Some of the characters appearing in the game. The female Player Character is situated in the middle. Clockwise from bottom right: Takasugi Shinsaku, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Mori Ranmaru, Natsume Sōseki, Abe no Seimei, Fujiwara no Teika, Kamina and Ōna, Tokugawa Iemitsu, Shōtoku-taishi
Akanesasu Sekai de Kimi to Utau is a fantasy match three smartphone Otome Game developed by GCREST Inc., the same company that made 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams, and released in April 2017. In April 2018, a manga adaptation illustrated by Aya Tanaka has been released by ARIA Henshūbu, and a stage play adaptation was announced in early 2020.
The Player Character (unnamed in the game, Amamiya Akari in the manga) is just an ordinary woman… until one day she is transported into this mysterious world known as Hinomoto, inhabited by people with similar names to famous Japanese historical figures. Turns out, Amatsukami, one of the three gods overseeing this world, has disappeared, making the sun unable to rise, rendering the sky a permanent red during daytime. The protagonist, now also known as the Miko of the Sun, must embark on an adventure and find five other people among the Men of Tsukuyomi in order to perform a ceremony to bring back Amatsukami and return the blue sky to the land.
… And that's just the main story. Once you summon a character, their individual story will be unlocked; you can read them to get to know the characters better and romance them. Reading the individual stories up to a certain point is a requirement to Awakening a character. After you finish a Story Arc in the main plotline, a side story for that arc will also be unlocked.
This page provides tropes relating to the story, the setting and gameplay mechanics. All tropes pertaining to specific characters go on the character page.
Allow me to list tropes with you in this glowing scarlet world:
- Always Night: Or rather Always Dusk and Night in this world. The sun cannot rise, so during daytime, it is a permanent dusk even when it's supposed to be dawn.
- Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: The little amulet containing the power of the Miko of the Sun.
- Anachronism Stew: Historical figures across many periods of Japanese history (reaching as far back as the Yayoi period) all together and meeting one another? Abe no Seimei hanging out with Takasugi Shinsaku? You betcha! This is all Hand Waved away with their only being similar In Name Only with real-life historical figures.
- Hell, even in the Inishie country, which supposedly represents the Asuka period, lives Himiko, the aforementioned Yayoi period figure!
- Beach Episode: Natsu, Sora-iro no Rakuen de event.
- Big Bad: Susano'o, who caused Amatsukami's disappearance, goaded an emotionally broken Seimei into serving as his high priest and tricking the company into granting him more power, among other heinous acts.
- Canon Foreigner: Akari's family is manga-exclusive.
- Cap: Characters have different level caps depending on their rarities. Awakening a character will raise his rarity by 1 star and subsequently the cap by 5 levels. The cap can be expanded 4 times at maximum by fusing the character with a duplicate or an owl of matching rarity; expanding all 4 times and reaching the resulting max level is a requirement to unlocking the blue chapters.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: As expected of an Otome Game, though there are characters who don't fit the Bishōnen mold.
- Cessation of Existence: When you're completely swallowed by a shikigami and the Miko isn't around to save you.
Creepy, we know. - Charged Attack: Everyone's special skills, which require a number of tiles matching the characters' elements be cleared in order to activate. They can't be activated twice in one turn either; if you fill the meter after you already used a character's skill in that turn, the meter will appear as 0 until the next turn, at which point the skill will be automatically available for use.
- Also, just attacking in general. The more cleared tiles, the more powerful.
- The "Fever Mode" in which you can simply tap rapidly on the board to clear a large amount of tiles. In order to activate, you must clear enough tiles to fill the Fever Mode meter, either by matching or by using the magic amulets provided during a boss battle. Tiles cleared using special skills will not be counted.
- The Chosen One: The protagonist, of course.
- The Chosen Many: … as well as the band of hot guys she has to gather. Seimei's being the Priest of the Sea and Inaba the Priest of the Moon and therefore Chosen all along is not revealed until much later.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: A manga adaptation is scheduled to release in April 2018.
- Comic-Book Time: The game seems to run on this if you consider the overarching main plot as well as the numerous individual stories for the characters' base forms and event forms, which keep expanding as the game gets updated and more characters and events get released, all linear and not Alternate Universe to one another, meaning that the miko still has plenty of time to restore the sun while she partakes in all these wonderful never-ending events.
- Alternate Continuity: … But even if you view the game as running on this, some storylines clearly cannot take place chronologically or in parallel. For example: the original plot for the Waga Kimi no Rei Naraba event has the heroine join in on the rescue mission, while the redux plot (that introduces new versions of Mitsunari and Rikyū) has her stay behind in Nobunaga's fortress while Nobunaga and his men go on the rescue. Even the main original plot and, say, Hanbē's individual story version have some differences. The main one has both Hanbē and Mitsuhide rescued at the same time fairly late into the story, while Hanbē's version has him rescued first near the beginning.
- Crossover: With Hakuouki for the latter's 10-year anniversary.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Two theme tunes out of the ones used so far: Kotohogi no Hana by the five key cast members and Hyakkaryōran by KENN.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: The enemies are assigned elements too, which one can tell easily because they are Color-Coded for Your Convenience. Characters assigned elements they're weak against will hit them harder: Light beats Dark and vice versa, Water beats Fire, Fire beats Wind, Wind beats Water.
- Fade to Black: Every time there's a kiss scene or a sex scene. The only way you can tell what's going on is the narration.
- Fantastic Flora: There are the flower Ōkuninushi carries around whose nectar heals wounds and the seven-color cherry blossom trees, both of which are native to Ten.
- Floating Continent: The Ten country.
- The Ghost: Katakura Kojūrō from Ikusa, Tokugawa Ieyasu from Kō and Kondō Isami from Baku. The last one is also a case of No One Sees the Boss.
- Healing Factor: Tiles with heart marks which randomly appear in the game board; if they are matched, the team's HP will be restored when the turn is over. Some characters have special skills that can create these tiles at will.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The name of the Miko of the Sun is decided by the player, and other characters will address her accordingly (if a line containing her name is voiced, the character will say a second-person pronoun instead of the name). However, a large number of them just call her "Miko". In the manga, her name is Amamiya Akari.
- Historical Domain Character: Everyone, though it's established that they're only named the same as historical figures.
- Home Field Advantage: All characters will get bonus experience points fighting in their native countries. Goes without saying that crossover characters, who aren't native to this world, don't have this advantage.
- Hot Springs Episode: Koi wa Yukemuri no Naka de event which features the heroine visiting a hot springs resort in Baku and subsequently getting her vacation ruined keeping Katsura hidden from Shinsengumi members.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Or Arc Naming in this case. All the official names for the main story arcs are makurakotoba – padding phrases used in waka poetry.
- Island of Mystery: Inoridono, in a way. It is a small island situated in the middle of Hinomoto where no humans live, shikigami run amok and the shrine the heroes are heading for is located.
- Jidaigeki: Of the Yayoi-Asuka, Heian, Sengoku, Edo and Meiji-Shōwa periods. Also mythology.
- Level-Up Fill-Up: The energy bar will be reset (that is, the maximum value of the bar will be added to the remaining energy regardless of the amount of energy left, overflowing the bar) when the player levels up.
- Lighter and Softer: To the historical periods that it mimics, especially the Sengoku and Bakumatsu periods.
- Literary Allusion Title: Rampant poetry usage aside, event Nagisa no Koi wa Shiokaze ni Notte is probably a Shout-Out to Yokomitsu Riichi's Haru wa Basha ni Notte.
- Love Ruins the Realm: It leads to Amatsukami's disappearance. Tsukuyomi and Amatsukami fell in love with one another. This was kept secret from Susano'o, but he found out anyway, broke off the alliance and betrayed the two. Out of despair. Amatsukami turned herself into a Sealed Good in a Can.
- Match-Three Game: The game's battle mechanic. The player is given three moves per turn. The more gems matched, the stronger the characters' attacks get. Each character is assigned a gem element, if a certain number of matched gems of that element is reached, their special skill can be activated; using a special skill does not count as a move. If a 4-match is made, an explosive gem is created and will clear a 3×3 area when matched, and swapping two adjacent explosive tiles will clear a 5×5 area.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The game itself is one of seven different eras across Japanese history. This is the game to play if you want to see Heian noblemen interacting with Meiji writers, or Warring States generals talking with Shinsengumi members, etc.
- The Medic: Characters with skills that either a/create heart tiles manually, b/restore HP on the spot (i.e. base Teika).
- Moral Guardians: In-Universe. According to Sōseki, the Utsutsu country has a bunch of these. Because the sun can't rise, they strongly oppose writers publishing works dealing with dark themes in fear of making people desperate. The more radical of them even goes so far as to harass and endanger authors such as Sōseki himself.
- Mr. Fanservice: 90% of the cast. If someone isn't one, chances are he'll eventually become one when a fanservicey skin of him is released.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Again, the only thing the characters have in common with historical figures are their names.
- No One Sees the Boss:
- Officially Shortened Title: AkaSeka, in katakana (アカセカ). The stage play is called AkaSute (アカステ).
- Onmyōdō: Its elements are included in the game, but are portrayed inaccurately (shikigami are known in this universe as malicious creatures freely running around kidnapping humans rather than personal summons in servitude of an onmyōji).
- Piñata Enemy: The fairies in event dungeons. They have freakishly high HP and defense (no matter how strong your characters are, each hit on them only takes away 1 HP point)… but when their turn comes, they grant you event points and buffs and automatically retreat from the battle without you having to do anything.
- Play Every Day: Played very straight; if you log in to the game on consecutive days, you'll get daily rewards. A different character will give the daily rewards each week. Skipping a day results in the counter being reset to the first day of the first week.
- Power Crystal: Gameplay-wise, you need these to Awaken your characters. The element (color) of the crystals needed depends on the character's assigned tile element.
- Power Makeover: You can give your characters a power boost as well as a different appearance by Awakening them. Most characters have two Awakened forms, a Yang form and a Yin form. In order to Awaken, you have to collect a certain amount of Awakening materials and coins as well as unlock and read the character's individual story up to the branching point. Each chapter from chapter 1 to the branching point provides two options that either increase the character's Yang or Yin points; after clearing the chapters, if the character's Yang point count is higher, you can give them a Yang Awakening, and same goes for Yin. You can also tip the scale in the other direction by using the Yang or Yin elixir to add more points even after you've read all the chapters. Everyone's rarity increases by 1 star after Awakening.
- … Unless the guy is a special summon who only has one Geppaku form. In this case, you only need to collect the materials, have the coins, level the character and read their stories up to the Awakening point, as their stories are not branched.
- Random Number God: Unless we're talking guaranteed event rewards or other means like purchasing from the store, good luck trying to get 4-star or 5-star rarity guys via summoning. Even with guaranteed 5-star summoning coupons and the gem meter in the main screen, you can never be sure you'll exactly get the one you want.
- Rare Candy:
- The rabbits that cannot be employed in battle and are only used to level up characters by fusing. The higher the rarity of the rabbit, the more experience points it gives. It is advisable to level a character using rabbits that correspond with his element.
- The owls used to expand a character's Level Cap in the case a duplicate is not available. The rarity of the owl must correspond with that of the character in order to be used.
- Readings Are Off the Scale: When the energy bar is refilled regardless of method (by paying tokens or leveling up), you'll not get the amount of energy you have lost, but the max value of energy added to the remaining amount.
- Rescue Arc: Waga Kimi no Rei Naraba, the first ever event in the game, features a plot consisting of Mitsuhide and Hanbē captured by enemies and the heroine, Nobunaga and Kanbē coming to their rescue.
- Romanticized Abuse: Some of the guy's stories, for example Michinaga's and Mitsuhide's.
- Schizo Tech: The land of Hinomoto is very unevenly developed for such a small world. On the one hand, we have countries under feudal rule and people still using outdated farming tools, but on the other hand, we also have highly industrialized countries like Utsutsu with high-speed trains running around.
- Screen-to-Stage Adaptation: A stage play adaptation, called AkaSute, performed in April 2020.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Amatsukami. The whole point of the adventure is to bring her back and return the world to normal.
- Sengoku Period: Represented by the Ikusa country.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: The game takes the Fade to Black approach and even then, the narration is painfully brief and the players can only assume that a sex scene has taken place.
- The Shinsengumi: These guys make an appearance too, and they're from the Baku country in this universe.
- Shout-Out: The boys and men that make up the cast are referred to as Tsukuyomi danshi.
- Spell Levels: The skills of rarity 3 or higher characters' will be upgraded to a more powerful, "full-throttle" version after clearing the epilogue (red chapter) provided at the end of their routes. You'll have to drag him into battle frequent enough to max out his tile level in order to unlock it though.
- Spiritual Predecessor: It also seems to be this to Sengoku Night Blood, developed by another studio and released later in the same year. It also shares the same premise of a woman from the real world on a quest to restore a Sealed Good in a Can for a world filled with historical figure stand-ins, though this game borrows figures from all eras of Japanese history as opposed to SenBura's only borrowing from the Sengoku period.
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- Story Arc: The main plotline can be divided into arcs according to the countries they take place in.
- Story Branching: The format of the individual stories: a single line until it branches into two routes, a Yang route and a Yin route. Which route you're allowed to take corresponds to the Awakened form you've given the character. Despite the names, both endings are positive. Depending on the character, some of the endings, on the other hand…
- Averted with the Geppaku characters.
- Suddenly Voiced: In any story mode, most lines from the Men of Tsukuyomi aren't voiced. Justified because of the Hello, [Insert Name Here] thing (though there are rare exceptions). Voiced lines will have a loudspeaker icon appearing next to the character's name above the dialogue box.
- Super-Deformed: All characters' battle sprites.
- Switching P.O.V.: The blue chapters are narrated from the Tsukuyomi danshi's viewpoints.
- Trademark Favorite Food/Does Not Like Spam: All the characters' in-game entries have information on their favorite and least favorite food.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The first few seconds of the Kimi no Soba e opening PV show Seimei surrounded by a bunch of shikigami and what seems to be dark aura. At the Kotohogi no Hana PV's 42 second mark, the same picture of Seimei is shown, along with Shinsaku facing off against him.
- Walking Spoiler: Susano'o, the one causing the whole lost sun issue in the first place and the one goading Seimei into becoming his high priest.
- Wham Episode: The last chapter of the Inoridono arc comes with the shocking reveal that Seimei is Evil All Along and has used the Miko's powers to summon Susanoo-no-mikoto instead of Amatsukami.
- Wham Line: "I don't believe in this world" says Seimei.
- Wutai: Hinomoto. It compresses a huge span of Japanese history into one world, each period represented by a country. The name of the world itself is homophonous with the old name of Japan.
