Akihide Takebayashi

Overview

Akihide Takebayashi (竹林 明秀) was a Japanese writer known under several different aliases, including Saki Aomura, Aomurasaki, and BluePurple. He was an employee at Leaf in the late 1990s where he famously co-wrote To Heart along with his friend Tatsuya Takahashi.

Before Takebayashi became an employee at Leaf, he wrote a bonus scenario for the game Kizuato. Several years later in 1999, users on 2channel began accusing Takebayashi of plagiarizing much of the text featured in the bonus scenario from a short story by Keisuke Yoshizawa called "Deki-sugi" (できすぎ). This allegation started a chain of events that led to fans harassing Leaf, making early memes about Takebayashi's writing abilities, and conversations being leaked from a private employee message board.

The last game to be released by Leaf that contained a credit to Takebayashi was Abyss Boat in 2002. Takebayashi left Leaf sometime in the 2000s where he quietly continued working in the eroge industry. In November 2003, Akihide Takebayashi passed away after his motorcycle collided with a truck in a traffic accident.

References

1. Japanese Wikipedia Page
2. Nico Nico Pedia Page
3. Leaf’s Old Employee Blog (Contains a post by Akihide Takebayashi).
4. Chronological Table of Leaf Key Boards
5. Fan Site Detailing Kizuato’s Plagiarism Allegations
6. Video that Dramatically Retells the Drama Surrounding the Leaf Key Board
7. Tatsuya Takahashi’s Blog Post about Akihide Takebayashi’s Passing