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Key is a Japanese visual novel studio which formed on July 21, 1998 as a brand under the publisher VisualArt's and is located in Kita, Osaka, Japan. Key released their debut visual novel ''Kanon'' in June 1999, which combined an elaborate storyline, an up-to-date anime-style drawing style, and a musical score which helped to set the mood for the game. Key's second game ''Air'' released in September 2000 had a similar if not more complex storyline to ''Kanon'' and a more thorough gameplay. Both ''Kanon'' and ''Air'' were originally produced as adult games, but Key broke this trend with their third title ''Clannad'' which was released in April 2004 for all ages. Key has worked in the past with Interchannel and Prototype for the consumer port releases of the brand's games. Key collaborated with P.A. Works and Aniplex to produce the anime series ''Angel Beats!'' (2010) and ''Charlotte'' (2015). The brand's ninth game ''Rewrite'' was released in June 2011, and a fan disc for the game titled ''Rewrite Harvest festa!'' was released in July 2012. The first volume in the six-part ''Angel Beats!'' episodic visual novel was released in June 2015. Key will release the kinetic novel ''Harmonia'' in 2015. Co-founder Jun Maeda is a prominent figure in the brand, having contributed to the planning, scenario, and music composition in the majority of Key's visual novels. Itaru Hinoue, also a co-founder, is Key's main artist and was the art director for Key's first three games. Na-Ga, another prominent artist in the brand, mainly worked with background art in earlier games, but with Key's sixth game ''Little Busters!'' was given the position of co-art director with Hinoue. Shinji Orito, Key's main composer and another co-founder, has composed music for the majority of Key's titles. Yūto Tonokawa, a scenario writer, first worked on the scenario in ''Little Busters!''. Key has been an active participant at the Comiket convention since Comiket 57 in December 1999, where they sold ''Kanon''-related products; Key's latest appearance at Comiket was at Comiket 87 in December 2014. In 2001, VisualArt's created the record label Key Sounds Label to release music albums and singles with music related to Key's visual novels. Between December 2007 and August 2010, Key produced an Internet radio show called ''Key Net Radio'' in regards to the brand. ==History== Before forming Key, the founding members worked for another visual novel development company called Nexton under the brand Tactics. At the time of ''Dōseis production, Tactics' first game, four of Key's original staff worked on the game: Itaru Hinoue as art director, Shinji Orito as musical composer, and Miracle Mikipon and Shinory contributing to the computer graphics. After ''Dōsei'', the rest of Key's founding staff—Naoki Hisaya, Jun Maeda and OdiakeS—joined Tactics and contributed to two more games: ''Moon.'' released on November 21, 1997, and ''One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e'' released on May 29, 1998. Due to differing opinions between Nexton and most of the production staff in Tactics on how to produce the brand's next game, most of Tactics' staff left Nexton to pursue work in another publishing company where they could have the freedom to produce their next game. Itaru Hinoue, who had previously worked at VisualArt's once before, introduced Key's founding members to the president of VisualArt's, Takahiro Baba.〔 Baba gave the developers the freedom they desired, and they officially transferred to VisualArt's where they formed Key on July 21, 1998. With the production of Key's debut title ''Kanon'' still in its early stages, a brand name had still not been decided on by the developers. The tentative brand name was at first, but Jun Maeda was not pleased with this and wanted a name that would capture the image of the brand. Maeda came upon the name Key when he saw it on a sign for a musical instrument store he would always pass on his way to work and instantly liked the name.〔 The name Key for the studio was ultimately decided by majority rule. Key released ''Kanon'' on June 4, 1999 as an adult game, though the scenes containing adult content were kept to a minimum. This gave the player more of a focus on the characters' stories and on the visuals and music, especially for a visual novel at the time of its release. A year later, on September 8, 2000, Key released their second game ''Air'', which was also an adult game and similar in storytelling to ''Kanon''. Key's third game ''Clannad'' is a visual novel similar to Key's previous games, but contains no adult content. ''Clannad'' was meant to be released in 2002, but was delayed, leading to the game finally being released on April 28, 2004. Seven months after ''Clannads release, Key released their shortest game, ''Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet'', on November 29, 2004 with a rating for all ages. ''Planetarian'', in contrast to Key's past games, is a linear visual novel that does not require the user to make choices during gameplay; this is what is referred to as a kinetic novel. The brand's fifth game is ''Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life'', an adult game and spin-off to ''Clannad'' released on November 25, 2005, which expanded on the scenario of the heroine Tomoyo Sakagami from ''Clannad''. Key released their sixth game, ''Little Busters!'', on July 27, 2007 with no adult content, but released another version of the game entitled ''Little Busters! Ecstasy'' on July 25, 2008 with added adult content, story, and visuals. In commemoration of Key's ten-year anniversary, Key and VisualArt's held a two-day event between February 28 and March 1, 2009 called "Key 10th Memorial Fes: . Key collaborated with P.A. Works and Aniplex to produce the anime series ''Angel Beats!'' that aired between April and June 2010. Key's eighth game ''Kud Wafter'' was released on June 25, 2010 as an adult spin-off of ''Little Busters!'', which expanded on the scenario of the heroine Kudryavka Noumi from ''Little Busters!'' and ''Ecstasy''. Key released their ninth game ''Rewrite'' on June 24, 2011 with a rating for all ages, and an all ages fan disc to ''Rewrite'' titled ''Rewrite Harvest festa!'' was released on July 27, 2012. In commemoration of Key's 15-year anniversary, the first volume in the six-part ''Angel Beats!'' episodic visual novel, ''Angel Beats! -1st beat-'', was released on June 26, 2015. Key again collaborated with P.A. Works and Aniplex to produce the anime series ''Charlotte'' that aired between July and September 2015. Key will release the kinetic novel ''Harmonia'' in 2015. ''Harmonia'' will be released on Steam in English before it is released in Japan. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Key (company)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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