Azure Striker Gunvolt: Fleeting Memories

Main

Scripts

Azure Striker Gunvolt: Fleeting Memories (陽炎のメモリア, Kagerou no Memoria) is a side story series written by Gunvolt scenario writer Toshiaki Tai and narrated by Moniqa's voice actress Moemi Otaka. It debuted on Aug 10 2014 as a segment on Inti Creates' YouTube program Interactive Wave. From Nov 14 2014 to Apr 21 2015, an English translation by Matt Papa was published on Inti Creates' English website.

Since the release of Part 20 on Dec 28 2014, and the last Interactive Wave program being held on Feb 15 2015, the series has received no further updates. The final time Fleeting Memories is known to have been formally acknowledged was the story timeline included in the Armed Blue Gunvolt: Sou Soundtrack booklet, which cited the series when listing a certain event. Presumably, the series is cancelled.

In a March 2016 interview, Inti Creates CEO Takuya Aizu claimed that Tai was busy working on Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 and other games, and gave an estimated time of Q4 2016 for Fleeting Memories continuing, but this did not happen. According to the report of a user who attended the VRAMα game event in June 2018 and spoke with staff, the scenario itself for Fleeting Memories was completed, but after the announcement of GV2 they missed the timing to release a continuation. If an opportunty were to arise, something might be done in the future.

According to users who were in the #inti-日本語 channel of the BitSummit Gaiden Discord server hosted from June 27th to 28th 2020, Inti Creates staff answering fan questions became evasive when the subject of Fleeting Memories was brought up, although it was denied there's any connection between its Japanese title Kagerou no Memoria and the song Memoria of 'He'.

Plot

The plot of Fleeting Memories can be divided into two parts with little relation.

Parts 1 through 5 focus on narration about the Azure Striker Gunvolt world, and Copen and Mytyl's father, Dr. Kamizono. His mindset which would influence Copen, the nature of his work, the nature of Adepts and Septima, and the origins of the Sumeragi Group are shown in detail seldom seen elsewhere in the series. This part of the story ends with the death of Dr. Kamizono, his assistant, and the destruction of the facility they worked at as a certain Azure Striker test subject's restraints fail at the beginning of an experiment.

Parts 6 through 20 are based around the normal human siblings Rei and Miu. Their lives were forever changed by an encounter with a mysterious Adept serial killer known as Raptor, who suddenly killed their parents while the family was out for Rei's 9th birthday. The side story also details their encounter with an Adept named Himeshiro. This story ends with the cliffhanger of Himeshiro talking to Rei about Raptor.

Reception

The side story received an overall positive reception from fans of Gunvolt. Many readers considered the story to be better than that of the Azure Striker Gunvolt game. After widespread support from fans, Matt Papa, the translator of Fleeting Memories, revealed that Toshiaki Tai was developing a "season two" of the side story.

Trivia

• This is the first work that hinted at the existence of Mytyl, with Dr. Kamizono mentioning that he has a son and a daughter.
• In Justice Rage, the Explosion Adept's attack at the mall is mentioned.