~Story~
The door to madness opens with a creak...
Highschool student, Yuusuke Nagase is utterly done with the repetitivness of the real world. Most of the time, he finds himself captivated by vivid fantasies of destroying the word.
During class, Yuusuke was drawing in his notebook engaging in his usual delusions when a girl sitting next to him suddenly sprang up from her chair and began shouting obscenities in a loud voice. Just as the teacher was about to stop her, the girl's nails dug deep into her skin, staining her face with bright red blood. While the rest of the class gasped at this scene, Yuusuke felt his world finally regain it's color.
2 days after the incident, his uncle who just so happened to be a teacher at the school asked Yuusuke to meet him at the school rooftop. There, he told Yuusuke about a diary the girl had wrote before the incident. It seemed like every night she attended secret meetings at the school along with a couple other students. Because the patrolling teachers were unable to find any clues, Yuusuke's Uncle asked him to investigate the school at night as he would blend in better with the other students.
~Characters~
Ohta Kanako
Kanako used to be a popular girl with lots of friends, particulary Aihara Mizuho whom she was very close with ever since middle school. She was the vice president of the student council and always got good grades until one day, she suddenly got up in the middle of class and started to spout obscenities before scratching off her own face. After the incident she was immediately dragged to the infirmary then temporarly admitted to a local hospital. Since then she has become completly unresponsive and just keeps staring blankly into the ceiling while laying in the hospital bed.
Tsukishima Ruriko
A strange girl who comes to the rooftop everyday to collect electro-magnetic waves. She is the younger sister of the student council president, Tsukishima Takuya. Last year Yuusuke and her happened to be in the same class, back then she used sit in the corner reading books by hersef giving off an aura of a "sheltered young lady". Nowdays she has become more isolated then ever and has began to show signs of autism.
Shinjou Saori
A cheerful girl from the class next door. She is the president of the volleyball club and got involved in the case after witnessing 3 suspicious figures next to the 2nd gymnasium when she stayed at school late to train for an upcoming match. Saori is very expressive and loves to tell stories. She wants to help Yuusuke with the investigation because there is nothing that pisses her off more then people who make a fuss trying to scare others.
Aihara Mizuho
Secretary of the Student Council and Kanako Ohta's best friend. She is rather small and grows up slower then her peers which makes her insecure. Her father died when she was still in middle school which caused her family to move to a new town. She struggled to find friends and was bullied by a couple of boys who tried to play with the music box her father gave her before his death. At that moment Kanako stepped in and despite having her lip cut by the boys she helped Mizuho retrieve the box. She wants to help Yuusuke with the investigation to find the key to open Kanako's heart.
Tsukishima Takuya
President of the Student Council and Ruriko's older brother. He's a grade above Yuusuke and still visits the Student Council room despite having no reason to go to school anymore.
Nagase Genichirou
Younger brother of Yuusuke's father and a Modern Japanese teacher. He was put in charge of the investigation regarding Kanako's sudden mental breakdown. Avid opponent of the smoking ban in the teacher's lounge.
~Music~
The music in shizuku was composed by Ishikawa Shin'ya, Orito Shinji and Shimokawa Naoya. If you've read any shizuku reviews before then you'd know that even the biggest haters of this game won't complain about the music, and for a good reason! The music is truly one of Shizuku's biggest reedeming qualities. If you're been in the visual novel community for a while there's a chance you've heard Ruriko's theme "When the World Changes" before. It's truly a masterpiece and probably the game's most popular track. I'd like to give you a favorite as well but honestly I find it almost impossible with all the wonderful pieces...Campus Life/gap, MOON PHASE, BLUE HEAVEN and Even When Everything is Gone are some of my highlights but I adore Boredom and Invitation to Insanity as well! Madness is also an amazing theme that perfectly captures the sheer insanity of this story ^^
~How i discovered Shizuku~
Shizuku was actually my first ever eroge! So, you might wonder, why the hell this weird old untranslated game (it was untranslated when I first played it) instead of something like, idk Fate/Stay Night or Saya no uta?
Uhh well the answer is kind of stupid lol, one day I was looking through pinterest when suddenly I stumbled upon the legendary ss of Kanako clutching her arm in the green-tinted classroom. I was immediately drawn to the style of the game (but Kanako especially...) and when I read it was a highschool mystery I just knew I HAD to play it! I had no luck finding an english patch (obviously) but I didn't let that stop me. At the time I only had a family computer and I didn't want my parents seeing an anime porn game on the pc so Instead I downloaded the psx port on my phone. How did I read an untranslated visual novel on my phone with 0 Japanese knowledge you ask? Well, I just took a screenshot...of every nvl page.. and mtl'd it....with google translate... (Japanese speaking vn readers are going to crucify me for this X_X)
As you may expect this was super tedious and didn't allow me to read too much at a time. Also, the psx port had this weird feature where the 3 options that are supposed to appear only after you clear the true ending at least once appeared regardless of your progress so I did the Kanako ending on my first run ;_; Anyhow, not soon after I got my own laptop and finally played the game "properly" (I still mtl'd it with google lens cause I didn't know about the existance of programs like textractor or lunatranslator lol)
~My Impressions~
To my surprise I actually didn't care that much about all the rape and pervi-ness despite this being my first eroge. The thing that disappointed me the most was probably the fact that Kanako wasn't really a "true" love interest and she basically had like.. 20 minutes of screentime maybe. Idk why but when I first saw the cover & description of the game I switched around Ruriko and Kanako in my mind and I thought Ruriko would be the nutcase and Kanako would help us with the investigation ^^;
A bit of a funfact, Takashi Tatsuya (the original scenario writer for the game) actually considered writing a route for Kanako as well but he couldn't think of any way she and Yuusuke could interact ~_~ 
Anyhow, if we look only at the main routes then I did them in the following order; Mizuho->Saori->Ruriko. For each I'd start with the bad end then do the happy end (+ true end in the middle for Ruriko) all of them were lots of fun! Mizuho's happy end and Saori's bad end were especially nice for me though ^^ (Sorry Ruriko fans, she's super cute too!!!)
In the end I can say I still remember the game very fondly, of course I replayed it recently with the release of the english patch by HerSaki and honestly my love for it just keeps growing. I can see why others don't like it especially when it comes to the repetitve h-scenes and cheesy plotline but the good parts of the game are just too strong for me.. ^^; I probably wouldn't reccommend it as a first vn or eroge but if you've already got some experience and like older titles then why not give it a try?
~About~
Shizuku was first released on the 26th january of 1996 by the studio "leaf" as the first entry in the "Leaf Visual Novel Series". This was actually the first time the term "visual novel" was used to describe an ADV. The game blends old school ADV mechanics with modern ones we already know and love making for a truly awesome combnation.. ^^
Releases
PC 98/CD-ROM
Original releases of the game, nearly the same in terms of gameplay and graphics.
Shizuku Renewal CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/Download Editon
Complete renewal of the game, of course the CGs/Sprites were all redrawn. There's voice acting (with plenty of famous seiyuus!!) + some minor changes to the script. The bonus RPG fight from the oginal game was replaced with an extra scenario and the music was re-arranged.
Kizuato+Shizuku Sets
A lot of the Kizuato releases came with a copy of Shizuku Renewal as well. The biggest difference are the changes to the UI which was re-designed (and it looks amazing!) here's a little peek
(this image comes from a Dcinside post that compares both releases, please check it out!)
Novelization
The novelization of Shizuku written by Yamada Orochi (the writer of Jisatsu no tame no 101 no houhou).
It's a linear re-telling of the story and it clumps all the routes together into one by changing the character's perspectives each chapter. The main protagonists are Yuusuke and Saori but the start is written from Kanako's point of view.
I lovelovelove this adaptation and you should totally read it as well if you liked the original game!! It's availible for free on the Internet Archive so there's no excuse >:3
~Credits~
site design by almost sweet ☂ — resources
character sprites from The Spriters Resource
game covers + releases info from The Visual Novel Database