Katawa Shoujo Forums

Unless I'm missing something else I'm really sad that there is no epilogue for these characters so I can read what happens after Yamaku for them too and honestly as great as the endings are and sometimes as fitting as they can be I dislike these kinds of open endings after having been largely guided through the story.

I agree. I've completed(and gotten the good endings for) Lilly, Emi, and Shizune so far and it not only bothers me that you're given virtually no epilogue whatsoever, not all of the stories even go through the entire school year. I understand that going in depth with epilogues would be a considerable amount more work, and making it too short would just feel awkward, but giving SOME hint of what they plan on doing immediately after High School would be nice. The only one I noticed that gives any real hint is Lilly. I won't say more on hers.

Lilly spoiler
I was really surprised on Lilly's ending given that it condenses roughly the same amount of events all into the time before the 2nd festival, then it basically glosses over the rest. I feel like the decision as to whether she should go live with her parents should have been postponed till the end of the school year to give that storyline a better pacing.
Shizune spoiler
On Shizune's, despite it being the only of the 3 endings that actually goes through the entire school year, at the end they are just like "lets make sure to meet up before the reunion". It's like what? You guys have been dating and trying so hard to make each other happy and make things work, then you have no definite plans to see each other at all after school ends? Wtf? Also I thought that their first time having sex was really awkwardly placed and I found it odd that it happened before any real affection was shown. Their whole relationship was like that, the only real affection was the initial hug, their first time having sex, the almost-naughty scene on the roof, and the scene in the classroom near the end. It just felt really weird that they were dating for so long and their shows of intimacy(minor or major) were so few and far between.

That reminds me, how is the school year organized in KS? Is it year-round? Does Hisao start school at the very beginning of the year or did he miss a bunch of it?

ultrarare wrote:That reminds me, how is the school year organized in KS? Is it year-round? Does Hisao start school at the very beginning of the year or did he miss a bunch of it?

A Japanese school year is divided up into three rather than in two like here (we call the two halves "semesters", so the thirds are "trimesters", which makes me think of pregnancy). So I think Hisao missed the first trimester but was present for the other two.

The Japanese school year starts in April, so Hisao missed about a month of it.

I have a feeling all of them are like that too be honest because I've done Lilly and Hanako's and yeah they were both like that. Also I wouldn't mind just to have the epilogue go to having them figure out what they want to do after highschool. It doesn't even have to be day to day just like one of those scenes with the black box over most of the screen.

Morishmael wrote:I agree. I've completed(and gotten the good endings for) Lilly, Emi, and Shizune so far and it not only bothers me that you're given virtually no epilogue whatsoever, not all of the stories even go through the entire school year. I understand that going in depth with epilogues would be a considerable amount more work, and making it too short would just feel awkward, but giving SOME hint of what they plan on doing immediately after High School would be nice.

Oh, I couldn't disagree with you more. I can only comment on Emi so far, but I don't think the lack of an epilogue has anything to do with the amount of work that would go into it. It's an artistic choice -- her storyline ends on the perfect note, in my opinion. In fact, I think it might go on slightly too long. That "Stay with me" line and Hisao's interpretation of it really sums up her character and the whole arc so magnificently that I think that may have been a stronger note to end on, but maybe I'm nitpicking. It may just be me, but I love these kinds of endings, and I generally feel a lot of stories drag on a bit too long. I think any attempt at going into what happens to Emi especially after high school would have felt completely wrong. She doesn't think ahead like that, and the future is uncertain, so the writers wisely don't tell us.

Lilly does have an epilogue after the credits, but she is the only one.