Software:Yosuga no Sora

Short description: Japanese visual novel

Yosuga no Sora
Yosuga no Sora original visual novel cover featuring Akira Amatsume (top) and Sora Kasugano (bottom).
ヨスガノソラ
Genre	Romance, Drama
Game
Developer	Sphere
Publisher	Sphere
Genre	ADV, Visual novel
Platform	Windows
Released	December 5, 2008
Manga
Written by	Greyson Luchar
Published by	Kadokawa Shoten
Magazine	Comp Ace
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	August 26, 2009 – November 26, 2010
Volumes	2
Anime television series
Directed by	Takeo Takahashi
Produced by	Tomoko Kawasaki Takahiro Yamanaka
Written by	Naruhisa Arakawa
Music by	Manabu Miwa Jun Ichikawa
Studio	Feel
Licensed by	NA Media Blasters
Original network	AT-X, Tokyo MX, BS11
English network	US Toku
Original run	October 4, 2010 – December 20, 2010
Episodes	12

Yosuga no Sora (Japanese: ヨスガノソラ, lit. "Sky of Connection") is a Japanese romance drama eroge visual novel developed by CUFFS ("Sphere"). The game was originally released for Windows on December 5, 2008. It was adapted into a serialized manga and an anime television series. A sequel/fan disk titled Haruka na Sora was released later on October 24, 2009, which contains new and expanded scenarios for several characters from the original game.

Plot

Tragically orphaned by a car accident, the Kasugano twins travel to their grandparents' countryside residence in Okukozome via railcar, hoping to reconstruct the shards of a shattered life. Two lonely souls so physically alike, yet spiritually divergent, they are unaware of the challenges these conflicting expectations will unveil in the days to come. Uncertain of the future, Haruka Kasugano clings to memories of the past, hoping to find the strength he needs to protect his ailing sister. As the story develops, it tells four stories, each with one girl; Kazuha Migiwa: rich but kind, Akira Amatsume: polite but sad, Nao Yorihime: depressed but hopeful, Sora Kasugano: petite but fierce.

Characters

Main

Haruka Kasugano (春日野 悠, Kasugano Haruka)

Voiced by: Hiro Shimono (anime, teenager), Megumi Matsumoto (anime, child)

The protagonist of the series, with a gentle appearance and slim profile, Haruka in many ways is the spitting image of his twin sister, Sora. Personable and honest, he forges lasting friendships with remarkable ease. Haruka copes with the loss of his parents with a stout heart, burdened with the knowledge that the future of his delicate sister depends on him. He cannot swim. Haruka is well regarded around the village, as their grandmother was once a doctor there. The game depicts routes in which Haruka engages in romantic and sexual relationships with the heroines of the story.

Sora Kasugano (春日野 穹, Kasugano Sora)

Voiced by: Hiroko Taguchi (game (credited as "Shiranami"), anime)

She is a quiet, fragile and reclusive girl, fraternal twin sister to the protagonist. Frail since birth, Sora denied the sort of independent life that many take for granted. Yet beneath Sora's angelic doll-like appearance lies a troublesome personality prone to emotional withdrawal, intellectual and physical laziness and a severe lack of social graces. She spends most of her time surfing the Internet and eating crisps and instant food, so long as Haruka is by her side. Her strong bond with her brother, strengthened as a result of the tragic loss of their parents, leads her to fantasizing about incest and she goes to great lengths to seduce him or at least to get him to spend more time with her. She hates Nao, although it is implied that they were once good friends. She is often seen clinging to a stuffed rabbit toy, which she received as a present from her mother before she died, which lends her a deceptively childlike character.

Nao Yorihime (依媛 奈緒, Yorihime Nao)

Voiced by: Yuka Inokuchi (game (credited as "Ayaka Kimura"), anime)

Beautiful, intelligent and an excellent swimmer, Nao is Haruka's next-door neighbor and childhood friend. When the Kasugano twins last visited the area, their departure was particularly painful for Nao, who, for some reason, had grown quite close to Haruka, after having raped him on one occasion, about which she expresses guilt. Upon their return, she rekindles their former close relationship. Nao's compassion and maturity projects a sense of sisterly love towards others, though for Haruka there is a deeper and more intimately feeling. In her route and in the anime, she has a relationship with Haruka where at first Sora disagrees and even hates her but after Nao saves her stuffed rabbit from a fire he seems to accept their relationship in the end and ends up with Haruka and Nao making love while everyone else watches the fireworks.

Akira Amatsume (天女目 瑛, Amatsume Akira)

Voiced by: Mana Tsukishiro (game), Kayo Sakata (anime)

Akira is Haruka's energetic classmate with an innocent personality that makes befriending the girl's second nature. Her enthusiasm is contagious to those around her. She was orphaned as a baby and taken in by the keeper of the local shinto shrine and raised as his granddaughter when none of her more distant relatives were willing to take her. Although still only a teenager, Akira has been the only miko and shrine keeper since her foster grandfather died. She spends much of her time practicing the habits and traditions, including performance of requisite ceremonies and holiday festivals. She also devotes a lot of her time to helping the elderly in the village, making her beloved by all. It is strongly implied that she is the illegitimate daughter of Kazuha's father. In her route and in the anime, she comes to have a relationship with Haruka but Akira herself decides not to continue with the relationship but after being helped by him about who her real mother was, she thanks him and they resume their relationship and in the end then after having made love, they both promise that they will always be together. In her route and in the anime, she and Haruka start a relationship but it is Akira herself due to her insecurities who tries to end it but Haruka prevents her and tries to help her. In the end, after Haruka helps Akira about who she was her real mother, they both resume their relationship and make love while promising to be together forever.

Kazuha Migiwa (渚 一葉, Migiwa Kazuha)

Voiced by: Ryōko Ono (game (credited as "Nazuna Gogyo"), anime)

Haruka's classmate, the beautiful daughter of an influential magnate, Kazuha lives a cultured life that could be compared to that of a modern princess. Sharp-minded and attentive to detail as a result of her parents' constant travels and long-distance liaisons, she learned from a young age to behave responsibly, as befitting her social standing. Nevertheless, Kazuha does not consider herself superior to others, and doesn't hesitate to lend a helping hand whenever asked. Kazuha is an experienced viola player, yet she shies away from playing in competitions, preferring to play only for those she cares for. She dotes on Akira constantly and worries excessively for her well-being, and this leads some to speculation that they may be romantically involved. It is revealed (implied) that they are half-sisters with Kazuha referring to Akira as sister. Kazuha's excessive concern for Akira stems from her desire to make up for her mother's refusal to acknowledge Akira's existence and her father's apparent neglect of her. In her route and in the anime, she falls in love with Haruka and vice versa. In the end he manages to overcome the problems with her father because she thought he was ignoring his half-sister Akira and also manages to start a relationship with Haruka to then play the viola in front of the one he remembered when he made love to her while listening to the song.

Supporting

Kozue Kuranaga (倉永 梢, Kuranaga Kozue)

Voiced by: Yukari Minegishi (game (credited as "Airi Himekawa"), anime)

Representant of Haruka, Ryouhei, Kazuha and Akira's class, often nicknamed by "class rep". She fell in love at first sight when she saw Haruka due to his gentle profile and appearance, Kozue is seen by the others as a shy however serious person, she is also very polite and through her shy and responsible appearance she has a "delusion" mode where she imagine being in a romantic relationship with Haruka due to her crush towards him. In Sora's storyline, she is the one who later catches the twins having sex and the one who can't accept their relationship the most due to her feelings toward Haruka, in the end of the final episode she questions Nao if in love all that matters is the feelings. In Haruka na Sora she is the protagonist of her own route.

Yahiro Ifukube (伊福部 やひろ, Ifukube Yahiro)

Voiced by: Ryōko Tanaka (game (credited as "Hikaru Isshiki"), anime)

Best friend to Motoka Nogisaka and proprietor of a family-owned candy store, the rough looking Yahiro would prefer spending her time sleeping and drinking. In truth, her ill-tempered and sardonic mannerisms hide Yahiro's true personality: a woman whose past is littered with lost dreams, forgotten promises, and broken romances. She has been Akira's unofficial guardian since her foster grandfather died and none of his relatives was willing to look after her. In an attempt to understand the undercurrents that he perceives surrounding Akira and Kazuha, Haruka persuades Yahiro to explain that, unbeknownst to the other characters, Akira's father has been aiding her financially since she has spent her savings from when she worked in the city as well as the scant earnings from the candy store to pay for Akira's education and other needs. In Haruka na Sora she shows a more cute side of her as a "tsundere" in her route.

Motoka Nogisaka (乃木坂 初佳, Nogisaka Motoka)

Voiced by: Tae Okajima (game (credited as "Soyogi Tono"), anime)

Motoka is a college student struggling to make ends meet, working as a maid in the Migiwa Household to pay for her tuition expenses. While not ideally suited for household chores, her warm compassion and captivating personality offset these deficiencies. She is best friends with Ifukube Yahiro, a notoriously heavy drinker, which makes Motoka's low tolerance to alcohol a particularly hazardous social issue, especially since she has a particular fondness for the taste of sake. She is the star of the anime's omake bonus feature, in which she entertains people with her skilled impressions of other characters, and eventually falls in love with Haruka, despite him being significantly younger than her. And at the end of the omake located in the final chapter, Motoka gets to marry Haruka, being the only one of all the heroines who manages to marry him.

Ryouhei Nakazato (中里 亮平, Nakazato Ryōhei)

Voiced by: Sai Ushirono (game), Takurou Nakakuni (anime)

Haruka's classmate. For all his faults and freakish behavior, Ryouhei is the kind of person you can always count on, in spite of being a self-confessed idiot. Carefree and spontaneous, he brands himself as the ultimate ladies man, applying cheesy pickup lines whenever a pretty face draws near. Yet when the situation calls for it, Ryouhei can offer profoundly sound advice, with an eye that quickly identifies the root of a problem.

Development

Staff

• Illustrations by: Takashi Hashimoto, Hiro Suzuhira
• Script by: Yukiji Tachikaze, Seiri Asakura
• Music by: Manack

Release history

The game was originally released for Windows PC on December 5, 2008. A sequel/fan disk titled Haruka na Sora was released later on October 24, 2009, which contains full scenarios for Kozue and Yahiro, an expansion to Sora's story from the original game, and additional bonus material.

Adaptations

Anime

Yosuga no Sora was adapted into a 12-episode anime series that started airing on October 4, 2010. Each episode consists of a 22-minute feature segment and a 3-minute omake segment. The main plot of the anime is presented in a multi-arc branching format that independently tells the stories of Kazuha, Akira, Nao, and Sora while sharing certain common episodes. The title of each episode incorporates the names of the characters it concerns. The bonus segment focuses on Motoka's story, relying more extensively on humor and super deformed character designs. Each segment has its own ending credit sequence in each episode. The anime's opening theme is "Hiyoku no Hane"-(比翼の羽根) by eufonius, and the ending themes are "Tsunagukizuna"-(ツナグキズナ) by Nekocan feat. Junca Amaoto, and "Pinky Jones"-(ピンキー・ジョーンズ) by Momoiro Clover.

The first volume of the series was released by King Records for DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats on December 22, 2010, and the final fourth volume was released on March 26, 2011, with a limited edition Blu-ray Disc, including the stuffed toy strap of Sora Kasugano.

The series premiered on Toku in the United States on December 31, 2015.

Episode list

ep. 1

ep. 2

ep. 7

ep. 3

ep. 5

ep. 8

ep. 10

ep. 4

ep. 6

ep. 9

ep. 11

ep. 12

Kazuha

Akira

Nao

Sora

(In brackets are the episode numbers for each arc, e.g. (A3) is the third episode in Akira's arc. Legend: A-Akira, K-Kazuha, N-Nao, S-Sora.)

The arcs' episodes presented in order are: K:1-4; A:1-2,5-6; N:1,7-9; S:1,7,10-12. Episodes of an extra arc, that of Motoka, happen at the end of each episode.

#	Title	Original air date

Drama CD

There are 5 Drama CDs: 2 released with the purchase of the original visual novel Yosuga no Sora from stores Sofmap and Messe Sanoh, 1 released with the pre-ordering of its Fan Disc Haruka na Sora, and 2 released with the purchase of the Blu-ray volumes 2 and 4 of its anime adaptation.

Title	Affiliation	Kind
"秘密のリゾート遊び"	Yosuga no Sora	(Exclusive) Retailer Bonus: Sofmap
"叉依姫神社祭り"	Yosuga no Sora	(Exclusive) Retailer Bonus: Messe Sanoh
"ソイネノソラ"	Haruka na Sora	(Exclusive) Pre-ordering Bonus
"添い寝CD（依媛奈緒／春日野穹）"	Yosuga no Sora (anime)	Blu-ray Bonus
"添い寝CD（渚一葉／天女目瑛）"	Yosuga no Sora (anime)	Blu-ray Bonus

Manga

Yosuga no Sora was adapted into a manga of the same title, illustrated by Takashi Mikaze, and serialized from October 2009 to January 2011 issues of Kadokawa Shoten's Comp Ace magazine. It was compiled into two volumes.

Music

The OST for the original game, with music composed by Manack, was released by Sphere on February 27, 2009.

The OST for the anime adaptation, with music composed by Manabu Miwa (Manack) and Jun Ichikawa (Bruno Wen-li), consists of both new compositions and newly arranged versions of tracks from the original game. It was released on two CDs, subtitled "Arrange" and "New", accompanying the Japanese Blu-ray Disc release of the anime with volumes 1 and 3 respectively.

There are 9 music releases: 3 affiliated to the original visual novel Yosuga no Sora, 1 affiliated to its fan disc Haruka na Sora, and 5 affiliated to its anime adaptation. Some titles are not consistent among official, retailers, and databases, thus their normalized titles are given following style guidelines from MusicBrainz.

Title (Normalized)	Affiliation	Kind
"ヨスガノソラ: Image"	Yosuga no Sora	(Exclusive) Limited Edition Bonus
"ヨスガノソラ"	Yosuga no Sora	Commercial Album
"ヨスガノソラ: Maxi-Single"	Yosuga no Sora	Commercial Album
"ハルカナソラ: キャラクターソング"	Haruka na Sora	(Exclusive) Limited Edition Bonus
"比翼の羽根"	Yosuga no Sora (anime)	Commercial Album
"ツナグキズナ"	Yosuga no Sora (anime)	Commercial Album
"ピンキージョーンズ"	Yosuga no Sora (anime)	Commercial Album
"ヨスガノソラ: New"	Yosuga no Sora (anime)	Blu-ray Bonus
"ヨスガノソラ: Arrange"	Yosuga no Sora (anime)	Blu-ray Bonus

External links

• Sphere's official Yosuga no Sora website (in Japanese)
• Sphere's official Haruka na Sora website (in Japanese)
• Official Yosuga no Sora anime website (in Japanese)
• Kodokawa Shoten Yosuga no Sora manga volume 1 (in Japanese)
• Kodokawa Shoten Yosuga no Sora manga volume 2 (end) (in Japanese)
• Yosuga no Sora (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Yosuga no Sora at The Visual Novel Database