Sunday, October 19, 2025
The Truth About Children
Due
to how closely visual novels have historically sat to the world of
adult entertainment, they have often been able to touch upon subjects
other games or media struggle to address and one of these is
pregnancy. Their attitude and use of pregnancy varies wildly from
title to title but it remains a powerful narrative element in all
situations since bringing another life into the world is action with
fate altering consequences. By far the most common presentation of
pregnancy is as the natural outcome of a romantic relationship where
the characters are depicted happily awaiting their new or recently
born child. Then there is comedy which loves to poke at the absurdity
of the human condition and there is no better material than people’s
reactions to the natural outcome of biology. Since pregnancy is such
a life changing event with all kinds of emotional connections it is
the perfect breeding ground for drama amongst the cast. Let’s
marvel at the wonders of life and discover how it influences the
visual novel space.
Pregnancy As The Outcome of Romance
When
many visual novels engage with pregnancy it is often in the context
of a romantic relationship and acts as a final confirmation of the
longevity of the couple’s bonds. Having a child is a serious
commitment to make since it will be many years before they leave home
and so it is wordlessly speaks to the intimacy and future nature of this relationship. Presenting the pair as having already
had a child does achieve the same effect, but a pregnancy removes the
need to have a new character design for the child and allows the
player to imagine what they might be like while communicating the
same thematic commitment through being a dramatic change to the
appearance of the female character. It helps that in many eroge the
characters have been engaging in intimate activities beforehand which
makes it easier to present these pregnancies as a natural outcome of
their actions and thus binding romance and pregnancy together. Take
Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai! series and the character Oshitari
Azumi for an example of the positive and romantic presentation of
pregnancy. The actual pregnancy is confined to the end of her route, long after the point where she and the protagonist are married, in
order to have this be a signifier of their bond without dealing with the
realities and inconveniences of the process. Since it is such a brief
window there has been a lot of effort put into how it is framed from
the gentle illumination and soft colours of the visuals to the light hearted
banter and deep trust in each other. This allows it to land with a
greater impact and presents a bright future for the pair so the route can ends on a high note even if the player will never get to experience
any more of their lives. It does help that the pair were fornicating
throughout the sections after the marriage to provide the context for
the pregnancy and further push the idea of it as the ultimate
conclusion to their relationship.
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| Behold the wonders of childbirth |
Titles with a deeper exploration
of pregnancy are less common but those that do exist tend to place it
in the same romantic context. Clannad’s After Story section brings
the focus down to a single heroine, Nagisa, and during this time she
becomes pregnant. Rather than simply skipping over this part of their
lives Clannad engages with the social and biological reality as the
pair get ready to become parents for the first time. It is used as an
avenue to showcase the strength of their commitment to one another and
continues to develop it as they overcome these strange new hurdles.
Despite the difficulties of pregnancy it is still shown to be some of
the best moments of their lives to help drive home just what a
positive thing these events are and how the player should interpret
them. While Clannad is not an eroge, the influence of Key’s history
with the eroge of their earlier titles is clear from their willingness
to present pregnancy, the reason it occurs and its consequences in a
frack way that a developer with a more main stream audience may have
shied away from.
The Comedy Of Our Desires
Pregnancy
sits in a strange place in the social consciousness, it is a thing to
be celebrated since it brings new life into the world yet the process
which leads to it is not something people are comfortable talking
about. Into this awkwardness strides comedy to inject a much needed
dose of humour into the absurdity of this situation. Since many
visual novels already deal in this style of comedy it is only natural
they would take advantage of this avenue as a means to add variety.
One way this can be achieved is by directly pointing to the cause and
effect of how pregnancy and engaging in a bit of tongue and cheek
education for the player. Futamata Ren’ai does this at the end of
Toiro Kirame’s route where she realises she has become pregnant and
then the other characters point of that since she and the protagonist
have been at it like bunnies, this was the obvious outcome. Before
this point the game had not brought up the idea of pregnancy and so
this sudden shift highlights it as the expected consequence which
people do not openly discuss resulting in a kind of awkward laugh
from the player as they realise the mental disconnect they possess
between action and outcome. It helps that Futamata already makes a lot
of adult jokes and regularly utilises its status as an eroge to touch
on such ideas so this discussion about pregnancy does not appear to
come from nowhere but is instead a part of its sense of humour.
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| Boys and girls this is what happens when you go at it too much |
Another way comedy visual novels like to use pregnancy is take it too
its logical extreme, if the protagonist gets around then there should
be a lot of pregnancies. The Rance series and its titular protagonist
do not know how to keep it in their pants so the outcome should be
obvious. These games love to play up their promiscuous protagonist at
every chance and pregnancies are a great way for them to do so while
at the same time point out how absurd their protagonist is and how
his actions result in some truly over the top romantic situations.
This plays nicely with the over the top story of the Rance titles
and their nature as eroge to get a chuckle while continuing to keep
both sides of its mechanics and narrative satisfied one joke to the
next.
Dramatic Pregnancy
Given
how life changing a pregnancy is for all those involved it naturally
lends itself to being a source of drama. In particular the idea of
pregnancy as binding two people together regardless of whether they
like it or not can be leveraged to drive a wedge into proceedings in
a way a player might not be expecting. As such it primarily deals
with the discovery of the pregnancy rather than the later stages so
it can side step the physiological changes and just use it as a
narrative device which does not impede the character’s ability to
engage in other plot points. This allows it to be a flexible element
which can either be the focus of events or a compliment to a
situation with already high stakes without being invasive since it
can be framed as the natural escalation of romantic tensions.
However, it does need a specific kind of story for it to not feel out
of place due to it being so closely tied to intimate relations and as
such placing it into a game without even the slightest allusion to it
would make this subject especially jarring. Perhaps the most
memorable example of a visual novel using this dramatic device is
School Days. Before pregnancy is even brought into the conversation
this game presents itself as a drama fuelled descent into romantic
madness as every character does the stupidest thing possible in every
situation. Having such an open season on what is reasonable for a
character to do in pursuit of love makes the presence of pregnancy
feel like the natural conclusion or extension of these conflicts.
Sometimes it a cause to be happy and in others it is cause for
murder, School Days gets a surprisingly large amount out of this dramatic
moment as a means of pushing the cast over the edge for the most
outlandish endings possible. As with many of the previous examples in
this article it helps that the characters have been sleeping around
so the pregnancy appears natural yet this game takes it further since
the sleeping around is a major source of drama and the pregnancy
pushes those strained relationships to its breaking point.
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| Be careful who you sleep with... |
Conclusion
One
of the defining experiences of a human life is to bring another person
into the world so it makes for perfect material for visual novels to
include in their stories. Romance likes to use it as the ultimate
conclusion of a relationship where the commitment of the pair is
shown in a physical manner which speaks to the bright future ahead of
them. It can also be a source of drama and tension since its life
changing nature may not be what all parties want or represents the
breaking point of a relationship. Playing off a pregnancy can be a great
means to create comedy where the taboo nature of the process leading
to pregnancy is juxtaposed against the happy outcome of the union as
a means of highlighting the obvious connection between the two. As a
narrative tool there are few with the potency of pregnancy and if
handled correctly can leave a powerful impact on the player’s
impression of your game.
