Katawa Shoujo: The Reviewening. Synopsis and Character Roster

KS is a visual novel (learn about those in an upcoming post!) where you play the role of Hisao Nakai, a high-school kid. The twist is, you have heart arrythmia, and, after collapsing, are sent to a special school for the disabled.

Where you proceed to have romantic adventures.

This sounds twisted and horrible, and that is the precise reason that I chose to play this originally, expecting to quickly put it down in disgust. I wanted to play something I would be uncomfortable playing. KS turned out to be really tastefully done, and, is not, as the premise would lead you to believe, disability-fetish porn.

You'll just have to believe me on that.

So you, as Hisao, end up in Yamaku Academy, a school for the disabled. There, you proceed to adapt, in about 3-4 hours of story labelled as act 1, to your new environment. You meet a variety of characters, among them five very speshul girls, who you may end up going through a romantic plot through in acts 2-4. Every girl has a unique last three acts, dedicated to your developing romance.

The girls are as follows:

Shizune, the student council president.

Extremely fierce and competitive, this deaf-mute girl is constantly in verbal battle with you, going through a variety of battles of wits, both in act 1 and throughout her route. You are (initially) only able to communicate with her thanks to Misha, a bubbly pink-haired girl who serves as her interpreter, as well as being Shizune's best and only friend. This often creates confusion. Misha is not a romance option, which is something many do not realize, and attempt to romance her. This route deals with problems in communication, and is all about giving as much as you take out of a relationship. I recommend this route as the first you play, unless you choose Lilly's.

Rin, the artist and cloudcuckoolander.

Perhaps the strangest and most unique of the girls, Rin is a passionate painter without arms. However, what defines her most is her extremely strange personality, going on weird tangents and generally not making any sense. She's kind of paired with Emi, though not nearly as much as Lily with Hanako or Shizune with Misha. Her route is all about understanding and acceptance in a relationship, and is actually the one that develops Hisao's character the most, which might make it a good idea to do it first, though I would not recommend it, for reasons I'll explain later. Rin's route is also by far the longest, largely due to the dedication to Hisao's character development.

 Emi, the star athlete.

Emi is a cheerful and extremely energetic girl, if slightly childish. She's also the best member of the track team, and is an amputee of both legs. If you recognize the parallel with Rin, you get no points. Rin actually shows up more in Emi's route than viceversa, but she's still a minor presence when compared with Misha in Shizune's route or Lilly and Hanako in each others routes. Emi's route is mostly about running, both literally and metaphorically, and focuses on learning to trust your partner and letting them help you. It's by far the shortest route, Act 4 being practically non-existent. It's also got the lightest tone out of all the routes, and is more sexually charged, but, given Emi's character, it works. I'd call this the worst route, but it is still fantastic.

Hanako, the extremely shy girl.

Hanako doesn't have a defining occupation like the other girls. She is instead extremely shy, to the point of it being a serious issue, and is almost always reading at the library. Her shyness is due to the huge burn scars covering over half her face. Lilly is the only person she has let close. Lilly is very present in her route, and both routes actually hit many of the same plot points,  though with significant changes in where emotion is directed and enough small changes to make them feel somewhat unique. The route deals with overcoming your fears, and being supportive of your partner, though it takes a different bend than you'd imagine. It's by far the most constantly emotionally charged route, and has some of the most affecting endings in the game.

 Lilly, the motherly, easy-going class rep.

In case you hadn't realized, Lilly is Hanako's best friend. She takes care of Hanako, and is the one person who she's let close. She's also the class rep for class 3-3, a class for the seeing-impaired. As one would expect at this point, Lilly is blind. She's by far the calmest of the girls (unless you count whatever Rin does as being calm), and this translates to her route's feel, being slow and chill. This route is primarily centered around drinking tea, but in its spare time deals with the issues and benefits of attachment. Even more than Lilly is in Hanako's, Hanako is an absolutely huge presence in this route, comparable in on-screen time to Misha's presence in Shizune's route, though maybe not quite as plot-central.This is my own favorite route, as well as the first I played, and I recommend either leaving it for last or going for it first.

An important thing to note is how the disabilities come into the descriptions, in that they're rather secondary.  I tried writing the descriptions as close as possible to a stream-of-consciousness. It's indicative that none of the girl's disabilities showed up first. Sometimes, it's hard to untie the disabilty from the route by its very nature (in Shizune's route Hisao constantly has to overcome the communication barrier, and in Lilly's her blindness is constantly implied in the description of her actions outside familiar areas), but disability is never the focus of a route. KS isn't a story about disabled people, it's a story about people who are disabled. It's a subtle distinction, but it's got an enormous impact.