The Hanako Thread - Spoilers, obviously

[Kazuki]

Just finished the route. Felt way too short, in my opinion. Lilly didn't even get to come back and see Hanako's change, which was kinda lame. Still, it was a nice route. A lot more enjoyable than I found Shizune's to be.

[Tahtorak]

I just have 2 problems with the Hanako route:

1. I think act 2 was a bit too fast. I used Auto Mode for everything in this game and for some reason, compared to the other routes, Act 2 of Hanako's route ended sooner than the others.

2. The ending. Don't get me wrong, I thought the ending was great. It's just that... I don't think Hanako's story should have ended during her and Hisao's first kiss. It ended prematurely for me and it left me begging for more, knowing that I am most likely never going to get any...

[scoopnokes]

For verification, the good ending was the kissing one right?
if it was i liked it but thought it was sudden and short.

And why were there not post-ending scenes to show what happened after and all like with, my favorite character still, Lily's route

[Brogurt]

For verification, the good ending was the kissing one right?

Yes, with the muffins

if it was i liked it but thought it was sudden and short.

It was

And why were there not post-ending scenes to show what happened after and all like with, my favorite character still, Lily's route

I don't know how to answer this without personally insulting the devs

[Misfile17]

So far my favourite ending has been Lilly's to, I thought hanako's ending was brilliant though, didn't need much more explaining than what happened I think, Still, I love Katawa Shoujo so much xD

[scoopnokes]

So far my favourite ending has been Lilly's to, I thought hanako's ending was brilliant though, didn't need much more explaining than what happened I think, Still, I love Katawa Shoujo so much xD

oh i agree it was brilliant and i liked how they got the character constructing through the story, but Lily is a personal favorite in personality and design. Only flaw is that she reminds me of an ex which I regrettably, nerdy as may be, got the bad ending with as some players do in the route. Almost the same way to as the story did it lol.

moooorrreeeeeee. I want to know more of what happens with hanako and lily.

[sporkaganza]

I really loved this arc and what it ultimately meant for the characters of Hisao and Hanako.

I do have one nitpick, though. All three of the endings just feel too... abrupt to me. Like they all need an extra scene or something.

[Grayfox]

I don't know how to answer this without personally insulting the devs

Seems quite easy to me. Maybe they just preferred her. Maybe the best writer in the group wrote for her. Maybe they were trying to make her seem the closest to canon.

[GossCannon]

Made an account to post here. I also became very emotional playing through Hanako's path. I'm kind of a paradox when it comes to this, as I have both characteristics of Hisao and Hanako. Wanting to be a Knight in Shining Armor but being shy and self conscious don't really mix well, so my feelings contradict themselves quite a bit. This story (which was masterfully written I must say) shows me, from the vantage point of an outsider looking in, how that can appear.

While being frustrated with Hanako for not voicing her feelings, going along with the flow (I know, I'm a hypocrite), I was simultaneously frustrated with Hisao and Lilly for worrying too much about Hanako, I guess to the point where it's almost like overbearing. Well intentioned but self defeating. Just kinda weird that it takes something like this to realize that about myself.

I've always wanted a little sister, somebody I could protect. To me Hanako fit the roll well. I knew I was going to like her best when this was first announced, now I think I'm going to find it hard to go through anybody elses storyline without feeling bad for her : /

Thank you 4LS for this wonderfull story

[zeroyuki92]

I don't know how to answer this without personally insulting the devs

Seems quite easy to me. Maybe they just preferred her. Maybe the best writer in the group wrote for her. Maybe they were trying to make her seem the closest to canon.

Or simply the writer for Lilly just think that the post-story for Lilly is required, and the writer for Hanako think that the story would be better if ends there.

I myself also think that any more scenes won't give better closure than this ending, since there wasn't many problems in this rute except of Hanako mental problems, hurdle for them to getting closer and Hisao's white knight in shining armor complex, which is already resolved with current ending.

[Barricade]

I -still- can't get myself to go through any of the other routes (although I'm sorely tempted to try Lilly's & Shizune's), Something about Hanako's scenario just hits home and you just want to keep delving into it.

Probably doesn't hurt that the post-H scene of her under the covers, with that little smile on her face, is about as DAWWWWWW as you can humanly get.

I'd honestly pay/donate/donate to charity of 4LS's choice/etc/whatever, for 4LS's guys to do an epilogue like with Lilly's. I might not have seen it yet, but I've heard of it, and considering just how wrapped up she is with Hanako (the hug scene is also unbelievably heartwarming), and the sheer overwhelming glowing reviews from Lilly's arc, to say nothing of the massive response I/we are giving to Hanako....

Now if only we could see something like that for the rest of the girls. Yeah, yeah, I want Hanako-Epilogue first, but I'm by no means going to be mean to the other characters.

[GossCannon]

I really loved this arc and what it ultimately meant for the characters of Hisao and Hanako.

I do have one nitpick, though. All three of the endings just feel too... abrupt to me. Like they all need an extra scene or something.

While I agree that I would have loved to see some more interaction with them, I have closure in knowing that they were finally able to tell each other's feelings, and come to a mutual understanding. Their relationship can only get more awesome from that moment on.

[Lurch]

First of all, I just spend about a hour and a half reading everones responses to the Hanako route – God there’s a lot of them.

And sorry in advance for my own incredibly long post.

My own reactions to her route are somewhat mixed.

Oh, I might as well warn you now, SPOILERS AHEAD – they won’t be marked, as that would be the entire text. You’ve now been warned.

Act 2 left me pretty disappointed in the writing – mostly because all the characters were wildly out of character.

Act 3 was a lot better for me. Although Misha and Shizune were wildly out of character, I actually started to likethem a lot more than the originals. In the Hanako route, Misha actually has a personality of her own, rather than just being a one dimensional overenthusiastic mouthpiece of shizune’s.

I really didn’t like the way Hisao took it as his role to ‘fix’ Hanako, and was somewhat relieved when this became a part of the plot/moral of the route later on.

Hanako’s panic attack is what really saved the route for me. I once dated a girl a bit like that, and reading it raised a lot of memories for me. Though once again, I felt like kicking Hisao for the way he responded – or didn’t – to it. The second she started going into it, I was thinking ‘Ok, get her out of there as discretely as you can’, and all his does is sit there and stare at her? I guess he’s just a kid, but I really don’t like him in this route…

Though others loved the jazz and billiards scene, to me it felt as though the author was forcing their own interests into the story. Hanako knows how to play billiards? When would she have learned? If she hasn’t played in years, how come she knows the terms? How come she was able to beat Hisao, who used to play all the time? What was Lilly thinking, taking her to such a busy club as her first foray into society in the first place – wouldn’t it have been better to work her way up?

Though others didn’t like it, I thought the sex scene was good. Not titillating, but well written. I can completely see Hanako doing something like that. Just because someone is shy, and somewhat fragile, doesn’t mean their sweet and innocent, and I can completely see Hanako desperate enough to do that in order to keep Hisao close. The repercussions also felt realistic to me.

I think I might agree with the other posters in that it ended too early. It’s still not all hunky-dory for them. Hanako still suffers her panic attacks, they’ve only just admitted they love each other, and (SPOILER CODE HERE) if you’ve followed Lilly’s route, you know in a few months Lilly moves back to Scotland. Hows that going to affect Hanako?

It would have been nice to have a sex scene which showed them making love too – as clichéd as it is.

To summerise, I liked the characterization of Shizune, Misha and especially Hanako, but didn’t like Hisao’s characterization at all, and felt the characterization didn’t match with the prologue or the other routes much.

Having read through the other posts before posting my own, I find I have to partially agree with Clyspe, who said that the artists generally draw Hanako with her scars hidden.
I didn’t notice that so much, but I thought (and have always thought, since act 1), that her scars were too stylized. In the story, her scars are supposed to be enough to shock and horrify. In the drawings, they just make her look cute. That’s the way they’d be portrayed in most media, but I somehow expected more from Katawa Shoujo. I expected a girl who genuinely looked hideously burned, but who Hisao (and readers) could grow to love through her personality.

[Lurch]

Sorry... I forgot to insert the spoiler code before posting. Can a mod delete or modify my post above so the Lilly spoiler isn't spoiled? Thanks...

[sporkaganza]

It astonishes me how you can say they were "wildly out of character" when before just recently, you had literally ONLY ACT ONE to establish their character. It's been a few years since Act 1, and a lot of the fans have built up these stereotypes of what the characters are "supposed" to be like in their heads; it's practically the JOB of the complete version of the game to say "These characters aren't exactly the way you imagine they are." That's called good character development. I've played three of the routes now and for me, there hasn't been a single one where anybody acted "out of character".