Katawa Shoujo Forums

bhtooefr wrote: Lilly couldn't care.

Beyond that... Hanako's vision is, according to Word of Dev, fine. If she needed them, she'd probably go for the most inconspicuous pair she could - remember, she doesn't want to draw attention to her face.

Emi would go contacts if she could, for sure.

Rin would get these: http://www.adlens.com/ (Screw it, now I want to get those just to screw around with them. They're cheap enough... and, off to the adaptive technology thread.)

This is fairly what if, so it's assumed that they'll need them for one reason or another. (Kenji Cosplay?)

I think Lilly cares a tad about her appearance, that, and Hisao wouldn't let her get grandma glasses. Probably.

Broomhead wrote:I think Lilly cares a tad about her appearance, that, and Hisao wouldn't let her get grandma glasses. Probably.

I imagine her with very lightweight memory-titanium frames that are actually honeycombs containing radar-imaging nanobots. When people look at her, all they see is a trendy young lady with nice specs who has extraordinarily perceptive ways of looking at things.

Cultural references in Shizune's route?

Wow...there's a bunch...where should I start? I think some of the obvious ones should be pretty easy to remember so let's go with that first.


let's go with the confession first: Tanabata festival.
If you're familiar with the legend, it's basically a festival that celebrates the two lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi who are separated by the milky way galaxy. They are only allowed to meet once a year (due to circumstances) on a specific day (usually July 7th). Thing is, they can't meet when it's raining.

Shitty thing is (and in my experience), it always rains in the day--not always, but it's common. Thus, the fireworks and all is held the next day instead and Hikoboshi and Orihime didn't get to meet (again) if it rained the previous year.


The festival itself is very famous as a lover's festival. Basically, if you confess to someone or invited someone to see the festival--and it doesn't rain--there's a good chance you will end up with that person or have a strong relationship way into the future.


Next, the one thing people always miss: lunchbox.

I don't know if it's something in the west, but it's pretty uncommon there with this practice I think. If you've lived in Japan (or at least watch enough anime to get a hint), you'll notice that the food--mainly lunch boxes or bento boxes--not only does it present taste, it also considers how presentable it is. Not only does it show the time and dedication you put in for someone, it shows that you really put an effort into it and thus you cared.

So, if you ever go to school in Japan and a girl offered to pack you a lunch box, you're in for a treat. Usually, preparation time could take an hour or more and as far as I know, they have to wake up earlier than usual to cook up your bento--and theirs--set it up, organize it, then wrap it. That takes dedication, patience, and strong commitment. No, giving someone a 'frozen and heated up' bento is more of an insult and thus is not even common practice. So if that bento has hamburger (the steak one, not the one with bun), ebi fry, and a few custom made (asparagus wrapped with bacon for example), remember that those are handmade and not store-bought.


Next, meeting the parents.
if you've dated any Japanese girl and she happen to take you to her home and meet her parents, it shows that she has trust you enough to introduce you to their parents--either they'll like you back in return is up to speculations (although from what I heard from my high school friends, some of them doesn't take western too well). It's basically saying 'hey, here's my boyfriend; maybe someday in the future he'll be your son-in-law' or something along that line. You won't see them if she's just having a casual relationship (this also explains another reason why Emi takes you to see her mother). Any relationship that is to be considered official is often accompanied with the approval of the parents/meeting them eye to eye--yes, this ties down to tradition so it may be an eye-shocker for most of you. And if the parents doesn't like you, they'll drive you out of the house--politely.

But if they do--despite how being such an asshole they are--they'll let you stay.


The last more familiar one: Rooftop lunch
Most local high school has a cafeteria of course, but there's another place where students usually go for lunch: the rooftop. Most of the time, however, it's off limits (since there's fear of students climbing over the fence and jumping down to commit suicide). The rooftop is mostly empty for the most part, thus not many people actually come up here at all. If you invited a friend up here (or a party; 3 people, 4 people), it's basically finding a place where you guys can relax without being disturbed. Now, if you're up in the roof as a couple, then that means she wants to spend some time with you alone and in private. High school life in Japan is the most stressful time of youth you can have, either it's because you need to start thinking of career opportunities or a university you want to get yourself into to...burn yourself even more for a better job. Private times with your lover diminishes in an instant--especially if you're the student council, and this is part of my own experience as well as the secretary a few years back.

To summarize, it's basically life=gone. It's all about studying, exams, crams, and wondering what you should do if things didn't go as planned. So, when Shizune ask Hisao to be up with her in the roof alone, then she basically asks him for some private time together as that alone worth a lot more than what it usually is when you reach this particular stage. The fact that she still planned a picnic with Misha later--and prepared it on her own--shows how much time she has to sacrifice herself. So show some respect for her, she did more than what she could bite.


I think there's still a few more loitering around, but I can't explain them in great detail. I'm still a bit busy at the moment, so I'll get back on this later.

Megumeru wrote:Cultural references in Shizune's route?
*giant text*

I was aware of most of those but I'll have to admit that I didn't make the connections during Shizune's route.
Thanks for writing that, it makes me appreciate Shizune, not only as a person, but as a lover as well, a little bit more.

It also gets me thinking that Jigoro liked Hisao otherwise Get the fuck outta my house you pussy!
Politely.

Getting your RL friend into KS is the best thing ever.

Also. Last week was Hanako week, This week is Lilly week over on r/KatawaShoujo!

http://www.reddit.com/r/katawashoujo/

bhtooefr wrote:Hanako's vision is, according to Word of Dev, fine. If she needed them, she'd probably go for the most inconspicuous pair she could - remember, she doesn't want to draw attention to her face.

OR, she could get the biggest, darkest pair she could — all the better to hide behind.

Megumeru wrote:Cultural references in Shizune's route?

*Great information*

Thanks this was exactly what I was looking for and I knew I heard about the bento before here so its great that its not false.

Thanks Meg.

That's actually a huge weight off my mind. I was nebulating around those ideas for a while, it's nice to have some confirmation on them.

The thing about Shizune's route is that it contains a lot of details that common western people tend to miss or pass over their heads, except if they're familiar with the culture or experience it (e.g. born in it, live in it, study about it extensively, etc.).

A few other things that may 'skip', and this one is in Rin's route.


Did you know that if two person--particularly a boy and a girl--stands under an umbrella it signifies a romantic relationship? Society is pretty strict and things such as public display of affection (e.g. kissing in public, snuggling while walking, etc.) is very much frowned upon. But what about sharing an umbrella? That is ok since you know--you're covering each other from the rain. But because of that, it also signifies intimacy since it's one of those times where two people can share a 'space' together (yes, we have what you so-call 'bubbles'. We don't like that to be popped). So drawings or doodles like this:

is basically the same to what you carve on trees on the west. The 'stick' in the middle is basically an umbrella.

If there's any more questions, feel free
It's nice to know people have interest in this stuff aside from the usual tentacle monsters, fetishes, dakimakura, life-size love dolls, etc.

Megumeru wrote:So, if you ever go to school in Japan and a girl offered to pack you a lunch box, you're in for a treat.

I wish a girl here in Canada would make me a lunch box, I've dropped some heavy handed suggestions; alas the closest I've gotten, was them giving me a snickers bar or something :/.

Megumeru wrote:And if the parents doesn't like you, they'll drive you out of the house--politely.

But if they do--despite how being such an asshole they are--they'll let you stay.

So in short, Jigoro actually liked Hisao, albeit begrudgingly.

Interesting

Today i completed Shizunes Good and Bad Ending , and every now and then i kee thinking :" What badass heartless person Hisao must be if he's willing to obey the cruel orders of an higher existence ( the Player ) ...

BEHOLD ! SPOILER BLAST !
.
.
.
That picture with Shizune sitting alone on that deserted backyard stairwell with the cute kitten puppet in her bag made me seriously cry ... But this makes me honoring the developers masterpiece of work even more , so Thanks to 4 Leaf Studios

HanakosForeverFriend wrote: BEHOLD ! SPOILER BLAST !

Tip: If you need to put in a spoiler, mark with a character/act, then use the spoiler button before you type it. It should be above the type box on the far right. It changes "Muffins" to "Muffins."

Playing through KS again, I've begun to suspect that Hisao, although supposedly the POV character, is prone to inaccuracies and exaggerations. That implies that we can't always take the facts implied by his words to be canonical, although the words themselves are canon. In September 2007 in Shizune's route, for example, he says that Shizune's been Student Council President for three years. That just can't be true, for several reasons, the most obvious being that Shizune likely entered the school in 2005 and is unlikely to have been immediately elected on entry.

Shizune's bad end with that cat doll was the toughest for me, even worse than Misstep, which I got to honestly -- Hanako's an introvert, of course she'd want to be left alone for a bit after packing Lilly off to Scotland. D'Oh!.

Then again: we know Shizune has caused a lot of problems. There used to be a substantial Student Council; she managed to drive them all off. That must have taken some doing. Also, we find out that she had been driving Misha hard enough to nearly make Misha fail her classes. So Shizune wants to help people, but what she actually does is to drive them into a ditch with work.

The kind of personal change Shizune needs to go through needs some serious motivation, and that usually entails a Dark Night of the Soul that we see in the bad ending, but not the good ending. In other words, I can see the bad ending actually working out better for Shizune than the good ending, because the bad ending allows for deeper change than the good ending.