Katawa Shoujo Forums

It does happen to me, but the bar for it is certainly not where most would seem to place it. Wether I find something cute or not, I find, is terribly contingent on how much I *think* I can relate to it as opposed to how much I actually *can* relate to it. Honestly, I doubt that goes for why everyone else finds things cute or not, but I do still think it's a big factor as to why so many people find things like, to quote George Carlin on cats: "Oooh look! Isn't he cute?! He's playing with the mouse!" when the truth of the matter of course is... "BULLSHIT! Mouse doesn't feel that way!"

With KS the most glaring example is that I genuinely feel, not think, that I can relate to Hanako because of my own experiences in high school. This goes beyond her appearance (she certainly has a cute appearance) - it's moreso the fact that there is far less mystery for me about what it's like in her shoes...and because she's moreso relatable that just makes it easier to imagine her as 'one of us'. Same goes for Emi - her appearance is immensely cute, especially with the hair down, but her personality reminds me so much of my brother that well...she's one of us as well. Of course, just because I didn't find them that 'cute' doesn't change the fact that both of them still wound up on my #3 and #2 favourite spots.

Shizune and Lilly's looks are relatively par for the course (well, okay - Lilly's the Western ideal of beauty but I dunno...seen it before I guess is what I'd say in my lame defense) and, at least to me, their personalities are very reflective of the upper and middle classes so again...not that hard to relate to them.

Rin is probably the only one I can find cute on both levels, precisely because relating to that kind of person is probably the hardest. So when you don't have much in your life to compare such a person to...your tendency becomes to exalt them into something more I guess. Is that a good thing? A bad thing? Honestly, it depends how you look upon it. We all need our 'good things' to fight for, our heroes and heroines, even if we know somewhere in the back of our minds that no matter how 'cute' or how 'worth fighting for' something is...we probably assigned a greater value to it than the one it deserved in reality.

And I don't think that's a bad thing at all. In fact it might just be the most awesome part of who we are. Just so long as we remain aware of what it is that we find 'cute' and wether we think it'll serve us and those we care about.

Dang...I sure went all srsfaec for a topic as simple as this, huh?

ShadeHaven wrote:There are a lot of scenes that were pretty darn cute, ("I'll devour you!" Yes, I found this cute.) as well as the characters. As far as the VN as a whole? Na, not really imo.

It seems more like...a life experience? And that just seems more serious than cute to me.

It's a slice of life type of VN I think.
"I'll devour you" was really cute for me as well!

Oddball wrote:

Maybe i exaggerate how dark it is

You do. You also seem to be one of those glass is half empty kinda guys.

You know, i resent that allegation. I'm not a glass half empty guy, i'm a "What are we drinking anyway?" kind of guy.

I chuckled at "I'll devour you!".

Pyramid Head wrote:

Oddball wrote:

Maybe i exaggerate how dark it is

You do. You also seem to be one of those glass is half empty kinda guys.

You know, i resent that allegation. I'm not a glass half empty guy, i'm a "What are we drinking anyway?" kind of guy.

Well, you should have asked that before you drank half of it.

Oddball wrote:

Pyramid Head wrote:You know, i resent that allegation. I'm not a glass half empty guy, i'm a "What are we drinking anyway?" kind of guy.

Well, you should have asked that before you drank half of it.

I've had enough of your disingenuous assertions. I poured it. It was bourbon. I only filled half the glass because drinking bourbon is something akin to getting beaten to death with a delicious sledgehammer, you have to work on it slowly and should only fill the glass half-way.

And thank you, Pyramid Head...

I was going to make a totally relevant (actually, totally awkward) comment here, but then Pyramid Head and Oddball made me forget it. Thank you.

acewing905 wrote:Quite a few cute scenes, but overall, KS isn't what you'd call "cute", IMO. I'd say its primary purpose isn't looking cute. KS pulls at your heartstrings in different ways. The VN on my sig and avatar on the other hand, now that's something that can be called "too cute". Its characters essentially exist to look cute.

What is that VN by the way?

ojamamask wrote:

acewing905 wrote:Quite a few cute scenes, but overall, KS isn't what you'd call "cute", IMO. I'd say its primary purpose isn't looking cute. KS pulls at your heartstrings in different ways. The VN on my sig and avatar on the other hand, now that's something that can be called "too cute". Its characters essentially exist to look cute.

What is that VN by the way?

I want to hug his avatar...

Xanatos wrote:I want to hug his avatar...

My avatar currently has the cutest 2D character ever drawn (my opinion, of course ), so that's understandable.
Anyway, this is the VN: http://vndb.org/v4942
This VN is easily something that can be called "TOO CUTE", unlike KS which has rather realistic proportions of cuteness.
Sadly, it's not translated (though an anon at 4chan is translating it, but that will take time), and I'm reading it myself with MeCab+JParser for mouseover kanji/vocab definitions. However, it's a pretty easy read, so maybe even a machine translator would do for the most part. Doesn't have much of a plot, other than cute girls having superpowers (yes, each bundle of cuteness has her own superpower, which the main character can copy using his own ability, by TOUCHING them. ) doing things like saving cats stuck on trees. Got it down only for the cute art, tbh. Some good voice acting too.

Acewing, stop with the cute shit. Its gon' kill me

acewing905 wrote:

Xanatos wrote:I want to hug his avatar...

My avatar currently has the cutest 2D character ever drawn (my opinion, of course ), so that's understandable.

I believe the technical term for my reaction to this character is "squee".

I want to motivate people to learn Japanese and experience more VNs, so I think I'll keep the cuteness. (Not that it's going to work, but meh.)

acewing905 wrote:I want to motivate people to learn Japanese and experience more VNs, so I think I'll keep the cuteness. (Not that it's going to work, but meh.)

You may motivate some HHHHNNNNNNGGGGGs too.