The Hanako Thread - Spoilers, obviously

[Palas]

so even if Katawa Shoujo were a real-life simulator, I'd have wound up with the happily ever after ending

Wahaha~! Very daring of you to say that (daring, because "prepotent" souds way to ob-nooo-xi-ous to me). You see, that would be if you had already a whole script made up just for you and Hanako and Lilly, leaving to your conscience only the same choices Hisao gave you. Several times I caught myself wishing Hisao just hadn't said what he said - but my own reactions would lead to a completely different outcome, right? Hard to tell if we, having to make choices all the time, would be so smart.

[Nyarly]

Prepare yourself for an extreme guilt trip and a painful re-evaluation on why you were drawn to Hanako so much in the first place. More than any other bad end, Hanako's downer ending seems adressed to not just Hisao (who does go out of line), but also the player.

Not this player. I actually liked her because of her adorable, sweet personality, not because she needed "fixing".

To be honest, this sounds like denial. Because Hanako makes it abundantly clear in the final scene of Act 4 that she wasn't originally a shy girl and she doesn't like being "the shy girl" either. Part of her goals for personal development in the near future are to become more outgoing. And her first step towards this is that brazen kiss out in public. Translation: Hanako herself is not happy with the Hanako you (the IRL fan) are attracted to and would like to become the polar opposite of the Hanako you are attracted to. You may find this Hanako to be attractive too, but that doesn't change the fact that you fell in love with an illusion the real Hanako is only too eager to demolish as she progresses down her road of personal recovery.

But hey: if it makes you feel better to think you're not like all those other fans who felt that the Bad End was deconstructing them, by all means, continue.

Explain me, what's with that? You never addressed this point, which I have most problems with, again. Do you seriously think everybody likes Hanako the same way? I find this claim more than a little insulting. And so ridiculous, I feel dirty just by addressing it. I can assure you that I didn't begin to like her because I thought that she is a weak little thing that needs protection. If I really thought of her that way, I'd like her less now (but the opposite is the case). I began to like her because I can identify with her shyness, being very introverted myself, and thought she is cute (yes, the last one is actually rather shallow, I know). Now that I finished her route, I identify even more with her, as she showed some flaws (connected with the shyness) that I have too.

And really, even if I had gotten the bad ending, I wouldn't feel bad about myself. Sad about things going wrong, yes, but certainly not guilty. The shy girl is often in need of protection in many works, so it would make sense to go for that, if you aren't aware how realistic Katawa Shoujo is and/or internalize the theme of the VN. In fact, I wasn't even thinking about Hanako, when I chose to heed Lilly's advice. I was thinking about Hisao and his future, which he shouldn't neglect.

And frankly... If Hanako were a real person, I would probably hate (or at least not care about) her.

[crystal]

I played it second. I actually ended up with the Neutral ending first. It felt kind of weird. Then I the good ending. (yay)

The bad ending was pretty extreme. It was non canon for me(so to speak), as I was seeing it just out of curiosity, but it was still pretty intense. Hanako's was my fav path along with Lilly's. They kind of tie in with eachother, to a much greater extent than Rin/Emi. That might explain why I like them both a lot more than the other 3, because of the similar-ish overall story.

[Hambeast]

After going back through the "Bad" ending and really paying attention to all the things Hisao said to her, in all honesty I don't blame her one bit; I would have flipped on him, too. Put yourself in her shoes, would you like someone coddling you like that all the time? It would get annoying, very quickly. He wasn't even listening to her. I found myself sitting there saying "You tell him!"

That said, I don't think she's broken at all. The words "lost" and "frustrated" come to mind. Proverbially blind, if you will, as opposed to her companion who is literally blind; I find them to be a fitting pair. I think if she were truly broken she wouldn't have been capable of pulling herself through it all like she did in Lilly's Arc. I think most of that was because Hisao befriended her and didn't outwardly treat her like she was some fragile person that a stiff breeze could tear asunder. He truly extended a part of himself to her and not out of sympathy, but real concern; there was something wholly substantial for her to grasp and I think she appreciated that more than anything Lilly ever did for her, because she could see that she's not alone, that people really do care, and they don't just do these things to make themselves feel better.

The way I see it (the "bad" ending, at least):

Walking through a fog, she can't so much as see the road beneath her feet. Fleeting images pass her by in the mists. Lost, she reaches out to them, only to have her hand come back with nothing but empty promises. Those times that she comes away with anything at all only prove themselves to be tedious, at best, offering no real help, only sympathy. These face-less creatures offer up the word "friend," but hold within themselves no meaning. Confused, she clings to these shadows with an amount of hope that perhaps they're more than they seem. Eventually they begin to fade and along with them that false sense of hope to which she so desperately clung. Seeing the futility in it, she pushes them away and cloisters herself within the fog once more. Scared, she does only what she knows how: lie down and cry, alone in the mist.

Interpret as you will.

I think I fell in love with her character, because I can at least relate to that feeling of being lost. Her story, how ever much I would love to see more of it, seems like it's complete as it stands, though I wish there had been more chances along the way to really delve into her mind.

Shizune reminds me too much of my cousin's wife, who I despise, Lilly strikes me as a bit too needy despite her ability to overcome her obvious short-comings (though she seems all too willing to throw it all away to go be with a bunch of people does doesn't even know, because they're "family), Rin's personality just feels too strange for my level of comfort, and Emi I found to be a bit tedious; the reasons for her inner turmoil struck me as shallow.

[Flammz]

I loooved the last 5 seconds of the Hanako good ending.

[Rivan]

I just finished Hanako's route yesterday.

Since I was already hardened by the emotional roller-coaster in Lilly's route, no teary eyes this time (those appeared in Lilly's route. I hate crying in all shapes and forms, so no manly tears). It was, however, sweet and touching. I could identify with Hanako's pain, because of my own experiences, but I am way short of saying I can fully understand it - it was just on a completely different scale. I can totally understand how she became the way she initially was - absolutely frozen and panicking in her interactions with other people. It'll also take a lot of time for her to completely crawl out of her shell and become "normal", as in not unnaturally introverted, but both Lilly's and Hanako's routes show this is definitely in the realm of possibility.

I liked how basically the story of Hanako and Hisao is Reverse White Knightening - trying to "protect" her instead of trying to get closer to her and open her up a bit has the effect of either getting the relationship stuck at friendship, or ruining it altogether. I knew the good choice immediately, given how Hanako ALWAYS acts just a little weird when Hisao calls her a "friend", and acts TOTALLY weird when he says something about protecting her.
I went to see the "neutral" ending anyway, and it struck me as horryfying how easily both Hisao and Hanako settled for less than what they wanted and deserved. Hisao even thought it was "all right".

Basically, the story of Hanako tells us that anybody who survived through great hardship alone, no matter how devastated it left them, has the strength and potential to turn back to "humanity" and other people in general, as long as just the slightest pushes and a little bit of closeness are provided. It also warns us about not treating other people as weaker or less capable than us just because of the way they act, and most of all, not to treat them as things to satisfy our own urges - be it desire for protection to increase our own ego and divert us from our own problems, desire for love or sex, or whatever else.

Hanako's route make me like her more than initially, so I wonder whether she'll keep her #2 spot once I play Rin's route, or will Rin catch up to her (again) or outrun her...

As a few complains/notes :
1. I was pretty surprised that at their sex scene Hisao hasn't stop FOR ONCE to make sure this is what Hanako wanted, rather than her just giving in. Given his previous doubts about his feelings and his overall desire to not hurt her in the first place, it was kind of surpirising. Otherwise, the scene was pretty good, because it showed a lot of awkwardness about their emotions and about the first time between two virgins itself, something which the other paths may lack at times.

2. Much of the actions that Hisao does in Lilly's and Hanako's route are the same, so I think it's right to say that their lifestyle is pretty much the same. Yet, unlike Lilly's route, Hisao practically doesn't get heart attacks, and when he gets them, they're never close to fatal - they just subside. I'd say that surprised me. I wonder if Suriko was the only one who paid so much heed to Hisao's own condition. Also, it might've been the question of excitement, but in Lilly's route when Hisao tried to be the active part during sex, they had to stop because of a heart attack. In Hanako's, he gets minor heartbeat mess-up after the scene.

3. I guess it is kind of ironic how initially "Lilly's and Hanako's" Hisao acts pretty much the same, but at the routes, they're totally different. Hanako's Hisao increases his paranoid protective instincts and lack of common sense, capability to think and communicate up to eleven. Lilly's Hisao is usually a pretty sensible person when you make the right choices, including pointing out to Lilly some of the same things she points out to him in Hanako's route. It is kind of surprising how one decision and interaction with one girl over the other practically turned his entire personality as well as his thought processess around.

[IraFunesta]

Sorry if i am going to repeat an already asked question, but a 26-pages Thread is too much for me.

I would like to know HOW Hanako could pay up for attending the Yamaku. I am almost sure i skipped badly that part, and now i can't find it either. Can someone telle me at least the chapter of the library where she tells it to Hisao?

[Ry74]

3. I guess it is kind of ironic how initially "Lilly's and Hanako's" Hisao acts pretty much the same, but at the routes, they're totally different. Hanako's Hisao increases his paranoid protective instincts and lack of common sense, capability to think and communicate up to eleven. Lilly's Hisao is usually a pretty sensible person when you make the right choices, including pointing out to Lilly some of the same things she points out to him in Hanako's route. It is kind of surprising how one decision and interaction with one girl over the other practically turned his entire personality as well as his thought processess around.

Keep in mind that Act 1 is basically your character creation process- the decisions you make there determine what kind of Hisao is attending Yamaku. The final choice of whether to go for Lilly or Hanako determines whether or not Hisao is the kind of person who would think that Hanako is the kind of person who needs to be looked after by someone a good bit of the time, at least initially.

[Whammy]

You know, I just realized something. A few months back when I first heard of this and went through the Act I Demo thing, I went on Zerochan and favorited some of the images that were on there for Katawa Shoujo. One of the images I favorited was this:

http://www.zerochan.net/651906

Look familiar? At the time I favorited it cause, well, I thought she looked cute when she was angry XD. I thought maybe it was just a preview scene of a small spat or something between the two. Now that I know that image is a preview of the bad ending for her...meh, I still think she looks cute in it XD. Part of it is probably the difference in the color scheme: without the oranges and all that it seems less dramatic, you know, the whole cool colors vs warm colors sort of thing. With the cooler colors it seems more like a little spat they'll get over with. The warmer colors make it seem like serious stuff is going down.

Also, there is a penguin in the corner...again, not sure why that distracts me XD. Muffins, penguins, Hanako's images really keep distracting me.

[Ryto]

Also, there is a penguin in the corner...again, not sure why that distracts me XD. Muffins, penguins, Hanako's images really keep distracting me.

ADHD? I know I have it. *gets distracted by squirrel*

[gecko]

Progressing on my reviews, here's my review of Hanako path.
*SPOILERS ALERT: as is apparently the norm here (that I hadn't understood for my first review), I won't use spoiler tags for Hanako path spoilers*

Hanako was my third play-through, and my first outside of the "limbless pair". Man, did she give me a hard time! I'm apparently not considerate enough, because even agreeing with Lily, I could not get the good ending. No beef against the writer, it made sense, you need to get involved with Hanako before you have to give her space, but it was jarring to this player to realize how dumb he was...
What can I say except that I enjoyed this path very much, both story-wise and graphically. The pyjamas were cute, the pool playing was heart-warming, the story pace was okay with me, and the ending very satisfying. I think my only problem is with this path is the H-scene:
Story-wise, while I totally understand why it had to be awkward, I felt it lacked some explicit consent by Hanako. After spending the whole path walking on eggshells around her, Hisao going for it so boldly felt close to a rape to me. I hadn't read Hanako's disrobing as sexual at all, just a signal of trust, and if Hanako worded a consent, it totally escaped me. So I was kind of "way to abuse her trust, Hisao"
Graphically, the disembodied penis disturbed me. Why not do it like in the other paths?

Another thing is that despite understanding that the ending was perfectly positioned plot-wise (just after the climax and resolution), I really missed an intimate scene with the right state of mind. I would have liked to read how the writer would imagine Hanako would act now that the bad air between them was cleared.

So, in the end, a nice path, but with an unpleasant H-scene, and it didn't push the limbless paths out of my podium (but that might be me not being in the right mind to like Hanako)

[Lunar Archivist]

1. I was pretty surprised that at their sex scene Hisao hasn't stop FOR ONCE to make sure this is what Hanako wanted, rather than her just giving in. Given his previous doubts about his feelings and his overall desire to not hurt her in the first place, it was kind of surpirising. Otherwise, the scene was pretty good, because it showed a lot of awkwardness about their emotions and about the first time between two virgins itself, something which the other paths may lack at times.

I think my only problem is with this path is the H-scene:
Story-wise, while I totally understand why it had to be awkward, I felt it lacked some explicit consent by Hanako. After spending the whole path walking on eggshells around her, Hisao going for it so boldly felt close to a rape to me. I hadn't read Hanako's disrobing as sexual at all, just a signal of trust, and if Hanako worded a consent, it totally escaped me. So I was kind of "way to abuse her trust, Hisao"

The whole scene was played for tragedy. They'd both fallen for each other, but were incapable of acting on it, and the all the events leading up to the sex scene were the result of one misunderstanding piling on top of and reinforcing one another, causing everything to snowball into a massive clusterfuck (no pun intended). He mistook her taking him to her room, drawing the curtains, telling him to close and lock the door, and disrobing as a sexual invitation (and let's be honest here; under normal circumstances, this misconception would be totally understandable). From the moment they entered her room, they kept misinterpreting each others' actions and intentions, culminating in a sexual act that neither of them really felt comfortable with.

This isn't to say that neither of them didn't sexually desire the other. Hisao's desire is pretty evident from the narration, but Hanako's physical reactions during their foreplay, specifically her nipples hardening and vagina getting wet, suggests that was enjoying herself to an extent as well.

Be that is it may, though, I massively headdesked at several points during the sex scene. For god's sake, you have a scared, shy virgin in front of you who's already anxious and uncertain enough about the whole thing, and not only do you fail to remove her stockings or panties properly, thus leaving her in an awkward physical position for penetration, but you also shove your penis all the way inside her the first time you stick it in. What the hell, dude? Even though my ex-girlfriend had been around the block a few times and I'd never been driven off the lot the first time we made love, I was a hell of a lot more careful and considerate than this. Good god.

Graphically, the disembodied penis disturbed me. Why not do it like in the other paths?

Maybe that was the point. To make us feel just as uncomfortable.

[agdsplicer]

I finished Hanako's route last night and I'm still feeling... strange about it. I knew Hanako was going to be my favorite ever since I first heard about the game, so naturally I did her path first. I loved the story, don't get me wrong, but now I just feel kind of empty. It's not because I wish there was more either, like I said, it's strange. For one, I was okay with the sex scene until I realized something seemed off, but then later when she admits the reason she did it, I just about broke down and cried. Even after the good ending, I still feel uncomfortable and extremely guilty about it. Also, because I did her route first and felt so attached to her, I don't know if I can do the others because I won't be with Hanako.

Another thing that's been running through my mind is when she says "That makes 3" after putting Hisao's information into her phone. That hit me really hard for some reason and made me tear up. I think it just really drove home the point that she not only had no family, but only 2 other friends.

I'm feeling a lot like I did after watching Clannad, just not to the same degree. Yeah, there was a good ending and everyone was happy, but I can't stop thinking about everything that had to happen to get there.

[Benkei]

Also, because I did her route first and felt so attached to her, I don't know if I can do the others because I won't be with Hanako.

I know the feeling. What made it easier for me was to use the Skip Text function for Act 1 and to just decisively and quickly pick the options which would sabotage my chances with Hanako. Actually, you'd be surprised:

If you tell Kenji that you didn't think Hanako was cute, you pretty much close off your chances for that route right then and there. At least, that was my experience when going for Rin. After you report this to Kenji, you don't get the option to talk to Hanako ever again. No option to talk to her which results in the Emi + Lilly + Hanako hallway scene, no subsequent joint luncheon with Lilly and Hanako, nothing. So it's not like you'll be constantly reminded of what could have been. I suppose the only time this would be an issue is when gunning for Lilly since, obviously, the two girls have a lot of overlap and so you're going to be seeing Hanako quite a bit. But from one Hanako fan to another, I can assure you that you won't even see her in the Rin path. Heck, Hisao refers to her impersonally as "that Hanako girl" at one point, which just goes to show you how different things are.

[agdsplicer]

Also, because I did her route first and felt so attached to her, I don't know if I can do the others because I won't be with Hanako.

I suppose the only time this would be an issue is when gunning for Lilly since, obviously, the two girls have a lot of overlap and so you're going to be seeing Hanako quite a bit.

This is the only real problem I'll have. I know that Hanako actually branches out and joins a club in Lilly's route, but there's a bit of copypasta floating around 4chan that goes something like Hanako hearing Hisao knock on Lilly's door and go into her room while Hanako lies in bed in her pajamas and sobs. That really put a stop to my plans to do Lilly next. Even though it's not canon and created just to make Hanako fans sad, it's still hard to get that.

Before I even played the game, I ranked all the characters based on what I knew about them and Lilly was second, but I may have to put off her story for a little longer until I get over my leftover feelings from Hanako's route.