This is an agonizing wintertime love song.
White Wings is a mini Visual Novel released on Steam and published by Pureworks Japan in July, 2020 with console ports published by Moesoft Limited in November, 2023.
Hiroshi Fujihara is the son of a famous writer mother and film director father. After a bitter divorce when he was 10 years old, he's since lived with his mother in a loveless home where his attempts to earn her recognition for any of his efforts is nothing but futile. One day during his senior year in high school, Hiroshi's mother orders him to resign from the basketball team (his one true passion) and attend supplementary classes for college preparation instead. Wanting to please his mother, he reluctantly obeys. That act, along with two chance encounters at his regular and preparatory schools would end up changing his life for better or worse depending on his choices in meeting Moe Miyazawa and Reika Fukihara.
White Wings contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- Hiroshi's mother is incredibly aloof and only worries about how his actions will affect her reputation as a famous author.
- Both of Reika's father and stepfather are alcoholics who regularly hit her. Made even worse upon The Reveal that Reika's stepfather is Hiroshi's biological father.
- Moe reveals that her parents basically abandoned her in Japan and both returned to America to continue life without her without contact beyond financial aid.
- Affectionate Nickname: As Hiroshi ends up on a First-Name Basis with both Moe and Reika, they insist on calling him "Hiro."
- Alpha Bitch: Megumi Ozasa is the apparent leader of the trio that bullies Moe throughout the story, mainly due to her being the most outgoing and vocal of the three.
- Beneath the Mask: Hiroshi's friendliness and treating everyone at school well is a cover for his crippling depression and feelings on his rotten home life.
- Betty and Veronica: (Revealed to be) childhood friend Moe as the Betty and beautiful newcomer Reika as the Veronica. And, in a secondary application of the trope, the two girls are best friends with each other (until they amicably end their friendship late in the story).
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sayori Nakiri, the most popular girl at school until Moe transferred in, puts on the air of a nice girl but is secretly the one who has Megumi and Amane bully Moe so she can make a play for Tatsuhiko, making her the true Alpha Bitch of the trio. Tatsuhiko immediately sees through it and shoots her down because of her actions when she tries to confess to him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Even the good endings aren't wholly happy courtesy of what happens to the heroine not chosen.
- In Moe's ending, it's implied Reika followed them to Tokyo and is stalking Hiroshi while working near his university as she can't let him go.
- In Reika's ending, they receive a photo of Moe marrying Tatsuhiko with her not looking very happy about it with Hiroshi wondering how she found their address to imply she did so to make him feel guilty.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: Untranslated text, characters always being referred to nothing but their full names in the text, and the English text not matching up with the spoken dialogue are all present. The text also renders Hiroshi's family name as "Fujiwara" when all of the voiced dialogue uses "Fujihara."
- Calling the Old Man Out: Hiroshi still defends his mother's accomplishments and honor when he chews out his father over the phone for ending up being a loser who was jealous of his wife and blamed her for his own failures.
- Coming of Age Story: A dark one as Hiroshi's situation not only drives him apart from his best friend Tatsuhiko, but the friendship between the two main heroines as well.
- Driven to Suicide: Reika jumps off the school roof in her bad ending.
- Fatal Flaw: Indecision for Hiroshi. His actions in trying to always be nice to everyone to avoid short-term pain only ends up creating long-term pain for his circle of friends and leads to a bad ending if he doesn't stick with one of the two heroines in the Chapter 4 choices.
- Generation Xerox:
- Hiroshi hates himself for ending up like his cheating father after getting caught two-timing with Reika by Moe.
- Invoked by Reika in her bad ending when she tells Hiroshi they'll only end up like their parents in a fickle, loveless relationship if they stay together.
- Genki Girl: Reika is cute, energetic, and charismatic, making her a good fit for the school's cheerleading team and very popular.
- Girlish Pigtails: Moe's default hairstyle, which still endears her to everyone even in her final year of high school. She changes it in her good ending.
- Gory Discretion Shot: During Reika's bad ending, the credits begin rolling after she jumps off the roof, but the player is still treated to the sound of the impact and her body breaking.
- Ill Girl: Moe missed two separate years of school due to illness-induced stress from being bullied. As a result, she gets sick fairly easily when under a great deal of stress.
- Insult of Endearment: Part of Hiroshi and Reika's banter with each other involves them calling each other "idiot" junior and senior, respectively.
- Ladykiller in Love: Tatsuhiko, the most popular boy at school and who has a different girlfriend every 2-3 weeks, stops dating other girls in order to try and pursue Moe. She calls him out on this by saying he only wants her because she's the only girl who ever turned him down.
- Love Triangle: Twice over as both Moe and Reika fall for Hiroshi while both Hiroshi and Tatsuhiko fall for Moe.
- Multiple Endings: Both heroines have a good and bad ending each.
- In Moe's bad ending, she commits murder-suicide with Hiroshi so no one else can have him.
- In Moe's good ending, she and Hiroshi are living happily in Tokyo and it's implied that Reika managed to escape her awful home life.
- In Reika's bad ending, she knows that Hiroshi's heart still belongs to Moe and commits suicide by jumping off the school roof while he can only watch.
- In Reika's good ending, she and Hiroshi have eloped to Kyushu and found a peaceful rural life together.
- New Transfer Student: Moe transfers in to Hiroshi's class on the day that the story begins. She remembers him from their childhood. He does not, due to him thinking she was a boy named Moeru at the time.
- Nice Guy: Hiroshi tries to avoid conflict and treat everyone well, making him one of the more popular guys at school. Unfortunately, this also becomes one of his biggest flaws when it makes him too wishy-washy to cancel his original plans with Reika after starting to date Moe, leading her to walking in on them kissing at the festival at the end of Chapter 2.
- The Pollyanna: Reika puts on a front of never letting anything bother her, even when people can tell something is obviously very wrong, such as arriving at school with injuries obviously inflicted by her abusive stepfather.
- Poor Communication Kills: The main conflict of the story happens as the result of all three of the main characters failing to communicate with each other.
- If Hiroshi had told Moe that he had already made plans to go to the festival with Reika before they began dating, told Reika at the festival that he already had a girlfriend, or outright cancelled with Reika after getting together with Moe, it would have saved all of the long-term pain they all go through.
- If Moe or Reika at any time had told each other the name of the boy they both liked before the story revealed them being best friends with each other, they could have talked it out then and there.
- School Swimsuit: Moe's choice of swimwear during the Beach Episode at the pool.
- Stalker with a Crush: Reika knew where Hiroshi lived by following him home, took a job at the same place he worked at to be closer to him, and even broke into his house to care for him when he fell sick.
- Teen Genius: Moe is an exceptionally intelligent girl who managed to skip two grades during elementary and junior high school. She also manages to enroll in Tokyo University in her good ending.
- Unrequited Love:
- Amane Naito has had feelings for Hiroshi for a few years, but he doesn't return her feelings and, in one of the few instances where he's able to take direct action, is able to let her down gently for fear of hurting her even more if he played along.
- Heavily implied for Moe in Reika's good ending when the two receive a photo of her at her wedding to Tatsuhiko but her eyes are completely devoid of happiness.
- Victorious Childhood Friend: Moe in her good ending courtesy of having known Hiroshi when they were in kindergarten.
- We Used to Be Friends: By the end of the story, Hiroshi can only refer to Tatsuhiko as his "former best friend" when both his two-timing actions and them being in love with the same girl destroyed their friendship.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Hiroshi does his best to heed his mother's wishes so she'll recognize his progress and accomplishments, but that still isn't good enough for her.
- Wham Shot: When Reika invites Hiroshi back to her place and tells him about her stepfather, said stepfather returns home and Hiroshi immediately recognizes him as his own father.
- Yandere: Moe goes this route in her bad ending when she drugs Hiroshi with sleeping pills and morphine before proceeding to stab him to death and cutting her own throat so nobody else can have him.
