is a 2013

otome game An , is a story-based video game that is targeted towards women. Generally one of the goals, besides the main idea/goal, is to develop a romantic relationship between the female player/main character and one of the second-lead male characters. His ...

for

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

. It was developed by

Otomate is a Japanese video game developer and publisher founded by former Data East , also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 ...

and published by

Idea Factory is a Japanese video game developer and publisher founded by former Data East , also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 ...

. A

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...

port, entitled ''Norn9: Var Commons'', was released on December 11, 2014. A fandisk titled ''Norn9: Last Era'' has been announced and was released on April 2, 2015. On March 2, 2014, it was announced that an anime adaptation was in the works. The anime ran from January 7 to March 31, 2016.

Plot

Guided by a strange, haunting song, elementary-schooler Sorata Suzuhara from the

Heisei Era The is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Emeritus Akihito from 8 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito, ...

is warped back in time to 1919, in a high-tech ship called Norn9. This ship, flying above towns resembling that of the Meiji or Taishō period, harbours The Gifted, a group of three girls and eight boys with special abilities. As he tries to find a way to return to his time, he discovers incredible secrets about the world and spacetime itself.

Anime

On March 2, 2014, Idea Factory announced that ''Norn9: Norn + Nonette'' has an anime in the works during the "Norn9 with Ark & for Spica" event at Tokyo's Nakano Sun Plaza. The anime aired from January 7 to March 31, 2016. The opening theme is "Kazakiri" by

Nagi Yanagi , stylized as , is a Japanese singer and songwriter from Osaka Prefecture who is signed to NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan. After becoming interested with music in her childhood, she began singing and writing original songs. In 2006, she began ...

and the ending theme is "Zero Tokei" by

Kaori Oda is a Japanese pop singer. She is one of the long-time vocalists of the FictionJunction project started by Yuki Kajiura; joining the group in 2005. She has performed a number of theme songs for anime television series including '' Tsubasa: Res ...

. On December 29, 2015, the anime was licensed by

Sentai Filmworks Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is S ...

in North America. The series was streamed on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

and Anime Network.

Episode list

Note

Music

The game's background music was written by Australian composer

Kevin Penkin Kevin Penkin (born 22 May 1992) is a British-born Australian composer, primarily for video games and anime. He is best known for composing the score of the anime '' Made in Abyss'', which won Best Score at the 2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and t ...

. Famed ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

'' series composer

Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the ''Final Fantasy'' video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton Jo ...

wrote the game's main theme, which was arranged by Penkin. Three pieces of

theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

are used throughout the game. The opening is ''melee'', the ending theme is ''many universes'', and the insert song is . All three songs are performed by

. For ''Norn9: Last Era'', the opening theme is ''foe'' while the ending theme is ''skyscape''. Both songs are also performed by Yanagi.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2013 video games 2016 anime television series debuts Idea Factory franchises NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan Orange (animation studio) Otome games PlayStation Portable games PlayStation Vita games Sentai Filmworks Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Kevin Penkin