On the other hand, the clothes shopping scenes felt just as painful for me as they probably felt to you.
On the gripping hand that was probably intentional as well
I assure you, that scene was as painful to write as you imagine. :laughs: I'm glad that you and others are saying it had the intended effect
Loved the ramen picture, just Hisao's hair in that my god that is hilarious
. Does the ramen guy have a crush on him or something, if that picture is from his POV.
That artist is best known for doing 90's shoujo style manga artwork, along the lines of Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth. That's why Hisao looks the way he does - every male looks like that
She had a special for a couples commission picture during valentines day and I decided to jump on it!
Noriko speculation
This has to do with my headcanon of Yamaku a bit. In my headcanon, and subsequently, in my story, I believe that anyone can attend Yamaku, whether disabled or no. I know that there's a lot of speculation on that point and most of it surrounds Misha, but Lilly states that Yamaku doesn't accept mentally disabled students. ADHD (which a lot of people speculate Misha have) wouldn't be enough to get into Yamaku on its own, if the school
only accepts those with disabilities.
Autism would also fall into this category.
There have to be some exceptions either through there being no official policy on letting "normal" students attend, or through some sort of loophole. Because without such a thing in place, Hanako wouldn't be at Yamaku. Of course she's scarred and suffers from very bad social anxiety, but physically? She's not disabled.
As to why there
aren't more "normal" students at Yamaku, I believe this is two-fold. First of all, Hisao mentions the people that come to the festival from the surrounding town mostly tend to be older adults or elderly. This would imply that there simply aren't that many school-aged children in the area. The second reason only really makes sense when you understand a bit about Japanese culture and Asian culture in general, and I'm not sure I can explain it in the context of this psuedo-route because the characters involved would already know this.
The idea of individualism, at least as it's envisioned in America, is pretty discouraged in Japan and in most of the Asian world. Instead, a lot more pressure is put on people to find their identities
as part of a group, be it their fellow students, a club, their coworkers, etc. Above all, you're not supposed to rock the boat or go against the grain. This is something that's changing, but it's the center of a very real culture clash that America hasn't had because one of the core American "ideals" is striving out to find yourself as an individual, even discouraging some "rebel" behavior as a standard part of personal growth.
So even if Yamaku had no restrictions on the types of students it would accept, it would be very unlikely for someone who wasn't disabled to want to go there, or even for their parents to enroll them. The inverse is true as well - disabled students would want to attend Yamaku more than they would a "normal" school.
I guess, at its basest level, a non-disabled student (someone disfigured like Hanako would be an exception) who
chooses (or has their parents choose for them) to go to Yamaku when there are
other schools would be "impolite."
So in that vein, as Mirage said, a cigar is a cigar. I never intended for Noriko to have any kind of disability except for some social anxiety caused by what I just explained, because I think it's a nice contrast and leaves some interesting openings to explore as a writer. I should go back and rewrite some of the dialogue in this scene to make it a little clearer.
it really pleases me as a writer that she's relatable to you and you're asking questions - it means my efforts to improve my writing and make my characters deeper than what they appear on the surface is working.
That means so much to me.
She will have an important part in the plot, but to answer your question, she isn't at Yamaku because of a disability, or something that's disability-related like JSL.
. 