Franchise: Tokimeki Memorial aka: Tokimeki M Emorial
Shiori and the other girls
So this is "love", isn't it?
Tokimeki Memorial (ときめきメモリアル Tokimeki Memoriaru, lit. "Heartbeat Memorial") is a popular and long-runningdating simulation series by Konami, with its first game released in 1994 on PC Engine. That game was a low-profile title which became a hit, thanks to massive favourable word of mouth, and the game appealing not only to the intended young male demography but also the female one, thanks to the game's romantic and funny atmosphere.Konami went on developing this game into a successful multi-media Cash Cow Franchise. The Tokimeki Memorial series, nicknamed amongst its fans with the contraction TokiMemo, consists of 8 main games, in addition to a large number of spin-offs. The first four main games are the standard Dating Sim games (referred in this article and the Character Sheet as the "Standard Branch"). The latter three of the main games are Gender Flipped ones named Tokimeki Memorial: Girls's Side (the "Girl's Side Branch"), and the other main game is actually a Massively Multiplayer Online variant, Tokimeki Memorial Online. It also was adapted into several video releases: A two episode OVA based on the first game, a live action movie loosely based on the first game, and a 25 episode anime TV series, Tokimeki Memorial Only Love, based on Tokimeki Memorial Online, produced by Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. and Anime International Company.In each game, you're playing as a freshman in a Japanese High School, and you'll spend your three years of school time, working on your academic and sports stats, meeting other students of the other gender as yours, and wooing them, in the hope of getting the confession of love of one of them at the place of legend of your High School on Graduation Day. This place, varying depending on the game, is said to grant eternal happiness to the new couples confessing their feeling to each other on that specific day.The games have various characters which fits a basic Trope mold for everyone's tastes: the Childhood Friend, which is usually the one the player character has an aim at at the beginning of the story (and is more or less considered the True Ending), the Mad Scientist, the Megane(ko), the Shrinking Violets, the Student Council President, or the Sempai and Kohai, there are many potential Love Interests you can try romancing!The series explores various Japanese events and festivals, such as Christmas, New Year, Valentine's Day, White Day, School Festival, Summer Festival, and more. It also depicts an highly idealistic representation of Japanese High School life, and as such is very focused on providing an atmosphere full of romantic, funny and hopeful moments. The few dramatic moments strategically sprinkled in serve as making the romance and hope shine even brighter, as in the Tokimemo verse, hurdles are ultimately overcome, and everything goes well in the end. This light-hearted good balance of narrative elements is one of the main ingredients of the series' success.The first game was written by Koji Igarashi (a.k.a. IGA), before he took over the Castlevania series; and the Drama Series (spin-off games of the 1st game) had Hideo Kojima as one of their directors and used the Policenauts game engine. Mikio Saito (alias Metal Yuhki), the music composer of Castlevania Rondo Of Blood, is the music composer, and later one of the producers of the Tokimeki Memorial series.Now with its own Character Sheet! It's still in construction though. Any help to complete it is welcome!Must not be confused with the shojo manga Tokimeki Tonight, nor the H-Game, Tokimeki Check-in.
The Anime of the Game: Several of them. There's the two part OVA series based on the first game, the 25 episodes Tokimeki Memorial: Only Love anime based on the online game, and a single OVA based on and introducing Tokimeki Memorial 4.
Suzune in Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series Vol. 2: Irodori no Love Song also delivers one of these to the protagonist when she can't take any longer of being the Unlucky Childhood Friend of sorts due to him being oblivious of her love for him.
Art Shift: Every game in the series has slightly, but noticeably, different art. Most obvious in the transition from 1 to 2.
Backstory: Explored in Tokimemo 1: Tabidachi no Uta, when Shiori and Naoto talk about their past, and Tokimemo 2: Memories Ringing On with Kotoko. Also a vital part of Kaori's character in Tokimemo 2; and in the same game, used as an optional gaming feature (known as Childhood Mode), where the player meets some of the girls aside from Hikari and Kasumi during his childhood (Homura, Akane, Miyuki, Miho, and Mei) and is required to unlock certain events in the main part of the game; when used, the girls involved become additional Childhood Friends.
Broken Ace: The series start out with a pure Ace, Shiori, in the first game, but the following Aces, Kaori in Tokimemo 2 and Kei and Teru in the first two Girl's Side games, are more of the Broken kind due to their poor social skills and other issues tempering their high qualities.
But Not Too Foreign: Played straight with Elisa Dolittle Naruse in Tokimeki Memorial 4 ; averted with Patricia McGrath in Tokimeki Memorial Pocket: Sports Hen, a fully-fledged foreigner (with her nationality not defined according to Word Of God, but she's clearly American-based), as well as Christopher Weatherfield of Girl's Side 2, a fully-fledged Englishman.
Calling Your Attacks: In Tokimemo 1, Yumi and her "Yumi Bomber". In Tokimemo 2, Homura and her "Dragon Kick" and "Kaichou Kick".
It's less justified in the Girl's Side games, which mostly don't have the "confess on Graduation Day" legend and thus rely instead on the guys simply not managing to clearly express their feelings before then. The heroine of each game is also inevitably completely incapable of picking up any hints, subtle or otherwise, that the guys drop prior to Graduation Day.
Canon Discontinuity: With the advent of Tokimeki Memorial 4, which takes place 15 years after the events of Tokimeki Memorial 1, and thus sets the time of the 1st game to the original PC-Engine version of 1994 to 1997, all cameo appearances of Tokimemo 1 characters in the Tokimeki Memorial 2 Substories games (see Expanded Universe below) have become this ( except of course the Rei Ijuin one, and maybe the Mira and Maho one as well), since the original characters are now of the same age as Kasumi Asou, and thus would never have been able to meet the Tokimemo 2 characters in their High School time.
Canon Name: In the Tokimeki Memorial 1 saga, while the games have no pre-existing names proposed for the protagonist (you have to enter your name yourself), the majority of the Drama CDs give him the name "Naoto Takami" (高見公人), save for a few of them which just refers him as "Ore" (I).
Cartoon Bomb: How the "bombs" are depicted in each game's character data report provided by your Info Man.
Cash Cow Franchise: Oh boy. This series has so much merchandise, it even has several official books referencing the existing merchandise !!
The Chew Toy: Tokimeki Memorial 2 gives us Miyuki. What makes her The Chew Toy? Her luck is inversely proportional to her happiness, and she's a Genki Girl with a dash of Cloud Cuckoo Lander. Even crossing the street is an ordeal for her.
Even her endings are the most painfully hilarious as well: in her ending in the main game, the Legendary Bell that rings when a love confession is true breaks and falls on top of her; while her ending in Tokimeki Memorial 2: Memories Ringing On shows that she gets the world's worst bad hair day as well.
Childhood Friends - In Tokimeki Memorial 2 Substories: Leaping School Festival, an Event in Homura Akai's route reveals that her grandfather Ringo and Hibikino High's headmaster Bakuretsuzan are childhood friends, and still are the best friends in the world despite the years and the fact they were (friendly) rivals for the heart of the girl who would become Homura's grandmother, in their High School time.
Homura herself with Akane Ichimonji. The two are best friends since childhood, although Akane feels from time to time the need to take a break from Homura and avoids her, as shown in an Event in Childhood Mode.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Most of the girls become this when they are in Tokimeki Status, but Yumi, Minori (in 1), Hikari, Mei (in 2), Tsugumi and Miyako (in 4) particulary stand out.
Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Yukari is a triumphant example of this trope, and Miyuki and her mother are pretty solid ones as well.
The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The protagonist's exam scores are based on the full range of stats, and if any stat is neglected, it results in a low test score in the associated subject. Other characters don't have this problem. Thus, the brainy, bookish characters who are bad at sports and uninterested in fashion can routinely rank first in exam scores, but no matter how high the player gets their intelligence stat, they can't come close to top ranking without putting effort into raising fitness, fashion, and the other stats as well.
Concept Art Gallery: The whole point of the spin-off games Tokimeki Memorial: Private Collection and Tokimeki Memorial Selection: Fujisaki Shiori.
An official artwork of Yumi Saotome of Tokimeki Memorial 1 has her playing with a Playstation 1.
In Tokimeki Memorial 2, there's a Playstation 1 in the main protagonist's room.
In Dancing Summer Vacation, Mei and Yuina are controlling their "Neo-World Conqueror Robo" with a Playstation 1 controller.
Continuity Nod: Konami is well known for this. The most notable being that the delinquent bancho boss that the player fights in Tokimemo 1 is the same bancho that appears in Tokimemo 2 and is given a far bigger role. Some Tokimemo 1 characters make cameos in the side-story games for Tokimemo 2. Likewise all of the main guys from the first Girl's Side game make appearances in certain background art for the second Girl's Side game.
The three Girl's Side games do this lightly with the Hanastubuki family.
Crash into Hello: A way of meeting characters used several times in the series.
Culture Clash: Kotoko of Tokimemo 2 is averse to anything foreign, to the point that the smell of curry makes her sneeze.
Custom Uniform: The Ijuin siblings in Tokimeki Memorial 1 and 2 wear a variant of their respective schools' uniforms as a mark of their high social status as heirs of the filthy rich Ijuin Family (and Rei Ijuin's grandfather is even Kirameki High's administrator).
Cute Sports Club Manager: A number of them throughout the series. Saki (who's also the Dating SimUr Example), Minori (assistant of Saki, then full-fledged CSCM after Saki graduates), Tomomi (assistant of Minori), Shiori (if her starting parameters set her in the Soccer or Base-Ball Clubs), Megumi Juuichiya (of the Basket-Ball Club, in the Drama CDs), and Kaedeko (of the Base-Ball Club of Hibikino High and later, after her transfer, of Daimon High).
Tamami Konno in the first Girl's Side game is the Cute Sports Club Manager of the basketball team, and the Player Character of the Girl's Side games also has the opportunity to become manager of a sports club (usually the baseball club).
Daddy's Girl: Yukari in 1; and Sumire from 2 who's out of school helping her dad run the family circus.
Darker and Edgier: While it's still overall a fluffy romance game like the other games of the series, Tokimeki Memorial 3 is the first and only notable game where there's a melancholic mood, due to the death of a few secondary characters playing a big role in some story lines. This is the case with Yukiko's storyline, where you get to know the owner of the Candy Shop, an old lady Yukiko adores, who will fall ill and die, as well as in Hotaru Izumi's storyline, where she lost her boyfriend in an accident and loved him so much she can't move on and find a new love.
4 takes Darker and Edgier in a new direction with the series' first Yandere character: the childhood friend, Miyako Okura.
The baby steps might have been given already in the second game, what's with Kaori's screwed up backstory in which she was thoroughly broken and betrayed by her "friends".
Dating Sim: Tokimemo is the grand-daddy of them all; it's success both validated and popularized the genre.
It remains the undisputed best selling Dating Sim and Romance Game of all time, both in terms of individual title sale and combined in entirety as a franchise. Literally millions of copies have been sold.
Delinquents: You can get to fight the Jerk with a Heart of Gold resident delinquents in Tokimemo 1 (and when you beat the boss, he honorably passes the mantle of gang boss to you), and the leader of the ones in Tokimemo 2 is the older brother of one the winnable girls (Akane). Needless to say, you need to beat him and his Elite Mooks to get the best ending with her.
The spoilers in the Continuity Nod trope actually go into more detail on this revealing that the bancho from Tokimemo 2 is the same one that appears in the first game.
Tokimemo 4, in addition, features a girl delinquent as a winnable character. The DS version of Girl's Side also has a delinquent as a secret winnable character.
Jin Tendou, a secret character in Girl's Side, is the game's delinquent character who is constantly getting into fights.
Expanded Universe: All the games of the series are linked to each other, the red thread between all of them being Kirameki High. Most evident in Tokimeki Memorial 2 and its Substories spinoffs, where some of the Tokimemo 1 characters not only have cameo appearances, they are related to some of the Tokimemo 2 characters in one way or another:
Mei is Rei's younger sister, and is friends with the like-minded Yuina (Tokimemo 2, Leaping School Festival)
Yuuko is Maho's main rival in the DDR Tournament (Tokimemo 2: Dancing Summer Vacation)
Mira and Maho both studied in Kirameki Highschool, and after graduation both are working as swimsuit models in the same photography session (Tokimemo 2: Memories Ringing On)
Shiori and Miharu are winnable girls in Tokimemo 2: Memories Ringing On, and both are in the same college as the player (revealed after the flashback). In fact, if the player meets Shiori, she takes him to Kirameki Highschool and shows him the Legendary Tree.
Tokimeki Memorial 4 returns to Kirameki High, where the uniforms are transitioning from the traditional Sailor Fuku to a blazer-type uniform.
Rui in Tokimeki Memorial 4 attends Hibikino High. She wears the academy's iconic uniform and confesses under it's Legendary Bell during the ending.
Tokimeki Memorial 4 Chu!, a mobile phone spin-off, takes place in Komorebi Junior High; a wordplay connection to Tokimeki Memorial Culture Version: Komorebi no Melody.
Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side games: Chiharu, the hidden character in TMGS1 goes to Kirameki High; Akagi, the hidden character from TMGS2 and Jin, the additional hidden character for the DS ports of TMGS1 each go to the school from the other Girl's Side game.
Fan Translation: The SNES version of the first game is sadly notable for having lots of attempts at creating a translation patch; all of them invariably went to stall for a reason or another.
However, fans did extensive work on the first Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side game for the Nintendo DS during 2010, and a full, bug-free translation patch was released in December 2010. The Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2 translation was finished and released in May 2011.
Follow the Leader: It's the game series which defined the non-hentai Dating Sim genre, after all.
Yuuko may be somewhat of a Gamer Chick, but the real embodiment of this trope is Yumi.
Also Maho of Tokimeki Memorial 2, who loves to play Dance Dance Revolution. In the spinoff Tokimeki Memorial 2: Dancing Summer Vacation, Maho's main rival in the DDR Tournament is Yuuko.
Game Within a Game: One of Tokimeki Memorial 1 's numerous mini-games is a Twinbee Time Attack mini-game.
Tokimeki Memorial Pocket has a Beatmania minigame.
General Gaming Gamepads: Most of the PS1 Tokimemo games are compatible with the Dual Shock and the PS1 Mouse (the Limited Edition Box of Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with you even contained a Tokimemo-themed PS1 Mouse), and Tokimeki Memorial 2 Substories: Dancing Summer Vacation was compatible with the DDR Dancing Pad.
Genki Girl: Yumi and Yuuko from Tokimemo 1. Later, Hikari and Miyuki of Tokimemo 2. Yumi and Hikari even get the sunflower as their symbolic flower to cement this.
Goldfish Scooping Game: One of the recurring mini-games in the series, happening during a date at the Summer Festival.
Guide Dang It: The requirements to get the endings of some of the girls in Tokimeki Memorial 2 are quite ridiculous. Special mention goes to the hidden characters.
Hello, Insert Name Here: A staple of the series. Goes as far as asking you for a nickname, which will be used by some of the characters when they're in Tokimeki State with you.
Heroes Want Redheads: Until Tokimeki Memorial 4, the standard branch of the series was the embodiment of this trope, although each heroine had a different shade of red hair.
Hot for Student: Tokimemo 2 and the Girl's Side games have at least one teacher as a winnable. Kasumi in Tokimemo 2 is also a Childhood Friend (and thus also a Victorious Childhood Friend if chosen).
Identical Twin ID Tag: Maho's breasts grow significantly during the second year, making it possible to tell her apart from Miho from then on. Significant because they still often pull a Twin Switch.
Ill Girl: Mio has a bit of anemia, and can potentially pass out in some dates.
Also Saki, if you choose to go with her on the school trip. She falls ill on the third day and you must take care of her, so you get to skip out on the battle minigame that normally happens here
Saki does it again in Nijiiro no Seishun, after she waited all the day under the rain for the protagonist, believing that he would definitely come to the shrine, despite him wanting to give up soccer after the misunderstanding between them. He indeed came, and slumped against him, down with a fever. The protagonist takes her to her home, and stays at her bedside for a while, where, in her delirium, she eventually starts (but doesn't finish) confessing her feelings for him.
Male example: Shunta Torigoe, the main protagonist of the Tokimeki Memorial 2 novel Anata o Shinjiteru, has a weak body since childhood, and only got a bit better in High School.
Image Song: All of the games have had character image songs although they have gotten progressively less as the series went on. Tokimemo 1 and 2 being the two most popular games of the series had by far the most with all the major characters getting at least four or more songs as opposed to Tokimemo 3 (aside from Hotaru and Yukiko) and the first Girls Side game which only had two each. The second Girls Side game only had one song for each character.
On a sidenote the interesting thing about Tokimemo image songs is that in the case of the main games intended for the guys is that virtually all the characters had songs (including the male characters such as Yoshio from Tokimemo 1 who even had his own vocal CD and Takumi and Junichirou from Tokimemo 2). In contrast this isn't the case for the Girls Side games. All of the guys do get songs but sadly none of the girls ever have any to date — they have been Demoted To Extras.
Japanese Honorifics: This series makes it an important game mechanic: as the girls come to like you, they will name you with more informal honorifics, and even going as far as calling you with your nickname for some of them. Obviously, it's one of the sure-fire ways to know how you fare in your relationships.
Tokimemo 2 and onwards also lets the player use it on the girls. Correct usage improves relationships, and vice versa. And also in Tokimemo 2, never ever address the school headmaster with the honorific -chan, or else, Homura, the girl close to him, will hate you for it
Just Friends: In the Girl's Side games, a heroine pursuing more than one guy can eventually tell one of them she just wants to be friends. This activates "Best Friends" mode, in which they go out on platonic dates and the friend-zoned guy gives the heroine relationship advice while still clearly in love with her himself. It's up to the player whether the she sticks with her first choice or runs to the arms of her best friend at the last minute.
In Girl's Side 3, the heroine can additionally become close friends with certain pairs of guys in a new "3P Mode". The player can choose to have her pick one over the other, or go all the way to graduation without committing to either.
Karaoke Box: One of the series' mainstay date locations. One of the Bad Endings of Tokimeki Memorial 2 also takes place there, as the player and his two friends are venting their frustration of not getting a girlfriend after their 3 years of High School, by singing a karaoke.
Kawaiiko: Yumi. Ironically, she hates being called cute.
Kindhearted Cat Lover: Several characters in the series : Megumi in 1, Miyuki and Kaori in 2, Kei in Girl's Side 1, and Wakaouji in Girl's Side 2.
Knowledge Broker: Most games have an "Info Man", one of your best friends who specialize in searching info about the other characters and can provide you their phones, personal data, and current impression of you, making him vital in your quest. Those Info Men are: Yoshio, in Tokimemo 1, Takumi in Tokimemo 2, and Miyako in Tokimemo 4, your little brother Tsukushi in Girl's Side 1, next-door neighbor Yuu in Girl's Side 2, and your female friend Miyo in Girl's Side 3.
Kuudere: Yuina, if you get her. Rei and Mira might be like this, too.
Rhythmy in Tokimemo 4 personifies this trope. Though it's largely because she has ultra sensitive hearing, and interacting with people actually gives her headaches. Once you've broken through the ice, she's total putty in your hands.
Yoshio in Tokimeki Memorial 1 is also a good contender for this trope.
Late Arrival Spoiler: Late merchandise in the franchise don't make much a secret that in Tokimemo 1, Rei Ijuin is actually a girl, or that Miho has a twin sister, Maho, in Tokimemo 2.
Late for School: Yuuko in 1 is a master at this. This is also the way you meet Homura in 2, and what kickstarts Kasumi's storyline in Memories Ringing On (but certainly not for humourous purposes in the last case).
Leitmotif: Every single major character to appear in all the main games have a theme song. This is played with even more for Tokimemo 2 in that ALL of the characters from that game that had leitmotifs also have an Image Song set to their corresponding leitmotif.
The latter of which also applies to Tokimemo 1. Shiori has an Image Song based on her leitmotif as do Nozomi and Yuko to some extent.
In Tokimeki Memorial 2, the Good Ending's theme, "Anata ni Aete", is the game 's Leitmotif, having a lot of variations used depending on the scene's mood: an anxiety-filled scene will get a fast-paced, eerie version; a sad scene will have a slow, heartwrenching rendition; a happy-go-lucky scene will get an upbeat and cheerful version; a scene where a character will overcome her hurdles will get a heroic-cheerful rendition; and so on.
Lethal Chef: The standard branch of the series likes to explore the cooking skills of the Kohai characters. Both Yumi in 1 and Mei in 2 are horrible chefs providing hilarious moments, while Haruna in 4 is actually the reverse, due to working at a sweets shop.
However, Yumi's scenario in Tabidachi no Uta revolves around helping her improving her cooking skills so she can give her brother Yoshio a delicious meal, and actually succeeds in doing so in the end.
Also, during the club camping trip in Tokimemo 1, sometimes the dinner prepared by whoever girl you are with in the club (even Saki!) gets prepared wrong, giving everyone a bad case of food poisoning. Said girl apologizes profusely after that.
In Tokimemo 4, the girls can sometimes be Lethal Chefson purpose. Miyako is a fairly good example of this, but Tsugumi probably trumps her - if she likes you, and you go on a date with another girl and end up at her parents' cafe, she gets angry. You wouldn't like the drinks she serves up when she's angry.
Lost Forever: The Tokimeki Memorial series don't make much use of this trope, unlike its Spiritual SuccessorMitsumete Knight, but Tokimeki Memorial 2 has the case of Kaori, if you can't manage to have a very high love gauge by the end of 2nd year, and Kaedeko if you don't build a solid relationship with her before she transfers to Hokkaido.
Love Triangle: Tokimeki Memorial 2 have one between the protagonist, Hikari and Kotoko if you choose to chase after Kotoko all while having excellent relationship with Hikari. It evolves into Love Dodecahedron in Tokimeki Memorial 2 Substories: Memories Ringing On when Junichiro, who's in love with Hikari, joins the mess and turn the already plentiful I Want My Beloved to Be Happy moments to Toradoralevels.
The Girl's Side branch also introduces female friends who'll turn into rivals if you pursue their guy. It even becomes a gameplay mechanic in GS3, with the player able to turn certain pairs of male buddies into rivals if she gets them both to a high enough affection (fittingly, this is known as "Pride VS Pride Mode").
Luminescent Blush: The sign that a girl is seriously infatuated with you. It's also called "Blushing Stage" in the Western fandom (the official appellation being the "Tokimeki State", aka "Heartbeat State").
Match Three Game: Tokimeki Memorial Taisen Puzzle Dama 1 and 2, and Tokimeki Memorial Taisen Tokkae Dama, the themed Spin Offs of the Taisen Puzzle Dama and Taisen Tokkae Dama series.
Meganekko: Mio of Tokimemo 1, until you tell her she looks pretty without her glasses (prompting her to change to contacts at the end). This is optional though, as you can also tell her she's fine with them, and she'll wear them in the end.
Tsugumi of Tokimemo 4 is also a classic Meganekko, to the extent that her character sheet makes her sound like an Expy of Mio. The reality is... different. (Thankfully so.)
The Mourning After / Second Love: The backstory and the driving force of Hotaru Izumi's scenario, in Tokimeki Memorial 3: she lost her boyfriend in an accident, and can't manage to turn the page page and find a new love in her life. She's a Nintendo Hard character because of this, and switches from the first trope to the second if you manage to heal the wounds of her heart and get her to love you.
Surprisingly, not a lot of them in the standard branch of the series, particulary in the 1st game which started as a low-profile game (and as such used rookie or first-timer voice actors; and nearly all of those stayed as One Hit Wonders). However, throughout that branch can be found :
However, the Girl's Side branch of the series got the royal treatment, with high-profile and famous voice actors. Throughout that branch can be found :
Nintendo Hard: Shiori is the hardest girl to win in the original game, as well as one of the hardest in the entire series (along with Hotaru Izumi of Tokimeki Memorial 3). She is the easiest girl to develop love points for though, even if she doesn't already start with higher points than the other girls. Unfortunately, you gotta make her love you AND be good enough for her.
No Export for You: This game series is one of the most famous victims of this, for obvious reasons.
No Fair Cheating: Try to use a rapid-fire controller in Tokimeki Memorial 2 's 100-meters dash mini-game at the Sports Festival, and you'll get disqualified.
No Going Steady: In the first game, if you don't make sure to keep all the girls happy and just focus on one girl, the other girls will badmouth you to your chosen love and you'll lose all of them.
Novelization: A few of them throughout the series.
Tokimeki Memorial 1 has a series of 6 novels, focusing on all characters at the average rate of 2 characters per book ;
Tokimeki Memorial 2 has two novels, "Kimi no Ushiro Sugata" and "Anata o Shinjiteru", which feature Hikari and Kaori as their respective heroines ;
Tokimeki Memorial 3 has two novels, the heroines of those novels being Yukiko in the first, and Kazumi in the second ;
Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 1 has two novels.
One Game for the Price of Two: The defining trope behind Tokimeki Memorial Pocket: Sports Hen and Tokimeki Memorial Pocket: Culture Hen, the Game Boy adaptations of Tokimeki Memorial 1. The main cast, as well as the 3 new characters exclusive to the GB games, are split in half between each game. Wanted to have, for example, Saki, Mio, Patricia and Kyoko in the same game ? Too bad, Mio and Kyoko are Culture Hen exclusive characters, while Saki and Patricia are Sports Hen exclusive !
Overprotective Dad: Yukari's father in Tokimeki Memorial 1, see Daddy's Girl above. He's so overprotective, he's actually Yukari's special attack in Battle mode: she invokes him, and he proceeds to slice the enemies with his katana, for what is arguably the most damaging in the game ! Also, Yukari's ending mention that the main character is a bit afraid and ill at ease with her father due to his overprotectiveness of her daughter.
Also, Kai Ryukochi's father in Tokimemo 4, who is an Expy of Yukari's father.
Parental Abandonment: Yuuko's parents are always working and don't pay lots of attention to her.
Parental Substitute: Mira has several younger siblings, so she can't really join clubs.
The Peeping Tom: If you're a member of a club, you'll have an option to go peep at the bathrooms during the summer's training camp. You'll have to choose among three windows, which randomly grant you safe-for-work CGs of cute girls or ugly macho men bathing. Peeping has a hefty price though: All the girls you know will have a severe drop in affection towards you, particularly those in the same club as yours, if you peeped at girls; and if you watched at men, your Stress parameter sharply goes up.
Polar Opposite Twins: The twins Miho and Maho of Tokimeki Memorial 2; the first is a sweet day-dreaming ingenue, the second a mischevious and street-wise girl.
Rule of Romantic / Funny / Drama: The winning combo of the series, diluted in around 40% romance, 40% funny, and 20% drama. The aptly named Drama Series get the drama level upped slightly to good effect. However, any game which went overboard in upping the drama level got Wangst label (Memories Ringing On), or Scrappy label altogether (Tokimeki Memorial 3) by fans.
Sailor Fuku: Strangely not a staple of the series, the first game being the only one using them (the others using Blazer-type uniforms). Tokimeki Memorial 4 suffered a case of They Changed It, Now It Sucks from some fans when Kirameki High changed its iconic Sailor Fuku to a Blazer; the complain dried down quickly thanks to the school's gradual change of its uniform policy.
Secret Character: A staple of the series, each game has at least 2 of them, sometimes 3.
Senpai Kohai: Having a Kohai as a winnable Love Interest is a staple of the series, and several other key characters are Kohai. On the other hand, winnable Senpai (and Senpai characters playing a role in the storyline as a whole) weren't introduced until late in the series, the first appearing in Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2.
Shipper on Deck: By the end of the Motto! Tokimeki Memorial Radio Drama series, basically every main character actively encourage Shiori and Naoto to pair up. And They Do.
This is parodied in a live seiyuu recording that the seiyuu did for the Fantastic Christmas party event where Naoto is looking for Shiori and all the other characters try to help him find her.
Shout Out: Tons of them throughout the series. There are:
and even, in the case of later Tokimemo games, some to earlier entries of the series, such as one of Rui's Limit Break in Tokimeki Memorial 4, where she tries to invoke her father in the battlefield like Yukari of Tokimemo 1 does, but fails andcomplains about it.
The battle theme in this game sounds a lot like Final Fantasy VIII 's battle theme and could very well be a shout out considering they came out at around the same time.
Elisa Doolittle Naruse isn't quite an Expy of her namesake, but has to be a Shout Out to My Fair Lady - complete with wacky accent.
Show Within A Game: Homura of Tokimeki Memorial 2 is a huge fan of the in-game "Go-Driller" anime which itself is an obvious Shout Out to the popular 70's anime Getter Robo. In fact in Leaping School Festival, the player goes with Homura to watch the movie of "Go-Driller", and Konami even animated some scenes of it in Memories Ringing On, making the homage to Getter Robo even more obvious.
Shrinking Violet: Megumi, Miharu and Mio in 1, Kaedeko in 2, Haruna in 4.
Spell My Name with an S: Mostly averted, the creators going great lenghts in giving official Romaji spellings for all characters, and being consistent with them. However, because they systematically use the Kunrei-Shiki method of romanization in their works, Rei and Mei's family name, despite being established as "Ijuin", is sometimes spelled "Ijuuin" or "Ijyuin" by fans. There's also a problem with Yuko, who's named "Yuuko" by some fans, because when reading her name's Kanji, that gives "Yuuko". However, the official and consistent spelling is "Yuko".
Shira Oka Second Chances, a game that strives to be as complex as the Tokimeki Memorial series, can be considered an unofficial spiritual successor. (It follows in the footsteps of the independent game Summer Session, which is less intricate, but which was commercially released in English in mid-2008.)
Student Council President: Homura of Tokimemo 2 is made one by the school headmaster against her will, supposedly to make her a better student; Mei becomes the next one after Homura graduates.
In Tokimeki Memorial 4, Yuu Satsuki is Kirameki High's Student Council President, and Maki Hoshikawa becomes the next one after Yuu graduates.
In Girl's Side 2, secret character Kazuyuki Akagi is the Student Council President of Habataki High. Itaru Hikami aspires to being Student Council President of Hanegasaki High, but his overzealous strictness turns his classmates off in the first year. He's elected in the second year, if the heroine has had enough of a good influence on him.
Konno Tamao in Girl's Side 3 is the Student Council President until he graduates in your second year.
Supreme Chef: Saki. She even states that she'll go to a culinary institute instead of university, and one of her events involves her sharing her delicious homemade lunch with you.
Also Akane of Tokimemo 2, which is mainly her part time job she needs to pay for school.
Kaori of Tokimemo 2 is surprisingly a good chef too, revealed after you raise her close enough to blushing state and then you get sick from too much stress, she pays you a visit with a basket full of homemade goodies
Tokimemo 4 has at least two characters who deserve consideration for this trope - Tsugumi, whose parents run a cafe, ends up pretty close to this, and Hidden Character Haruna is pretty much defined by this trope.
In the Girl's Side games, Madoka Kijyo in GS1 and Teru Saeki in GS2 both prove to be excellent cooks, Kijyo because he lives on his own and has gotten used to cooking for himself, Teru because he works at a cafe. Teru gives the heroine homemade cookies for White Day if he likes her enough.
Tears of Joy: Happens with several characters througout the series, when their love confession get reciprocated by the protagonist. Most notable examples are all heroines of the four games of the Standard Branch of the series. Nozomi Kiyokawa of Tokimemo 1, Itsuki Maeda of Tokimemo 4, and Kotoko Minaduki of Tokimemo 2 are Cry Cute examples of this trope, as the first two are Bokukko characters, and the third one is a a Type A Tsundere.
Tomboy: Homura of Tokimemo 2, so much that she rarely wears girls' clothes. Plus she combines that with being an Otaku Surrogate (her idea of a date is watching a mecha anime film at the movies).
Tsundere: Kotoko of Tokimeki Memorial 2 is a shining case of Type A, complete with cold shoulder, taunts and Armor Piercing Slaps. Same for Mei in the same game, but in a cute type instead of a cold one like Kotoko, and minus the Armor Piercing Slaps.
In Tokimemo 4, Tsugumi is a Type B, although her tsun-ness is usually triggered either by jealousy or the feeling that Maki is under threat. There's actually a game effect, though - "Tsun" is her special ability and lowers the protagonist's morale.
Teru of Girl's Side 2 is polite to everyone except the heroine, and though he mellows some as he falls for her, he's quick to get angry and storm off when things get really romantic.
He also constantly chops her head throughout the game.
Twin Switch: Tokimeki Memorial 2 has Miho and Maho, identical twins who love to play switcheroo to fool everyone, including the player. The player "officially" meets Miho since she studies in the same school (Maho studies in Tokimemo 1's Kirameki Highschool), but during dates, she may send her sister in her place. Figuring out who is who is part of winning either, as they havedifferent tastes. Maho is the more voluptus one, not to mention the more Tsundere of the two. What's more, anyone who stumbles on their game of switcheroo will suffer the wrath of Maho's golf club.
Umbrella of Togetherness: Used as a special event to improve relationships with some girls when they forget their umbrellas on a rainy day, notably Shiori and Megumi in the first game.
Also used in Girl's Side 2 when first meeting Amachi Shota in your second year.
Unwanted Harem: The more winnable girls are unlocked during a playthrough, the more difficult it becomes to succeed because of the increased amount of interference (i.e. the infamous Tokimeki Bomb from being neglected). It's considered an easier strategy to only unlock the girls you need to win, since some targets require another for availability, rather than unveil the entire lineup all at once.
Victorious Childhood Friend / Unlucky Childhood Friend: Nearly all Tokimeki Memorial games have a childhood friend, usually as the main heroine / hero. Since this is a Dating Sim series, those characters will become one or the other versions depending on your choices, and your skills as most of them are Nintendo Hard characters:
And more famous than that, Ayako and her fear of water. Also, Nozomi and her fear of lightning.
Suzuka Kazuma of Girl's Side has a huge fear of large cats and freaks out during a date (complete with a funny CG).
Woman Scorned: In Tokimemo 1, if you have too many girls after you, they'll easily get jealous and use a "bomb" against you out of envy. It's less pronounced in games 2 and 3, but just as prominent with the boys in the Girls Side games.
Wrestler in All of Us: Yumi, being a wrestling fan, has her own Finishing Move (which she refined by using it against her brother and the protagonist as well in Nijiiro no Seishun, the "Yumi Bomber", a lariat/grappling-like move.
She already was one before that, apparently, possibly on account of being the protagonist's childhood friend. The Yandere element just added extra spice.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Tokimeki Memorial 4 plays with this trope by making its Yamato Nadeshiko a full-blood foreigner who has spent her entire life in Japan.
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