Technology is a beautiful thing. It allows us to travel around the world in a matter of hours instead of weeks or months. We can talk to friends and family at the push of a button and send pictures to strangers on the Internet thanks to the wonders of science and technology. And yet, there are ways that I feel science has let us down. For all the wonders it has bestowed upon us, it has yet to give us the one thing for which we all yearn.
I speak, of course, of flying waifus.
Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue is stepping up to fill that gap in our lives. This visual novel, first released in Japan in 2014, is getting its first console release for Western audiences later this year, thanks to the good folks at NekoNyan and PQube. Though this isn’t the first time it has hit the region (the PC version was released on Windows in September 2019), it does open up the property to a wider range of people.
The story of Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue follows a group of students deeply involved in the improbably but awesome sounding sport of Flying Circus, which involves strapping some Grav-Shoes to your feet and flying through the air at reckless speed. With four potential romance options and all the drama of a sports anime, there is a lot to love in Aokana if this is your first time picking it up. Through the story, you build your team, compete in tournaments, navigate your studies, and, if you’re lucky, find love with one of the beautiful young women on your Flying Circus team.
This is a property that has spawned a manga, mobile game, and an anime adaptation that got an English dub and North American release a full year before the original game every saw the light of day in the West, so it certainly has a fair bit of momentum coming into this announcement. I’m always in the market for a new visual novel, particularly for the Nintendo Switch so I can take my reading on the road and make everyone on the train with me a little uncomfortable, so the fact that this is getting a console release is more than enough to get me to watch this one very closely in the coming months.
