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Announcing the Key 15th Anniversary Letter Project


Hello, fellow Doki lurkers,

I am very pleased to announce that Doki, along with Team Fluffy, the Air TL Duo, and Amaterasu Translations, will be participating in the Key 15th Anniversary Letter Project.

The project aims to send Key and Visual Art’s a fan letter on their 15th anniversary (July 21, 2013, exactly a year from today) as a way to show them their overseas fans’ appreciation. This letter will be created throughout next year by collecting and compiling fan messages and illustrations addressed to Key into a letter in both English and Japanese.

The project is currently in its initial planning stages, and submissions will begin to be accepted at a later date. Please join us at the project’s website and its IRC channel, #key15th@irc.rizon.net, to participate in the project’s planning and discussion.

On other news: Kokoro Connect still isn’t out.

78 comments to Announcing the Key 15th Anniversary Letter Project

  • Irie Naoki

    Awesome, I love the idea.

    Can’t wait for information.

  • Perhaps something like this will convince them to release their VNs outside Japan too.

  • this is an awesome idea !

    it would be a formal address from us fans to show how much we appreciate the works of Key and VIsual Arts.

    i already have a request lined up for them to consider developing !

  • eworm

    It’s that kind of things that make me proud to be a FAN. An excellent idea.

  • Hey, now that’s a mighty fine image, if I do say so myself…

  • Alex

    Great Idea! Looking forward to it 😀

  • HaloGuy

    All hail Key fags! BANZAI! 😀

  • Tennouji

    Cool. I’d want to do some fan stuff for key. >_<

  • Danyo

    mmmh, the Air TL Team, does that mean the team that was working on the VN translation but got stopped by legal reasons or w/e it was, or am I missing something here? 😛

    I’ll be following this anyway, it looks interesting enough to wanna participate.

  • Overlord

    I feel like writing an essay. It’s hard to put into words how much Clannad and Little Busters! meant to me.

  • Luchianka

    This is good idea! I will participate! I love Key Visual Novels especially Kanon.

  • Batora

    Hmm, would have expected Ayu in the banner, not Nayuki.

    Anyway, sounds like a great idea.

  • Rawr

    Great idea, I like it.

    I would mostly say thankyou and ask them if they plan on making a Rewrite anime. lol

  • Brownstone

    Suggestion: Not just english and japanese, but every language/your native languages to underline the international support.

    • SRChiP

      They will not be able to understand them.

      • Rawr

        True, it’s more likely in Japan especially at somewhere like Key for some staff to know English as well as Japanese but nothing else as there isn’t much need for them to know it.

        As long as the submissions are in Japanese or English, someone there will be able to read them.

  • Tomoki

    I’m currently watching Kanon at the moment.

    • eworm

      Not so easy with all the tears, huh? 😉

      Okay, not really the case for Kanon, which, while fantastic, is not the strongest Key anime. That’s my opinion though.

      • Rawr

        I thought Air was more sad than Kanon personally, not wanting to spoil but only a few scenes in Kanon made me feel genuinely sad. Where as in Air, all the crying and general sadness makes the anime sadder lol.

        • Irie Naoki

          I always hear mix opinions about Air, some say its horrible cause its too sad, others say its just bad in general, others say its good. I cant wait to actually watch it when Doki releases it in Hi10p

          • No. It’s the saddest, yet their best series XD

          • Irie Naoki

            well, maybe Holo should hurry up with Air Hi10P then.

          • Rokudaime

            @Index@Irie@
            That’s a matter of oppinion. I like both Kanon and Clannad better than Air, personally, though I like Air too. ┐( ̄ー ̄)┌

          • Rawr

            @Rokudaime

            Me too, in terms of enjoyment I liked Clannad better than Kanon, and Kanon better than Air. Not that any of these shows are bad, its like selecting the best diamond from 3 equally as special diamonds, its hard but thats how I choose my favs.

            Probably not the best metaphor but hey its after midnight and im tired lol.

  • twdarkeh

    This is a great idea. Can’t wait for the information about submissions.

  • Frediloc

    That’s an awesome idea! Do you think we could submit pictures (or something) of other artforms such as sculptures?

    • Rawr

      Sculptures? Sure go for it, you’d have to take pictures to submit but why not lol. Il’d love to see what people can do, post on the comments area when you do too.

  • Dys

    Yes! Let us people downloading their games without paying for them send them letters to tell them about it!

    • [19:59] <&ixlone> I find it amusing that a website that is offering most of keys pirated content wants to send them letters
      [20:00] <&ixlone> “Ever since i first illegally downloaded your hard work, i’ve been a fan, please make more in English, so i can pirate that too”

      • Irie Naoki

        but can it not be that the cause for us to pirate it illegally is cause they do not have it in official english?

        I am pretty sure that if they do release an official english version many of us would buy it cause it would look cool with all the other keyfag related physical stuff we have. Just sayin’

        • There’s a big split in people’s mindsets here. I have one (to several) legal copies of all of Key’s anime and their entire audio collection, not to mention other assorted goods. I believe in fully supporting the companies I derive value from, but at the same time appreciate said works to be translated in English. While I’m sure this ideology can’t be said for everyone, I think Juhachi, Kuzu, and many of the others who wish to participate feel similarly.

          • Irie Naoki

            I don’t think you count, CM, since you are like the holy priest of KeyFag religion, if there ever is any.
            I would question your KeyFaggery if you did not have any stuff from them.

          • Sosuke

            I agree completely with Clannad Man, it’s important to support the companies which you want to continue producing top notch products. How can we expect Key to even consider giving fans in places outside of Japan more access to their visual novels if we don’t buy the stuff, like the anime adaptations, which is available to us.

            This project sounds like a great idea to me, if only I was talented enough to make something cool.

          • I won’t deny that there are people (if not a lot of them) who just download Key’s works instead of buying the official releases (whether Japanese or English). However, paying or not, I believe we can agree that we are all fans of Key and their VN/anime. The point of the project is to simply show our appreciation as fans, and to tell them that the fan base is here and that there’s an audience for their works here.

          • Rokudaime

            I would buy all their games if they released them in English.

        • Not to mention japanese company doesn’t care about market outside Japan, btw (¬_¬)

  • Alter Zero

    Count me in, let’s see what we can accomplish with this!…

    Remakes would be wonderful, new stories perhaps, there are so many possibilities!… ^_^

  • OtakuMage

    I better start thinking of what to say now. I own Kanon and Clannad, both the VNs and animes, and both versions of Little Busters. Needless to say, I love Key, so this is one of the best ideas I’ve ever seen. Keep up the excellence Doki.

  • Desu

    What a fabulous idea!! If I were an artist in whatever what way and someone showed their appreciation for my/our work in a letter it would move me more then when I was giving money for it! I guess that somewhat says what an artist is nowadays with having internet and TV around. Love you Key and Doki for all your work!

  • LordMerkadis

    I think Japs know how popular their anime is outside jp without any letters or anything else.. still, the idea is awesome, perhaps they’ll even tear up for us xD

  • RaccoonGoon

    Honestly, while I do like the idea of expressing our appreciation as fans, I don’t think it will do much good in terms of getting them to release their VNs in English.

    I mean, they already know just how popular their work is (or could be) here. If I’m not mistaken, JAST USA once mentioned that they tried to negotiate with Key for the license to Kanon, and Key offered to sell it to them… for 500k or a mil (can’t remember which). The problem here is not that they think there’s no audience, it’s that they think the potential for profit here is much higher than it is. Why do you think their Siglus Engine (the new engine Rewrite runs on and the successor to RealLive) is specifically made to not run on non-Japanese computers (at least not without a patched exe)?

    Anyway, I love Key, and I’m all for this project, but I don’t really think it’ll change a lot. Who knows though? Best case scenario, we send them the letter in 2013, and in 2014, they open a small English-language subsidiary to try and capitalize on the demand here.

    That would be glorious, and I guess we can always hope.

    • The project’s goal is not to get them to make a deal, but rather to entice Visual Art’s to reconsider for the western fan base.

      I’ll copy-paste what I wrote on the key15th.com blog here:

      One of the goals of the project is to tell Visual Art’s, Key’s publisher, that people in the Western countries are not collectively against their games and industry, which seems to be a common viewpoint since the RapeLay fiasco back in 2009 (as can be seen from the letter Minori had on their website’s 403). A collection of letters (and also individual letters, as Aaeru suggested) can potentially lead Visual Art’s to reconsider their standpoint.

      • Rokudaime

        I hear what you’re saying, but I doubt they would take the word of fans and regular people like us over the words of the US’s National Media, even if said media is completely full of shit. (¬_¬) ┐( ̄_ ̄)┌

        • The impression of the media’s opinions far overshadows that of the fanbase, however (Also, not all of the Japanese media think that highly of their industry, either). This is why we are hoping to reach out to VA/Key and tell them that we are here.

  • Daller

    What a fantastic idea.
    Ever since i discovered Clannad in 2008 i have been completely in love with every Key work, so this is a great initiative to show them our appreciation as western Keyfags.

  • I just hope that this action won’t be backfired, though……

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