Visual Novel / Bad Apple Wars

Congratulations on your death!
And welcome to NEVAEH Academy!

"You must never taste the apple forbidden. Those who do shall see only expulsion as their reward."

Bad Apple Wars is a Play Station Vita Visual Novel developed and published by Idea Factory. It was released on November 19, 2015 in Japan and on October 13, 2017 in North America and Europe.

The protagonist (default named Rinka) was killed in a car accident on her first day of school and finds herself in the afterlife standing before NEVAEH Academy, a school for lost souls. Any student who behaves and follows the rules will be able to graduate and resurrect. The school is divided between Good Apples, those who follow the rules and are on the path of resurrection, and Bad Apples, those who disobey the rules with the want of expulsion. The Prefects are the sworn enforcers of the school rules, trying to discipline the Bad Apples into following the school's rules.

The "empty" Rinka has to decide which group she wants to join—those who want to start life anew or those who want to get expelled, with the hope that expulsion means returning to their previous life.

The visual novel contains examples of the following tropes:

• Baseball Episode: Higa's route. And sometimes when Higa shows up in other routes.
• Blank Slate: The main character, but subverted in that her primary concern is that she truly has nothing—no skills nor weaknesses, no good memories nor bad memories, no likes nor dislikes.
• But Thou Must!: The reason that the seven unbreakable rules cannot be broken is because there are hidden "limits" imposed on those who are dead.
• Book Ends: Every route has this, since the game tends to begin in the gymnasium for the entrance ceremony and ends in the gymnasium for the graduation ceremony. Higa's route starts with the protagonist falling down the stairs into his arms and ends with the same thing, but in his reincarnated life. The White Mask's route begins with him causing the protagonist's accident and ends with him running back to it.
• Cannot Dream: Since you're dead, you cannot dream at NEVAEH Academy.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: It is an otoge, after all.
• The Commandments: For the Bad Apples, it's the Seven Unbreakable Rules:
  1. You must not win the Reaper game.
  2. You must not get a 100% score in the exam.
  3. You must not “touch people’s hearts” during the culture festival
  4. You must not profess your love to anyone
  5. You must not have an “inappropriate relationship” with anyone
  6. You must not cry at the graduation ceremony
  7. You must not eat the Forbidden Apple
• Central Theme: Hope and despair. To live is to despair, but there is always an equal amount of hope to go along with it. You might not be able to attain this hope alone, but through friendship or love, you can.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Just about everybody, considering that they had to have died somehow.
• Death by Origin Story: Considering the nature of the game, everybody falls under this.
• Downer Ending: The NEVAEH endings where Rinka and her love interest remain at NEVAEH forever with their memories growing more fuddled by the day.
• Dream Reality Check: The protagonist pinches her cheek and finds that it hurts upon finding out she is dead.
• Fake Memories: The longer you spend at NEVAEH academy, the more your current and past memories begin to blur into one.
• First-Name Basis: With everybody. Justified in that you forget your last name. Shikishima is the only person you're on Last-Name Basis with.
• Forbidden Fruit: The apple. Literally.
• Hates Being Touched: A lot of people, due to unwanted memory sharing through skinship.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The protagonist's default name is Rinka, but it can be changed.
• Obstructive Code of Conduct: There are certain limits imposed on those in the school, such as you cannot die or you cannot leave. Some make the Seven Unbreakable Rules truly unbreakable. For example, if you try to profess your love in sound or writing, you are censored by static or a mosaic, respectively.
• Older Than They Look: All the characters at NEVAEH Academy come from various time periods but appear to be all around high school age. Even then, some of them have been at the academy years and haven't aged.
• Once per Episode: No matter what route you pick, breaking all the unbreakable rules has to happen, and they tend to happen the exact same way with a bit of varied responses from the person whose route you are on.
• Pun: They call the exam "Vexam" because it is always personalized to your worst subject.
• Recycled Premise: A group of rebellious teenagers in a school setting fighting against graduation/resurrection. The primary antagonist is white-haired and trying to get them to obey the status quo and resurrect. Hm...
• Red Sky, Take Warning: The sky is blood red.
• Red String of Fate: Alluded to and actually brought up in Alma's route.
• Reincarnation Romance: Every route, except Satoru's. And White Mask's.
• Resurrective Immortality: Everybody in this world, since someone who is dead can't die again.
• The Sleepless: Sleep is unnecessary for the dead, but it is refreshing to sleep anyway.
• Sound-Effect Bleep: At NEVAEH Academy, you cannot say or write down that you love someone without it being censored by static or a black box.
• Transferable Memory: Memories can be transferred through skin contact in this world.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 5. Sanzu was able to touch the hearts of the students with her song at the festival, but goes through a secret second graduation that no one knew about, much to the shock of everyone. Not even the prefects were aware of this process. This then leads the Bad Apples to wonder if breaking rules would really lead them to revival in their current life or lead them to the afterlife like Sanzu.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Naraka.
• You Can't Go Home Again: You're dead. Subverted in that graduation is actually going home.

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