Sunday, May 17, 2026
On The Edge
Transitioning
to adulthood and leaving the days of childhood behind is a common
thematic trope throughout history so it should come as no surprise
for visual novels to make use of it. Coming of Age rarely holds the
sole focus of the narrative and instead exists as a genre only
visible once the characters' arcs have been completed and they gain
their maturity. Playing directly into drama of entering the adult
world and assuming the responsibility which comes with age is the
simplest form of the genre given it places it directly in the
player’s face to make the theming clear. Since maturity can be
subtle in nature there are games which choose not to tie it to age
and rather present it as something gain through personal conflict
beyond the process of growing up. Not all presentations of the Coming
of Age are entirely positive with many dwelling on what has been lost in the face of the inevitable march of time.
Let’s put on our big boy shoes and find out how a genre can extract
drama from the act of getting older.
Stairway To Adulthood
There
is an inherent layer of conflict built into ageing as the march of
time changes people and forces them into uncomfortable new
situations. Periods of transition bring these feelings to the
forefront and few are more dramatic then stepping into adulthood.
Gone are the protections of childhood and the characters are thrust into a
world of responsibility which they must contend with. This is by far
the most direct type of the Coming Of Age story since it is a literal
coming of age rather than a purely emotional one. Since it is so
immediate in its presentation these visual novels tend to deal with
the realities of adulthood such as jobs and having children. They
push the idea of responsibility in a series of smaller scale changes
to a character’s life before leading them into the life shattering
conflicts required for an exciting finale. Titles looking for a slow
build up while pushing a continuous Coming Of Age theming tend to
pick this style for exactly these reasons since it gives incremental
emotional moments to keep the player engaged in the lead up to the
pay off while also appearing to be a natural extension of its ideas.
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| YU-NO's cast are often defined by their immaturity |
One of the most prominent examples of this jump to adulthood is
Clannad, in particular the After Story section. Tomoya has to deal
with the responsibilities of being an adult as they are thrown at him
one after another from getting a job, marriage and preparing for a
child. Many of these end up being minor hiccups used for comedy but when combined they create a sense of Tomoya’s growing maturity
through him overcoming them. They lay the foundation for the bigger
hurdles of his journey into adulthood in the form of dealing with a
child. Forming a connection with his child presents the greatest
challenge for him given all the personal and emotional baggage
surrounding his own life and only by finally coming to terms with it
can he be a good father. This acts as the climax solidifying the
final stage of his Coming Of Age where he can cope with the
responsibilities and maturity appropriate for his age. Not all uses
of this style need present day or real world connections to be
impactful since maturity is an internal quality. YU-NO presents this
approach in its later section where Takuya is whisked out of our
world and ends up being trapped there leading to him having to
quickly learn to be an adult. Since this is a loosely fantasy world,
adulthood means a maturity and responsibility to those around him
rather than the specific expectations for the modern world, hence why
he does not get a job but instead involves himself in activities related
to his survival. Interestingly just like Clannad the final stage of
this journey into maturity is connected to a child but this time it
is the pursuit and reconnection with the child after they are
kidnapped. The idea of successful raising a child is a common
narrative beat to end the arc on since it is seen as the most taxing
aspect of being an adult.
Maturity In The Face Of Change
Not
all Coming Of Age stories need to be focused around a transition to
adulthood and they are more often based around a looser idea of
personal maturity. This makes for a malleable source of drama and
development suitable for appearing alongside other styles of
narrative without distracting too much from them. It can take the
conflict at the centre of story and have the cast mature in the face
of this challenge and can co exist with each specific character arc
to create a complete sense of transition out of childish traits into ones
demonstrating growth. These tend to be focused around negative
internal elements like trauma which haunt the character and need to
be resolved so they can move on with their lives. What is important
to emphasise here is the idea of the growth as maturity must be
pushed by the game, either explicitly through text or implicitly
through the character’s place in the world, just overcoming the
negative aspect is not enough in of itself to be considered Coming Of
Age. However, it is exactly this slight overlap with other genres
which allow it to be so freely used within a complimentary context to
those same genres. Little Busters encapsulates this approach to
Coming Of Age drama as it entangles this journey to maturity with a
variety of different narrative threads. For the majority of the game
it stays in the background of the thematic mixture so the romance and
supernatural threads can be the focus yet still contextualises those
as steps towards a growth in overcoming trauma. This continuity
of its underlying presentation makes the shift into it being the core
message during the finale a natural one where the revelations about
reality and its sadness are contrasted against the cast’s known
ability to grow beyond it. So as they move into a maturity they
previously lacked there is a strong sense of catharsis where the
title’s conclusion becomes a final release for a quiet build up and
it is a powerful emotional moment to end on.
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| His age should not be the reason he accepts... |
The Melancholy Of Growing Up
Growing
up is not all sunshine and rainbows, some aspects of childhood and
innocence are forever lost in the transition and, no matter how much
the person might want to recapture them, they can never truly be
restored in quite the same way. For visual novels this manifests in a
sense of melancholy at this transition into maturity where the lost
is dwelled upon for dramatic effect and the cast wrestle with its
passing. How these emotions all play out varies wildly from game to
game since melancholy is an extremely vague feeling being anything
from the partner for depression to a loose acceptance of change. Its
shifting nature makes it unsuitable to be the main thematic push so
it often ends up forming the underlying tone present through each
step along the Coming Of Age journey. Despite this position in the
narrative structure, its use is limited by the emotional state it
invokes not always being compatible with the kind of stories told
alongside this genre due to the more positive spin on growing up they
aim towards. While melancholy might not be immediately negative,
there is a connection with dwelling in the past and loss which forces an
introspection on maturity and demands a slower pace for it to have
its desired impact. Kimi ga Nozomu Eien demonstrates this use of
Coming Of Age drama through the way it ties into the romantic
progression. It focuses on the characters’ loss of innocence due to
the gaining of responsibilities both to themselves and to the one
they love. There is juxtaposition between the childishness of their
love triangle and the realities of relationships where it plays out the drama to its extremes through this transition and its consequences.
The game continuously rubs in this melancholy into the wound to fully
immerse the player in the vat of emotions it has concocted so it can
make the catharsis of their resolution all the more powerful.
Transitioning out of these darker feelings is key to their success
since they are never entirely escaped, but merely something to be
pushed beyond as the characters move into maturity.
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| One birthday closer to the inevitable march of adulthood |
Conclusion
Utilising
the genre of Coming Of Age can be a surprisingly flexible process
which reflect the vastly different experiences people face in their
journey into maturity. The transition into adulthood due to age is
the most common way to use this idea since it is an easy to
understand experience the player can be expected to be familiar with.
Growing up may not be a universally positive process for the cast so a
title may choose to focus on the melancholy from a loss of innocence
and freedom as a means of creating an emotional tone. Maturity is not
necessarily a quality inherent to a certain age which means titles can frame their narratives within the context of personal
maturity in order for a more flexible application. Tying all of these
versions of the Coming Of Age genre together is the idea of
transition and growth so its appeal to developers as a means of
expressing a character arc is the foundations of its use in visual
novels.
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