The personalities of the main characters are far from bad later on and I’d been far less annoyed at the beginning if they had been put into center like this. With all this chit-chat I actually just want to get at the fact that this beginning lays a completely wrong focus by concentrating so much on the characters looks while they themselves are hardly more than walking clichés at this point. In addition the character designs are fantastic in regards to the aspect that the funny expressions on the characters faces portray their joy exceptionally well and as a result got me smiling as well. It emanates an air of perfection that is hard to describe (If everything goes as planned, she will grace the banner of this text). My favourite design however is Isuka with long hair. From the protagonists I certainly like Kotori the most who looks very elegant befitting the outward appearance of her character. Disregarding the awful designs of the roommates of the residential home, the designs range from solid over excellent to outright breathtaking. I find this especially bizarre because I can see the designs of the characters and, by all means, I consider them to be pretty which is why there is no reason to constantly point this fact out to me. Meaning, if there are classmates again and again that are envious of the main character Aoi because he is surrounded by beautiful girls then I can only roll my eyes in annoyance. As the story goes on this part does get better and less obtrusive but the VN sadly gets back to it a bit too often to just write it off as a bumpy start. In this beginning period If My Heart Had Wings practically enters a delirium state whose only purpose seems to be to burn it into its readers brain that the girls are cute or beautiful and that the protagonist (and by that the reader) may develop a romantic relationship with them. The girl routes are a good keyword here since it clues us in that If My Heart Had Wings is a typical harem VN – luckily there are only a few choices to reach the routes – and this fact never shows more than in the dialogues at the beginning of the VN. This scene sums it up better than I ever could Simply because this element was practically completely lost there. It’s also the reason why I consider the common route to be much better than 4 of the 5 routes of the female protagonists (referred to as “girl routes” from here on out). As a result the whole visual novel feels much more alive and realistic. This doesn’t just show because the characters mention how much they love the sky and building a glider but also because they get lost in deeply illustrating concepts that are related to gliding itself. Simply because If My Heart Had Wings is amazing at portraying the joy and passion of the group about their hobby. I’m inclined to say that I’m a bit disappointed that there weren’t more scenarios and conversations in which the characters gloated over gliding. I never had this reaction while reading this visual novel however. There is always a certain risk attached to this that the reader might quickly lose interest as a result of the missing connection to the hobby and subsequently becomes bored in all scenes that deal with it. The hobby If My Heart Had Wings is all about couldn’t be further from my own though: Gliding. Therefore I’m glad that this aspect stands at the core of If My Heart Had Wings. They way they treat their hobby and which words they use to talk about it tell us a lot about them without someone having to point it out directly. Meaning that one could see this element as a lense for effective characterisation through which we can observe the characters well and subsequently understand them. Thanks to this I’m rooting for them and want to see them achieving their goal. That is mostly because the characters quickly become sympathetic and easy to support as a result of this.

I’ve always had a soft spot for stories in which characters lose themselves in a hobby and give their all to reach a specific goal related to this hobby.

If my heart had wings