CROSS†CHANNEL



A Visual Novel created by Flying Shine in 2003. CROSS†CHANNEL is an H-game for PC with a clean version available for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable called CROSS†CHANNEL ～To all people～, and a newer version with added CGs and scenarios for the Xbox 360 called CROSS†CHANNEL ~In memory of all people~. A translation for both the clean and H version is available from Amaterasu Translations.

Self proclaimed "Love Aristocrat" Taichi Kurosu attends a school called Gunjou Institute with his fellow members of the Broadcasting Club. Gunjou is a place for people who, based on an adaption exam, have an abnormally high adaptation coefficient. This means that the government has deemed them unlikely to be able to adapt into society. Taichi himself has an adaptation coefficient of over 80, which is thought to be impossible.

After a slow falling out between members, Taichi attempts to bring the fractured Broadcasting Club back together by getting them to go on a camping trip together. This trip serves to only fracture the relationships between members even more, ending up a disaster. But as the members make their way back to town, they discover that every living thing has somehow disappeared from the world, leaving only them behind. Taichi tries to convince the others to help rebuild the broadcasting antenna so as to contact other survivors.

Strangely enough, the characters were the basis for the highly popular flash game NANACA†CRASH!!

"Misato: "What were the ingredients in these?" Taichi: "Lemon and sugar and egg whites and-" Taichi: "......my two hundred million cute little wonderful lives.""
 * All Men Are Perverts: The few male characters we do see are rather perverted to some degree.
 * All There in the Manual : The bonus scenario Tower of Friends, which (sort of) answers some of the most puzzling questions of the main game via a quick Mind Screw full of Nightmare Fuel.
 * Amnesiac Dissonance:
 * Angrish : Touko will lapse into this if Taichi pushes her too far. You can partially blame it on her lisp.
 * Announcer Chatter : Shows up to explain Touko's katana as well as Taichi's Karade (Not Karate).
 * Arc Words: "Friendship desires..." "Nothing."
 * Art Shift: When Tomoki punches Taichi in the face, there's a brief picture of the scene being shown in The Powerpuff Girls style.
 * Awful Truth:
 * Axes At School: Kiri has the crossbow she pulls out of her Hyperspace Arsenal. Unfortunately, there's nobody else but the cast in the whole city.
 * Batman Gambit
 * Bittersweet Ending :
 * Bleached Underpants : The Updated Rereleases of this game are all clean versions. NANACA†CRASH!! could also be a possibility.
 * If you compare the old and new trailers, you can see that they even edited out the Panty Shots.
 * Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Somewhat literally when Taichi explains what's in his handmade popsicles. Misato is not pleased.


 * Break the Cutie: Okay, who doesn't go through this throughout the course of the story? There's Sakuraba, and... that's it, really.
 * Bromantic Foil : Hiroshi, Tomoki, even Yutaka to an extent.
 * Brother-Sister Incest : Taichi amuses himself by calling Tomoki a siscon. However, Tomoki doesn't really get along with Misato very well.
 * But Thou Must!: When Miki attacks you, you have three choices: Look at her panties, Look at her panties, and Look at her panties.
 * Call Back: Especially common in Justified due to the loop mechanics.
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * Club Stub: The Broadcasting Club was this, but Taichi slowly got some members to join.
 * Coincidental Broadcast: With a dose of Mood Whiplash.

"Taichi: "That's just too weird! There's no way something so big could fit in your pocket!""
 * Conflict Ball: Kiri has a death grip on one for the majority of the game.
 * Deconstruction : Isn't it interesting how all these tsunderes, cuckoolanders, emotionless girls and whatnot are all living together in a community for those who cannot function properly in society?
 * Golden Ending: deconstructed as pointed out by Youko
 * Dartboard of Hate: Except replace "darts" with "crossbow" and "dartboard" with.
 * Despair Event Horizon: Taichi suffers some pretty major Sanity Slippage throughout the whole game, but he comes closest to this in . After his realization, he finally decides to truly become The Atoner and
 * Destructive Romance: Taichi used to be in this type of relationship. Taichi was basically using her as an experiment to see just how much he could break her while retaining his sanity,  And when he decided to break the relationship? Hoo boy...
 * Diabolus Ex Machina:
 * Downer Ending : Not to the game itself, but some routes end poorly.
 * Dysfunction Junction : It's important to remember that everyone in this has been deemed unlikely to be able to adapt to society. They ALL have something wrong with them. Except Sakuraba, who is only in the school because he requested to be transferred there
 * Ear Cleaning: In Miki's route. Unfortunately, Miki is terrible with this.
 * Elevator School: Gunjou is one without the university.
 * Every One Remembers the Stripper: Or more specifically, everyone remembers the special edition vibrator.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin :
 * Four Loves: Considering the theme of the game, it appears often.
 * Storge: Kiri towards Yutaka, Tomoki and Misato, . Sakuraba is also said to have a very good family, unlike Touko.
 * Phileos: The Broadcasting Club (and Tomoki), of course.
 * Eros: Pretty much all the girls you see towards Taichi.
 * Agape:
 * Futureshadowing:
 * The Ghost: Mutsumi-san, Taichi's caretaker.
 * Good People Have Good Sex: Played with. Most of Taichi's "encounters" are forceful, yet passionate, reflecting his somewhat skewed morality. However, during, the sex is shown to be incredibly awkward, yet it's probably the one where Taichi cared the most.
 * Gratuitous Foreign Language: Taichi mixes in quite a few languages in his speech, and once even emulated a Mexican accent.
 * Gratuitous English: Sakuraba gets to show off his supposed bilingual ability in Miki's route.
 * Groundhog Day Loop
 * Guy-On-Guy Is Hot: This seems to be the opinion of most of the girls, especially when they hear about Taichi and Sakuraba's story.
 * Hollywood Personality Disorders: Almost everyone in Gunjou has some sort of "ultramarine", but not all of them are specified. A few may even have multiple.
 * Hyperspace Arsenal : Where Touko's Demon Harakiri Blade and Kiri's Buckmaster's Mark Point Crossbow come from. Also Lampshaded by Taichi.
 * Hyperspace Arsenal : Where Touko's Demon Harakiri Blade and Kiri's Buckmaster's Mark Point Crossbow come from. Also Lampshaded by Taichi.

"Tomoki: Lower classes, lower income! Taichi: Earth debris! Tomoki: Lone survivor of the stock market crash! Taichi: D-d-d-don't talk about my stocks!"
 * In-Series Nickname: The "Flowers" for Kiri and Miki.
 * Irony: Despite Sakuraba being the most stable member of the group, he's also the Cloudcuckoolander.
 * I Take Offense to That Last One : An exchange of insults between Tomoki and Taichi.


 * Kansai Regional Accent: Tomoki and Misato are hinted to be from Kansai. If so, then they pretty much avert The Idiot From Osaka, as they're pretty knowledgeable, and Tomoki is basically the Straight Man of the guys.
 * Kill'Em All : Endings for some routes and bad ends.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall : During the second to last week
 * Earlier on, Taichi wonders to himself, "Am I some sort of Eroge hero or something?"
 * Limited Wardrobe: Actually pointed out when Taichi remarks on how Youko never bothers to change her dirty uniform. When he asks how Touko is able to keep wearing the same dress while keeping it clean, Youko mentions that it's because she has multiple copies of the same outfit.
 * Lonely Piano Piece: All over the soundtrack.
 * Machiavelli Was Wrong: In a rather unique way.
 * Madness Mantra:
 * Malaproper: Taichi is really bad with this. His weird usage of Gratuitous English makes it even worse.
 * Meaningful Echo: "I'm sorry... that's all I can leave you with..." Unique in that.
 * Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness : Very far on the "soft" end. The game could almost be categorized as Fantasy, if not for the fact that the mechanics of the Groundhog Day Loop are an important plot point and a quantum pseudoscience explanation is given for the phenomenon.
 * Multiple Endings : All of which are in a sense canon! However, Youko points out that There's only one 'true' ending.
 * No Periods, Period: Averted twice: one in the beginning of the story with Touko, and another with Kiri in a rather Squick-worthy moment.
 * Panty Shot : At least one for almost every female character! Taichi likes pointing them out.
 * Plot Based Photograph Obfuscation: To conceal
 * Punny Name: In the Updated Rerelease on the Xbox 360, Misato decides to call a dog "Poko-chin". Chinpoko is Japanese slang for a tiny penis...
 * Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory : Averted. Taichi can never remember what happened in a past week, but there is the spot safe from resets at the hokora. Notebooks are stored there.
 * The hokora is also
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Kiri and Miki.
 * Rule of Three: Used for laughs and drama at different points. The But Thou Must! segment uses this trope for comedy, while are repeated thrice for an extra punch in the gut.
 * Sanity Slippage : Everyone, but it is most obvious with Taichi. Each arc shows you a more tragic and/or crazy Taichi than the last. It's especially bad in Kiri's route, which gets rather... unpleasant. It's the route that really introduces just how messed up Taichi is, so the writers pulled no punches in making the point.
 * Single-Issue Psychology : Largely Averted - though the concept of an "adaptation coefficient" is utterly laughable and several characters' "ultramarines" (i.e. the reason they were sent to Gunjou) are singled out, it's also implied that their "defining" neuroses are hardly their only ones, and what few issues are conquered during the course of the game don't magically turn them into well-adjusted people overnight.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Despite the rampant deconstruction of anime cliches and aversion of Single-Issue Psychology, the game ends in a largely idealistic manner.
 * The Power of Friendship: The game revolves around this. It's friendship that helps the Broadcasting Club live through their problems, even if they can't exactly get over them.
 * The Power of Love:
 * There Are No Therapists: You know it's bad when there's an entire school dedicated to isolating all the crazy people.
 * Through His Stomach : Indirect version. Yuusa's mom tries to get on Taichi's good side by giving him really good food for lunch and lots of it.
 * Title Drop : When the Broadcasting Club decides on the name of their channel before their first broadcast.
 * Trailers Always Lie : As seen here
 * Thankfully, the new trailer is a lot more indicative of the mood.
 * Updated Rerelease: CROSS†CHANNEL ~To all people~ for the PlayStation 2 and PSP and CROSS†CHANNEL ~In memory of all people~ for the Xbox 360.
 * Utsuge: Especially in the final weeks.
 * Wham! Line: At least for Kiri:
 * Xanatos Gambit:
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Largely averted, as everyone and their dog notices Taichi's pure white hair and remarks upon it as strange. It's also a kind of a plot point.
 * Xanatos Gambit:
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Largely averted, as everyone and their dog notices Taichi's pure white hair and remarks upon it as strange. It's also a kind of a plot point.