Oddball wrote:LordDarknus wrote:
Xanatos wrote:And we see Iwanako in the Secret Santa.
I've been wondering about that; does that truly count?
I'd say it's just short of canon.
Close to canon, but not quite
(personal refrain... from making... Inception joke...)
(so far successful)
I have mixed feelings about that, Iwanako's facelessness lets me project my past failings in romance upon her, she's "the one who got away", "the one you messed up your chance at happiness with", "the one who actually liked you, but you screwed it up anyway".
Having shown her face, sort of.. detracts a little...
I don't know, I kind of prefer the mystery of not ever seeing her face, that way, she remains a projection throughout the dream. Where in the first level, Hisao falls off the roof, and the team's attempt at inception on Shizune has backfired. Now she's controlling the dream unconsciously, sort of like Haruhi Suzumiya.
We wake up in the second level down, in the dorms. Where we forget who we are, and we act and behave exactly like students of Yamaku. Because that's what Shizune wants, to feel the safety she once felt in her old boarding school dorm, and have close friends close and comforting her if she needs them.
But then Hisao finds Iwanako's letter again, and it was jumbled up, effectively shocking him into remembering he's in a dream, like that Batman The Animated Series episode with the Mad Hatter, where Bruce Wayne couldn't read the newspapers in the dream because "you can't read words while you're asleep". (Which technically isn't completely true, but.. yeah)
Hisao reminds the rest of the team who they are, and gets them back on the job, trying get the inception on Shizune done by using her relationship with Misha as leverage. Going deeper into a Third Dream-level, where Kenji thought up the snow level to Metal Gear Solid instead of something more sensible; like a nice sunny beach.
Unfortunately though, thing start going wrong, with Shizune's darker demons coming out to haunt them, the team has to fight an actual army of Shizune's projections, whom succeed in attacking Lilly but Shizune leapt in front to block the attack, sending both of them into Limbo.
Hisao follows them into it, the bottom-most dream-level, where he and Iwanako shared entire lifetimes together, having built countless homes and created so many projections that would have been their children. Hanako came along, in case Hisao would lose himself in the dream again, and together they found Shizune, at the mercy of Hisao's guilt-induced projection of Iwanako.
Hisao volunteers to stay behind, and be with the Iwanako-projection, in return for Hanako bringing Shizune back up to the third dream level to finish the inception. But reveals at the last minute that he has no intention of staying. Hisao can not forgive himself for pushing Iwanako away, and no matter how much he tried, no matter how real the Iwanako-projection seemed, it wasn't enough. He loved Iwanako. The Real Iwanako. And it was time to finally let his guilt go.
Hanako shouts for Hisao to find Lilly, and to not lose himself in the dream, as she takes Shizune back up to the third level. Wherein in the deepest Strong Room, is a sickly and dying Jigoro, still spouting the words "disappointed" at Shizune.
The projection-Jigoro makes an attempt to elaborate, saying he was disappointed, that Shizune didn't think Jigoro was ever proud of her. His last words were in a language he had never used before; Sign Language. [I love you.]
With the root of all her dark drive and determination finally resolved, Shizune no longer feels the need to take over Lilly's empire, effectively keeping from becoming the dominant supplier of energy to the world and relinquishes the desire to become the head of a new superpower.
With the job complete, the rest of the team effects their "kicks", riding the shocks all the way back up to the first dream level and back into reality.
Still caught in Limbo.. Lilly waits for someone.. someone she once knew, in a half-forgotten dream. To remind of the truth she once thought, in a half-remembered world.
Hisao finally finds her, old and alone, waiting to die in the cold. He convinces her to come back... to return to the waking world, to become young souls again. To take the leap of faith, and let old guilts go and have a chance at finding love anew. Hisao begs Lilly to trust in him, and herself.
The dream finally ends.. as the light from the windows softly hum in indistinct whispers on the plane. Lilly, Hisao, and the rest of the team are back in the real world, the inception on Shizune having been successfully completed. The job is done. They are all going to depart forever on their separate ways from here on.
Hisao finds his way back to Iwanako, she's staring out at the garden, perhaps hoping for someone to come, someone from a half-remembered world she once knew but had chose to let go.
Hisao calls out to her, and sees her brilliant smiling face, free of taint from shadows past, only the joy of light the future together would bring.
They run to each other and embraced.... the letter on the table left opening ever gently from the wind, revealing just a little, but not enough to know; if the contents are real.
KATAWA SHOUJO
- INCEPTION -
Yo Dawg, I heard you like Feels, so we put some Feels in your Elysian Fields, so you can Feel, while your Iwanako waits and feels for you...