To Heart is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by Leaf and released for the PC in 1997. It was later ported to the PlayStation and given voice acting. A second PC version, To Heart PSE was released to the PC and PlayStation with the adult scenes removed.
It was followed by a sequel, To Heart 2, and two anime series.
The gameplay in To Heart requires little player interaction, following predetermined scenarios with courses of interaction, focusing on the appeal of the eight female main characters. Every so often the player will come to a "decision point", and the story progresses according to the player's decisions. There are eight main plotlines, one for each of the main heroines. In order to see all the possible storylines, the player must replay the game multiple times, making different selections at the decision points.
The characters from To Heart appear as playable characters in The Queen of Heart, a series of doujin fighting games by Watanabe Seisakujo (Known nowadays as Frech Bread).
Aquaplus and Examu worked jointly to produce Aquapazza, a crossover Fighting Game featuring characters from several Aquaplus works, released in June 2011. Multi, the local Robot Girl, was chosen to represent To Heart as a playable character, while Serika, the Cute Witch, can be selected as a support.
This game contains examples of:
- All Just a Dream: The first omake, where Hiroyuki wakes up in a world where his friends have swapped roles: Shiho and Akari, Lemmy and Kotone, Hoshina and Aoi, Multi and Serika.
- Angst: Akari falls into this in Remember my Memories.
- The Anime of the Game note
- Art Shift: The original 1999 TV series and Remember my Memories (2004) feature drastically different character designs, color schemes, and general "looks." While this led to cries of
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!, RMM's style is actually closer to the original game artwork. - Balloon Belly: Shiho in episode 9 of Remember my Memories.
- But Not Too Foreign: Lemmy is half Japanese and half American. She has blond hair and blue eyes, and is a Huge Schoolgirl who occasionally uses Gratuitous English.
- Class Representative: Tomoko Hoshina.
- Continuity Cameo: Several. See trope page for details.
- Continuity Nod: As mentioned on the To Heart 2 page, the CD that Sango Himeyuri gave to Nagase is HMX-17 Ilfa's operating system.
- Cute Bruiser: Aoi Matsubara.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Serika Kurusugawa, the local Cute Witch, may be an occultist, but in no way is she evil.
- Dating Sim: One of the first ones.
- Deadpan Snarker: Hiroyuki Fujita.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Serio has no light in her eyes, unlike her emotional sisters.
- Flung Clothing: In the fifth omake of To Heart: Remember My Memories, Akari Kamigishi takes off her bear costume in front of a stunned Multi.
- Foreign Language Title
- Hostile Show Takeover: Multi in the sequel.
- Hot Springs Episode: Episode 9 of Remember my Memories, but done more for drama rather than Fanservice (we do see a nude Akari) the whole scene is spent with her and Hiroyuki in a heart-to-heart talk, which in the end doesn't resolve their relationship problems.
- Huge Schoolgirl: Lemmy.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Hiroyuki, though he's more aloof than he is a jerk.
- Last Episode, New Character: Konomi Yuzuhara from To Heart 2 appears in the sixth omake of To Heart: Remember My Memories, which doubles as an Early-Bird Cameo.
- The Himeyuri twins from To Heart 2 appear in the final episode (though they also make an appearance in an earlier episode), and a Continuity Nod follows (as stated above).
- Letting Her Hair Down: Tomoko Hoshina in Remember my Memories, who also appears without her glasses, which makes her unrecognizable to Hiroyuki and company so she has to wear her glasses again and hold her hair up to jog their memory.
- Like Brother and Sister: Used in the original game, with the Official Couple. When Hiroyuki finally gets Akari into his bed, he is mortified to discover he can't get it up, as he thinks of her more as a little sister than actual mating material (a "decision point" appears here, giving the player the option to get over it).
- Love Triangle: Hiroyuki, Akari, and Shiho in the first season.
- It expands into a Love Dodecahedron in Remember my Memories with Kotone and Lemmy confessing to Hiroyuki, while Multi inadvertently keeps Hiroyuki's attention enough to make Akari jealous, and then there's Masashi confessing to Akari.
- My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: The rift that developed between Aoi Matsubara and Sakashita-senpai in To Heart was the result of the latter's unacceptance of "Extreme Fighting" as a martial art. Said rift disappeared in Remember My Memories when Aoi defeated her senior Ayaka Kurusugawa who had defeated Sakashita earlier on in the tourney with one roundhouse kick to the head.
- Not a Morning Person: Hiryouki needs to be waken up every morning by Akari, otherwise he comes running late for school. He's still that way even after the end of Remember my Memories: Akari "tries something" to wake him up for Multi's "reactivation", and Hiroyuki reacts in a way such that later Akari is seen covering her eye and saying "it hurts".
- Official Couple: Hiroyuki and Akari, as mentioned above.
- Omake: Six stand-alone omakes were made for the first To Heart anime series, and later seven more for Remember my Memories.
- One Head Taller: Lemmy Miyauchi is the only one who is taller than Hiroyuki, for obvious reasons.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Hiroyuki.
- Panty Fighter: The seven omakes for Remember My Memories.
- Paper Fan of Doom: Tomoko Hoshina's favored weapon.
- Patient Childhood Love Interest: Akari
- Psychic Powers: Kotone Himekawa (see Woobie entry, below).
- In the original To Heart anime, Kotone's powers merely involved premonition, however, in Remember my Memories, her powers became telekinesis instead.
- Her telekinesis powers were revealed in the omake to the original series, so she could arguably have both.
- In the original To Heart anime, Kotone's powers merely involved premonition, however, in Remember my Memories, her powers became telekinesis instead.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Multi, who single-handedly popularized the "mechanical ears" look for anime gynoids.
- Robot Girl: Multi, the earliest example in a Dating Sim context.
- Robot Maid: Several, including Multi and Serio.
- Snow Means Love: The finale of the first season.
- Spell My Name With An S: The fansubs for To Heart spelled it as Remmy, but then the fansubs for Remember my Memories spelled it as Lemmy, which was the spelling official dub and sub translations used for the original To Heart anime.
- Spinoff: To Heart 2.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Multi in the sequel.
- Multi also proved exceptionally popular in fandom after the first To Heart anime aired, which is likely why she got so much focus in RMM.
- Tamer and Chaster: To Heart was among the very first TV adaptations of an eroge to achieve widespread success.
- Tsundere: Shiho Nagaoka is a Type A.
- 12-Episode Anime: Two of them, anyway. Separated by a 1-year Time Skip in-story, and a 5-year gap in production dates.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Lemmy, as revealed in Remember my Memories, was actually a childhood friend of Hiroyuki (complete with a picture of her and Hiroyuki, with her hair dyed black), but moved to America all of a sudden before the first series before coming back; she was in love with him this whole time, and she not only confessed to him in RMM, but tried to get him to elope with her when it turns out she's moving back to America soon. He turned her down though.
- Victorious Childhood Friend: While there are multiple route due to the nature of the game, Akari is more or less the main heroine.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Ayaka Kurusugawa. See My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours, above.
