Tsukasa Sawamura does not like people. He believes people are meant to live on their own and forming attachments with others will only hurt him in the long run. Because of this he lives a quiet life on his own, working in a Chinese restaurant to make ends meet. One day he finds an illegal immigrant, Chunhua, collapsed in the alley behind his workplace and for some reason is unable to ignore her plight.
After he takes her in, events begin to spiral out of control and Tsukasa is forcedly thrown in with an assorted band of misfits, each of whom has their own reasons for being alone. Together they form the Family Project, an alliance of convenience disguised as a typical Japanese family. Despite his doubts, he goes along with the idea and is caught in the middle of each member's respective problems and antagonism. Yet, as time goes by, he finds it harder and harder to rationalise the loner attitude that was once the cornerstone of his life.
Family Project (Kazoku Keikaku) was translated into English by G-Collections in 2009 and marketed as the crown jewel of D.O., a company perhaps better known for Kana: Little Sister. It is a slight departure for the writer as well, who is better known for his work on Kana as well as another Utsuge, Yume Miru Kusuri; Family Project has plenty of Tear Jerkers but the main focus is on challenging the traditional notion of "family" and working out what (or who) is really important in a person's life.
Provides examples of:
- Above the Influence: At one point on Matsuri's route she comes to Tsukasa's room naked but for a sheet and basically throws herself at him. Tsukasa, who by this point is falling for her, is sorely tempted but turns her down due to the age difference, Matsuri's inexperience, his own conflicted feelings about her and knowing that she's only doing it because she's terrified he'll leave like several other characters already have. This was probably the right call but it does leave Matsuri feeling hurt and rejected, not least because Tsukasa did sleep with Chunhua and Jun earlier in the story.
- Abusive Parents: Matsuri, Tsukasa or so he thinks and Aoba. But Jun's really take the prize here as her father was molesting her and her sister ever since they were little kids until a neighbor noticed. Both parents would also starve them. But before that, their mother was envious and eventually poisoned their soup, and Jun was the only one who realized, so she drank it all to save Kei. She nearly died, and that's also why she never really eats anything. She can't.
- Ambiguously Gay: Tsukasa's boss Lau and the manager of the host club where Tsukasa works occasionally, Mr. Welcome. Lau claims that he's bi but then again, Lau likes to joke a lot... The truth is slightly more disturbing.
- Apologises a Lot: Matsuri, much to the annoyance of both Aoba and Tsukasa.
- Attempted Rape: Matsuri's foster brother Ryouta tries this twice on her route. Both timesTsukasa intervenes, terrifying the wretch the first time and beating him down the second time.
- Beneath the Mask: Most characters qualify somehow, but Matsuri is the most blatant. She always tries to be cheery and happy, but in fact she's a very very insecure and depressed person who is absolutely terrified of being alone.
- Best Friends-in-Law: Lau is trying pretty hard to arrange this by marrying Tsukasa to his sister Fung. Tsukasa isn't interested, Fung is but is nice enough to not push it.
- Big Damn Heroes: The end of Aoba's route. Tsukasa was shot by the Chinese mafia: he's badly wounded and, more importantly, the house is burning and he's not able to force his way out in his state. He and Aoba prepare to die together... but then, the whole family (and Lau) comes to the rescue!
- And, in Masumi's route, Masumi herself severely burning her hands to rescue Tsukasa from the burning debris.
- In Matsuri's route Tsukasa swoops in to save her from her foster brother's unwelcome attentions.
- Babies Ever After: Masumi and Matsuri's endings.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Matsuri, as the youngest of the Family Project's members. This bothers her for a number of reasons.
- Bittersweet Ending: None of the routes end without some pain but (aside from the Non Standard Gameover bad end) they all have a lot of good to them as well.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Much of the humour comes from asides, mostly done by Hiroshi. Tsukasa also does it a lot, especially when he's angry.
- Broken Bird: What Aoba is eventually revealed to be, instead of simply a Jerkass.
- To press the point further, in her route Bird escapes and Tsukasa goes to look for him. He eventually finds him, dead, and he decides to take him back home. When presented with this literal Broken Bird, Aoba remains deep in thought during a moment, before deciding on burying him.
- Bowdlerise: The English version localized by JAST censored a great deal of scenes involving Matsuri. This might not have been so bad if they hadn't advertised it as "fully uncensored."
- Butt-Monkey: Poor Tsukasa. It's mostly verbal abuse, but if something can ruin his image, the rest of the family will take the ball and run with it. Sometimes out of malice, sometimes out of confusion, mostly just to get a rise out of him.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Aoba's grandfather. He really did love her as a granddaughter, but he was still hurting from his betrayal by his sons and knew he didn't have much time left, so he was purposely distant to her to avoid hurting her.
- Child by Rape: Chunhua. And the poor girl knows it.
- Chinese Girl: Haruka has the personality and Fung has the looks. Strictly speaking, BOTH are, of course.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Hiroshi and Chunhua. While played for laughs there is a serious element to both, since Hiroshi is actually experiencing a mental breakdown and Chunhua is something of a Stepford Smiler.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: When the going gets tough, Hiroshi is truly something else. After all, he's an ex-military, trained in Aikido, Karate and Judo.
- And Lau, though in his case the "Crouching Moron" part is much milder.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: When Soeda starts trying to take Masumi away, Hiroshi imagines him blackmailing her with kinky BDSM acts he'd forced her to engage in. While it doesn't reach the absurd extremes Hiroshi imagines, something similar can arise; on Masumi's route Soeda does seduce her and attempts to drive her away from the Family Project by revealing this.
- Curtains Match the Window: All the female members of the Takayashiki 'Family', Kei Hisame, Sayoko, Lau's sister Fung, and Chunhua/Haruka's little half-sister Yuri.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Explored/deconstructed with Matsuri, who is plagued by feelings of worthlessness that drive her to work herself to the bone. She collapses from exhaustion, which in turn makes her feel even more worthless. The stress she feels makes her clumsier, which then makes her work harder, and then she's exhausted and collapses again. Stressing her out more. It's not played for laughs or for cute.
- Darkest Hour: "As of 7:45 pm today, the Family Project has come to an end."
- There's another a bit after that Hiroshi is gone. Masumi, Matsuri, Chunhua, Jun and/or Aoba (depending on your choices) are gone too: only you and your love interest remain on the Takayashiki residence. The chinese mafia are on the hunt for your head. They eventually find you and burn the house down.
- Declaration of Protection: Tsukasa ends up giving one to his Love Interest in each route and has one for Chunhua regardless.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Aoba in her route. It also happens in all the other routes, but while on her own route she goes completely Yamato Nadeshiko, in the others she just goes from "Spoiled Queen Bitch from the Bowels of Hell" to a pretty standard modern tsundere, just very heavy on the tsuntsun side. This is because she's come to respect more the other members of the Family Project, especially Tsukasa.
- Depraved Bisexual: Lau is certainly viewed this way. And it's not entirely inaccurate, see page for details. In reality, he's not so different from Tsukasa: He's lonely and wants a family and values Tsukasa immensely.
- Determinator: One of the key points of the game seems to be that everyone is a Determinator when the subject is important enough for him/her. Case in point: Aoba digging in the backyard, Matsuri working on the house even after falling sick, Masumi sticking with Tsukasa until the very end...
- Driven to Suicide: Masumi is first encountered trying to throw herself off a bridge. Thankfully Tsukasa and company rescue her.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Jun. The end of her route before the credit roll even made it look like she vanished. Also one of the endings where everyone stays together in a stable relationship.
- A more meta example is ironically found in the starting menu. For every route you clear, another resident is seen lounging around the originally empty Takayashiki residence. Its heart-warming to see a screen full of them when you remember how lonely they were at the beginning.
- Really every girl's route counts. Matsuri, Aoba and Masumi's routes involve saving each other from a burning building while Chunhua's route requires saving her from a mafia kidnapping and then tracking her down after she returns to China.
- Eccentric Mentor: The only thing is, Hiroshi doesn't pretend to be insane. He is insane.
- First-Name Basis: Used to represent a major shift in Tsukasa's relationship with both Masumi and Matsuri.
- "Friends" Rent Control: Almost, but not quite averted. It seems unlikely that an insane former businessman, a recently-abandoned housewife, a dispossessed artist, a troubleshooter-for-hire, an unemployed illegal immigrant, a child factory worker, and a part time waiter would be able to afford the rent on the Takayashiki house. Tsukasa keeps mentioning spending control, though, and no one really knows what Hiroshi's job is.
- Generation Xerox: In an odd, indirect sort of way. In Matsuri's ending she and Tsukasa name one of their daughters Jun. Despite not actually meeting her namesake for years the little girl ends up quiet, stoic and obsessed with money.
- Genki Girl: Matsuri and Chunhua, though both are playing it up somewhat.
- Gratuitous English: Courtesy of Hiroshi, Lau and Mr. Welcome, all for no discernable reason.
- Hachimaki: Matsuri dons one after fainting at a..um...key moment...in the plot.
- Honest John: For the right price, Jun will handle most jobs.
- Idiot Ball: Tsukasa picks it up briefly early on. The normally cautious and fairly sensible young man finds a bunch of unmarked pills in Chunhua's bag and casually swallows one. Frankly he was lucky they were only a powerful aphrodisiac.
- I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Kei with Matsuri
- Insecure Love Interest: Masumi (due to being older than the other girls), Matsuri (due to being younger than the other girls, plus believing she only causes problems for people) and Jun (due to
honestly not believing she's worthy of being loved). - I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Chunhua, if her route isn't followed, Fung regardless, as she doesn't have a route (in the original version anyway).
- Let's Wait a While: Tsukasa near the end of Matsuri's route. After they move in together he's unsure if he loves her or if they're Like Brother and Sister and he's also worried that she only likes him due to him being the first to treat her well. As such he suggests they live together for a time before they decide what their relationship should be. Tsukasa initially puts the time at 10 years but Matsuri argues him down to 6 months.
- Little Sister Heroine: Matsuri, informally. However, her route emphasizes much different issues.
- Loners Are Freaks: Very few of the main characters could be considered well-adjusted.
- Love Potion: When fleeing from the traffickers that got her in Japan Chunhua swiped some pills from them (accidentally or on purpose in unclear). These turn out to be a very powerful aphrodisiac. We only see it in action once but the results are dramatic.
- Medium Awareness: At one point, Tsukasa demands to know why he gets no option other than to comfort Matsuri. Matsuri herself pokes fun at how the background budget ran out during a scene in her workplace when the lights are off.
- Mr. Fixit: Hiroshi seems to possess a talent for repairing things and eventually it is revealed that he pays his rent from the profits of inventions that he sells on Home Shopping channels.
- Mysterious Waif: Chunhua.
- Nonstandard Game Over: Failing to build enough trust with all the members of the Family Project will get you the bad ending where Tsukasa abandons them in their hour of need and ends up living with Kei Hisami. The trick to getting the ending you want is to balance a character's affections with the affection of the group.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Chunhua plays the Funny Foreigner thing to the hilt, but on several occasions will show much more melancholy and serious side. Since her life sucks, being the ignorant foreigner who speaks funny and gets taken care of is likely much easier for her.
- Official Couple: Discussed by Tsukasa and Matsuri, who comments that the most popular pairing is probably "Tsukasa-san x Chunhua-san".
- The Oldest Profession: One of the many ways Jun makes money and the original basis for her and Tsukasa'a relationship though that was in part because she couldn't quite bring herself to love him and was too overcome with self-loathing to accept him loving her.
- Only a Flesh Wound: Subverted in the ending of Matsuri's route- Tsukasa gets slashed in the left arm and near one of his eyes, but is discharged quickly from the hospital. Ten years later, he finds that he has trouble moving his left arm properly and is losing sight in that eye.
- Only in It for the Money: Jun, who has to be paid to join the Family Project, had sex with Tsukasa in school for money etc. It's not greed though; she's using the money to support the child care centre she and her sister were raised in (and her sister still works at). Further she uses the excuse that everything she does is for money to avoid getting close to anyone as a consequence of her utterly crippling self-worth issues.
- Overcome with Desire: Early in the story Tsukasa swallows a powerful aphrodisiac that Chunhua took from her employers. Exactly what happens varies by player choice but it always results in a sexual encounter between the two.
- Painting the Medium: Among other examples, Tsukasa yells at Hiroshi for using emoticons instead of speech because they're not supposed to be able to read that. And also at Masumi for reading his name from the text on the screen when he didn't want to tell her.
- Parental Abandonment: Tsukasa's mother died early on and his father gave him up to his uncle and aunt, who treated him with indifference and in some cases abused him, causing his distrust of people.
- Then you find out that both of them died in a bus accident and Tsukasa only remembers his dad entrusting him to his relatives.
- Aoba takes the cake in this one, though. Huge spoilers ahoy: she was not only abandoned/ignored and eventually disowned by her own parents, but also by her grandfather Shutaro, who fostered her (unlike Aoba's parents, her grandpa didn't do it out of malice). This was too much of a trauma for her and she eventually started making up false memories of how much her grandfather loved and pampered her.
- Pass the Popcorn: After a confrontation between Tsukasa and Soeda over Masumi. Jun reacts by taking the younger members of the family out of earshot, Hiroshi reacts with strong advice for Tsukasa, Tsukasa and Masumi have a mildly emotional moment, Aoba...watches impassively while eating snacks.
- Platonic Life-Partners: On routes other than her own Tsukasa and Jun end up like this, with Tsukasa commenting that while she comes and goes he always feels connected to her.
- Rape as Drama: Present at the end of Chunhua's route but the one to suffer it is not Chunhua herself, but her mother.
- Also touched on in Aoba and Jun's routes. In Aoba's route she states she was "dirtied" by her arranged fiancé without giving any details. Jun was never actually raped but her father molested her and her sister and he was planning on forcing himself on them once they were older. Thankfully they were taken into care before that happened.
- Rescue Romance: Tsukasa got Chunhua off the streets and away from those pursuing her and she falls for him. Though as with so much in this story it's deconstructed. On routes other than her own she eventually recognises that she was expecting Tsukasa to get together with her as her hero and missed that he'd fallen for someone else, causing her to be hurt when she works it out. On her own route, where Tsukasa does fall for her, she ends up leaving him because the threats he's saving her from keep causing problems for him and she doesn't want to be a burden. Thankfully Tsukasa is not put off and comes to find her after things have quietened down.
- Rich Bitch: Aoba is a dispossessed version without a cent to her name but all the personality. She shares many of Tsukasa's beliefs but is even more vicious than he is about them.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: Hisami Kei, though as with everyone in this game there's more to her than that. Averted with Jun, who has the same hair colour but none of the associated tropes.
- Runaway Fiancé: The reason why Aoba was disinherited.
- Secret Project Refugee Family: The whole premise of the game.
- Self-Censored Release: The PSP version. It also adds in new CGs, as well as routes for Kei and Fung.
- Sitting on the Roof: Tsukasa goes there because it's the coolest part of the house, barring Aoba's room (which has the only air conditioner). He is joined by all of the characters at one point or another, mostly by whichever character you have accumulated the most affection points for.
- Slut-Shaming: Soeda tries this on Masumi's route, trying to drive a wedge between her and Tsukasa (and the rest of the Family Project) by spelling out all the sexual things she's been doing with him. It fails; Tsukasa is confused that Masumi would want to sleep with such a jerk but it doesn't stop him caring about her and the fact that she had sex doesn't bother him at all.
- Social Services Does Not Exist: Just how was Matsuri allowed to wander the streets on her own? Especially when she goes to school.
- Too Long; Didn't Dub: JAST USA's initial localization left in some pretty glaring editing mistakes, including lines that were simply replaced with <Untranslated>. It got patched later.
- Trauma Conga Line: Basically every main character is in the middle of one at the start of the story.
- True Companions: Some routes end up with the Family Project becoming this.
- The Triads and the Tongs: Chunhua is running from them.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Between Tsukasa and Kei Hisami. It's even pointed out by him in one scene.
- Unwinnable by Design: You've been playing for like 20 hours. You paid attention to your chosen sweetheart and the story has come to a climax! ... what is this, the Bad Ending...? Crap, where did I go wrong? (Protip: see the entry under Surprise Difficulty for details. The author seems very fond of this kind of difficulty.)
- Your Costume Needs Work: During Matsuri's route, Jun leaves earlier than normal and her sister Hisami Kei pretends to be her for a bit. Long story. Then she leaves and Jun comes back for a day, but Tsukasa just thinks that her acting is a little better but still needs work. The dialogue when she leaves again subverts in though when he tells 'Kei' that Jun will always be one of them and is welcome back any time.
- In fact, the whole situation is a possible subversion. After Jun is gone (this time for good) Tsukasa's internal monologue hints that he knew she was her all along.
