whoever invented winter was definitely a bishōjo-game otaku.

※This article is a repost of an article originally published about 4 years ago.

　Whoever invented winter was definitely a bishōjo-game otaku.

　hat dim, bittersweet atmosphere that hangs over everything. The sheer variety you get from girls being bundled up in layers. Easy-to-deploy seasonal events like Christmas and New Year’s—perfect excuses to drop in flashy CGs. And the finishing move: snow, piling up just to burn a great scene into your memory.

　I was born in Okinawa, so for the eighteen years before I moved to Tokyo, I’d never touched snow even once. That’s why when I played the PS3 port of WHITE ALBUM, the beautiful snow gently wrapping up those twisted relationships messed with my head in a way I couldn’t ignore. No matter how hard I try to empathize with a modern-feeling story, the moment snow starts falling, it becomes a story I can’t experience.

　Take the lyrics from “Awayuki” by Saori Sakura—one of my absolute favorites:

“Aching with longing—when the snow melts, what will be left?”

　But in Okinawa, it doesn’t even accumulate in the first place. So I end up thinking… we’re basically “nothing,” aren’t we? Even listening to eroge songs becomes hard work.

　By the way, for fellow Okinawans who’ve never seen snow, I recommend Patissier na Nyanko. It’s set in winter, and the heroine routes constantly feel like they’re about to give you a snowfall CG—but they never do. So it won’t wound the hearts of us Okinawans (uchinānchu). Everyone’s dressed for winter, and somehow that alone makes me happy.

　Well, I wasn’t thinking that deeply about it back then—but it’s true: I spent eighteen years quietly cultivating this longing for snow. So the first time it snowed after I moved to Tokyo, it shocked me.

　And I remember this clearly: I was alone in Tokyo. No friends, and not even any online acquaintances yet. There was nobody to share that excitement with. And that’s when it hit me—snow that wets the shoulders of a lonely person is this cold. It made me strangely, intensely sad.