Sumire (すみれ) is a drama and mystery visual novel developed by NekoNeko Soft and released in 2015 for the company's 15th anniversary. I played this in 2023, and it is one of the visual novels I have the fondest memories of. I remember being enthralled by the starting scene as it gave me some huge nostalgic feelings.

The story follows Katase Kenji, an adult who spends his free time after work in a special virtual space called Galge Gakuen (using the nickname "Ken-chan") together with two friends nicknamed "Pink" and "Tae." Initially, they only passed time talking about visual novels, but as time passed, they started becoming closer while still keeping their real-life identities hidden.

This special virtual space is already past its prime, and you rarely see new faces. Despite that, a new user enters the chat who is completely oblivious to the unwritten rules of the place and is extremely innocent and pure. They nickname her "Moe," and she enters the circle of friends having fun together.

This seems to be all peaceful until Kenji encounters Moe in real life. He tries to feign ignorance of the whole situation to keep the rule of separating online and offline identities, but this fails after learning that this girl, named Hatsushiba Sumire, is his new stepsister after his father remarries.

At the same time, his father asks him to help her with tutoring, so the two start to get closer. As their relationship develops, the other two girls (named Sasaki Hinahime and Shinohara Akari in the real world) from the online space also become intertwined with Kenji as he learns about their past trauma and the mystery behind this whole situation.

The story centers around themes like bullying, guilt, redemption, and sickness. The visual novel delivers them with a mix of lighthearted comedy (especially in the virtual space) and serious reflection. It has quite a few heavy flashback scenes, especially in Hinahime’s story, that left me completely speechless.

Without delving too much into spoilers, the titular heroine Sumire is probably the one with the fewest problems in the story, as she was just a "stray" and was not intended to be in that virtual space in the first place. Her feeling of being "out of place" within the class resonated with Kenji's initial dialogue about his work routine, and it is one of the elements I particularly liked in the story.

Whenever Hinahime and Akari are involved, the story goes back in time to their childhood. Figuring out how they are all connected to each other is one of the most important pieces to solving the mystery. The truth behind their situation is not clear until the very end, as each party is an unreliable narrator who only knows their own side.

My favorite character is definitely Hinahime. Seeing her slowly open up to Kenji was amazing, and her backstory makes me go into full protective mode for her. She really had it hard through no fault of her own; it is hard not to pray for her to get a shining, happy life from now on.

The art follows the typical style of NekoNeko Soft games and is generally high quality. I really love the bright colors and contrast they use in some of the scenes. Also, due to the style, all the heroines lean heavily on the "cute" side of attractive rather than the "hot" one.

The soundtrack is downright amazing; I still listen to all three songs from this game to this day. "Sleeping Pretend" by Marika is the OP song, which really reflects Sumire's situation. There is also the ED song "Sumire" by Yakushi Ruri and the insert song (probably the most emotional), "Piano" by Hyo-sei.

This series really only has one route that goes over the problems of all three girls and solve the mystery. There are small deviations that show the obligatory ecchi scenes with Akari and Hinahime, but Sumire is the only real heroine of the story in the truest sense. This is also one of the issues I had with the series, as I would have liked separate endings for them.

Sumire is one of the best visual novels that I have read, and I really suggest giving it a chance if you can. I wish I could re-experience it without knowing what is going to happen, but maybe I will give it another run in the far future when I have forgotten most of the details, like I did with Sumaga.