Best Cinematics

[Haseo]

My favorites are Hanako's and Rin's cinematics. I loved Hanako's scene when Hisao finds her and in Rin's is awesome that part when Rin sees herself as drawings or something like that and the sky in the eyes also looked great.

[DaMan65]

Hanako's cutscene Is the best I think because it fits the story that follows it in tone and execution.

Rin's is a close second, Emi's was cute and fitting but just didn't strike me as well, always been more of a Rin/Hanako fan anyway.

Shizune's I'm still thinking about as I haven't finished the route entirely yet.

And I haven't even started Lilly's route yet so can't judge

[Yarr]

Shizune's has to be my favourite because of the rooftop scene and the music that plays during it. It's sad to watch after finishing her route.

[imperial.standard]

Rin's cutscene has the best visual and soundtrack in my opinion - followed closely by Hanako and Lilly's...

[Popo]

Hanako's left me breathless when the people started swirling around her. It was just great. At first, Lilly's didn't wow me much, perhaps mainly because it bugged me that she poured tea without measuring it with her finger, but after reading about the foreshadowing ITT, I have more respect for it now.

[Verix]

Love Hanako's. Animation + music is beautiful.. and I think Hisao kisses her in the end?

[Lunar Archivist]

I'm going with Hanako's. Awesome and cute at the same time.

[CptOverkill]

i like hanako's the most but rin's is a close second. and i think you all have sumthin wrong about emi's, i think emi's was a trick, it's all "d'aww dis route ish gonn be happeh " then BAM. ALL THESE FEELS D:

[Quitch]

So let's see, we have:

Emi - Starts by recreating your second run with Emi (though the face gestures should be more serious, so perhaps it's just supposed to be a later run), then goes into a possible Garden of Eden metaphor where she takes the apple; her destroying your happiness? Perhaps it's just cut material.

Shizune - The three happy friends; Hisao is learning sign language; stars indicate a love triangle and we see Misha coming to the roof only to look unhappy and back away because the girl she loves is in love with someone else.

Rin - This one is tricky, it kicks off with reference to the daffodils and uses them as a framing device for this animation. The yellow daffodil indicates the start of their relationship; Rin paints and we see the weird and wonderful place of her mind; she looks out from her painting, a metaphor for how she wants painting to show people her soul (the quizzical look perhaps being her judging whether she has succeeded this time?); finally (and this one I'm not sure about), there's Hiaso with a white daffodil which is at the end of the path and symbolises the blossoming of their love for one another. He waves the petals across her in a dreamlike landscape (her detachment from reality?), but when she looks up he's gone... indicating that he will never truly understand her so she'll always be a little alone?

Lilly - Takes tea and sees the future: her time with Hiaso; her leaving him; the declaration of love in the field. Finally it goes back to the tea room where everything is but possibility.

Hanako - Anyone know what the object at the beginning is? Anyway, clearly her family and then the scene from her birthday where she locks herself in her room and remembers. We see her fear and isolation from those around her and how Hiaso acts as her rock. Finally, we flash to what looks like their first encounter, but due to the familiar way Hiaso bends down to her would indicate it's a later one.

Emi's made me laugh, I loved the first thirty seconds of Hanako's, the Shizune one is quite sad, the Lilly one regretful and Rin's I don't understand which isn't that dissimilar to the feeling you get on her route.

I love them all and I'm not sure I could pick. The team did a great job with these.

[Weaver]

My favourite is Hanako's. I feel you could show that to someone entirely unfamiliar with the game and they would instantly understand it.
It's an amazingly powerful clip.

[imperial.standard]

The cutscene musics are amazing - I hope they include this in the future downloadable mp3 content.

[Mercutio]

Of the weakest I thought were Shizune's and Emi's. They didn't really have any true symbolism in them.

gotta disagree on that one. after playing Emi's route (twice) and watching the cinematic again, I think I get the metaphor there. it's pretty simple: Emi helps Hisao up when he's running, and by the end of her story, he's helped lift her up too by helping her to overcome the problems she has. he's carrying her on his shoulders 'cause now she can count on his support and she'll actually ask for it. dunno about the apple symbolism, didn't see a snake in the tree or anything like that.

other than Emi's, Hanako's and Lilly's are my favorites. pretty amazing how they change meaning after you play the route.

Overall, though, I was surprised at the quality. Seems to me like Mike Inel really went for it.

no disagreement there at all. ever. I didn't expect the animations but they are seriously awesome and add so much to the game.

[LordMurdoc]

Hanako - Anyone know what the object at the beginning is? Anyway, clearly her family and then the scene from her birthday where she locks herself in her room and remembers. We see her fear and isolation from those around her and how Hiaso acts as her rock. Finally, we flash to what looks like their first encounter, but due to the familiar way Hiaso bends down to her would indicate it's a later one.

I had trouble at first figuring out what that object is. But after a few replays, I noticed that it's Hisao's bottle of pills with various pills scattered around it. The next image of a figure putting something in his mouth is clearly Hisao. While I agree that Hisao does act as her rock in the game, I don't think that's what the video is expressing.

I guess it can be easily viewed that way though since it's easy to overlook his appearance before the camera focuses on him and shows him waving toward Hanako. It's hard to spot because the video focuses mainly on her. If you look closely when the the crowd is moving around Hanako, you'll notice that Hisao's figure is seen with his back facing Hanako's back. He is just as alone as she is as indicated by the rest of the world zooming by him just like around Hanako (the focus on his bottle of pills and him taking them at the beginning being shown before Hanako's isolation and the reasoning for it strengthens the premise of Hisao being alone at first). Focus on his figure and you'll notice that he turns around to face Hanako. Him turning around indicates that he has found someone just like him. More than that, it also indicates that someone has finally seen Hanako (remember that she's practically invisible to almost everyone in the game as they pay little to no attention to her). The crowd around them fades only leaving the two of them together. The two individuals that were once alone and isolated have found each other. They're no longer alone and are happy to be with each other because all they need is each other. This message is re-enforced as the cinematic shifts to a real world setting and shows the viewer the interaction between Hisao and Hanako within a library with nobody around.

While it's easy to overlook, I think it's that little detail that makes Hanako's cinematic my most favorite one. It's subtle yet beautiful, really good and well done, and the music is just damn catchy.

[Quitch]

Hanako - Anyone know what the object at the beginning is? Anyway, clearly her family and then the scene from her birthday where she locks herself in her room and remembers. We see her fear and isolation from those around her and how Hiaso acts as her rock. Finally, we flash to what looks like their first encounter, but due to the familiar way Hiaso bends down to her would indicate it's a later one.

I had trouble at first figuring out what that object is. But after a few replays, I noticed that it's Hisao's bottle of pills with various pills scattered around it. The next image of a figure putting something in his mouth is clearly Hisao. While I agree that Hisao does act as her rock in the game, I don't think that's what the video is expressing.

I guess it can be easily viewed that way though since it's easy to overlook his appearance before the camera focuses on him and shows him waving toward Hanako. It's hard to spot because the video focuses mainly on her. If you look closely when the the crowd is moving around Hanako, you'll notice that Hisao's figure is seen with his back facing Hanako's back. He is just as alone as she is as indicated by the rest of the world zooming by him just like around Hanako (the focus on his bottle of pills and him taking them at the beginning being shown before Hanako's isolation and the reasoning for it strengthens the premise of Hisao being alone at first). Focus on his figure and you'll notice that he turns around to face Hanako. Him turning around indicates that he has found someone just like him. More than that, it also indicates that someone has finally seen Hanako (remember that she's practically invisible to almost everyone in the game as they pay little to no attention to her). The crowd around them fades only leaving the two of them together. The two individuals that were once alone and isolated have found each other. They're no longer alone and are happy to be with each other because all they need is each other. This message is re-enforced as the cinematic shifts to a real world setting and shows the viewer the interaction between Hisao and Hanako within a library with nobody around.

While it's easy to overlook, I think it's that little detail that makes Hanako's cinematic my most favorite one. It's subtle yet beautiful, really good and well done, and the music is just damn catchy.

I saw him in the crowd, but I take that to be Hanako turning to find him and he's always behind her, she can never find him. Then eventually they connect and everything is okay. I don't think he turns to face her, but it's certainly got a lot of room for interpretation

Thanks for the pills thing though, watched it a hundred times and never saw it.

[LordMurdoc]

I saw him in the crowd, but I take that to be Hanako turning to find him and he's always behind her, she can never find him. Then eventually they connect and everything is okay. I don't think he turns to face her, but it's certainly got a lot of room for interpretation

Thanks for the pills thing though, watched it a hundred times and never saw it.

You need to focus only on his figure and nothing else during that scene to notice that his body shifts from his back to her to facing her as the camera loops around them for the second time (happens pretty fast and isn't that noticeable at first). They both find each other, but it's Hisao that's looking at her first. You're right though that the cinematic is vague enough for different interpretations. The pill thing annoyed me because I couldn't tell what it was at first. I made it my mission to re-watch the video over and over again until I could figure out what it was