Kannagi no Tori (Bird of Kannagi)

There is a place known as "Kannagi-san" (or Kannagi Mountain), which connects the world of the living with the world of the dead. Here, beings called the "Kannagi no Tori" (or Birds of Kannagi) live, and it is their job to take the souls of the people who die to Kannagi-san, where they can then pass on to the world of the dead. The "Kannagi no Tori" get sent out just before someone dies to retrieve their soul and bring it back.

However, one "Kannagi no Tori," Ikaru, is different. He feels wrong about death, and typically when he is sent out instead of letting the death take place and retrieving the soul, he usually interferes with fate by preventing an accident, convincing someone not to commit suicide, or rescuing the person in danger to save their life. He still has not retrieved a single soul. He is given a "final mission" to prove himself as a "Kannagi no Tori," and if he fails, he will cease to exist.

His mission is to retrieve the soul of a young boy, Watanaki Ruu, who is to die in a car accident on the first of June, in about one month. Over this month Ikaru has several interactions with Ruu and his family, and feels an usual tie to Ruu, and doesn't want to take his soul... but his fellow "Kannagi no Tori" friends are trying to make sure he gets his mission done because they don't want to see their friend cease to exist, and at the same time, they have missions of their own involving people around Ruu as well.

Will Ikaru be able to finish his mission, or will he be unable to claim this soul as well...?

Ikaru - Ikaru is a "Kannagi no Tori" and the main character of the story. Even though he is a "Kannagi no Tori," he has not delivered a soul yet, and is now on a final mission to claim Ruu's soul or cease to exist. He is a bit quick-tempered, but is still a kind person who can't help but interfere in the fate of other's deaths. He is friends with his fellow "Kannagi no Tori" Hakken and Renjaku, and also becomes very close to Ruu and his uncle. Seiyuu: Suzumura Ken'ichi.

Hakkan - Hakkan is a "Kannagi no Tori" and good friends with Ikaru and Renjaku, his fellow "Kannagi no Tori." He is a very bright and humorous person, who likes to pick on Ikaru, calling him "chibi" (runt) and "gaki" (brat), but in an affectionate, brotherly sort of way. He is the type that's always ready with a joke to lighten up any situation. He has a mission to claim the soul of Manabe, who has ties with Ruu's uncle Fukamachi. Seiyuu: Kouji Yusa.

Renjaku - Renjaku is a "Kannagi no Tori" and friends with Ikaru and Hakkan. He is a highly respected "Kannagi no Tori," who is of a higher class than Ikaru and Hakkan. He is somewhat expressionless and quiet, not really the talkative type, his personality the opposite of Hakkan's. He is worried about Ikaru and his mission, and wants to make sure that it is completed. Seiyuu: Midorikawa Hikaru.

Watanuki Ruu - Ruu is a young boy who's parents are divorced and currently fighting for custody of him, so he lives with his uncle, Fukamachi Yasunori. He is fated to die in an accident in a month, and Ikaru is the "Kannagi no Tori" assigned to deliver his soul, but as Ikaru gets to know him, he becomes good friends with Ruu and starts to form an attachment to him. Ruu is a somewhat weak person, who is more likely to cry when hurt than become aggressive. But despite his introvertedness, he is an extremely kind person. He has a pet hamster named Miris that he is very attached to. Seiyuu: Yamaguchi Kappei.

Fukamachi Yasunori - Fukamachi is a novelist and Ruu's uncle, who lost a lover to an accident in the past. Since Ruu's parents are divorced and busy settling who gets custody over Ruu, Ruu lives with Yasunori for the time being and he acts as his guardian. He's a very kind and gentle person, who acts like an older brother toward Ruu and Ikaru, and is even affectionately referred to as "Occhan" by Ikaru. Seiyuu: Morikawa Toshiyuki.

Manabe Akihito - Manabe is the younger brother of Fukamachi's lover who died in an accident in he past. He wants to try to make since of his sister's death, and visits Fukamachi often to find answers. However, he usually ends up getting frusterated by these visits when he doesn't seem to get what he's looking for, and now has a dislike of Fukamachi. He is a somewhat unsociable person that holds a lot of pain toward the past. Seiyuu: Chiba Susumu.

Kannagi no Tori is true to the typical style of boys' love games, where you make different selections from listed options, and depending on which options you pick, you follow different paths of the story.

The story starts with Ikaru stopping a suicide where a boy was trying to jump from a roof, and he is then visited by Hakkan, and returns to Kannagi-san, where the real story begins: he must claim the soul of the boy Ruu in a month or lose his place among the "Kannagi no Tori." From here you play out day to day, and along the way you will get different options that will lead to different scenerios, collecting CGs along the way.

After playing through the game once, several extra options open up on the main screen, such as a CG gallery to view the images you have already won, a music room, and an area where you can rewatch the ecchi scenes.

Kannagi no Tori is a long play, and it will probably take you some time to snag all the endings and CGs, even with the "skip" feature (which is only enabled after you've watched that part of the story). However, you can save on the option screens, so this can cut down on how much you have to replay, but there are only 18 save slots available, and you'll likely have to make more selections than that to reach an ending, so you won't be able to save on /every/ option screen. Many of the endings you can only win if you've won certain other endings first, and it is very specific on picking all the right options to get a certain ending. Even those that can read Japanese have claimed it is a more difficult game than other boys' love games, and for those that can't read Japanese, you will almost certainly need to use a capture guide to get the endings you are after. And it has a lot of endings, usually two or three per character.

Kannagi no Tori has a correction patch released by Studio Miris. Make sure to apply this patch first thing after you install the game! After downloading the patch, run it and extract the files either to your Kannagi no Tori game directory or to a different directory and then copy them over to your game directory (by default the patch will extract to C:/Program Files/Studio Miris/Kannagi no Tori). It will unpack the following files that need copied to your game install directory: kannagi.exe, scenerio.ax2, scenerio.ax3, scenerio.ax4, voice.ax3, voice.ax4.

I found no problems playing Kannagi no Tori on a Windows XP machine set into Japanese language with the correction patch applied. Without the patch, the game will have problems with unlocking the scenerios correctly (it played the Ikaru x Hakkan ending instead of the Hakkan x Ikaru ending, even though the correct options were chosen) or have issues with the voice.

Also be aware that there were some corrupt game image files of this game that were spread around, that cause the game to lose voice toward the end, as well as some other issues. If you have patched the game and run into this problem, then you likely have a corrupt version of the game and will need to find a non-corrupt copy.

AGTH Compatibility - Kannagi no Tori is compatible with Anime Games Text Hooker. First, make sure to patch the game, so that when you make your shortcut to the game .exe, it will be the correct .exe applied from the patch. Then, you will need to change the way the font displays in the game; go into the game settings and select this option. After changing that setting, a TextOutA thread should be available in the AGTH window: select it and it should start capturing the text correctly. The game will capture the name of the speaker and copy it to Atlas twice (Example: IkaruIkaru), but this isn't really a problem.

Kannagi no Tori Capture Guide - A capture guide in English made by myself for getting all the CGs and endings in the game.

Kannagi no Tori Version 1.40 Patch [6.02 MB] - An update patch for the game. Is a must for the options in the walkthrough provided above to match up correctly.

Kannagi no Tori Full CG Capture Save File - A save file that unlocks all the CGs in the game.

Kannagi no Tori is considered one of the best boys' love games among fans, and not without reason: this game has great characters, both in personality and design, high quality voice actors, and it's main appeal, something that most boys' love games lack, a highly compelling storyline.

Kannagi no Tori features what is known among fans as one of the best stories and most interesting characters among boys' love games. Even without knowing Japanese (like me), one can tell the effort and intricacies of the story and cast. The storyline and characters are interwoven with each other beautifully. The character designs are superb (I especially love the designs for the three "Kannagi no Tori" characters), and all their seiyuu are very big-name voice actors that do a wonderful job. There are lots of CGs to collect, as well as multiple endings for the characters, such as having different endings for each character with Ikaru as seme and with Ikaru as uke, while most games have "fixed" seme/uke pairings. Having the choice to get a seme or uke ending is a nice touch. The game also has a wonderful soundtrack, and actually has its own soundtrack CD released. As you can see, this game has no shortage of high points.

While over all being an excellent game, Kannagi no Tori isn't without some faults. The main complaint was typically the loss of voice on certain scenerio endings, but after some researching, this issue was because of a corrupt CD image file that spread around on the internet; it will not happen on good image files or the original disks. For those that like getting a large abundance of CGs during gameplay, Kannagi no Tori may be a let-down, as you don't get CGs very often and have to replay several times to collect them all from the many different story scenerios. It is also not exactly an easy game to get character endings for without the aid of a capture guide; even those that /can/ read Japanese have said it is a little on the difficult side. Also, it is a game for non-shouta-lovers to avoid: the main pairing, Ikaru and Ruu, are pretty shouta, so if sexual images with younger bishounen bother you, you'll probably want to pass this game up.

Despite these things, I'd still put Kannagi no Tori on your list of must-play games. The difficulty factor can always be overcome by using a capture guide to help you play, and the story and characters alone make this game well worth a look by any boys' love game fan.

Studio Miris Team L<-->R's Official Kannagi no Tori Site (Japanese) - The company's site with information on the game.

Wildcard Project (Japanese) - Personal website of Yuzuki Ichi, the artist of Kannagi no Tori.

Half Adder's Kannagi no Tori Capture Guide (Japanese) - A complete capture guide for getting all the endings in Kannagi no Tori.

Kannagi no Tori Webring (Japanese) - Links to different sites dedicated to Kannagi no Tori.

Kannagi no Tori Introduction Site (Japanese) - Information on the game and characters, CG images, downloads, and other Kannagi no Tori related info.

#Yaoiforever's Kannagi no Tori Page (English) - Has several CGs to Kannagi no Tori, as well as some system information and merchandise information.

Disclaimer: All written text and capture guides © Boys' Love Games Headquarters. All pictures and downloads are copyright of their respective companies and artists and are for promotional use only. I am in no way claiming the art as my own, nor am I trying to infringe upon the company's rights. I am trying to promote these games by allowing a foreign audience to see some artwork from the game.