Chinese media franchise
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Video game series
Honkai (traditional Chinese: 崩壞; simplified Chinese: 崩坏; pinyin: Bēnghuài; Japanese: 崩壊; rōmaji: Hōkai; "Collapse / Deteriorate") is a video game franchise developed by miHoYo, published by miHoYo in mainland China and worldwide by Cognosphere, d/b/a HoYoverse. While the foremost entry in the series, FlyMe2theMoon, was a paid mobile game for iOS released in 2011,[2] and was developed by the five-person "miHoYo studio" startup team;[a] the first installment of Honkai series was Houkai Gakuen released in 2012. The series has seen several more games since, with the most recent main entry being 2023's Honkai: Star Rail.[6]
The Honkai series is set in a multiverse called the “Imaginary Tree” and follows the adventures of characters such as Kiana, Mei, and Bronya.[7][2] While the series features recurring characters such as Kiana, each installment has different backgrounds and character settings and can be considered as stories that take place in different universes in the same multiverse without absolute connectivity. The series primarily revolves around the theme of "rebellion against the end and saving the world" and features "Honkai" disasters as the core setting.[2][7]
Starting from 2017, David Jiang served as the producer of the Honkai series.[8][9][10]
Common elements
Character design
Kiana Kaslana, who first appeared in FlyMe2theMoon, is the first and foremost character designed by miHoYo and the protagonist of multiple works in the Honkai series. Mei and Bronya, who first appeared in Houkai Gakuen, formed the trio protagonists with Kiana and are the core characters of the Honkai series.[25] The plot of Houkai Gakuen 2 continues the story of the original Houkai Gakuen,[26][27] and after the conclusion of the "Retrace" arc, the new chapters "Inheritance" and "Rebirth" begin to use a parallel world setting to tell new stories with existing characters. Honkai Impact 3rd continues the approach of Houkai Gakuen 2 by introducing the main characters of the previous game with new personalities and designs.[28][29] Honkai: Star Rail also follows this tradition and features well-known characters from the Honkai series, such as Bronya, Himeko, and Welt Yang.[30][31][32]
While every game in the Honkai series is considered a "spiritual sequel" of its predecessor, many share similar characters within the series. The practice of miHoYo adopting the character designs but endowing them with entirely new personalities and character settings is often referred to as "expy."[33][34] Genshin Impact, another game developed by miHoYo, also heavily borrows the character designs of the Honkai series,[22] and is thus considered by fans to be a spin-off of the Honkai series. Some character names in Genshin Impact are similar to those in the Honkai series but not exactly the same,[35] and the Chinese and Japanese voice actors are the same as in the Honkai series. For example, the appearance of Raiden Shogun in Genshin Impact is similar to that of Raiden Mei in the Honkai series, though their personalities differ significantly. Both the Chinese and Japanese voice actors for the two characters are the same: Juhuahua for Chinese and Miyuki Sawashiro for Japanese.[36][37][23]
Setting and theme
The "Honkai," a term coined within the Honkai series, is the core concept and foundation of the Honkai universe. It is an interdimensional alien force with a certain level of intelligence and various emanations whose goal is to assimilate developed civilizations through any means. The Honkai can be spread as energy, through beasts and humans, causing them various symptoms, and can also trigger viruses, natural disasters, world wars, or any other form of damage to civilization. The highest manifestation of the Honkai is a "Herrscher," which are emanations of the Honkai with powerful specialized abilities and will. Whenever civilization arises, the Honkai will appear, and the strength of the Honkai is always proportional to the degree of human civilization in that region.[38] Worlds devoured by the Honkai will fall from the Imaginary Tree and enter the Sea of Quanta, becoming "bubble universes" that gradually disappear. The English term "Honkai" is a coined word that specifically refers to the "Honkai" disaster, which intentionally avoids using "Houkai" (the correct spelling) due to proprietary naming considerations.[7]
In order to connect multiple Honkai games to build one "Honkai Universe," the "Imaginary Tree" and "Sea of Quanta" are brought up by Honkai Impact 3rd as the multiple universe settings in the Honkai series.[39] The maximum scale of the Honkai universe is the Sea of Quanta, in which the Imaginary Tree is located and multiple worlds are born. The worlds on the Imaginary Tree are stable and follow the rules of history and time, developing in chronological order, with a linear structure of history. On the other hand, the Sea of Quanta can form "bubble universes" during natural fluctuations, which are unstable and lack complete history, only having fragments of time periods in specific regions.[40] In this multiverse, the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of Quanta have a long-standing rivalry. The Imaginary Tree seeks to absorb the Sea, while the Sea seeks to drown the Tree. To facilitate this cycle, worlds are like leaves growing on the Tree, and when they fail to persist, they fall from the Tree into the Sea and become fragmented versions of themselves, known as bubble universes, some of which have more stability than others. This multiple universe setting is followed in all the Honkai series games. Genshin Impact is also often considered as one of the parallel worlds on the Imaginary Tree and shares the same universe as Honkai series.[24][41][42] Besides Genshin Impact, Tears of Themis's universe is also hinted to be connected via Imaginary Tree.
