Katawa Shoujo Forums

while playing my favorite character's route on KS, I used to have this bizarre feeling
that sometimes, I 'forget' about the disabilities of the girls.
not that I actually forget the fact that Lily's blindness or Rin's armlessness.

but it's like..
for example, even though Hanako's wounds are obvious and constantly visible on her illustrations, I un-notice the fact that Hanako's right-half body is burnt.
And even though the fact of Emi having no legs is frequently implied on the story, I cannot think of her as 'amputee',
though i might see her as a girl 'with no legs', but for me that is something just like 'with short hair' or 'with long eyelashes'.
Emi can dash three times faster than me without legs, and she's friggin adorable with no legs, so fuclc the legs i guess.
(and it kinda kills me that she's nonexisting in this realm of reality.)

maybe i started to see them as perfectly normal girls.
which they actually are. they just have had harder lives, much harder ones, than many of us.

not sure i described the feeling right, but anybody felt the same way?

The game focuses on creating a person with a personality, and focuses on that, rather than their disabilities. So yeah, I felt the same way playing through the game. Their disadvantages, to me, were just something that presented a different way for them to experience life. Didn't mind.

Umber wrote:The game focuses on creating a person with a personality, and focuses on that, rather than their disabilities.

that is true. and I'm not complaining.. it's a good feeling actually

Umber wrote:The game focuses on creating a person with a personality, and focuses on that, rather than their disabilities. So yeah, I felt the same way playing through the game. Their disadvantages, to me, were just something that presented a different way for them to experience life. Didn't mind.

^^^^^^
This.

The issues the girls face are mostly psychological ones. The physical disabilities may or may not contribute directly to said issues.

The physical disabilities is pretty much just the theme of that, even if they're not what people consider "normal", they all go through emotional events and life like anyone else. Just look at Rin, her problems have no relation to her missing arms at all. This is the reason KS is so brilliant.

Rin is pretty much the only one. Lily and Shizune had family issues stemming from their disabilities, while Hanako and Emi had huge baggage from the events which resulted in their physical conditions.

I think you guys have pretty much nailed it. Everyone in the vn could just as easily be a "normal" girl. They simply each have a particular physical aspect that makes life a little more difficult, but which they've adjusted to fairly easily.

It's true, the girls could be regular, easily, if they didn't have their disabilites, and yet, you have to consider that some of these people have been seriously shaped by their disabilites - as well as the way they occured, for some of them, but that's a given.

Also, I'm no expert on Japanese (yet), but I think "katawa" means girl, and "shoujo" is the part that means "cripple". I could be completely wrong, though.

FoxtrotZero wrote:
Also, I'm no expert on Japanese (yet), but I think "katawa" means girl, and "shoujo" is the part that means "cripple". I could be completely wrong, though.

I think its the other way around actually.

I don't really forget about their disabilities, but as I've read the novel more and more they have become less obvious for me. For example Hanako's scars really caught my attention at first, but now that I'm used to them they're just an identifying feature just, like you said, the color of her hair. It's the same with Lily's blindness, Rin's lack of arms, and Shizune's deafness.

As for Emi, however, I'll admit that it's easy to forget she has no legs. Her legs really don't affect how she acts like some of the other girls disabilities do, but with that said, I haven't played Emi's path yet.

FoxtrotZero wrote:Also, I'm no expert on Japanese (yet), but I think "katawa" means girl, and "shoujo" is the part that means "cripple". I could be completely wrong, though.

Nope, it's the other way around. Shoujo means girl and katawa means cripple.

Shironeko wrote:
As for Emi, however, I'll admit that it's easy to forget she has no legs. Her legs really don't affect how she acts like some of the other girls disabilities do, but with that said, I haven't played Emi's path yet.

The fact that we only see her from the waist up for 90% of the game helps too.

I think Rin is the one who actually has the most difficulties. Unfortunately the game doesn't really go that deeply into has she functions and take's care of herself.

pandaphil wrote:The fact that we only see her from the waste up for 90% of the game helps too.

From the waste up...? Would that be like those Rin in a Bin pictures Xanatos keeps posting?

Ahem, sorry, I couldn't help myself. But on topic, yeah, the disabilities are the frame for KS, but it focuses more on their emotions. Emi's "disability" that really affects the game is her difficulty trusting people (or rather, trusting that they won't die on her), not her legs. Rin's story is entirely about her personality quirks, not her arms.

That is one of the themes of the game: These are just normal people, and you should look at their problems as a minor aspect of their personality. In act 1 they deal with this a lot, mainly through your dialogues with some of the school staff.

I also was jarred a bit, partly because I didn't actually know what "katawa shoujo" meant, but after playing through I now see the disabilities like some of you are saying, just a characteristic, like the color of their hair, especially for emi (who was my first route) where it might just make her that much cuter