Nekopara

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Nekopara
Original title ネ コ ぱ ら
developer Neko Works
Publisher JapanJapanNeko Works Sekai Project
United StatesUnited States
First title Nekopara Vol. 1 (2014)
Last title Nekopara Vol. 3 (2017)
Genre (s) Kinetic Novel , Erogē

Nekopara ( Japanese ネ コ ぱ ら , short for "Katzenparadies") is a Japanese dōjinshi of the Neko Works circle, who developed a kinetic novel game series for the work , which is published outside of Japan by the Sekai Project .

The first game in the series is Nekopara Vol. 1, it was released on December 29, 2014.

The series takes place in a world in which people live together with so-called cat girls , also known as "Nekos" (Japanese for cats), and they are kept as pets by the people.

Gameplay

Nekopara is a kinetic novel, which is why the gameplay focuses on reading through the story. Nekopara does not offer the player any freedom of choice or the option to influence the story. With the exception of the protagonist, the characters in Nekopara are completely set to music and have their own voice actors. The so-called "e-mote" system enables the characters to move animatedly, to speak and to express feelings through facial expressions instead of, as is customary in this genre, depicting a stationary image in the scene. Nekopara Vol. 0 added a feature that allows the player to "stroke" the characters with a click of the mouse. Depending on where the player strokes the characters, they react individually with purring noises.

action

Kashou is an aspiring baker who is moving away from home to open his own pastry shop . When he is about to unpack his things, he discovers that two of his family Nekos, Chocola and Vanilla, have come with him hidden in the moving boxes. After the two got Kashou to live with him, all three finally work in the small shop “La Soleil”. Later in the story, Kashou is visited by his little sister Shigure and the other Nekos of the Minaduki family.

Characters

Kashou Minaduki ( 水 無 月 嘉祥 , Minazuki Kashō )
He is the protagonist of the series and a talented cook and baker. Kashou decided to finally make his dream come true of moving out of his home and opening his own shop. As usual in such games, the protagonist has no speech output. In addition, the events mostly take place from his point of view, so that the player also knows his thoughts.
Chocola ( シ ョ コ ラ , Shokora )
Speaker: Himari (Tomonaga Maki)
Chocola is very lively and cheerful. She has brown hair and is very fond of Kashou, so that she even calls him "Master". She couldn't imagine not being with Kashou anymore, so she decided to move to his shop and work there. She is Vanilla's twin sister.
Vanilla ( バ ニ ラ , Banira )
Speaker: Amu Nakamura
In contrast to her twin sister, Vanilla is rather calm and relaxed. She has white hair and very rarely expresses her emotions. She follows her sister everywhere, which is why she also moves to Kashou. She and her sister are the youngest Nekos in the Minaduki family.
Shigure Minaduki ( 水 無 月 時 雨 , Minazuki Shigure )
Speaker: Emi Sakura
Shigure is Kashou's little sister, who is secretly in love with him, in a way reminiscent of incest. She and her brother are the owners of the Minaduki nekos, with Shigure having significantly more experience with their keeping.
Azuki ( ア ズ キ )
Speaker: Mia Naruse
Azuki is the oldest of the Minaduki nekos. Although she is a role model for the other Nekos due to her age and can also be seen as a leader - and thus also plays a large role in the management and control of her sister at work in the café - she also has hurtful and malicious traits towards them. In order to hide her true emotions from others, she responds and speaks very sarcastically.
Maple ( メ イ プ ル , Meipuru )
Speaker: Yui Ogura
Maple is the second oldest of the Minaduki nekos and has an independent and mature character. She is always happy when she visits a café because she can always try new things there.
Cinnamon ( シ ナ モ ン , Shinamon )
Speaker: Yū Arisaka
Cinnamon is the third oldest of the six Nekos. She has very perverted thoughts and interprets something sexual into all things to ultimately blush, ashamed or not. She also has the largest chest size.
Coconuts ( コ コ ナ ツ , Kokonatsu )
Speaker: Ryōko Tezuka
Coconut is the third youngest of the Nekos. Although all the other characters envy Coconut because of her "cool" persona, she wants nothing less than to be cute instead of cool. Because of her clumsiness and self-proclaimed lack of ability, Coconut suffers from low self-esteem. She also tries to do more than she can to be more like her older sisters, rather than to support Kashou like her younger sisters.
Milk ( ミ ル ク , Miruku )
Speaker: Emi Sakura
Milk is a very young Neko what with her owner a takoyaki operates booth near the "La Soleil" and a shopping street.

Release history

Nekopara began as Hentai - dōjinshi the signatory Sayori and appeared on August 11, 2013. An illustration called NEKO SOCKs reflects both figures can, however, already in 2008 demonstrate.

In 2014, Sayori developed a game with her dojin circle Neko Works, the English version of which is distributed through the Sekai Project on Steam . Nekopara Vol. 1 was sold in two different versions: an uncensored version for adults ( eroge ) with sex scenes and a version available for all ages without sex scenes. The latter version was released on December 29, 2014 and the uncensored version a day later on December 30. For fans of all ages, Nekopara Vol. 0 was released on August 16, 2015. Nekopara Vol. 2 was released for purchase on February 19, 2016.

The successor Nekopara Vol. 3 was originally supposed to appear on April 28, 2017. On April 10, 2017, Sekai Project announced a postponement of Nekopara Vol. 3 because Sayori, the author and graphic artist of the series, fell ill. It should therefore appear on May 26, 2017. Ultimately, Nekopara Vol. 3 was released on Steam on May 25th.

Sales figures

As of May 2016, over 500,000 copies of the Nekopara series have been sold.

Blocking on Steam

At the end of January 2020, all DLCs for the Nekopara series were removed from the Steam Store for users from Germany. The possible origin is a complaint from the Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein media authority about the House Party game . The DLCs are still available for users in Austria.

Adaptations

In July 2016, the Sekai Project announced that it was planning a Kickstarter campaign for an anime version for the Nekopara franchise. This started on December 29, 2016, with the required $ 100,000 being funded on the same day. The campaign ended on February 11, 2017 and raised a total of $ 963,376. Shortly thereafter there was a "Slacker campaign", which should give the supporters another chance to raise the $ 1,000,000.

This finally succeeded with the additional campaign, which raised $ 1,049,407. The OVA is supposed to be 60 minutes thanks to the successful campaign and include Russian, French, Spanish, German and Portuguese subtitles. There should also be an anime version and game version of Chocola and Vanilla as they are children.

An anime television series started on Japanese television in January 2020 . This comprises twelve episodes and is shown in Germany at Wakanim in the original sound with German subtitles .

reception

Hardcore Gamer gave Nekopara a positive rating:

"Nekopara is a light and fluffy visual novel that fans of catgirls will enjoy, some may be put off by the sexual storyline aspect."

"Nekopara is a light and fluffy visual novel that will please fans of catgirls, although some may be put off by the sexual aspect of the plot."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NEKOPARA Vol. 1 on Steam. In: store.steampowered.com. Retrieved October 22, 2016 .
  2. ^ "Meeting the Catgirls of Sekai Project's Visual Novel Nekopara Vol 1." In: Siliconera. Retrieved October 22, 2016 .
  3. ↑ 新 着 リ ス ト (2013 年 8 月 11 日) . In: Toranoana . Retrieved January 6, 2017 (Japanese).
  4. ↑ WORK. In: Neko Works. Archived from the original on August 28, 2008 ; Retrieved January 6, 2017 (Japanese, illustration not visible).
  5. ↑ ネ コ ぱ ら vol.1 ソ レ イ ユ 開店 し ま し た! 通常 版 . In: Toranoana. Retrieved January 6, 2017 (Japanese).
  6. ↑ Patricia Hernandez: The Sex Games That Steam Censors . In: Kotaku . ( kotaku.com [accessed October 22, 2016]).
  7. ↑ Catgirl visual novel Nekopara out today on Steam. In: Destructoid. Retrieved October 22, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Sekai Project Adds Nekopara Vol. 1 Visual Novel to Steam's Greenlight . In: Anime News Network . ( animenewsnetwork.com [accessed October 22, 2016]).
  9. ↑ 【ダ ウ ン ロ ー ド 版】 ネ コ ぱ ら vol.0 ~ 水 無 月 ネ コ た ち の 日常! - NEKO WORKs - BOOTH (同人 誌 通 販 ・ ダ ウ ン ロ ー ド). Retrieved October 22, 2016 .
  10. ↑ NEKOPARA Vol. 0 on Steam. In: store.steampowered.com. Retrieved October 22, 2016 .
  11. ↑ NEKOPARA Vol. 2 on Steam. In: store.steampowered.com. Retrieved October 22, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Twitter. Retrieved February 19, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Steam Community :: Group Announcements :: NEKOPARA Vol. 3. Retrieved April 20, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Save 10% on NEKOPARA Vol. 3 on Steam. Retrieved May 25, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Haris Odobasic: Steam blocks visual novels for adults in Germany. Anime2you.de, February 5, 2020, accessed February 5, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Sekai Project, Degica Plan to Launch Kickstarters for NEKOPARA Anime, Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien Game Remake . In: Anime News Network . ( animenewsnetwork.com [accessed October 22, 2016]).
  17. ↑ NEKOPARA anime OVA. In: Kickstarter. Retrieved January 6, 2017 .
  18. ↑ NEKO WORKs: NEKOPARA OVA. Retrieved February 19, 2017 .
  19. ↑ NEKO WORKs: NEKOPARA OVA. Retrieved March 5, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Update 9: WE DID IT! A FULL 60MIN OVA !!! · NEKOPARA Anime OVA. Retrieved April 30, 2017 (American English).
  21. ↑ AniManisch: Nekopara Anime in the starting blocks for January 2020. Crunchyroll, November 14, 2019, accessed on January 20, 2020 .
  22. ^ Robin Hirsch: Number of episodes of "Nekopara" known. Anime2you.de, January 9, 2020, accessed January 20, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Steffen: Nekopara: WAKANIM shows the series in simulcast. Animenachrichten.de, January 14, 2020, accessed on January 20, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Review: NEKOPARA Vol. 1 | Hardcore gamers. Retrieved October 22, 2016 .