ComeWhatMay wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2015 6:49 am
Preface
About three weeks ago, I saw the April Fools post for the first time since I played this VN a year ago. Saki immediately jumped out at me, and I was pretty disappointed a route featuring her was never released. Having recently found myself reading a fair bit of Katawa Shoujo fan-fiction, I decided to search for a Saki route, but the ones I found were criminally short. I see so much potential in this character, and with this piece, I hope to flesh some of it out. The following is a list of the things I am keeping in mind as I write this route. In writing this story, there's some things about Katawa Shoujo, both the game and its fan-fiction, that I want to address and achieve.
1. Hisao's heart condition.
In the visual novel, Lilly's route is the only one that really addresses Hisao's heart condition and how it affects him and his personality. In Emi's route, it makes sense that his heart would be less problematic, but the other routes don't have this excuse. I was disappointed that Hisao's own issues received so little screen time, as a good relationship should be both give and take. This concept was utilized wonderfully in Lilly's route, and I aim to do the same.
2. Thematic consistency.
Good fiction teaches a lesson or makes an argument. The great thing about visual novels is that the author has the chance to test the reader on what they should have learned. You get a good ending if you pass, and a bad ending if you fail. One of the issues I've noticed in reading fan-fiction pseudo-routes is that choices often do not align with the themes the story has been following. This makes choices and the subsequent endings seem arbitrary, and weakens the message of the story. I've come up with some definite themes that I want to explore with this story, and I hope they come across.
3. Fucking
dudes.
Let me clarify. Sorry Yaoi fangirls (-boys?), but no, I do not mean having sex with dudes, so you'll have to scratch that itch somewhere else. What I mean is male characters that are actually relevant to the story. Ones who have character arcs and show up in more than 4 or 5 scenes and are there for more than just comic relief (looking at you Kenji). The male characters of Katawa Shoujo, both in fan-fiction and the visual novel itself, have a habit of being only tangentially related to the storyline [Katawa Shoujo spoilers]
Hakamachi, Shizune's dad or dead [Katawa Shoujo and Scissorlips Suzu Route spoilers]
Emi's dad, Suzu's brother Seiji. Besides, I am a guy <-- WRONG, I know more guys than I know girls, so writing guys will come a fair bit easier.
4. "Normal" high school students.
I mean this in a few ways.
First, almost all of the Katawa Shoujo main characters are "the best" in something. We have the track star, an artistic prodigy, the class president, and even one of the two "average" students is still class representative. Hanako's route admittedly doesn't feature this, and it helps relate a fair bit. I have decided to take a ToraDora/Shirobako approach to writing this story. The characters I have chosen are not "the best" at what they do. We don't have any sports stars or prodigy musicians or top dogs in the student government, they're normal students going through High School (or as normal as it gets at Yamaku). Much like ToraDora and Shirobako, I don't think I need to include these features to weave interesting characters, and I think characters like this are easier to relate too.
Second, characters in Katawa Shoujo and most of the fan-fiction I have read based on it are so straight edge you could use them as a ruler. When I was in High School, I knew people who drank, dabbled in drugs, and from the research I've done, underage drinking is
so common in Japan it isn't even considered a problem. Alcohol is sold in vending machines and convenience stores never card. More importantly, certain illicit substances have shown the potential to lighten the load from symptoms of the conditions some of these characters face, and this will absolutely be touched on in this fan-fiction. As said above, my characters are not class presidents or representatives or the face of the track team, they don't have an image that they need to uphold. If anyone has a reason to drink, it's teenagers with disabilities bad enough to land them in a "special school" with lax security. This isn't a party or a porno fic, but these conditions do make one more likely to "live in the moment", and I intend to approach these topics in a realistic manner.
This story has been a blast to write so far, and the research has been enlightening. I'm trying to make this story as realistic as possible, and I have done significant research into each of my main characters conditions. In particular, I would like to thank doctors at both the Genetic and Rare Diseases information center (GARD) and the National Ataxia Foundation (NAF) for taking the time to correspond with me regarding the heroine's terrible disease. Spinocerebellar ataxia is a genetic neurodegenerative disease that leaves the doors wide open for some incredible stories, and I hope to breathe some life into this character.
