"There are 'normal' people. Those people smile and talk easily, look people in the eye and laugh. Those people walk right up to strangers and talk to them, and come away as friends. They smile, they feel things, and they're just... Destined to be surrounded by people, it seems. They'll be successful and happy and loved.
And then there are other people, who are like me.
We don't talk that easily.
We don't even feel very much.
At least, I don't."
And then there are other people, who are like me.
We don't talk that easily.
We don't even feel very much.
At least, I don't."
— Megumi's narration, in the first scene
warm [sic] is a 2019 kinetic novel developed by butterfly-latte of KrispyCat, using the Ren'Py engine.
Eleven-year-old Megumi Shimizu's life is very monotonous, solitary...and cold. She believes her life will be unchanging and routine, and she will be friendless forever.
When she seems to have resigned herself to her presumed fate, who should walk into her life but New Transfer Student Hinata Mikami. Sunny and vibrant, Hinata quickly attaches herself to Megumi, slowly changing her life outlook.
A demo/sneak peek is available on itch.io
, with the full novel released on February 7th, 2020.
No relation to the Bulgarian comedy film, Warm (1978).
warm provides examples of:
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Tomomi acts sweet and sugary, while emotionally manipulating her best friend and passive-aggressively bullying Megumi.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: At one point, during a test, Tomomi tries to cheat off of Hinata. The latter calls her out on it, and the teacher makes them retake the test at different desks, far away from each other.
- The Dividual: Ami and Junko are always onscreen together. A flashback even reveals they stick together when there's no reason to be, shown when Ami skipped breakfast and ate in the bathroom, and Junko joined her for no reason other than the two are best friends.
- Extreme Doormat: Yuu always bends over to appease Tomomi's demands, even if she knows it's wrong to do so. Tomomi guilt trips her into letting her copy Yuu's homework, knowing Yuu is too non-confrontational to say no.
- Friendless Background: Megumi says that she's never had real friends throughout her entire school career.
- Genki Girl: Hinata is extremely energetic and vibrant. Megumi is amazed by how much energy she has.
- Hypocrite: Tomomi frequently accuses Megumi of bullying her and others, taking advantage of other people, and making them do more work than is fair, but Tomomi herself is the one who does all of these things. She refuses to do her own work, frequently guilt-trips her friend Yuu into letting her copy off her work, always plays the victim whenever someone calls her out on her transgressions, and acts righteous when she really isn't. It almost seems like she deliberately looks for things to get angry at Megumi about.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Tomomi mostly got away with taking advantage of others, until she got into a fight with Hinata. She pushed Hinata into a stove, and the impact made a pan full of oil fall on Hinata, which is implied to have given her second or third degree burns. Since the entire class saw it, even the teacher, she gets in huge trouble, and it's the last we see of her. The end reveals that she was forced to leave the school, whether by suspension or expulsion, and she's not seen during the Time Skip either.
- Meaningful Name: The town of Ikigai, a word/concept that translates to "a reason for living." Considering what Megumi's outlook on life is...
- New Transfer Student: Hinata and her mother have moved from Sapporo.
- Nice Girl: Hinata is very nice. She has no qualms about befriending Megumi and regularly stands up for those who need help. She feels Megumi is nice, though the latter doesn't believe so at first.
- No Sense of Personal Space:
- Tomomi has a habit of crowding whoever she's talking to.
- When walking home together in the demo, Hinata suddenly stands in front of Megumi and leans way into her bubble to speak to her.
- Parental Abandonment: Megumi's mother left her husband and daughter several years ago.
- Playing the Victim Card: Tomomi frequently fakes tears whenever people call her out on being lazy or her tendency to take advantage of other people.
- Put on a Bus: Tomomi is forced to leave school because of her actions towards Hinata, and is never seen again after that.
- "Reason You Suck" Speech: Tomomi gives one to Megumi near the end, calling her a hypocrite, a tyrant, and calling her a stuck-up snob who looks down on others, among other things. Nobody buys it, since they know Tomomi's full of crap.
- Recurring Dreams: Megumi has one in which she's lying in a field of snow, alone and unable (and unwilling) to get up. Her narration states she's used to these too, and the dream doesn't even bother her anymore.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Megumi is the Blue to Hinata's Red.
- Shout-Out: At one point, Megumi, Hinata, Ami, and Junko go to see a movie called Magical Warrior Diamond Heart.
- The Stoic: Megumi doesn't show most of her emotions easily, coming off as aloof.
- Two-Teacher School: So far only one teacher, Ms. Haruna, has been seen. There is brief mention of the principal, and there is a home economics teacher, but they're never seen, though the latter does speak a few times.
- Time Skip: The end of the visual novel takes place four years after the main story, with the girls heading into high school.
