Emi: The Lost Girl

[ever17]

Katawa Shoujo. Mmmmmm. Can you taste it? Refreshingly original characters. Quality dialogue. Clever, witty humor. Gratuitous amounts of polish. Act 1 was like a delicious (yet small) appetizer to a meal I can't wait to shove down my face.

Well...the majority of it was good. Excellent, really. It's just that small morsel of food I shall label as "Emi" wasn't as quite up to par as the rest. I still ate it, of course. Yet immediately it did not strike me as as pleasant as the rest of the dish. You have Rin, yes, the hearty satisfying portion. You have Hanako, and her unbearable sweetness. You have Emi with her...jogging...that's nice. Oh wait, there's something more! It's...blowing her off...to eat...cake. What?

Now, I don't dislike Emi. In fact, I'm quite physically active, and was hoping to perhaps share Emi's enthusiasm for such activities. However, compared to the complex and rich taste the other girls bring, Emi seems to be somewhat lacking, in both depth and aftertaste.

So I ask all Emi enthusiasts (and the developers, if they want to share ;p) what do you like about Emi? Why isn't there more of Emi? Do we have future, greater plans for Emi? Will Emi ever size up to the rest of the cast? Will her power level reach 9000, plus!? To be honest her route seems so uncommitted, that when I played it (in my first game runthrough), I did not realize I was on an arc. But I digress, and humbly ask for more elaboration on this strange character named "Emi."

[Quidoo]

I feel that it is too early to pass Emi off as a stick of celery, seeing as we have only had the oppertunity of sampling Act One.

I do agree with you, however, that her path was fairly under-explored in comparison to the others and her personality was not expressed as often or as in depth as the other girls. Although, I do feel that she does have a great deal of potential and she already has some quite endearing traits (her dislike of Hisao's playful mocking of her stature was very appealing). I'm not sure what I can say about 'future plans' though...I don't think any of us mere mortals can.

I personally love Emi and think that there is a great deal to be explored in terms of her history, personality and shenanigans. Please refrain from slitting my throat for saying this, but I feel that Lilly is just as apparently 'lacking' as Emi from what I have seen in act one.

[EternalLurker]

The fact that each route is written by a different path writer throws off the pacing of each pretty massively. Hisao's professing his growing love for Shizune by the end of her Act 1 route (Stockholm Syndrome anyone?), while at the end of Lilly's the difference between her ending and a Hanako ending is barely noticeable. A definite side effect of Hisao's different feelings for each girl at the ends of their respective paths is the depth of the girl's personality that we get to see. Thus we manage to see Shizune's kinda cute side under her generally ridiculous bitchy slave-driving, while Emi's conversations don't extend past running since the path takes place almost entirely on the track until the festival, excluding the rooftop lunch since Rin is the dominant character of the two throughout that scene (and frankly any scene in which the two are together).

tl;dr: I don't think any of the girls, even Emi, are lacking in personality. I think Act 1 just isn't sufficient to show off some of them, since the pacing differs so vastly between the routes.

EDIT: Oh, fuck you, you ninja'ing bastard Quidoo. D:

[Quidoo]

Ah, sorry about that.

Ahem, anyway...I also forgot to mention that her friendship with Rin is quite a goldmine in terms of discovering various aspects of personality, similar to how we saw Lilly's motherly nature with her protection over Hanako.

[Elroy]

Act 1 was like a series of first dates with each girl. You get a sense of what they are like, but you still don't know them completely. You can't quite write them off as uninteresting yet, as something may happen on that second date, or something comes up in conversation that makes you think "Wow, maybe there's more to this girl." As EternalLurker said, I think we just need more time to see what she's like.

[Deimos]

Well, to start shallowly, she has a loli body without a loli personality, sometimes it's that simple. Petite bodies can be very attractive but stereotypical behaviour in media can destroy any credible personality. And I do not know how the rest of the world does it but I find physical appearances attractive but I fall in love with personalities and the respective individuals who own them.

Secondly, any romantical love between humans is a selfish thing, you also love how that other person looks at you, touches you and longs for you - it elevates your self esteem. This self-reward system works in most harmonious relationships, so as long as this perpetuum mobile works all is fine and dandy.

Despite all possible delusions of grandeur I do think I am quite normal or I at least act quite normal and I perceive Emi as another human being, no idealisations at all for there. I kind of like that. There is no obvious attraction to me that overrides all reason and I can appreciate her personality more. And even that is not overly pronounced since there is Rin whose remarkability is more or less all about her personality (Lilly, Shizune and Hanako are fine as well but there are defining traits within them that are extremely prevalent and heavily factor into their specific romantical attraction they possess towards me).

Hmm, I seem to contradict myself by saying that I find no attractiveness attractive. Let's just say she lets me keep my head and reason while still being helpful to me (Hisao) and I value that greatly. Staying true to oneself or loyalty to oneself is very important, yet I see no shame in getting rid of some bad habits like eating junk food or being lazy. Emi does that, she does not change Hisao, she does not turn him into anyone different or makes characteristics surface that are hidden.

She lets Hisao be himself and still makes him a better person - sometimes it's the most wonderful kind of love there is because you are treasured not for things you have done or you have deep within you or have suddenly developed but for what you simply are most of the time. A disabled, yet normal boy.


These are just the hopes I have for Emi's scenario, time will tell what's to come.

[EternalLurker]

he has a loli body without a loli personality

wut

[Deimos]

he has a loli body without a loli personality

wut

A really quick answer.

Well, I cannot help to see loli as an abbreviation of Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov's Lolita - a girl who somewhat craves recognition as an adult and the guy who takes advantage of that is quite a bastard.
Most lolis in the genre of visual novels need a big brother or father figure whereas I think of Emi as being quite independent and I therefore do not take advantage of such childish needs.

[EmP|ty]

Man, all these references to food made me really hungry, damn you all.


Anyways, back on topic, I don't know why, but I really like Emi, I realise that a lot of people just write her off as boring or bland, and I can see why, compared to most of the other characters we don't discover nearly as much about her as a 'person', other than that she seems like a very athletic, optimistic, happy, childish, pure and generally fun person, which may seem like it describes a lot about her but really it doesn't, because you pick that up even if you play through another girls path, playing emi's path only reinforces what we already know about her, whereas with the other girls you learn more about them if you take their path.

I feel that her character will become a lot more developed as the story progresses past Act 1, so it really is just a waiting game to see how much more her character develops.

All hail Emi.

[ever17]

Hmm, yes, I think you guys are all right on many things. She does have some pretty endearing qualities, even if she hasn't been elaborated on as much as other characters. Subtly trying to improve Hisao without imposing too much on him...that sounds quite nice. Now I'm really interested in seeing what more there is to her in the story.

[HeMeido]

Emi's Act 1 End actually works really well. All of the other girls give Hisao something to think about other than his chemically-sustained life, but Emi is a constant reminder of his imminent death and she's the only girl who's really trying to force him to deal with his heart condition instead of just coping with it. It's easy to understand why Hisao wouldn't feel comfortable around her.

[Pimmy]

The only thing I didn't like about Emi's route was how Hisao disregarded her food warnings! Jerk :T (and maybe her height sensitivity, bleh, my least fave loli cliche behind flat chest sensitivity)

I think she's sweet, personally. I like her immediately-friendly, peppy personality. I think she adds some much-needed "genki" to the mix. Love the other girls, but Emi's seems genuinely fun and carefree compared to the more... complicated interactions surrounding some of them. As a girl, I can relate to the way she shows her concern through stubborn bossiness. Her "route" in the demo was disappointingly short, but I don't think it was all as bad as people make out. All of the girls "give" something to Hisao that he needs, and Emi is right there to offer up "concern for oneself" to counter his rising apathy, and a lighthearted attitude.

(sort of in line with above poster) Maybe I'm blunt, but I think I would deal with Hisao in the same way she does. "You have a health problem and you need to deal with it, stop moping around!" ..in a way

[G3n0c1de]

I do like Emi, but I also feel that she was a bit under represented in the demo. I like her for a few reasons, I ran track I high school, so I am able to relate to that aspect of her. Aside from that, (for me at least) she came off as normal. Compared to all of the other characters, her personality and mannerisms seem much more normal than the others, with all their individual quirks. This is not a bad thing, ironically, the makes her stand out from the rest of them. She just seems to me as being a normal, stable girl.

[techk8]

I see what you mean; hell, I got Emi on my first playthrough. But, as some of the users already said, this is just a demo. The demo of Katawa Shoujo is just a small meal; the full act will be a buffet, a feast, and from that may we see Emi become, as you say, a more scrumptious dish.

[ever17]

I never thought about it that way; Emi is probably the most normal girl there...in a school for crippled students. If they play her cards right, I just might enjoy her route second to Rin's. Can't wait to see what the full course looks like!

P.S. MORE FOOD ALLEGORIES GOGO