Paradise lost: Childhood as a mythical space in Boku no Natsuyasumi and bokunatsulike games

In this article, we analyse the Boku no Natsuyasumi series (Millennium Kitchen 2000–09), where players control a boy in rural Japan in the 1970s, and other related games starring children in mundane settings. We use myth analysis, analysis of video game form, and the mechanics, dynamics, experiences (MDE) model to identify and study their recurrent motifs and imaginaries and how these are turned into gameplay. We argue that these games are connected to the Japanese idea of furusato (‘old village’), a form of political and social nostalgia described as a ‘mythopoeia’ of modern Japan. We identify four main mythemes: (1) a child protagonist, (2) rurality, (3) community and (4) mechanics about daily activities. Our findings show how this subset of games reflects (international) cultural obsessions about modernity, childhood and nostalgia, while at the same time using ludonarrative strategies to embrace adulthood.