Katawa Shoujo Forums

And, actually, I just realized -- I'm not really doing Irons for Mutou, I'm doing Paxton Whitehead.

And oh yeah, topic...read the entirety of Hanako's arc yesterday. After spreading Emi's over two days, doing an entire arc in a single day was definitely draining on several levels. We started at about 1:30 PM, and even though we skipped the entire prologue and a few chunks of Act 1, we still went well past midnight (with an hour's break for dinner). Once you start that path, you JUST. CAN'T. STOP.

We both commented on how, while Emi's arc was like rolling waves of upward and downward emotion, Hanako's was this relatively quiet ride, with a little build-up, then a quick drop, then a little higher build, with each build going just that little bit higher than the last, until the full-on whiplash hits in the last few scenes. I didn't need to work at all to put the necessary emotion in my voice, either, as I often do with other works. It was all right there, even after my having already been through it once. And, honestly, that was my biggest fear going into doing this -- both that I wouldn't be able to summon that because I'd already read it and felt it once for myself...and at the same time that I would, if you know what I mean.

Well, if anyone's still interested, I'll keep posting about the progress. As I mentioned, Shizune's arc is next on the agenda. Given my own feelings about the arc, I'm already preparing to insert the "Weekend at Hisao's" fanfic at the end if it feels proper. After that, the plan is to read for Rin, while saving Lilly for last.

Thanks again for the feedback thus far.

dewelar wrote:I didn't need to work at all to put the necessary emotion in my voice, either, as I often do with other works. It was all right there, even after my having already been through it once. And, honestly, that was my biggest fear going into doing this -- both that I wouldn't be able to summon that because I'd already read it and felt it once for myself...and at the same time that I would, if you know what I mean.

Oh yes I do!

Damn...I remember how many double-takes I had to do with voicing the last lines of Rin's good ending. I was all like: "Alright man...get a grip, you're at the finish line but you gotta do this to the end. *ahem* 'Maybe to accept another you have to first acchehehehehept...' *sobs*" I honestly don't know if I'd be able to read that out loud to someone else without absolutely dying of shame.

And on the flipside, yeah that's also the reason why it caught me off guard on that particular 2nd playthrough. I was all like: "Alright, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to read out loud because I already know what happens upfront and my emotions should be subdued enough that I don't waste too much time with feels as opposed to reading onwards out loud." Nope!

Loonie wrote:"Alright man...get a grip, you're at the finish line but you gotta do this to the end. *ahem* 'Maybe to accept another you have to first acchehehehehept...' *sobs*"

You just reached me on the level that I never knew existed.

wazuzu wrote:

Loonie wrote:"Alright man...get a grip, you're at the finish line but you gotta do this to the end. *ahem* 'Maybe to accept another you have to first acchehehehehept...' *sobs*"

You just reached me on the level that I never knew existed.

THIS. THIS is why I'm dreading reading the Rin arc...

Dude, the catharsis and grief is immense. But if you will actually read Rin's arc you may be quite disappointed just because you could just think of it as of something... epic, and get mediocre-impressive as a result. So please, for your own sake (you will do it anyway someday) reconsider your opinion on reading her arc to actually have your own opinion on her arc.

dewelar wrote:

wazuzu wrote:

Loonie wrote:"Alright man...get a grip, you're at the finish line but you gotta do this to the end. *ahem* 'Maybe to accept another you have to first acchehehehehept...' *sobs*"

You just reached me on the level that I never knew existed.

THIS. THIS is why I'm dreading reading the Rin arc...

Well, you're already a braver person than I for starting it all. So I say...finish it as well. *nod* Maybe first give her an upfront warning of what could easily happen, but as much as I riffed on myself of dying of shame...trust me, if she's anywhere half a decent person, she won't think less of you. In fact, for you willing to stick it out to the end, quite the opposite. You're risking your dignity for the sake of another, so that they can experience something they would not be able to.

And if you might be ashamed of your reaction - to risk it is certainly worth great admiration.

EDIT: Wazuzu - he's doing this for someone else, who otherwise wouldn't be able to experience it if he didn't read out loud. I think that changes the equation quite significantly.

Loonie wrote:

Loonie wrote:"Alright man...get a grip, you're at the finish line but you gotta do this to the end. *ahem* 'Maybe to accept another you have to first acchehehehehept...' *sobs*"

wazuzu wrote:You just reached me on the level that I never knew existed.

dewelar wrote:THIS. THIS is why I'm dreading reading the Rin arc...

Well, you're already a braver person than I for starting it all. So I say...finish it as well. *nod* Maybe first give her an upfront warning of what could easily happen, but as much as I riffed on myself of dying of shame...trust me, if she's anywhere half a decent person, she won't think less of you. In fact, for you willing to stick it out to the end, quite the opposite. You're risking your dignity for the sake of another, so that they can experience something they would not be able to.

And if you might be ashamed of your reaction - to risk it is certainly worth great admiration.

I appreciate the sentiment. I'm definitely resolved to do it, it's just that...damn it I know how it's going to come out now. But yes, it will definitely be coming with upfront disclaimers.

Loonie wrote:

wazuzu wrote:Dude, the catharsis and grief is immense. But if you will actually read Rin's arc you may be quite disappointed just because you could just think of it as of something... epic, and get mediocre-impressive as a result. So please, for your own sake (you will do it anyway someday) reconsider your opinion on reading her arc to actually have your own opinion on her arc.

EDIT: Wazuzu - he's doing this for someone else, who otherwise wouldn't be able to experience it if he didn't read out loud. I think that changes the equation quite significantly.

Honestly, I'm only about 75% sure of what he was trying to say . Wazuzu, if you mean I shouldn't expect her to find Rin's arc as...all-encompassingly powerful as I did, I definitely don't. Now, though, it's...kind of become something I need to do. Another kind of 100% completion, if you will.

Nevermind, I am an idiot. I totally missed the part of reading it as "reading", aloud, to another person.

Loonie wrote:Yap. Not to someone else, mind you - no need to do that and our family simply doesn't have any small children to read to...not that I think I'd want to read this kind of thing to small children anyway, teens yes, but small children? What am I even saying?! Er...anyway.

I censored it, don't worry

Well, I read my friend through Shizune's arc yesterday after giving my voice a needed break on Saturday. Perhaps the most interesting part was how much more I found myself actually enjoying it than I did when I ran it for myself. I was not a fan at all on first play, and found much of it throwing me off-balance. However, I realized as I was reading it that...it made a strange sort of sense, because "off-balance" is exactly how that relationship would be. Heck, I even found myself enjoying Jigoro, probably because I was voicing him as BRIAN BLESSED~!, because...seriously, who else? And in the end, I realized a couple of things about him that made me warm up to the big guy a little, where I just simply loathed him originally. I didn't even need metalangel's suggestion of perhaps him being scary-drunk in his scenes, then.

My friend found Act 2 of Shizune's arc very sweet, and enjoyed the slower progression at first. She found Act 3 very disjointed as well, and got annoyed at all the Kenji scenes, especially their timing. I hadn't thought about those on the first pass, but had to admit that it was distracting. Kenji is best taken in small doses. Where in Act 2 everything had a flow, in Act 3 there are just an awful lot of scenes that don't feel complete. Just as they're starting to get interesting, they're suddenly cut off. She was audibly frustrated several times when "Passage of Time" started playing, because she wanted to hear the rest of the scene. Act 4 is much better in this regard, but it still feels like there should just be...well...more. That said, she surprised me by saying that, overall, she felt the way the arc ended was the most realistic of the three we've done. I really couldn't argue.

That said, it left her wanting to know more, and that's when I brought up the "Weekend at Hisao's" continuation that I'd discovered. I'd only read a few chapters of it myself -- the first couple, a couple random ones from the middle, and the next-to-last full chapter -- and I knew that it had a chance to be a good experience, so I kind of wanted not to spoil myself further. Placing the details in spoiler tags below:

My friend was put off at first by the sex scene in the alley in Chapter 1, but we soldiered on. The next few chapters, while still a bit more eroticism-centered than she liked, started to open things up a bit. When Shizune got out the riding crop, my friend was like "oh HELL no," because she was expecting something a lot more pornographic than it actually wound up being, but we got through that as well. I had to tone down some of the rougher language, though. Then it really got going when the two met Shin and Mai at the mall. From that point on it was damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! We both broke down at the proposal, and I so loved that she actually said "I love you" to him. In fact, the very first thing my friend said when we started reading it was "I hope part of this is going to be her doing for him what he did for her, and learns to speak." I had already read that part, so I was inwardly smiling the whole way over knowing she'd get her wish. She's also a huge fan of Mutou, and when he made his appearance to officiate at their wedding, she about lost it with delight! A very...rewarding experience. When it was done, she said that it really made her feel like it made Shizune's arc a complete one. Again, I really couldn't argue the point.

In any case, I highly recommend it to anyone who feels unfulfilled about Shizune's arc as I did. It's very well-written, and I think very much true to the characters in the VN. In fact, given both of our reactions to it, we both now consider it officially part of our mental canon for Shizune, and my friend has now decided that this makes Shizune's arc overall her favorite (of the three canon arcs we've done thus far, Emi is by a good margin her favorite, and knowing what I know of her that probably won't change, but adding "Weekend" pushes Shizune well into the lead). I'm very glad, too, because as much as I relate to Rin, and am the most emotionally connected to her, when I really think about it, if this game were reality Shizune would probably be the one I'd want to have as my actual (wife/girlfriend/life partner/your preferred term here). I've always been a sucker for a Force of Nature. Besides, I know Rin and I would feed too much off each other, and would probably both wind up somewhere Dark.

Anyway, given how well that turned out, we're going to postpone the Rin arc, because we're going to revisit Hanako via the "Sisterhood" continuation at my friend's insistence. She felt the same sense of wanting more from Hanako when we read the arc, although not as deeply as with Shizune, so she wants to see if she gets the same sense of satisfaction from it. Having read the first few chapters, it's very possible. Not sure if anyone's interested in that, so unless someone wants to hear about it, I may not post again on this thread for a couple days.

Thanks again for reading.

Decided to post my thoughts on "Sisterhood" itself, both for myself and for this series of readings, on its Fan Works thread (http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=6750), if anyone is interested. For those who care about my voicing thoughts, Miss Takawa's voice belonged to the late, great Beulah Quo.

Well, I've put it off as long as I can. Rin is officially on deck.

There is actually a fan dub on the works for KS. The voices are pretty good even if a lot of people are gonna be butt-hurt that they don't match their imagined voices for the characters. Your friend might like it.


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8ICJ1 ... KC0GUUkOjA

leovic wrote:There is actually a fan dub on the works for KS. The voices are pretty good even if a lot of people are gonna be butt-hurt that they don't match their imagined voices for the characters. Your friend might like it.


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8ICJ1 ... KC0GUUkOjA

Yeah, that project is awesome but I guess it's going to take a veery long time for it to be done (I really like the voices of the characters, Misha's voice is so...nah, childish may not be the right word but.. ) , also I see that this is your first post, so welcome around here!

leovic wrote:There is actually a fan dub on the works for KS. The voices are pretty good even if a lot of people are gonna be butt-hurt that they don't match their imagined voices for the characters. Your friend might like it.


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8ICJ1 ... KC0GUUkOjA

*nods* Thanks for the link. I was vaguely aware of the existence of that project, but after looking at the link, the problem is that there doesn't seem to be any indication of when it will be done, although perhaps I just missed it. Also, part of what I'm doing for her is describing the visuals, and this kind of thing typically doesn't provide that kind of detail. I'll definitely let her know where to find it, though, in case she's interested in someone else's interpretation.

ETA: Already got a reply...lol. She listened to the first few clips. She kind of liked the voices of Hisao and Kenji they used, but MY GOD, did she hate Misha...and the Nurse...and then she just said screw this...lol.

This thread got me thinking about how I imagined the voices myself.

Hisao: My own voice. Boring, but there it is.

Emi: Pretty close to the Katawa Seiyu voice, but less bubbly and a bit higher pitched.

Rin: Similar to the Katawa Seiyu voice, but much flatter and less expressive. Deadpan.

Misha: Big and brassy. Kind of like Chizuru from Bleach, but a little cutesier.

Shizune: When she signs and Hisao can understand it, I hear a heavy-reverb, faster-speaking version of Kikyo from Inuyasha.

Lilly: Euphemia from Code Geass, but a bit lower pitched.

Hanako: Breathy and soft. Ururu from Bleach, but with a stutter.

Nurse: Gin from Bleach.

Kenji: Steve from American Dad!, but angrier.

Mutou: Harrison Ford. Not as a particular character, just the man's own voice, being all muttery and monotone.

Yuuko: A mix of the Katawa Seiyu version and Pris from Blade Runner.

Akira: Peppermint Patty from Peanuts, but less gravelly.

Hideaki: Boy version of Eri Ninamori from FLCL.

Jigoro: Richard "Dick" Vernon, the assistant principal from The Breakfast Club, but lower pitched.

Iwanako: Orihime from Bleach.

Miki: Liz from IGPX.

Nomiya: Jon Lovitz's Master Thespian character.

Sae: Balsa from Moribito.

Meiko: Julie Brown (the Just Say Julie one, not the Downtown one), but calmer.