Katawa Shoujo Forums

OremLK wrote:Something weird happened when I played Shizune's route--I started thinking of her as being a much sadder, lonelier person than perhaps she was intended to come across as, and I can't get rid of that perception, or shake the feeling that even after her good ending, she still had a lot to work through. During the scenes where you meet her dad and learn more about her childhood, I was having feels way out of line with the surface emotions of that part of the story. The parts with her dad were funny, but I'd get really weirdly emotional after them.

I'm not sure if this is at all in line with what was intended, but I started thinking of her as someone desperate to be loved (not necessarily romantically, just any kind of love) who can't figure out how to express it because her childhood basically never taught her how to communicate with anyone and she never had anybody who showed her genuine affection.

I think you're absolutely right. Shizune sometimes doesn't get enough time in human brainspace; it's too easy to dismiss someone who grates on your nerves or tries to run your life, and then when you discover they're real people just like us, it might be too late.

After reading all the discussion on whether Summer's Clover is canon, I'm starting to think that Suriko may have just pulled the most epic dev troll ever.

OremLK wrote:Something weird happened when I played Shizune's route--I started thinking of her as being a much sadder, lonelier person than perhaps she was intended to come across as, and I can't get rid of that perception, or shake the feeling that even after her good ending, she still had a lot to work through. During the scenes where you meet her dad and learn more about her childhood, I was having feels way out of line with the surface emotions of that part of the story. The parts with her dad were funny, but I'd get really weirdly emotional after them.

I'm not sure if this is at all in line with what was intended, but I started thinking of her as someone desperate to be loved (not necessarily romantically, just any kind of love) who can't figure out how to express it because her childhood basically never taught her how to communicate with anyone and she never had anybody who showed her genuine affection.

Give me a handshake.

Welcome to the club, you piece of observant rarity you

That's about as close of an observation to my very own. Shizune technically lives alone in a 'separate' world with its own language, isolated from the things most people are familiar with. Quite a sad character--especially since even her supposedly best friend still has trouble understanding her. And then you have the knucklehead in swaggervest hop along and--for once--she felt she's actually needed/a part of something.

Quite a sad character, isn't it?

brythain wrote: I think you're absolutely right. Shizune sometimes doesn't get enough time in human brainspace; it's too easy to dismiss someone who grates on your nerves or tries to run your life, and then when you discover they're real people just like us, it might be too late.

Yes... everybody is the hero of their own story, as they say in the writing world. I think that's the best thing reading fiction does for us... gets us into the habit of thinking about things from another's perspective.

Megumeru wrote: Give me a handshake.

Welcome to the club, you piece of observant rarity you

That's about as close of an observation to my very own. Shizune technically lives alone in a 'separate' world with its own language, isolated from the things most people are familiar with. Quite a sad character--especially since even her supposedly best friend still has trouble understanding her. And then you have the knucklehead in swaggervest hop along and--for once--she felt she's actually needed/a part of something.

Quite a sad character, isn't it?

Incredibly so. I almost broke down toward the end of her route when she was trying so hard to drum up interest in the next Student Council, and it seemed like nobody cared. Like she worked so hard to make a positive impact on the school, but her own flaws coupled with her disability kept her from actually reaching anyone. I was relieved, but at the same time almost a little disappointed that it wasn't used for a big character moment instead, when there turned out to be some interest in it after all.

OremLK wrote:Something weird happened when I played Shizune's route--I started thinking of her as being a much sadder, lonelier person than perhaps she was intended to come across as, and I can't get rid of that perception, or shake the feeling that even after her good ending, she still had a lot to work through. During the scenes where you meet her dad and learn more about her childhood, I was having feels way out of line with the surface emotions of that part of the story. The parts with her dad were funny, but I'd get really weirdly emotional after them.

I'm not sure if this is at all in line with what was intended, but I started thinking of her as someone desperate to be loved (not necessarily romantically, just any kind of love) who can't figure out how to express it because her childhood basically never taught her how to communicate with anyone and she never had anybody who showed her genuine affection.

Dunno if you've hit her bad end yet but it seems very intended for her to come across that way. And I doubt she's actually improved much in the good end but she is in a much more favorable position for improvement there.

Charmant wrote: Dunno if you've hit her bad end yet but it seems very intended for her to come across that way. And I doubt she's actually improved much in the good end but she is in a much more favorable position for improvement there.

Unless we shift the focus not solely on Shizune's improvement alone, but on her issues of being 'isolated'. One thing that always hover around my head is how Shizune always, always seemed to try to gain recognition from others or get 'noticed'-- mainly due to her inability to 'speak up'. She tries to reach to a greater audience (with the Student Council, etc.) but ends up touching the wrong end she's unable to connect with the world that surrounds her--topped with her own inability to perceive her surroundings fully, she's often forced to make assumptions, guesses, and formulate her own solution which--admittedly--doesn't always work (thus pushing other people away). Not to mention, no one is capable of communicating with her effectively--not even Misha (which I'd gladly expand further on what I believe her relation with Shizune is as a whole).

I'll put a spoiler tag:
In the end, she wanted to become a philanthropist, someone who pursues for the betterment of others--very Shizune-like since the very beginning, which if I am to guess was her dream all along since the start. However, the difference in her character--what I believe--is how she now finally opens up and 'connects' with those whose close to her (Hisao, in this case) by explaining her dream/goal. Does anyone else in the KS-verse knows she wants to become a philanthropist? Her father and brother certainly doesn't; what about Misha? I have a hunch she doesn't know either, which is why I believe that Misha's companionship with Shizune isn't because she's there to help her out of her own good-will, but out of her own romantic interest.

And when she's rejected, she clings to that hope that she may still be useful to her one way or another--until knucklehead pops in and suddenly, he's a lot more closer to Shizune than Misha ever was.

Shizune wants to connect, but she couldn't. Her last attempt to do so probably led to the blow-out between her and Lilly (both are probably right and have very good reasons). Misha and Shizune's relationship is one-sided at best, with Misha following Shizune to the letter yet still keeping a few things to herself, which possibly kept Shizune at bay from opening up her deepest insecurities (not after Misha's confession, that's for sure). The only person who opened up to Shizune fully (which prompted her to do the same) was Hisao, which makes him the first person to have officially 'connected' with her--both mentally and physically (congratulations, you lucky bastard).

So what does the ending meant? Although not much has change from Shizune herself (still the overly-competitive girl she is), she has now ventured outside her 'world' and has finally 'connected' with the world around her (or is a start of that. She welcomes the challenge eitherway). What does Hisao's 'I love you' mean? Remember that in Shizune's term, 'spoken words holds a higher standard (when communicating)' which translates that Hisao's last-minute blurt reflects deeper connection/relation with Shizune, more than what was portrayed on-screen.

...now that's a long explanation. Haven't done that in a while

It's always nice to see Shizune getting some recognition c:

But on a completely different train of thought~
One headcanon of mine is that Natsume's heterochromia was caused by an accident when she was young and has nothing to do with her arthritis at all.

Natsume Ooe, arthritic lass at the back of 3-3, has heterochromia and is described to have 'Low Vision in one eye'. Sounds like Traumatic Iritis, to me. I doubt it genetically has anything to do with arthritis at all, so I'd wager it happened on competely unrelated circumstances.

"I was always a playful child, with all the clumsiness that comes with such a young age. One morning when I was 10, I remember I was trying to 'help my mother' with the laundry, which basically means I was running around her as she occasionally made a playful grab at me. As fate would have it, I soon found my feet tangled in my dad's best work shirt and my balance was soon completely out of the question.

I hit the kitchen cabinet head first, with the corner miraculously finding itself straight into my eye socket. After that, I only remember a blurred recollection of my mother crying, my father practically throwing me into his car to drive me to A&E, and extreme agony.

After a week or two of wearing an eyepatch, it was finally removed and I discovered that everything was blurry through that eye. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I was stunned to find that the eye was also more of a yellow colour than the regular chocolate brown..."

And then she goes on another few years before any signs of her hereditary arthritis begins to make itself known.

Even after Hanako and Hisao move into together, Hanako will still insist on having a separate bedroom. She won't use it all the time, but she'll still have the need to have a room she can isolate herself in from time to time.

Oddball wrote:Even after Hanako and Hisao move into together, Hanako will still insist on having a separate bedroom.

That's pretty interesting, and I think fitting as well. Not that I'm a Hanabro or anything.

Speaking of Hanako though, my own headcanon for her is that she's amazing at chess. It's simply her anxiety that messes her up when playing against live people.

I can imagine Hanako destroying chess grandmasters over the internet.

I could see "her room" being set up as a study, plus a couple bean bags. When things are going well, she's fine with Hisao using it too, but when they're not, she and Hisao have an agreement that it's her sanctuary.

I would assume that there'd be an "open door" policy. If the door is open, come on in. If the door is closed, leave me be.

BMFJack wrote:

Oddball wrote:Even after Hanako and Hisao move into together, Hanako will still insist on having a separate bedroom.

That's pretty interesting, and I think fitting as well. Not that I'm a Hanabro or anything.

Speaking of Hanako though, my own headcanon for her is that she's amazing at chess. It's simply her anxiety that messes her up when playing against live people.

I can imagine Hanako destroying chess grandmasters over the internet.

Many years after they first met at Yamaku, Hanako is the anonymous ICC superstar known as 'Shirovskaya', after the famous GM Alexei Shirov—he who was known as 'Fire On The Board'. Hisao indulges her by buying her routine Chessbase upgrades and multicore hardware; it's her one luxury. Once in a while, after a particularly satisfying game, she emerges from her private room with a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile and indulges Hisao in return—in 'his' room.

The hottest mating is checkmating.

Obsessive headcanon alert...

I found Hisao's high school in Yokohama here.

[Google Maps Link]:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/神奈川県立 ... b04a92479a

(You'll have to cut and paste it, because it's too long a URL and I can't figure out what the best way to shorten it is.)
To the north you can see the little wooded area where Iwanako made her botched confession.
Further north you'll find a crescent of little houses; Hisao's family lives in one of those.
If you go into street view, you can get a feel of what I was looking at as I wrote about Hisao's family from Kenji's viewpoint.

The area was snowed in only on 24/25 Feb 2007; I think 25 Feb was a Monday.
Slightly more than three months later, Hisao had been shipped off to Yamaku, and the rest is history.

I swear, brythain... you deserve some sort of "KS Fan of Forever" Award. You actually found a high school that's around the right area and where it snowed at the right time for it to be Hisao's, and even located the wooded area where Iwanako tried to confess to Hisao--that's just incredible!

Google Streetview of that area:

Atario wrote:The hottest mating is checkmating.

This comment spurred me to spend the last few minutes working out how Hanako and Hisao might be able to fuck and play chess at the same time. I don't know if I should be ashamed of myself or proud that I ended up finding a solution.