a subtle game; it's consistent and in-your-face about what it wants to be, and how it says its piece is incredibly executed. Kinkoi is not a supernatural story, but it's also far, FAR from realistic. It's a ludicrous and silly game, and I have immense respect for when stories commit to being silly and genuine at the same time.