※This is a repost of an article originally published over ten years ago.
↑This is catchphrase version.
■Songs That Tie Their Lyrics to the Story
I believe one of the defining strengths of eroge songs is how closely their lyrics tie into the story itself, so let’s start with some masterpieces that place particular emphasis on the connection between the lyrics and the game’s narrative.
1.Went away/KOTOKO
If only I could return to those days of gentle breezes
Even though I would never let go of your hand
Even now, I stand here in this very place, never having left
You alone remain just as you were back then…
The OP of the time-loop game Natsuiro no Sunadokei, originally released on PS2 before being ported to PC with adult content added. When talking about eroge songs, you simply can’t leave KOTOKO out, and if I had to pick one of her songs based specifically on its lyrics, this would probably be it.
There are countless time-loop games in the adult game world, but these lyrics do an incredible job of capturing both the strengths of being a summer game and the strengths of being a time-loop story. The second chorus is perfect as well:
“The summer that I can never reach again
Will never make your bangs sway before me again.
In an album slowly fading with age,
You’re still smiling just as you were...”
The way it intertwines summer with memories of the past is just masterful.
Speaking of time-loop games, the novelization of the late-blooming masterpiece Harumade, Kururu. came out the month before last (at the time of writing).
The cover may look adorable, but inside is a full-fledged sci-fi story. I’d especially recommend it to people who stopped playing eroge years ago: it’s an unconventional take on the harem time-loop genre.
2.Underhanded Girl/YURIA
Beneath the desk, our hands entwined, a secret trap of feverish warmth meant only for us
Emotions intertwining
Slender fingers that tell a lie
Hiding these wavering feelings
From Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru ~Futari no Elder~. It’s only fitting that Aya Takaya, who wrote the scenario herself, also handled the lyrics—the song makes extensive use of the forbidden feelings of love between girls and the refined, almost decadent atmosphere unique to an all-girls academy.
These days, when you think of cross-dressing games, Tsuri Otsu is probably the first title that comes to mind (or at least it was at the time of writing), but this is an essential work when talking about the classic, early cross-dressing games.
Both games shine in their portrayal of the heroines’ confusion as they struggle to distinguish between friendship and romantic love before realizing that the protagonist is actually a man.
Yui Sakakibara’s cover version is great, too.
3.candy♥girl/Maid'ish(Duca&Rita&Chata)
Do you notice? Me today, with my new gloss and new earrings
Come on, tell me they look good on me ☆
Candy♥candy♥girl, my heart is completely filled with you
From the much-talked-about Custom Maid Online. The lineup of singers is pretty impressive, too.
The lyrics fit the game perfectly, focusing on the unique beings known as “Custom Maids,” who are created by the players. They express how these maids love only their player and want them to watch as they continue to be customized day after day.
Seeing the maid you personally customized dancing on stage to this song must be quite an emotional experience.
That said, the character on the right is way too obviously modeled after Tama-nee.
4.Moratorium Cluster/Yuzuno
With a blade I happened to take into my hands
Let us decide what is right and what is wrong
Dividing the colors, drawing borders on the map
The reasons, the meaning
The OP of Gangsta Republica, with the scenario written by Masaki Motonaga, whose philosophical and erudite style is one of his trademarks. The story is very much in Motonaga’s vein, with the protagonists striving to become “evil” while constantly questioning what constitutes good and evil—even involving the player in that question. It’s also great how the lyrics weave in the names of the heroines.
That line from the chorus I quoted is especially fantastic: “A blade I happened to pick up.” From the second verse onward, the lyrics even take on a political tone, making the song stand out quite a bit among eroge songs.
The soundtrack cover is badass, too.
5.birthday eve / SHIHO
If only it could come true
I’ll break free from the shackles of this hardware called the body
I’ll escape from the depths and take flight toward the horizon
Bathe in the morning sun, and welcome the eve of a new birthday
A classic masterpiece that needs no introduction. I almost feel there’s no point explaining it, but I simply couldn’t leave it out.
I had trouble with the original version of sense off, since the BGM and voices wouldn’t play properly, so I was relieved when the restored edition was included as a bonus with MegaStore. Better yet, it came bundled in the same issue as Floreal, making it a veritable Masaki Motonaga extravaganza.
In Kiss of the future, another game written by Motonaga, characters from sense off even make an appearance. That song also features unusually weighty lyrics for an eroge theme, but the really clever part is that, until you enter the true route, the game plays an alternate version with the lyrics replaced by what sounds like an ordinary love song.
Sense off similarly concealed its lyrics for a time in order to avoid spoilers, and in that sense, it may well be one of the quintessential examples of a song that is deeply intertwined with the story it accompanies.
6.Lamune/Duca
Glowing ramune, a glass marble, the two of us
We wish for what we want because we cannot have it
From Nekoneko Soft, a developer I have a great deal of personal attachment to and one with an abundance of great songs, I wracked my brain to pick just one, and eventually settled on Lamune. The game is named simply Lamune, too. It’s a masterpiece that captures the atmosphere of summer to the fullest.
The lyrics were written by the game’s lead writer, Tomo Kataoka, himself. His talent for poetic imagery is on full display in the line “You wish you could have it because you can’t take it,” referring to the marble trapped inside a ramune bottle.
Nekoneko Soft has always been almost too considerate toward its users, but in preparation for the release of Lamune 2, they made the original Lamune available for free on DMM. And in Lamune 2, they went even further, allowing players to play through the main route of the original Lamune separately from the main story.
It’s a wonderfully kind world.
Both Lamune and Lamune 2 have stories that are as warm as the summer sun, and Lamune 2 is packed with little details that will make longtime fans grin. The series’ trademark gimmick is also alive and well: your choices during childhood determine the heroine’s relationship with you and the distance between you during your school years, resulting in dramatically different scenarios.
A childhood friend who is normally cheerful and goofy can, depending on the route, become a more withdrawn woman with a hint of darkness about her.
I’d also highly recommend Narcissu, another work by lead writer Tomo Kataoka.
7.Brand New Voice/Hanatan
The sakura-colored city now
Softly begins to tell its story
A tale that lies between illusion and truth
The ending theme of Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi. The premise is wonderfully exciting: you pass through a cherry blossom tree glimpsed between the gaps of buildings, only to find yourself lost in a city that only liars can enter. The story makes excellent use of the gimmick that everyone in the city is a liar, and I remember being so impressed even by the demo that I was already determined to buy the game. It’s a sister-focused game, too.
The second chorus is also perfect:
“The time has come to leave this cherry-blossom-colored city behind,
More fleeting than a dream, more nostalgic than a memory.”
That last line in particular—“More fleeting than a dream, more nostalgic than a memory”—has a way of stirring up emotions even if you’ve never played the game.
This is almost completely unrelated, but Hanatan’s cover album Mahou Shoujo 28, which features a cover of this song, has the concept of covering songs from girls’ anime. The selection of “Rashiku” Ikimasho and La Soldier from the Sailor Moon franchise is particularly classy.
8.LOVE.EXE/Haruko Momoi
I want to feel the joy of truly “con”necting with you
A generation that can share across places and time
I’ve realized that “trust”ing each other is everything
If I can find you once again, even my tears will shine
The PS2 theme song for the one and only BALDR FORCE. You can’t hear this one in the Dreamcast version.
It’s practically one of Haruko Momoi’s signature songs. Her lyrics always make great use of the fact that they’re being written for adult games, and as an eroge fan, I love pretty much all of them. But among her work, “LOVE.EXE” is particularly outstanding.
The lyrics cleverly incorporate the characters 「通」 (“transmit”) and 「信」 (“signal”) to evoke the cyberworld, and the song closes with the line “If I find you once again, even my tears will shine,” which mirrors the chorus of the PC version’s theme song, “Face of Fact”: “Let’s gather our shining tears and cross the sea of time.” It’s absolutely perfect. Those tears...
It’s also a staple at her live shows and always gets the crowd going. Another Momoi lyric I’d highly recommend is “Don’t Turn Love into a Game,” the ending theme from Neptunia, which takes gal games as its subject.
9.Gensou Roukaku /Miyuki Hasimoto
You even lie in your dreams, what a hopeless person you are
A wineglass filled with kindness overflows, staining my hands red
After repeating our goodbyes time and time again, we step once more into the forbidden Eden
The theme song for the FD of Hapymaher, a game inspired by Alice in Wonderland. The original game did an excellent job blurring the line between dream and reality, while the FD embraces the freedom that comes from being a dream and really lets itself run wild.
The lyrics likewise capture the decadent pleasure of escaping an empty reality and losing yourself in a dream world.
Personally, I give the FD full marks for its excellent expansion of the story surrounding Maia, one of the most popular characters and also the younger-sister heroine.
10.knowing/Marika
It’s okay to be greedy—go ahead and take all the happiness you can
It’s really something so simple, you know
Yet this world makes everything so difficult, so be honest with yourself
I want to be honest with myself… but can I really be?
I was torn between this and “quantum jump” when it came to Marika’s songs, but ultimately I had to go with this one.
The theme song for Ore no Kanojo no Uraomote, which also received a PSP release with an additional heroine. These days, you can even play it on Android.
The lyrics capture the feelings of the heroines, each of whom has a “front” and a “back” to her personality. The melody and Marika’s crystal-clear voice are both incredibly soothing, making this a wonderful song.
■Quirky, One-of-a-Kind Songs
I’ve gathered songs here that embody the genre’s sense of freedom, for better or worse. These are the kinds of songs that could only come from the lawless, anything-goes world of bishoujo games.
11.Chokotto Vampire!/Youko Abe
I want you to indulge this Choco little vampire’s selfish wishes
Love Me Tenderness
I don't know a thing about you
But I'm kinda curious about Your Heart
(Chu! Chu! Chu! Chu! Kiss Me Baby, ooh ☆)
(Chu! Chu! Chu! Chu! Love You Baby, yeah!)
The theme song for Chokotto☆Vampire!, released by the now-defunct Meteor. Everything about it, from the lyrics onward, feels wonderfully dated, even though it’s actually a 2006 game, so it isn’t even from the early 2000s.
To put the premise simply, it’s basically the Magipoka kind of thing. You can really feel that Magipoka influence throughout the heroines if you know what to look for.
Those laid-back, cute vocals, the slightly questionable English pronunciation, the utterly silly lyrics—everything about it is perfect. And then there’s the spoken line in the middle: “I-I don’t care about you or anything, okay?! Hmph!” The sheer commitment to throwing in such a painfully cliché line deserves recognition, too.
It’s the quintessential B-grade eroge theme song.
These days, it feels like people only talk about eroge with philosophical works that demand endless analysis. I think it’s also the mission of this blog—one I literally just came up with—to remind people of the beauty of games that are pure, unapologetic eroge.
That said, Meteor was also responsible for Shinju no Yakata, a masterpiece that really resonated with a certain segment of players. The gap between that game and Chokotto☆Vampire!, which they made afterward, is absolutely wild.
The soundtrack cover is adorable. The frequent use of SD characters in the game itself is also really soothing.
Speaking of vampire-themed eroge songs, I also really like “MAYBE ROSY KISS,” the theme song for Trouble@Vampire!
12.Solve for i/Hana
Try accepting √−1 just as it is
Two hearts in the negative, with feelings still incomplete
Born from a square that could never exist
The impossibility of love is like an imaginary space
Love accelerates without end, at a speed that can leap across space
That speed is nothing less than love itself—so let me hear your words of love
The theme song for Ikinari Anata ni Koishiteiru, a laid-back harem romantic comedy released by Makura. The lyrics were written by SCA-Ji himself, and in addition to the various mathematical terms scattered throughout, they also play on “i” and “ai” (love).
The theme songs for works Sucadi has been involved with are all highly regarded, but when it comes to lyrics that are twisted and layered in that distinctly SCA-Ji-esque way, this is probably my favorite.
13.Hikari/Hiromi Satou
Hold my trembling throat, and gently kill me.
Open up my belly with rusty scissors, and search inside.
Did you… find the answer?
In an empty aquarium, buried beneath the dust of all that time,
What should we put in there? How about me, for instance…?
See? I look just right, don’t I?
Every phrase in the song is packed with such flamboyant flair that I had a hard time deciding what to quote, but these are probably the lyrics that are the most pleasant to listen to. I think you really need to hear the whole thing, including the spoken sections, to appreciate just how utterly one-of-a-kind it is in every sense.
Incidentally, Jisatsu 101 has an ED, “SHIAWASE NO SAGASHIKATA,” that’s surprisingly refreshing compared to the atmosphere of the OP and the main game. It’s quite amusing how completely different the two songs feel. Both were written by the main scenario writer, Orochi Yamada.
14.MAKKI, SHOUJO BYOU/Hiromi Satou
Now, here’s a haiku
“Believe, and your feelings will reach them,” sings the popular song. For me, rotten with disease, that is my religion.
Starting with “Now, here’s a haiku” and then actually proceeding to recite one is something you rarely see even among eroge songs.
This is another song from Makki, Shoujo Byou, which I’m fond of along with the aforementioned Jisatsu 101. Since the actual game was never released, there isn’t much more I can say about it...
If you find yourself desperately lacking your fix of Orochi Yamada (Ryunosuke Kinzuki)’s trademark eccentricity, you’ll just have to make do with the novelization of Shizuku...
15.Princess Party ~Seishun Kinshirei~ / Ayu + Miru + Ruu + Their Jolly Friends
I dash off with morning wood, and it’s barely a ten-minute walk to school
But I still never meet any high school girls
There ain’t an ugly girl on Hatsunejima—hell yeah, I can use my virgin magic!
Eros is a sure thing, the future’s up in the air
I’m older than the “older” characters—who the hell knows what life has in store?
The theme song for Princess Party which opens with the incredibly impactful cry of “No youth allowed!” It’s wonderfully eroge-like, which earns it a lot of points in my book. The lyrics and composition were handled by IOSYS.
In the game version of the OP, it even opens with a spoken section:
“Baaaka! What’s with this transfer student? What’s with this rich young lady? There’s no way you’re having some eroge-like fantasy, right? A legendary tree, cherry blossoms... those are privileges reserved for the elite of the game world!”
True to its title, “No Youth Allowed,” the lyrics spend the entire song shooting down the kinds of situations that are practically staples of eroge. And among them, “There aren’t any ugly girls on Hatsune Island” is so brutally ironic that I have to tip my hat.
Since it’s from CIRCUS as well, I suppose they can get away with it, but I absolutely love how they’re willing to poke fun at the peculiarities of Da Capo itself.
Come to think of it, they even ran an advertisement calling for people who absolutely hated Da Capo. I also really like the song from the Camellia side.
16.18/Katyusha
At eighteen, right in the middle of it all, ah, I’m so glad I found you
（Bi-Bi-Bi-Bi Bi-Bi-Bi-Bi YAN YAN YA YA YAN）
The opening theme of the anime version of Kakyuusei 2. Strictly speaking, that means it isn’t an eroge song, but let’s not get hung up on the details.
Katyusha was a unit formed specifically for this song. Their live footage, in which they dance while cosplaying as high school girls, is quite something and absolutely worth watching. The choreography was even handled by Yui Sakakibara.
By the time Kakyuusei 2 came out, Kakyuusei itself was already a nostalgic series, so the song deliberately goes for an old-fashioned sound throughout. But that opening “Bibibibi! Yanyanyanyayan!” goes beyond the late ’90s and straight into the Showa era. I particularly love the line “Right in the middle of being eighteen,” which feels quintessentially eroge.
The anime itself was... quite something, and the whole situation surrounding the main heroine was... also quite something. But I’m a huge fan of Aya Kadoi’s illustrations, so I have quite a soft spot for the series. The 18+ OVA was pretty great, too...
Incidentally, the cumbersome gameplay of the Kakyuusei-style school-life dating system is still very much alive in the doujin adult RPG scene. So if you ever find yourself nostalgic for that tedious, grindy feeling again, you could always go digging around for one.
17.Möbius/Ruou Ryoki
The closer I get, the farther you drift away; I keep binding myself tighter and tighter
I don't want to lose these endless days that I can't turn into memories
What is right can sometimes hurt people, and justice can narrow the path ahead
Trapped by the fear of believing, I sink deeper and deeper
If the Kakyuusei 2 song above falls under the “anime theme songs based on eroge” category, then I suppose this one belongs in the “obscure doujin game” category.
“Hajimari wa Owari to Tomo ni… Beginning is the End…” is the theme song for a doujin game by Team-CAF, a circle best known for its When They Cry and Futago Hime doujinshi—at least to me.
The game version has different lyrics and a different vocal performance, but I’ll be blunt: the game version is pretty forgettable.
18.Rough Edge /TERRA
I cut away everything that gets on my nerves
That’s how I’ve always lived my life
I won’t go around proclaiming some stiff, rigid “policy”
Like a lion ruling over the vast grasslands
I’d say a blood-soaked future doesn’t sound so bad
With the moon sitting beside the cup I raise
The only thing that can rule this soul is the voice of an unwavering desire
A vocal version of the Kichikuou Rance OP, included on Alice Vocal Collection 2. Using a male vocalist for a Rance song was an inspired choice. The album cover is incredibly cool, too. I also love the Atlach=Nacha artwork on the first Vocal Collection.
The lyrics capture Rance’s way of life, with neither grand ideals nor any particular code to speak of. The line “I fear not even God” is practically Rance himself, and hearing it rendered in song is fantastic.
Speaking of Rance, Rance 03—the first entry to give Rance a voice since the anime adaptation made in the ancient past—was much less jarring than I expected, and I had a lot of fun with it.
I could easily spend an absurd amount of time talking about the Rance series, or AliceSoft as a whole, so I’ll spare you.
Goodbye.
Of the other songs on the album, I also really like the vocal arrangement of Zero-shiki. Male vocalists like TERRA are relatively uncommon in eroge songs, so hearing his voice pop up somewhere unexpected can be quite a shock. When it suddenly played in Majo Koi Nikki, I was so caught off guard I practically fell out of my chair.
19.Gacha Gacha Hertz · Figgyu@ Radio/MOSAIC.WAV
The Akiba area will be cloudy, then clear
With occasional denpa falling from the sky
When heading out, (charariraran♪) don’t forget
An aluminum foil umbrella—it’s absolutely essential
I’ve loved this song ever since it was popular back when it first came out, and I still do. Rather than the more famous original, I actually prefer this FD version because the lyrics are even more wonderfully unhinged.
As far as I know, I’m the only person in my orbit who has ever insisted that “Frame Arms Girl is basically figgyu@!”
It’s a lonely hill to die on.
20.Words of Oath/WHITE-LIPS
Daisy, Daisy, say yes to me
I love you like I’ve lost my mind
I may not be able to make you a proper, beautiful bride
Or give you a grand carriage parade
But I’m sure I can offer something just as sweet
A bicycle ride for two, just you and me
The original song, “Daisy Bell,” was the first song ever sung by a computer in 1964, and it was also famously used in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Choosing it as the basis for R.U.R.U.R ? Ruru Ruru? Sono Ko no Tame ni, Semete Kirei na Hoshizora wo, a game set aboard a spaceship, was a stroke of genius.
The brilliance of the lyrics is already apparent from the excerpt I quoted. And that sequence right before the ED plays, where the game deliberately drops all background music, is just unfair.
In terms of the sheer emotional impact achieved by a single song, this may well be in a league of its own among everything I’ve introduced here.
■Bright, Lovey-Dovey Eroge Songs
These are simply bright, energetic songs with no particular twist to them.
I generally prefer darker games, and even when it comes to nukige, I tend to gravitate toward darker themes, so from this point onward, I unintentionally ended up with a lot of gloomy songs. I figured I’d balance things out by putting some upbeat songs from lovey-dovey romance games right in the middle.
21.One-Chance!!/KOTOKO & Hiromi Satou
These days will never come back, so maybe it’s okay to go a little too far
I’ll scribble all over your spotless notebook for you
With one touch, my ordinary days change color
Counting sheep, I’ll see you again tomorrow
Praying to the constellations, I’ll meet you again in my dreams tonight
If I were introducing a bright and energetic eroge song to someone who doesn’t normally play many eroge, the first one that comes to mind is “One-Chance!!,” the theme song of Pure Girl.
For starters, the lineup is incredibly impressive: KOTOKO and Hiroko Satou. Speaking of those two together, there’s Onegai Twins!. I absolutely love that series, so perhaps that’s influencing my choice as well.
The lyrics have that youthful, almost carefree quality that KOTOKO does so well when she’s in her brighter mode. In particular, “I’ll scribble all over your spotless notebook” feels extremely KOTOKO.
And, unusually for an eroge song, you can even buy it as a standalone track on Amazon. Very convenient.
22.☆☆☆☆☆☆/Mao Enoduki・Rika Kasuga・Haruka Kurasawa・Yui Sakakibara・Yasura Tyatani
I’ll give you every shooting star
Make my sweetest dreams come true, for sure!
Always, no matter what, at any time
Keep your eyes on me, okay?
A minor song made famous by its unusual title—at one point, searching for it on Google would return no results, and nobody could quite figure out how it was supposed to be read. Despite being obscure, it’s paradoxically well known among fans under the same name as the game: “Mutsuboshi Kirari.”
With five singers on the track, both the song and lyrics are relentlessly cheerful. I especially love the line “I’ll give you every shooting star,” particularly when taken together with the story.
Come to think of it, I haven’t actually introduced that many songs by Yui Sakakibara. Although, she was one of the singers on this track.
23.Color of Happiness/AKI
These fleeting feelings seem as though they might someday break
Because I keep reaching for that unwavering warmth
I make a wish upon the night sky above
Turning every tragedy into a smile
Everything lies within the heart
The theme song for Lunar Season ~150 un no 1 no Koibito~, released in 2000. This is early I've Sound.
At first glance, it looks like your typical cute harem game, but given the era it came from, it also contains rape elements. The song itself is bright and cheerful, with that unmistakable I've sound. There really was a time when it felt like anything with “I've” attached to it would sell.
There’s also a cover version by Yura Hatsuki released under Shoujo Byou.
24.Afterschool Pâtissier/SAKKO
One, two, three, take a deep breath—my smile is perfect
“All ready!” I whisper to myself, standing at the door
One, two, three, I ring the bell—and there’s the smiling pastry chef
Just like a scene from a drama, I’ve been watching you all this time
The theme song for Patissier na Nyanko, one of Pajama Soft’s early titles. It’s probably one of the earlier examples of a game about running a restaurant alongside a group of cute female employees. Since the full game was included with the first-run limited edition of Princess Witches, I imagine quite a few people discovered it that way.
The song has such a nursery-rhyme-like quality that it wouldn’t feel out of place on Minna no Uta. Completely unrelated to this game, but in that same vein, I’d also recommend songs from Hayashi Meisaku Gekijō and similar works. That one takes its entire aesthetic from classic Japanese storybook anime, and the worldbuilding extends all the way into the music.
The artist was Zankurō, who has since become quite well known. His distinctive art style is on full display in his eroge work, too.
25.Cherry My Heart/Ami Kamisiro
I pretend we just happened to meet, walking side by side down the tree-lined street
Just so I can stay by your side a little longer
I even cut my bangs—I hope you’ll notice
I hope I get to see your happy smile ☆
A game called Love Delation!, set at a former girls’ school where the gender ratio is 1:9. From the title onward, it’s unabashedly lovey-dovey, and that overwhelming sweetness is reflected heavily in the lyrics.
The song itself is remarkable in that, from beginning to end, the heroine keeps expressing her feelings for the protagonist. I especially love the girlish sentiment in the chorus: “Hey, I want to be loved even more, because I want to become cuter.”
A game that is lovey-dovey to an almost absurd degree.
26.Anthem／nao
Let’s take a roundabout journey on a bus flushed a little red
Even if the future we reach lies far away
We’ll leap over these trembling seasons, into the light of a brand-new sun
I’ll surely look for you again
The ED from 1/2 summer by ALcot Honeycomb. It’s pronounced “One-Side Summer.” As befits an ending theme, I love its gentle, subdued atmosphere.
Above all, the poetic quality of the lyrics is beautiful. The combination of the languid twilight image in “On a bus that’s turned a little red” and the idea of making memories together with the heroine in “Let’s take a detour on our journey” works wonderfully as an ending song.
The second chorus becomes even more abstract:
Swim through the deep, deep sky
Let’s set off on a journey, pretending we’re fish
It’s okay if you can’t swim very well
Snuggle up to the blurred moon
And melt into the night just like this
It really heightens that lingering, post-game afterglow by suddenly becoming much more impressionistic.
Perhaps that has something to do with lyricist Uto Akita’s activities being more closely associated with subculture than with eroge. Either way, I absolutely love this song.
27.FLY THE TOP/MELL
Fly to the top, into this sky, toward the future where our paths converge
I’ll never forget, not ever—staying this high, just as we are
Try to your will
Even the whole world, held within the palm of my hand
Quietly spinning
The theme song for MAVERICK MAX, a game where you play Max Speedster, a lone-wolf space courier who makes a living hauling cargo across the galaxy—and apparently gets to enjoy the lingering scent of his clients and beautiful women along the way. This is another early I've Sound track, from 2000.
Blue Gale has another absolute classic in “INMOLLAL,” which really needs no introduction. They’re definitely not a company known only for Oni Chichi and orcs.
28.Shukusai no Campanella!/Hiyomi Satou
Come on, let’s get this party started—Special Sunny Day! Is everyone here?
The more friends, the more fun! Smiles × friendship = “happiness,” right?
The bells of celebration are ringing—let’s run, as far as we can go!
Let’s go! Let’s Go! Go! Go! Go!
The title is simply “Shukusai no Campanella!”, the theme song for the FD of Shukufuku no Campanella, with the song and game sharing the same name. I wonder if they’ll ever remake this one with E-mote and all the latest technology, too...
True to the opening sentiment of “Let’s get this party started!”, it’s an upbeat song that feels like a celebration from beginning to end. The lyrics repeatedly hammer home the equation “smiles × friends = ‘happiness,’ right?” It’s silly in a very straightforward way, but I can’t deny that it’s oddly uplifting.
Windmill's purple-haired girls really are great...
29.Like a Green/ UR@N
The worst and best summer of our lives, we laughed through our tears
Wishing we could stay like this forever
Even when we grow up, I’ll never forget that you were once a “girl”
I held you beneath the starry sky
The theme song for Green Green 2. All of the songs associated with the Green Green series are excellent, but if I had to pick the one with the coolest lyrics, I’d probably go with this.
It’s almost blindingly summery and youthful, right down to the words themselves. You can practically feel the heat of summer and the energy of youth just from reading the lyrics.
The lyrics were written by Yoshikazu Kuwashima, who has since also become a light novel author. He was also the lyricist for CARNIVAL.
30.White Wedding/Denkisikikarenongakusyuudan
Every little thing, no matter how small,
I always wanted you to tell me everything
These days, I can see right through your lies, though
A dazzling white Wedding Dress, shining bright
I’ve been waiting so long for this day
Treasure me, treasure me, and keep your eyes on me
If it’s you, surely; if it’s me, surely
We’ll keep feeling the same way, forever
Kiss me gently…
The theme song for Metorase ~Dokilove ☆ Shinkon Iinkai~~, a lovey-dovey romance game. It’s a rather unusual example of DenKare doing a straightforward, consensual love song. The contrast with the album jacket, which has virtually zero lovey-dovey energy whatsoever, is fantastic. The game’s OP is “White Wedding,” performed by DenKare.
DenKare has actually contributed music to quite a few silly, comedic games, and they occasionally show up on brighter songs as well. They’ve been much more versatile than you might expect from their usual image. Their official catalog also shows just how broad their work has been beyond the stereotypical dark eroge sound.
More recently, “Jounetsu ♨ Utopia,” the theme song for Koi to Koisuru Utopia, had DenKare handling the lyrics and part of the vocals, striking a nice balance between being lovey-dovey and still unmistakably DenKare. It was my favorite eroge song of the previous year (at the time).
The link below is one of my favorite recent DenKare albums. If you drifted away from eroge and naturally stopped listening to them, I highly recommend giving it a listen.
■Darker, More Mellow Eroge Songs
Looking at them all lined up like this, it really makes me feel that when you think of adult games, you inevitably end up with angsty depression and horror.
I would have liked to include “Mikansei no Shiro” and “I hope So...” as well, but they’re both fairly well-known, so I decided to leave them out.
If the brighter songs I introduced earlier were mostly OPs, then this section is essentially a collection of EDs.
31.flow ～Where the Water Was Born～/KOTOKO
The sorrow spreading across the sky melts into crystal-clear water
Carrying my dreams, I’ll go wherever the waters take me
Following an unseen path, I’ll make my way toward the distant sea I’ve always longed for
And I’ll drift onward, making my way there
I really love the album artwork, with its distinctive atmosphere. It’s just exceptionally cool, though—the actual game doesn’t use an art style anything like this.
The theme song for Suiso ~1/2 no Kiseki~. The atmosphere of the lyrics really shines here. Even if you pull out just the chorus, it has enough cohesion and poetic quality to stand on its own as a complete poem.
32.Happiness Principle/Marica
If my finding happiness means someone else must suffer,
I’m sorry I was ever born.
Should I die to make amends?
But… “May I Love You?”
With these twisted lips,
To love you… “May I Love You?”
My pale legs entwined with yours
If I’m including Yamada Orochi and SCA-Ji, then I have to include a work involving Kenzo Nagaoka as well.
The lyrics are absolutely perfect for the mentally unstable-girl crowd. Combined with the music, they have this oppressive gloom that gets stuck in your head after just one listen. I love it.
I’ve made some edits so this doesn’t get taken down, but the title screen is as exquisitely decadent as it gets. It has enough of a cult following that it still commands a premium price, though it occupies this awkward middle ground where, for a rare game, it’s actually relatively affordable.
33.insensible/KIYO
Watching the long shadows of the two of us stretch into the distance
The wind from those days when we dreamed of eternity blows past
No matter what happens from here on, please never let me go…
Those words keep coming back to me, one after another
The insert song from Peace@Pieces, with Noizi Ito serving as the original character designer. The mellow songs by Kiyo, aka Ryo Mizuki, are probably better known for her work on Kimi no Nagori wa Shizuka ni Yurete, but personally, I prefer the lyrics of this one. As a game, though, I’m definitely Team Kiminago.
Things that won’t return, things that can’t be brought back
All of them are swallowed up by the sky
Was it you who was left behind?
Or… was it me?
The chorus is particularly beautiful. It brings to mind an almost cinematic scene: the protagonist walking through the evening light, with the heroine following a short distance behind, her head slightly bowed. The whole image feels like something you can see with your eyes closed.
34.Square Of The Moon/Duca
La La, take me to the moon, where I’ll offer up my prayers
To the end of a dream from which I’ll never wake
Please, let us look up at the same sky
And let a dawn come when we can smile again
My favorite song associated with the AliceSoft classic Yoru ga Kuru!. Considering how important night and the moon are to the game, lyrics like “Take me to the moon” and “So that a dawn may come when we can smile” hit especially hard.
As you’d expect from AliceSoft, the game is blessed with fantastic music across the board, from its battle BGM to its theme songs.
It’s a game I have a lot of memories attached to, but no matter what I say about it, I feel like all of it ultimately gets overshadowed by just how gorgeous this CG is.
35.MOON PHASE/Suara
If only I could cast myself into the blue night
When I turn into white foam, hold me forever
And someday, forget me
A very obscure song in a very obscure position: an image song for Shizuku.
Naturally, it wasn’t used during the PC-98 era. It wasn’t even added to a standalone remake of Shizuku. Rather, it was a song added to the remake of Shizuku that was included as a bonus with the remake of Kizuato. Even fairly devoted Leaf fans may not know it exists. I imagine most people discovered it through Suara’s album.
Musically, it’s essentially a vocal arrangement of the important music-box BGM from the game. The lyrics feel as though they’re expressing the emotions hidden behind Ruriko’s blank, lifeless eyes, which makes the song all the more haunting.
The remake inevitably loses some of the sheer horror impact that came from the original artwork, but that aside, I absolutely love this choice, especially when you take the bonus scenario’s “Did the denpa reach you?” into account.
36.あなたを想いたい/池田春菜
Before I knew it, the cold rain had disappeared, washing the darkness away
The stars filling the night sky look as though they might come falling down
Counting on my fingers all the little things you do that I love
I’ll stop and gaze up at the stars, and give thanks for this happiness
I want to savor the bittersweet ache that comes to my heart from time to time
Just a little longer, I want to stay like this and keep watching you
The ED theme from Routes, a Leaf title that has always felt somewhat overshadowed by the company's bigger names. It may have gained a wider audience through Aquapazza, where it became known as a convenient and easy-to-use assist character.
The song is so beloved that it has been covered several times within the Leaf sphere, including versions by Setsuna Ogiso and Suara. Interestingly, the different vocalists give it completely different impressions. Suara's version sounds like a mellow, mature love song, whereas Setsuna's version is something else entirely.
The more I listen to it, the more I wonder if the lyrics weren't practically written for Setsuna. They're so perfectly suited to her. Having her sing a song about loving a single man with such overwhelming intensity somehow turns it into something resembling a great romance that ultimately ends in unrequited love.
The song selection for the album that had Setsuna cover it is brilliant in its own right. The inclusion of Leaf's own classics is one thing, but for some reason they also threw in “Akujo” by Miyuki Nakajima. Having a character whose overwhelming love can, depending on the route, lead her to behave like an “evil woman” sing Akujo is almost comically ironic.
37.Dream/Megumi Hasegawa
Don’t answer, don’t answer anything
If this is a dream that will someday fade away
Hold me gently, gently
For an eternity
After wandering round and round, I found you
I believe in the chance that brought us together
It lasts for no more than the moment the stars begin to twinkle
I dreamed of you
The insert song from early minori classic Wind -a breath of heart-. As for the game itself, it became infamous for the heroine's furious interrogation scene. The original Dreamcast version's dialogue has been preserved on Nico Nico Pedia, so I highly recommend experiencing the sheer intensity for yourself.
The soundtrack jacket I posted above is gorgeous, isn't it? The animated sequence accompanying this song was created by none other than Makoto Shinkai. The beautiful backgrounds are a given, but the way he builds toward the chorus also shows off his unmistakable talent.
The highly abstract lyrics pair wonderfully with Shinkai's visual style. If I had to pick just one work from among the projects he contributed to, I'd have to choose his animation for Wind -a breath of heart-.
38.Mirai-zu/Rio Asaba
I’ll walk on with you by my side
I’m not afraid of whatever the future may bring
Keeping our promise from that day warm in our hearts, we’ll move straight ahead
The happiness we build together, from now on and forever
If we move forward together, we can take that first step
Drawing a map of the future shaped by all the dreams we’ve shared
The ED from Mirai Nostalgia. Purple Software's trademark rocket boobs are alive and well here.
With “the future” being one of the game's central themes, the lyrics are built around the idea that there's nothing left to fear when it's a future the two of them will build together. Hence the title, Mirai-zu (“Future Blueprint”). As an ending theme for this game, I think it works beautifully.
Also, the soundtrack jacket that includes this song is adorable. Purple Software's songs are generally written by their producer, Yasushi Ishikawa, which is pretty impressive. I envy people who can be that talented at so many things.
39.A Kiss for Your Tears/ave;new feat.Miwa Oosaki
I’m sorry I couldn’t meet you, without ever knowing
Let me stay by your side until the pain turns into warmth
When I ask you why your tears are overflowing,
You quietly whisper, “I love you.”
A single kiss upon your trembling eyelids
I gently pull you close, our hearts in love
The insert song from STEP×STEADY. As a game, it’s about as standard as they come—or perhaps “template-like” is the better way to put it. There aren’t any particularly outrageous settings or twists, for better or worse, and as a result it’s a fairly safe, straightforward title. The artwork is cute, though, and there’s certainly nothing to lose by giving it a play. It’s an imouto game, too.
What really stands out is how good the insert song is—good enough to make up for much of the game’s conventionality. Calm, subdued ave;new is pretty great too, you know...
40.Loneliness of a Caged Bird /Kanako Ito
The fleeting dreams of this mortal world tease and beguile me—where do they disappear to?
Ah, that beckoning voice, the endless loneliness of a bird in a cage
Come, I’ve been waiting for you
My tears have run dry, my feelings have withered away—I want to go home
Just… to that day
A familiar face, a fragrant flower, the beckoning darkness, the beckoning bird
The song from The Shinju no Yakata. As I mentioned above, it’s amusing that shortly after creating this masterpiece, Meteor went on to release Chokotto☆Vampire. Quite the tonal whiplash.
Eroge means mansion games. Eroge fans love their mansions, so much so that even when it comes to Cream Lemon, I’d pick Kuroneko-kan.
The gloomy lyrics that define the atmosphere of the game are irresistible. And with Kanako Ito providing the vocals, the mood is more than adequately established.
Come to think of it, I suspect this may be the only blog in the world where the discussion of Meteor spends more time talking about Chokotto☆Vampire! than Shinju no Yakata.
■Eroge Songs with Lyrics Unique to Violation Games
Here, I’ve collected songs that are surprisingly cool despite being used in violation-themed games, as well as songs whose lyrics could only have come from such an unusual and extreme subject matter.
41.COLD BUTTERFLY/Duca
The weight of sin, an ugly tattoo
A lily flower falling into ruin
The nature of a blind, lightless girl
To a neon-made god,
I offer the price of beauty—defile me
The theme song for Sei Shoujo ~Seido Ikusei Gakuen~, a distinctive title featuring a dialogue-balloon system reminiscent of a doujin CG collection, where the protagonist being exceptionally talented at procuring women is one of its best touches.
You can tell immediately just from reading the lyrics how cool they are. Lyricist Tōya Okano, who also wrote the scenario, demonstrates some seriously impressive wordplay: the image of a lily—the symbol of purity—falling from grace, and the way the assault scenes are described as “offering the price of beauty to a neon-lit god.” And then it closes with the heroine, intoxicated by pleasure, simply saying, “Defile me.”
Simply magnificent.
A voiceless voice
“Today is my sixteenth birthday…”
Unable to resist anymore, my frail
Arms are marked with ugly scars
The phrases outside the chorus are great too. Given the unspoken convention that all the characters are adults, it takes some nerve to suddenly slip in the gloomy line “Today is my 16th birthday.” That’s some seriously bold lyric writing.
That said, the actual game isn’t quite as relentlessly hardcore in its depiction of sexual violence as the song might lead you to believe.
It’s still a classic, though.
42.Moon and Sun/Sayuri Abe
I don’t know where I’m going anymore
Not even to God
Even when I was hurt, for the sake of others
I turned my back and cut off my tears
I was always told, “At least keep your heart strong.”
The theme song for the self-explanatory classic Himekishi Angelica ~Anata tte, Hontou ni Saitei no Kuzu Da wa!~. I couldn’t find the lyrics anywhere, so this article ended up being the first place to publish them. If you follow eroge for long enough, these kinds of situations come up surprisingly often.
The line “I was always told to keep my heart strong” is fantastic. You can practically picture her losing that resolve only a few minutes later, just as the song seems to promise. As lyrics that give the player a pretty good idea of what’s coming and set their expectations accordingly, it gets full marks. It also manages to cram in an impressive amount of “princess knight” imagery.
As a side note, one of the few things I consider a genuine badge of honor in my life is the time illustrator Takashi Ishigaki followed me on Twitter and greeted me with, “Hello, fellow lowest-of-the-low scumbag.”
43.Endless sorrow/MASAMI
No matter how many trembling nights I endure
No matter how closely I follow the path of the untainted
I can never be reborn
There is no beautiful tomorrow
No matter how brightly the morning shines
The wounds run too deep to ever heal
No matter how much I reject reality
You are there
The theme song for Oni Isha. It’s credited to MASAMI, but that’s actually Faylan. And the developer is Saga Planets—the same Saga Planets that has nothing to do with Oni Chichi. They’re now hugely popular even among middle and high schoolers, but there was a period when they were making unapologetically hardcore rape games like this.
The lyrics are absolutely devastating, built around the idea that once a woman has been defiled and fallen, she can never return to the person she once was.
What really stands out is how hopelessly the seemingly hopeful phrase “You are there” is used. Is there any eroge song lyric that tramples on a heroine’s life quite this thoroughly? It’s almost unbearably sorrowful, and that’s exactly why I love it.
44.Gate to Paradise/Ringo Aoba
Even if I had to carry all the sorrow in the world
I’ll make it come true—just tell me what you truly feel
Even if it’s hatred, if I alone could fill your memories with me
I would need nothing else
The theme song for euphoria. On your first playthrough, it comes across as an utterly decadent violation game. But once you’ve finished it and listen to the song again, it becomes nothing short of a pure love song.
I talked about euphoria so much back when it came out that I honestly had nothing left to say about it by the time I wrote this. That alone should tell you how essential it is to actually play the game.
45.Insanity/Ringo Aoba
「You must be insane to do such a thing.」
I want the night to call for me
Watch me as I lose myself deeper and deeper in madness
Maybe because I always hear this one alongside the song above, Aoba Ringo has become permanently associated in my brain with violation games. In fairness, she really has sung a lot of theme songs for nukige.
What makes this song particularly amusing is that, despite having such ridiculously cool lyrics, the game it was used for is titled “Ryoujoku Gakuenchou .” More precisely, it’s “Ryoujoku Gakuenchou / Dorei Club ~Dokushin Choukyouroku~.” Another CLOCKUP title, just like euphoria.
46.oblivion/KOTOKO
Saying I had nothing to fear, I gently reached out and touched your hand
If only I could go back to those days, I could cry again
To the foolish answer I believed in long ago… oblivion
“If only I could go back to that time, I could cry again.” What a line. It perfectly captures the mindset of a heroine in a vioration game.
The second verse is just as good:
“It’s not beautiful enough to call it a memory,
and I slip into a tainted time I can’t sever myself from—oblivion.”
That self-loathing quality is absolutely devastating.
And once again, there’s something wonderfully absurd about how poetically the song portrays sexual violence, only for the game itself to have the incredibly blunt title “Shiritsu Rape Jogakuin.”I love it.
47.To Lose In Amber/Eiko Simamiya
The last sunset I ever saw
A phantom hourglass casting its shadow
Everything begins to move
Beneath the same sky, what did you find? A path leading into tomorrow, faded and lost in history
If I reach out my hand, I can reach you—no matter when, searcing for you
Holding close the warmth you gave me, I believe in a dream like stardust
The game is simply titled Dorei Ichiba (“Slave Market”), in which you spend your days with slaves purchased from—you guessed it—a slave market. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? This one predates that game by quite a while, though.
You can certainly play it as a violation game, but depending on your choices, you can also choose to pursue a romantic relationship with your slave. In practice, it’s more of an elegant, melancholic romance set in a decadent world. It later even received voices and a true route.
I love that it works both as a game for getting off and as one capable of genuinely moving you. The second verse’s “a dream that lasts for only one night” perfectly captures the unusual position of a “slave”—something that doesn’t quite belong to either a violation story or a tearjerker. It really gets to me.
48.Left & Right Hand/Yuki Mahiro
Our left and right hands intertwined
A moment that feels like eternity
Follow me, I’ll keep you safe
Your smile, forever
The theme song for the little-known classic Itaike na Kanojo. Like Dorei Ichiba from earlier, it can veer either toward pure romance or outright cruelty depending on how you play it. Even the romance route is fairly sadistic, though. The developer was also known for lolicon games such as the Hajimete no Orusuban series, which makes the cute art style all the more effective at emphasizing the game's darker side.
The premise is that the protagonist confesses to a bullied girl as part of a prank and ends up dating her. Eventually, frightened by her unwavering devotion, he begins treating her cruelly. A similar idea appears in Nagamori's route in ONE: being afraid of the love of an utterly obedient girl and responding by becoming cruel.
The lyrics likewise portray the heroine's twisted affection as she desperately devotes herself to him. It’s a warped romance between two broken people, but one that nonetheless arrives at a very definite form of a happy ending—for both of them.
49.R.E.D/Maiko
It stains the colorless night, staining the unseen face behind it
Filling even the sky at the very edge of the world—a fate that can never be erased
This hopeless self flickers within someone else’s consciousness
A world shimmering crimson, two memories overlapping
A fleeting flicker in the shadow of the night, concealing a solemn resolve
From the beloved Taimanin Yukikaze. At its core, Taimanin is essentially a shōnen-manga-style story about people fighting supernatural forces from the shadows, so turning that struggle into song lyrics naturally makes for something pretty damn cool.
The only problem is that the heroines have a tendency to get captured by the enemy and subjected to sexual violence almost immediately...
50.Caterpillar/Ningenisu
Writhing in the dark, tormented by the dark
Gaining nothing, fulfilling nothing
Nothing… nothing…
I am a caterpillar, nothing but ugly
I am a caterpillar, nothing but vile
I am a caterpillar, nothing but loathsome
The ED theme for Kizaku, the only one in the series to feature a genuinely touching route. Though, true to form, he casually steals a bicycle during the ending credits. Still a monster to the very end.
The singer is none other than Ningen Isu. First we had Isaku as a cockroach, then Shūsaku as a fly, and finally Kizaku as a caterpillar. Perhaps that means Kizaku was the only one who had any chance of becoming a beautiful butterfly.
The lyrics are absolutely perfect as an anthem for the life of a kichiku. Every song I've introduced so far has dealt with the feelings of heroines on the receiving end of sexual violence. This one is different: it sings of the life of an ugly male character with no salvation, no matter how he chooses to live.
For those of us who consume nothing but lust and appetite, producing nothing in return—we who are devoted freaks of violation games—is there any other song that could cut this deeply?
Today, as always, we continue devouring the adult-game industry like caterpillars.
And that's precisely why I had to save this one for last.
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