Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na (Series)

Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na (夜明け前より瑠璃色な) is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by and first released on  September 22, 2005 for Windows. It was later ported to the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable.

A manga illustrated by was serialized in  between the November 2005 and May 2007 issues.

A 12-episode anime adaptation titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Crescent Love aired in Japan between October and December 2006. The anime is licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America and was released on June 1, 2010.

Gameplay
Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na is a romance visual novel in which the player assumes the role of Tatsuya Asagiri. Its gameplay requires little player interaction as much of the game's duration is spent on reading the text that appears on the screen, which represents the story's narrative and dialogue. The text is accompanied by character sprites, which represent who Tatsuya is talking to, over background art. Throughout the game, the player encounters CG artwork at certain points in the story, which take the place of the background art and character sprites. Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction.

There are seven main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. Every so often, the player will come to a point where he or she is given the chance to choose from multiple options. Text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices to further the plot to an alternate direction. After the completion of the six heroine routes, the final scenario called Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na is made available. Throughout gameplay, there are scenes with sexual CGs depicting Tatsuya and a given heroine having sex.

Plot
Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na centers on Princess Feena Fam Earthlight from the Kingdom of Sphere on Earth's moon. It was decided that she was to live on Earth in a homestay with the family of the primary secretary to the president of the United Nations so as to get more knowledgeable of Earth in order to better prepare herself for her succession as the Kingdom of Sphere's next queen.

The background of the story explains that humans landed on the moon long ago intending to create a new home for themselves called the Kingdom of Sphere. However, the relations between Earth and the Kingdom have worsened things and a war called the Oedipus war started. Once the war was over, it was decided that the city of Mitsurugasaki in Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan, where the story takes place, under the rule of the United Nations, be developed as the center of diplomacy with the Lunar Kingdom, which, currently, has closed its doors to the world. This central lunar junction port city, which has the only spaceport within the United Nations with ships going to and coming from the Lunar Embassy, is, as its name suggests, the gateway which connects the Earth and the moon. Although tensions have temporarily eased now, relations between the two worlds is still in a situation when the story begins where caution must still be taken.

Main Characters
Tatsuya Asagiri (朝霧 達哉) is the main male protagonist in the story. He is very knowledgeable about the moon and the Kingdom of Sphere because he has been interested in it since he was very young. He has this odd unconscious habit of pinching girls on the nose as a sign of affection.

Feena Fam Earthlight (フィーナ·ファム·アーシュライト) is the princess of the Kingdom of Sphere on the moon and also the main female protagonist. In order to become more knowledgeable about Earth and be able to follow in her mother's footsteps, she comes to Earth in a homestay with the family of the primary secretary to the president of the United Nations, Sayaka Hozumi.

Mia Clementis (ミア·クレメンティス) is Feena's main escort from the Kingdom of Sphere and always tries to look out for the princess. More or less, she is a maid who serves the princess but does not always do what she is told. She is a bit of an airhead, though all of her efforts are genuinely for Feena's well-being and happiness.

Mai Asagiri (朝霧 麻衣) is Tatsuya's younger sister who attends the same school as him. She is the part leader for the flutes in the concert band in her school. She is actually adopted and looks younger than she is.

Natsuki Takamizawa (鷹見沢 菜月) is one of Tatsuya's closest friends and is also one of his classmates. She works with Tatsuya at her father's restaurant, Trattoria Samon, which also happens to be next door to Tatsuya's house. She often gets angry at Tatsuya or her brother when they tease her. She is best known as the Carbon Master, due to her inability to cook and all her attempts ending up as blackened messes, (including salad).

Sayaka Hozumi (穂積 さやか) is a deputy librarian in the royal moon museum. Tatsuya and Mai refer to her as their older sister, although she is actually their cousin.

Wreathlit Noel (リースリット·ノエル) is a mysterious being from the moon, Wreathlit, generally known as Wreath, appears to be a young child but is actually much older.

Midori Tōyama (遠山 翠) is an energetic girl in Tatsuya's class who has been one of his classmates since their first year in high school. She is the clarinet leader in the concert band at her school.

Estel Freesia (エステル·フリージア) is a mysterious, bookish and religious girl. Estel appears in PS2 and PSP version of the game and the sequel Moonlight Cradle only.

Cynthia Marguerite (シンシア·マルグリット) only appears in the "Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Moonlight Cradle". Cynthia is Fiacca Marguerite's 2 years younger sister.

Development And Release
Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na is the fifth title developed by the visual novel developer August. The project was overseen by game director Rune, and the scenario was written by four people: Taku Sakakibara, Hiroyuki Uchida, Hideaki Anzai and Runa Okada. Character design and art direction for the game was provided by Bekkankō, and CG supervision was handled by Fujihisa Satomi. The game's background music was produced by members of Active Planets.

Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na was released as a limited edition on September 22, 2005 for Windows; the regular edition was released on December 22, 2005.

Aria and released a PlayStation 2 (PS2) port titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Brighter than dawning blue on December 7, 2006, which removed the adult elements of the game and introduced two additional heroines. The PS2 version was later ported back to Windows titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Brighter than dawning blue for PC on September 18, 2009.

A sequel to the story established in the PS2 version titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Moonlight Cradle was released as a limited edition on February 27, 2009 for Windows; the regular edition was released on September 18, 2009. Premium packs were later released containing both Brighter than dawning blue and Moonlight Cradle. Aria released a PlayStation Portable port titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Portable on February 25, 2010.

Drama CDs
A set of six drama CDs were created based on the video game Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na -Brighter than dawning blue-, entitled Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro na ~Fairy tale of Luna~ #1-6 (夜明け前より瑠璃色な〜Fairy tale of Luna〜 #1-6) released between April 21, 2006 and September 22, 2006 at roughly one-month intervals by. Two additional drama CDs based on the anime adaptation were released on October 25, 2006 and December 22, 2006 respectively.

Printed Media
A manga illustrated by Hoehoe Nōmiso was serialized in  magazine between the November 2005 and May 2007 issues. Two tankōbon volumes were released: the first on September 27, 2006 and the second on May 26, 2007.

Anime


Directed by Masahiko Ohta and written by Aoshima Takashi, a 12-episode anime adaptation of Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na was animated by titled Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na: Crescent Love. It aired between October 4 and December 20, 2006 on. distributed the anime as Brighter than the Dawning Blue. The original soundtrack for the anime was released on January 26, 2007 by with 28 tracks.

A badly animated cabbage in the third episode generated an Internet meme in Japan where people on posted fanart of Feena with the spherical cabbage with concentric leaves and, changing two kanji symbols, referred to the series as Brighter than Dawning Green -Cabbage Love- (夜明け前より黄緑色な -Cabbage Love-). Eventually, the DVD version of the anime has been given a smoother look and visibly better animation (albeit without a change in storyline). The aforementioned badly drawn cabbage was also redrawn correctly.