The story
Founded by Itaru Hinoue, Jun Maeda, Naoki Hisaya and Shinji Orito on Jul 21, 1998, in Osaka.1
Before forming Key, the founding members worked for another visual novel development company called Nexton under the brand Tactics. At the time of Dōsei's production, Tactics' first game, four of Key's original staff worked on the game: Itaru Hinoue as art director, Shinji Orito as musical composer, and Miracle Mikipon and Shinory contributing to the computer graphics. After Dōsei, the rest of Key's founding staff—Naoki Hisaya, Jun Maeda and OdiakeS—joined Tactics and contributed to two more games: Moon released on November 21, 1997, and One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e released on May 29, 1998. Due to differing opinions between Nexton and most of the production staff in Tactics on how to produce the brand's next game, most of Tactics' staff left Nexton to pursue work in another publishing company where they could have the freedom to produce their next game.
Itaru Hinoue, who had previously worked at Visual Arts once before, introduced Key's founding members to the president of Visual Arts, Takahiro Baba. Baba gave the developers the freedom they desired, and they officially transferred to Visual Arts where they formed Key on July 21, 1998. With the production of Key's debut title Kanon still in its early stages, a brand name had still not been decided on by the developers. The tentative brand name was Azurite (アズライト, Azuraito) at first, but Jun Maeda was not pleased with this and wanted a name that would capture the image of the brand. Maeda came upon the name Key when he saw it on a sign for a musical instrument store he would always pass on his way to work and instantly liked the name. The name Key for the studio was ultimately decided by majority rule. Key released Kanon on June 4, 1999, as an adult game, though the scenes containing adult content were kept to a minimum. This gave the player more of a focus on the characters' stories and on the visuals and music, especially for a visual novel at the time of its release. A year later, on September 8, 2000, Key released their second game Air, which was also an adult game and similar in storytelling to Kanon.
Key's third game Clannad is a visual novel similar to Key's previous games, but contains no adult content. Clannad was meant to be released in 2002, but was delayed, leading to the game finally being released on April 28, 2004. Seven months after Clannad's release, Key released their shortest game, Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet, on November 29, 2004 with a rating for all ages. Planetarian, in contrast to Key's past games, is a linear visual novel that does not require the user to make choices during gameplay; this is what is referred to as a kinetic novel. The brand's fifth game is Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life, an adult game and spin-off of Clannad released on November 25, 2005, which expanded on the scenario of the heroine Tomoyo Sakagami from Clannad. Key released their sixth game, Little Busters!, on July 27, 2007 with no adult content, but released another version of the game entitled Little Busters! Ecstasy on July 25, 2008, with added adult content, story, and visuals.
In commemoration of Key's ten-year anniversary, Key and Visual Arts held a two-day event between February 28 and March 1, 2009, called "Key 10th Memorial Fes: Ano Hi kara Hajimatta Bokura no Toki o Kizamu Uta" (～あの日から始まった僕らの時を刻む唄～). Key collaborated with P.A. Works and Aniplex to produce the anime series Angel Beats! that aired between April and June 2010. Key's eighth game Kud Wafter was released on June 25, 2010, as an adult spin-off of Little Busters!, which expanded on the scenario of the heroine Kudryavka Noumi from Little Busters! and Ecstasy. Key released their ninth game Rewrite on June 24, 2011, with a rating for all ages, and an all ages fan disc to Rewrite titled Rewrite Harvest festa! was released on July 27, 2012. In commemoration of Key's 15-year anniversary, the visual novel adaptation Angel Beats! 1st Beat was released on June 26, 2015. Key again collaborated with P.A. Works and Aniplex to produce the anime series Charlotte that aired between July and September 2015. Key released the kinetic novel Harmonia on September 23, 2016, and it was available in English before its Japanese release on December 29, 2016. Key released the visual novel Summer Pockets on June 29, 2018; an expanded version titled Summer Pockets Reflection Blue was released on June 26, 2020. Key collaborated for a third time with P.A. Works and Aniplex to produce the anime series The Day I Became a God that aired between October and December 2020.
Key announced the development of three kinetic novels in October 2020: Loopers, Lunaria: Virtualized Moonchild, and Stella of The End. Loopers was released on May 28, 2021. Lunaria: Virtualized Moonchild was released on December 24, 2021. Stella of The End was released on September 30, 2022. Key also revealed in October 2020 the multimedia project Prima Doll in collaboration with plastic model and figurine manufacturer Kotobukiya. A 12-episode anime television series for Prima Doll aired between July and September 2022. Key released the Planterian Ultimate Edition on September 3, 2021, which also included Planetarian: Snow Globe, a kinetic novel version of the previously released prequel short story of the same name. Key collaborated with video game developer Wright Flyer Studios to produce the mobile role-playing game Heaven Burns Red released on February 10, 2022, for iOS and Android devices. A four-volume kinetic novel series for Prima Doll began with volume one released on April 28, 2023. Volume two will be released on May 31, 2024. Key announced a new visual novel named Anemoi on November 15, 2023. A new kinetic novel titled Kōsai Toshi: Augment Protocol (虹彩都市 augment protocol) set for release in 2024 was announced on December 15, 2023.
Key Sounds Label
In 2001, Visual Arts created the record label Key Sounds Label (KSL). The music albums and singles released by Key after this were put under this label, meaning that this does not include the first two albums and one single which were released before it was officially formed. The first album on this label was Humanity..., though the only direct connection to Key's works is that it contains a remixed version of the opening theme to Air. The albums under the label are mainly composed by Key's signature composers: Jun Maeda, Shinji Orito and Magome Togoshi. Three of the singles feature songs sung by Lia and one album, Love Song, features the singer Riya from Eufonius. Three drama CDs have been released as well.
To celebrate Key's ten-year anniversary, Key hosted a concert called KSL Live World 2008: Way to the Little Busters! EX on May 10, 2008, in Tokyo, Japan, and again on May 17, 2008, in Osaka, Japan. Each time, the concert lasted for two and a half hours and featured songs sung by Lia, Rita, Chata, and Tomoe Tamiyasu who have previously sung songs for singles and albums released under Key Sounds Label. Another concert called KSL Live World 2010: Way to the Kud-Wafter was held in Tokyo between May 21–22, 2010. A third content called KSL Live World 2013: Way to the Little Busters! Refrain was held in Koto, Tokyo on September 16, 2013. A fourth concert called KSL Live World: Way to the Angel Beats! -1st- was held in Akihabara, Tokyo on April 11 and April 12, 2015. A fifth concert called KSL Live World 2016: The Animation Charlotte & Rewrite was held in Toyosu, Tokyo on April 30, 2016.
Key Net Radio
Key produced 30 episodes of an Internet radio show called Key Net Radio (Keyらじ, Key Raji) in regard to the brand between December 13, 2007 and August 30, 2010. It was hosted by Shinji Orito and Itaru Hinoue of Key, and another woman named Chiro who works for Pekoe, another visual novel studio under Visual Arts. Listeners could submit thoughts about the show and any requests they may have for the show, along with submitting questions to the host trio. The broadcasts were available via download on Key's official website and were available for download on the radio show's official blog for the first nine broadcasts. The broadcasts could also be listened to on Visual Arts' YouTube channel named Visual Channel.
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For the first six episodes, the show had five corners, or parts, which started with opening greetings from the hosts and went on to thoughts and impressions that listeners had about the show. This moved on to an informal talk between the hosts, followed by a section where entries previously submitted by listeners concerning their enthusiasm for Key were read by the hosts. The fourth corner concerned answering questions that had been submitted by listeners, and the final corner had Orito playing the flute; listeners could submit suggestions for songs he was to play. Two more corners were added starting with the seventh broadcast. The first corner added concerns scary stories that the hosts can tell themselves, or read from submissions by listeners, and was added partly because Hinoue enjoys such stories. The second corner added deals with submissions by listeners describing a new fictional character, and Hinoue takes these submissions and forms a new fictional character out of combining elements from multiple submissions together. During the broadcasts, tracks from the soundtracks released under Key Sounds Label play in the background.
Comiket involvement
Comiket, short for Comic Market, is a large comic convention held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan during August and December, which are referred to as the summer and winter Comic Markets, respectively. Key has been an active participant in the convention since Comiket 57 in December 1999, where they sold Kanon-related products (as Kanon was their only release at the time); one such product was a Zippo lighter. The first Air-related products Key sold at the convention were at Comiket 59 in December 2000. Typical products include: postcards, telephone cards, calendars, posters, and albums. The products Key sells at Comiket are all related to the visual novels the brand produces.
Key, through Visual Arts, generally participates at the winter Comiket in conjunction with other brands under Visual Arts, but has been known to appear at the summer Comiket too, such as with Comiket 70 in August 2006 where they sold Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet related products. The combined total of the products Key sells at a given Comiket range in price between 3,000 and 5,000 yen. This includes the selling of music albums released under Key's record label Key Sounds Label which has been releasing albums since Comiket 60 in August 2001 with the release of the label's first two albums, Humanity... and "Natsukage / Nostalgia". If there are any unsold products by the end of a given Comiket, Visual Arts has been known to set up an online mail order to sell the remaining goods from all the brands under Visual Arts that participated at Comiket. After Comiket 73 in December 2007, Visual Arts started taking mail orders on March 4, 2008, and only six days later on March 10, 2008, Key reported that all of Key's goods sold at Comiket 73 were now sold out. At the end of the second day of Comiket 75 in December 2008, all of Key's goods at the convention were sold out.
From Wikipedia’s article on Key (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4