Katawa Shoujo Forums

Oddball wrote: ↑Sat Jan 02, 2021 11:42 am


It's the first book club of the New Year. Hooray! Hope everyone had a nice one.

To start things off with, we're going to look at something special. Me.
(Or rather, I story I wrote.)

What a perfect way to start the new year, right?



Red Fish Blue Fish by Oddball.

This story features Lilly and Akira when they were younger.

Ah, I remember this one! Now I can read it again

Well that's annoyingly unfinished. The entire story makes me feel tense and uncomfortable. Everyone's on edge or doing things that could lead to bigger problems all the time.

Rin feels slightly off, but that's common in fanfiction. She's really hard to get right.

Emi feels a little weird too, but maybe just because she's angry all the time.

But it does leave me wanting more, and a resolution. Unfortunate we're just never going to get one.

The only complain I have about it is its unfinished character. I really want to know the developments, but I think we won't have the end of the story, which is quite a shame. It started great, I really like stories like this one that deal about "a few years later" events, it offers a lot of possibilities, and we can have great stories. The take on this story was really interesting, and it had a lot of potential, I really want to know the end, but unfortunately, it seems we won't have the end of the story. I like the shape of Emi and Hisao relationship on this one, it was a really interesting take, and it really deserved a full story for that. A lot of potential, but unfortunately, no development for us. It happens...

Well, according to the author they had two more chapters "almost complete and ready for posting"...

I remember liking that one a lot. Shame that it hasn't updated in so long.

This time on the Bookclub, I thought we could take a look at Jigoro.
Okay. There he is. Now that we've gotten that taken care of let's move on.

Here's a story with Hanako. Convoluted toughts (Hanako, still)by Ascended Flutist. It's a nice short little piece showcasing Hanako's thoughts after Hisao showed her his scar. It's nothing too deep, but it's enjoyable. It does have a rather distracting typo in the title though.


...



Okay, fine, we'll do a Jigoro story too.
Of Jigoro and Hisao by Guestdude (not to be confused with Guest Poster who wrote Sisterhood).

I want to say that this starts rough. Normally, Jigoro is turned up to about an 11 on a scale of ten when it comes to obnoxious assholeness, but I think this story cranks him up to about a 15 at the start. Towards the end we get a more human Jigoro and that works ... I wouln't say it works well, but it's at least better. Jigoro's backstory and how he met his wife is actually really nice and I wish we could see it in a more down to earth story. It was also nice seeing Shizune stand up to her father, but over all the character feel a touch too cartoony for my tastes.

toughts
This is a nice little one-shot. Fits in pretty well with Hanako's route, even though it doesn't really have any real significance. It's just a nice short thing that fills in her thoughts a bit.

I really like the ending of the Jigoro story. Honestly, the entire second half of it is pretty nice, and I could see most of it being something he would do. The first half... is a bit much. Jigoro is an asshole, but he's a bit over the top in this. Even if he was testing Hisao, he still goes a bit far for the sudden flip-flop to talking casually with Hisao, even if he is the kind of guy who probably would rage at someone then have a heartfelt discussion with them. That all said, this story does have a really nice Shizune and ends on a really satisfying note.

Sometimes I just don't have any clever opening to use and I don't know what to do about it.



From Tokyo To Mumbai by Zerebos.

I've never said before how much I like Zerebo's avatar, but I do. Not so much the blue dogman, but Molly makes for a cute cheerleader. If you ever wonder if anybody appreciates your choice in avatars, just letting you know, I do.

... anyway, on to the story.

It's hard to talk about this one because it's more setup and mood than story. Sadly that setup never goes anywhere because the story never made it past one chapter. Moodwise, though, it hits it out of the park. There's a strong since of mystery and sterile oppression here.

Hisao is being held ... somewhere. It's some kind of medical facility and he doesn't appear to be there by choice. He can't remember fully why he's there, but there are hints and he keeps insisting that he's not crazy (not that anyone ever says he is.)

It's a pretty strong hook for a story.

Not much to say that wouldn't be repeating myself from the comment I left on this (I'm apparently the latest to comment on it.) It's a strong piece, with an interesting premise. It was a shame it didn't get continued. I'm certainly never going to complain about more Molly

Also, it's actually the authors birthday today, so happy birthday Zere!

Also, it's actually the authors birthday today, so happy birthday Zere!

Let's pretend I noticed that and made this choice intentionally.

For the last entry, what I see is a wasted potential. Wasted in the meaning where we won't be able to see the end. I like Molly, she's a cute character, and when I see a writing about Molly, I'm always happy, because I really think she deserves more love and attention. The premise was extremely interesting, stories after graduation for characters of the KS cast are always interesting, in my opinion. For me, this story had so much potential, the premise was interesting, the fact that Hisao had to manage to deal with his issues was something I would have loved to see developed. The writing was really enjoyable too. Too bad we won't get any update about this. I would have loved to read the whole story. Because of Molly, because of the premise, and because of the writing style. It the whole story would have been as good as the start, it would have been a strong, very strong story. Such a mood at the really beginning would have given something exceptional, and I'm not afraid to say that.

(That being said, I apologize to have missed a few books club meetings, my thesis took a lot of my time, so I'm really sorry to have missed the meetings. But now, I have all the time for that.)

I had some issues in my liufe to handle since my last update. I apologize for it taking so long.

With that said, this time around, I thought we could look at another old classic.
This one has been looked at by the bookclub once before, but that was quite some time back and also before I took over. I think we've had some change over in our forum goes since then, so I wanted to give them one another highlight.

Reunion: Hisao and Akira Avoid The Family by the always excellent FluffandCrunch.

While there's a lot of talk about the hard hitting twist, I'm not going to spoil that for you.

I will say that I absolutely love the start of the story with Hisao waking up besides someone he didn't expect. Considering how the rest of the story goes, I don't think that part gets enough respect.

Wow, it's been more than six years since we last put this in YBC. Way too long!

It's well-engineered and carries a lot of well-crafted punch. No spoilers, of course. Everyone should be allowed to read it through a few times until they get all the feels.

I remember reading this one years ago. Had forgotten about the twist though

brythain wrote: ↑Sun Jun 27, 2021 1:55 pm Wow, it's been more than six years since we last put this in YBC. Way too long!

It's well-engineered and carries a lot of well-crafted punch. No spoilers, of course. Everyone should be allowed to read it through a few times until they get all the feels.

I know. This one is hard to talk about. You want people to read it, but you can't tell them what it's about!

That's one hell of a way to avoid the family.


I'm sorry.