Shizune's route is by far the one that least fits the mold the other routes follow. It's different in a lot of ways, and these are both its strengths and its weaknesses. This is the only route without a real emotional punch, yet it never intends to have one. It's the only route where your partner's disability has a real impact on the plotline (not that there was really any way to avoid it with Shizune), and it's the route that gets the most build-up in Act 1, by far. In these ways and more, Shizune's route is strange.
It's hard to pinpoint just when it begins in Act 1, seeing as you can be locked into it at different points through the Act, and it feels like the route that flows the most naturally from events before you get any control. This is something I give it massive props for. Whilst most routes need to at least twist and tug at logic a bit to get Hisao to participate, Shizune's route feels like it just advances as it would (possibly just due to her massive presence in Act 1). It's the route that I'd say Hisao would end up following if left by himself in Yamaku. That or the Kenji route.
At any rate, the best point I can find to say it starts is at the scene Lunch Evolution Theory. If you've accumulated enough Shizune points by this point, Hisao can choose to wait for Shizune and Misha to make a decision. If you don't hit this choice, you can't end up on their route, though you can still end up on other routes if you do do it. This leads to Shizune and Misha leading Hisao around all over the place, eventually inviting him to the Shanghai.
Throughout this time, Shizune's gimmick becomes evident: She's extremely competitive, and takes everything as a sort of game that she must win. It sounds like it'd get tired after a while, but it doesn't. Most of Act 1 with Misha and Shizune is fluff of the highest quality. This is something that this route in particular does better than any other: Its filler is very, very funny, and, by extension, extremely entertaining.
If you don't wander off onto another route, Misha and Shizune's nagging eventually gets to Hisao, and they convince him to join them on Student Council. This leads to him being roped into making stalls for the upcoming festival.
I can tell at this point this route is going to be difficult to write about, because most of the scenes, even emotionally resonant, eventually develop into "Shizune somehow manages to make into a competition, Hisao gets absorbed into it and hilarity ensues". This is exactly what happens whilst working on the stalls, but it's still funny and believable. The fact that Hisao and Shizune's little bouts of competition never get old is extremely impressive, and is, by far, the biggest thing the route does right, and ultimately what makes it effective.
What's important to note is that at this point all of Hisao's communication to Shizune is done through Misha. This makes it really hard to tell at what point Misha ends and Shizune begins, and is an effective tactic in making the player more interested in Shizune herself. It's left ambiguous when Misha is interpreting, too, so both the characters kind of blend into each other in a really interesting fashion.
After building stalls, Hisao accompanies Misha and Shizune to the festival, in a scene named Throwing Balls. This is a fantastic festival, possibly my favorite in the game. Misha and Shizune do their Misha and Shizune thing, and Hisao finally starts breaking out of his apathy and seems to be genuinely enjoying himself. Seeing Hisao's bitterness melt away is quite moving, and whilst Shizune remains competitive she seems a lot more relaxed, which allows us to see a different side of her, which is always interesting.
The scene culminates with the trio going to the school roof to watch the fireworks display, with Misha falling asleep before the display begins, and Hisao and Shizune watching it together in silence. It's got one of my favorite moments in the route, where Shizune, unable to communicate, just opens her arms and makes Hisao look around her. It shakes Hisao out of his self-pity, and he thinks that "if it only takes a moment for there to be love, I may be falling in love with her". Whilst saying this outside of the route feels like things are moving too fast, it's completely believable within the game. The moment is so serenely touching that you can perfectly see where Hisao is coming from. The fact that, in further scenes, he goes back to treating her like normal also feels perfectly believable: The rooftop scene is just so beautiful you can see Hisao being infatuated with Shizune just for being there for that moment. It's actually one of the precious few situations where I feel completely immersed in Hisao's role in not just Shizune's route but the whole of KS.
And so ends Shizune's section of Act 1. Her Act 2 is named Learning to Read, but first, a quick review of Shizune's theme and scene. Shizune's theme is The Student Council, and her scene is Three Stars. These are both arguably also Misha's, since she is the other part of the Student Council, and one of the three stars. The Student Council, aside from a rather unimaginative title, is actually one of my favorite character themes in the game. Not only is it very nice-sounding and surprisingly catchy, but it fits Shizune and Misha's bubbly personality perfectly. Aside from Standing Tall, it's the only theme that gets played often during the girl's route, and it fits perfectly into every scene it plays over.
Three Stars is a strange one. The end of the cinematic is a very nice way of both foreshadowing and misdirecting the player as to what the issue at hand is. Before that, it's a nice representation of what goes on during the route, and makes one nostalgic when it's played. I like the title, since it points out the biggest thing Shizune's route does differently: It has three protagonists, rather than the usual two. The visual metaphor referring to stars is a bit strange, in that it feels like it was shoehorned into the route. Late in the route Shizune makes a passing mention to looking at stars, but it's not a major theme at all. I really like the music, but I'm not sure of whether it's great for Shizune and Misha. It's a lot calmer, and seems like something that would fit at the end of the route (or, even better, listened to by the player in their own time after finishing), allowing you to reminisce about the good times you've had. It's still an absolutely beautiful piece, and would definitely be my favourite scene piece if all of them weren't so great. Whenever I think of most scene tracks, I think "Oh, that's my favourite, for sure", until I remember another one at which point I'm not so sure anymore.
Here are the secondary characters important in the plot. As per usual, I'll discuss them as the review goes on and at the end. I'm not including Misha here, since she's one of the Three Stars.
-Hideaki Hakamichi
-Kenji Setou
-Jigoro Hakamichi
-Lilly Satou (Yep, she's important enough to where I consider her a secondary character here)
-Akira Satou (Briefly)
Learning to Read begins with a scene where Hisao stumbles upon Shizune on the Yamaku grounds, without Misha around to interpret. They resort to writing notes to each other. This is a short interaction, but it's important to note that it's the first time Hisao and Shizune communicate directly. Already, Shizune's personality feels very different than when transmitted through Misha. The conversation itself is rather unimportant, just some stuff about exams that are practically never brought up again. She's obviously a lot less excitable than when viewed through the lens of Misha, but has a sort of childish playfulness that's completely lost on Misha. However, Shizune also reveals she took Hisao to the stalls he helped build during the festival, to show him the fruit of his work. It's all part of her competitive view of the world: You must know what your work results in.
These kinds of things are common throughout the route. At various points, Shizune will go on about how she views the world. Sometimes it's for comedic effect, sometimes seriously, but if one thing can be sure is that it happens a significant amount. Most of this stuff doesn't really come into play at any other point, but it does help build Shizune's character. The varied ways in which it's expressed helps not make it feel stale, but it does get slightly tiring towards the later parts of the route. It's still a miracle it takes that long, though, which speaks to just how likeable Shizune is.
After this, Hisao bumps into Misha, and asks about sign language classes. He decides to join one, but asks Misha not to tell Shizune about it. For now, he explains this away as wanting it to be a surprise. Through most of Learning to Read, this fact remains hidden, and Hisao can't seem to keep it straight in his head why he wants to hide it. This is a detail I love. It feels exactly like the kind of stupid thing I'd do in my last year of school without knowing why, but the web of his confused self-justifications actually does create a certain kind of understanding in the reader.
The next few scenes are fluff. As I mentioned before, the fluff in this route mostly consists of Shizune involving Hisao in some kind of competition and hilarity ensuing. I want to reiterate that this works. The formula is applied to so many situations it feels varied, but the fact that it's so insistent on its structure really solidifies Shizune's personality in your mind. Pretty much at any point in her route, her competitive and fierce nature is relevant to the current going-ons in some way or another.
The fluff here consists of Hisao and Misha goofing around on the rooftop whilst Shizune is busy, Misha trying to help with his signing lessons, and Shizune and Hisao getting into a competition over a box that Kenji asks him to deliver. This stuff is really, really funny, and does the magical thing where it doesn't feel like filler. If you stop and think about it, you realize there's no way on Earth this stuff is plot-relevant, but it feels relevant in the moment.
One scene that, whilst not necessarily plot-relevant, stands out from the filler is Advanced Game Theory. It's a kind of scene that happens rather often, and is suspiciously absent from the previously reviewed Emi's route, a cameo scene. In most routes, a couple times in the route a girl from a different route will pop-up, and interact with the main characters. I don't really count appearances by Misha and Shizune as such, though, since they're pretty much omnipresent and appear relatively often in next to every route, usually when Hisao is in class. Advanced Game Theory is a Hanako cameo scene. The Student Council are having one of their usual bouts of hyper-competitiveness, bringing out various games to potentially play when Hanako enters the student council room, looking for a replacement student ID. She is about to back off, but upon seeing the chessboard on the table shows interest, and is invited by Shizune to a game.
The game is pretty interesting in how it plays out, with Hanako making much slower moves and Shizune responding quickly. Hanako eventually closely looses, and is challenged again to a game of speed chess, which Shizune wins easily.
Not only does this scene gel well with what goes on in both Hanako and Lilly's routes, but it provides some interesting insight into Shizune. She sees competition as its own reward, and she believes the reason Hanako looses is that she puts more value into the chess game than the competition. The fact that she loves chess is what makes her loose the game. This is actually an interesting parallel to some comments Hisao makes later in the route about Shizune herself. He believes the reason she's unintentionally pushing Misha away is because she cares too much to acts as competitive about their relationship, which Misha takes as detachment.
After this (and a single more scene of fluff), Shizune and Hisao agree to build stalls for the upcoming Tanabata festival together, but Misha has to be away for reasons. Hisao is still pretending not to understand sign at this point, but, after leaving Shizune at the Council room, Misha reveals she's told Shizune about his sign lessons at this point. Hisao was able to read most of what Shizune was saying through the fluff after Advanced Game Theory, but at the time it was irrelevant since it read pretty much exactly like Misha's translation.
The scene where the stalls are built is called Interface, and marks the first conversation Hisao has with Shizune in sign. It's not a long one, but it's even more visibly noticeable how different Shizune is when not viewed through the lens of Misha's translation. She comes across a lot more calm, yet still fiercely competitive and fun-loving. Hisao's first impressions of her way back when they met in Life Expectancy seem to be rather accurate.
This is some of the most interesting material in Shizune's route. The difference between how Shizune actually is and how she comes across through Misha is actually rather tremendous. One can't help but wonder how many of the problems Shizune had in dealing with the previous Student Council are actually Misha's fault. Shizune as viewed through Misha looses great part of her impish charm, as well as the ability to explain her actions more personally. Talking to her directly makes her come across much more like a much more reasonable authority figure. As such, it's disappointing that this stuff doesn't get explored a bit more during the route. It's brought up very briefly at one point, and then sort of dropped. It's sad seeing this wasted potential, but it's understandable that Anonymous22 (This being the writer for this route) didn't choose to go that way.
The next scene is a confrontation between Lilly and Shizune. I'm not fond of this scene. It doesn't really serve any purpose: It's already been established that Lilly and Shizune aren't fond of each other. It's not pleasant to read, since both Lilly and Shizune act rather unpleasantly toward each other, and take no regard for the fact that Hisao is caught in the crossfire. This would be alright, if it led anywhere, but this scene could be dropped and the route wouldn't suffer in the slightest. As it is, it's just an oasis of unpleasantness.
After this, there's a rather bizarre scene where Kenji appears and does his thing toward Hisao. Out of similarly nowhere, he takes his glasses off, a unique CG pops up, moving music plays, and acts normal for a few lines, actually saying some rather interesting stuff. Then he puts his glasses back on, his theme starts playing, and he starts acting like Kenji again. The scene has no follow-up whatsoever. I usually ignore Kenji scenes for a reason that I'll explain in a dedicated post about Kenji, but this one seems like it was meant to be special. However, it has pretty much zero follow up and is just bizarrely there. My theory is that the CG was left-over art from the rumored cancelled Kenji route, and they just had to find a place to shove it in.
The rest of that particular scene is spent in the school cafeteria and in the Shanghai, the tea shop in town. It's a fun bit of bickering, and really does just feel pleasantly relaxed, like a day out with friends would. It's entertaining to read, and involves some explanation of why Shizune is upset by Lilly. This is way better advancement toward that particular subplot than the scene before when Lilly and Shizune fight. It's actually relevant for character development later down the line, and fills in some of the blanks in that particular subplot (which is spread out through both Lilly and Shizune's routes in a rather clever way. I might write a one-off post about it sometime).
The final act of the scene is When Stars Embrace, where the trio go to Tanabata. It's a similar scene to the first festival, but holds a different role plot-wise. There's the same fun bickering going on, but Misha leaves quite early, leaving Shizune and Hisao alone. They end up just goofing around for a while, until returning to the ground really tired. They have some more conversation in which Shizune reveals some more of her life philosophy. She believes that if her competitiveness makes people happy, then it's alright. This is accompanied by some of the most gorgeous artwork in the game, a fantastically drawn picture of Shizune. Before going their separate ways, Hisao brings up his courage and asks Shizune "Do you want to be my girlfriend?", to which she, after a little fumbling, answers "Okay", and embraces Hisao, ending the act.
It's a fantastic scene. The section during Tanabata is just as entertaining to read as the school festival, but feels different enough in tone and inter-character relationships to not be repetitious. Shizune's talk about her life philosophy feels more genuine and from the heart than before, possibly just because of the more somber mood the scene ends up in. It's also the first long block of interaction Shizune and Hisao have on their own, which allows the scene to feel more personal, as well as showing off that these two really can feel good around each other. The internal monologue leading to Hisao's asking Shizune out also feels very believable in a "Yep, I remember being that way" kind of way.
The actual dialogue when he does ask her out is so awkward that it feels fantastic. It itself has very little impact, but the actions around it are what is shocking and moving. It feels supremely real.
And so ends Learning to Read. It's a set-up act, in much the same way that Form was in Emi's route. It's by far the funniest act in the game, as after it the route starts moving in a more plot-oriented direction. Still, it has some excellent character-building in it, and gives you plentiful amounts of fluff to then take away from you when the situation becomes worse. A couple unnecessary-feeling scenes aside, Learning to Read is a blast to read through.
The next act, Sleight of Hand, begins a few days after Learning to Read ends. Shizune and Hisao meet in the Student Council room before the usual time. After a little bickering, Hisao asks whether Shizune wants to do something on the weekend, to which Shizune responds asking whether it's a date or not, and then stating she wants it to be a date. This is one of the few acknowledgments to the fact that they're now a couple through the route. I believe that's one of the major problems of the route, but I'll go into that in detail when the plot kicks into full gear.
Still, the date/not-date is not to be, since Shizune is going to visit her family with Misha. She insists Hisao wouldn't find it fun, but invites him to come along after he insists. Hisao comes across as a bit of a dick here, almost self-inviting himself to an event Shizune didn't mean for him to come to. This is one of the major problems with him as an entity through the entire game: The only times he really stands out is when he's being unpleasant.
Anyway, it works fine to move the plot forward. By the next scene, they're traveling to Shizune's house, which turns out to be large enough that Hisao calls it a manor. Shizune denies this heartily. After a while, Hisao meets Hideaki, Shizune's little brother. Hideaki's a bizarre character. He reminds me of Rin somewhat, having the same unflinchingly blank feeling she does, though not being quite as weird. He looks extremely feminine, and is very calm and collected for his age. For the time being, all he does is make a few competitive jabs at Hisao. It's interesting how competitive Hideaki's actions manage to feel coming from a person who's about as expressive as a brick wall.
Coming into the house, Hisao also finds, to his surprise, Lilly and Akira, discovering Shizune and Lilly are cousins. For reference's sake, this is actually one day before most of Lilly's good ending happens (and the day when her bad end leaves off). Shizune's route goes a lot further into the future than any other route.
Akira, Lilly's sister is quite a major secondary character in Lilly and Hanako's routes. Here, she serves practically as a cameo. I'll go into her more in-depth in the routes she's relevant in, but I really like her role here. Shizune and Akira end up convincing everyone to go on a fishing trip, which Shizune, of course, turns into a contest. Akira's really well written here, and her personality feels very much like in the routes she's more present in. We also get to see her deal with Shizune and Lilly's enmity and defuse it for a brief while, which seems very fitting with her "responsible, yet still cool, adult" vibe. She clearly understands both these people, and knows that they're still silly teenagers at their core, no matter how intelligent both of them are.
The fishing contest is a really fun scene. It's not quite as entertaining or heart-moving as either of the festivals, but it's enjoyable to read, and serves as a much better demonstration of the Shizune-Lilly rivalry. They're still at each others throats, and there's clearly a lot of bad feelings between them, but you can see that even though they're not friends, and not likely to be friends any time soon, they can get along.
The next day, the Satous have left (such a huge event in Lilly's route! Jesus Christ!), and Hisao wakes up to find he's alone in the house with Hideaki. They talk for a bit, and eventually Hideaki takes him out to the park. It's obvious he's just doing this to entertain Hisao, and tries to manipulate him into doing what Hideaki wants. They end up just talking at the park, in a magnificently pointless scene that goes nowhere until Misha and Shizune turn up. It's one of the few parts of the game that feels like filler as you read it. It doesn't feel relevant, and thus I can't qualify it as fluff. You know the entire time you're reading it that it's going absolutely nowhere.
The next day Hisao comes to breakfast to find the rest eating breakfast with Shizune's father, Jigoro.
Jigoro is amazing.
At first, he seems like a nice enough guy, greeting Hisao warmly and cooking him breakfast. However, the omelette he makes turns out to have egg-shell in it, and he rapidly starts insulting Hisao and getting offended over the smallest things. Jigoro's trains of logic are amazing to behold, and he's by far one of the funniest characters in the game. He does the comedy character thing correctly, unlike a certain bespectacled annoyance. He's a huge ass, and manages to go off on barrages of things that manage to be nonsensical, stereotypical and hypocritical at once. Anyway, as appropriate when in the presence of such a magnificent asshole as Jigoro, Hisao, Misha and Shizune retreat.
The next scene sees Hakamichi going to Hisao's room whilst he's practicing sign. Eventually, Hakamichi shyly (If Hakamichi can do anything shyly) asks Hisao to teach him some sign as well. The lesson doesn't go very well, since Hakamichi keeps derailing it with questions that become more and more irrelevant. Still, Hakamichi's interest in learning sign is somewhat moving, yet feels odd, kind of like the way a robot expresses emotion feels. I'm pretty sure this was intentional, though. Eventually, they go to the garden to continue their lesson, where the longest of the confrontations with Jigoro happens. It's absolutely hilarious. Jigoro manages to be quite possibly the biggest asshole in existence, and Hisao is baffled at his logic.
Misha eventually shows up, with a new haircut. She's removed her classic pink drills in exchange for shorter, more tomboyish hair. It's still pink, though. Jigoro gets into an equally funny shouting match with her, and Shizune tells Hisao to sneak off with her while he still can.
They have a little private discussion in the salon, in a new scene named Closer, and Shizune mentions that "it's fun dragging more and more people into my life". However, after a while, they stumble on the sofa and Hisao ends up on top of Shizune. Much like a similar situation in Emi's route, the UST comes to a head.
Hisao then heads to his room, and reflects on the disadvantages of sign language, but is again interrupted by Shizune. For the first time, she expresses a bit of doubt in her life philosophy, saying she doesn't know if the way she treats people is the right way anymore. They banter a little, and Shizune tells Hisao to close his eyes, kissing him and then tying his hands behind the chair.
This is the first H-scene of the route, and themed around very (and I do mean VERY) light bondage. Hisao's tied to the chair the whole time the scene is happening. This scene also feels rather hollow, as though it's there just to be there. It's not particularly character-relevant, apart from being the first time Hisao and Shizune really act like a couple. This is just kind of uncomfortable to read.
The next morning marks another Jigoro scene. It's not as long or funny as the previous, but is still a joy to read. Here, we discover that Jigoro hired tutors for twelve years to try and make Shizune talk, but these attempts fail. Despite it being hidden under a sea of jerkassness, he actually shows that he cares about this and feels like it's his fault, as little as this makes sense. It's both sad for Shizune to have endured it, and actually surprisingly moving for how Jigoro takes it. Even a jerkass can be sympathetic, sometimes. He also catches Hisao out on not having talked to his parents much since he's been at Yamaku, and Hisao feels bad about it. It seems like it'd be an important character moment, with at least some follow up, but it's just kind of forgotten about.
Something way less important than Jigoro's hilarity here (probably not, actually) is that Shizune and Hisao feel rather awkward after what happened the previous day. Shizune kind of semi-avoids him, and the conversation they have is noticeably uncomfortable. It feels real, but doesn't really serve any kind of purpose. They're back to acting normally toward each other without any resolution by the next scene anyway. This scene just feels like the beginning of some kind of tension that doesn't happen.
The next scene has the trio return to Yamaku. Hisao receives Iwanako's letter on the next morning, and reads through it. This isn't a very emotionally resonant Iwanako's letter, but still interesting in how Hisao has developed. This time around, he recognizes Iwanako is right in that he did let himself drift away, and is disappointed in himself, saying that he'd probably hate his past self if he were to meet him right now. He doesn't blame Iwanako per say, but notes that if she acted more like Shizune, with less pity and treating him more like a fully-functioning person, she could've prevented this distancing. Still, he doesn't dwell on it too much. Soon, Kenji arrives and has an actual relevant scene for once. Prompted by the letter, he describes his thoughts about women (only the non-feminists though, har har har), and actually helps Hisao realize how many weird ways love can take, making him feel better about his relationship with Shizune.
Soon enough, the trio return to Student Council work, planning the election for the next year's Council. Shizune shows herself to be even more passionate than usual about this. They have an interesting discussion as to why Shizune's in her position: She loves the work, but the reason she chose Student Council is because she feels a strong sense of duty to her community. She wants to make everyone's experience at the school better.
Later, after Student Council, Hisao runs into Misha, and the two end up going to the Shanghai. Misha eats a parfait, which is described in weird detail, and, after a bit of bickering, both talk about how Shizune is starting to feel more distant. They both makes excuses for her, but none feel real. A really nice touch is, when Hisao responds to Misha's question as to whether he thinks Shizune is avoiding him in the negative, Misha seems disappointed. Hisao passes this off as him misinterpreting her expression, but it's nice foreshadowing for the revelation of Misha's true feelings, if not a bit unsubtle.
The next scene, Acute Triangle is where the route's main plot really comes into focus. Hisao arrives at a Student Council meeting, only to find that only Shizune is there, with no Misha. After some banter, they have a little accident, and Shizune ends up bumping into Hisao, looking strangely afraid, at which point he realizes her position likely grants her information about his condition. This is a really strange thing to put here: It seems like set-up for something else, and considering the plot is about to be set in motion seems really out of place in retrospect. Still, in reading it it seems perfectly natural, if without a real purpose.
Student Council work happens, and Shizune and Hisao end up playing some board-games to relax after finishing. The scene seems to go as normal, Shizune being her usual uber-competitive self and Hisao seeming relatively comfortable, when out of the blue Shizune asks "Is Misha angry at me?"
The sudden way this thought interrupts a comfortable, familiar scenario is actually really effective. You've been through these motions so many times before during the route that not being allowed to finish is actually quite startling. I really like the way it's introduced.
It turns out, things between Misha and Shizune have recently been tense. They had a fight a while back, and haven't really gone back to working normally together. Both seem to feel like they're in the wrong, judging from the new context put on the parfait scene, but neither knows how to approach the other. Shizune in particular feels deeply grateful to Misha for joining the Student Council just to be with her, and for sticking with her so long. She'd usually move in aggressively, but respects Misha too much to do this. Misha, in return, sees this as Shizune being distant and feels hurt. This isn't all revealed in Acute Triangle, but becomes apparent over the next few scenes.
This, to me, is the greatest weakness of the route: Its main emotional conflict isn't between Hisao and someone else, it's between two people Hisao gets to know At a glance, this seems like a good idea, especially considering that Hisao is a pretty huge barrier to me getting to immerse myself in the story, since I don't really like. Someone like Misha, who is much better defined a character than Hisao and just a lot more likeable would surely make me take this conflict much more seriously.
Sure, except for the fact that I am Hisao. As much as Hisao is in that awkward uncanny valley of not being well defined enough to be likeable, but being just defined enough to impede acting as a blank slate, he is the character I identify as "me". Interactivity of certain media is a double edged sword, and Katawa Shoujo mostly manages to avoid cutting itself with it: It uses the fact that you are Hisao to make scenes hit you harder. However, the opposite is also true. As selfish as this sounds, a story in which you're supposed to be participating looses a lot of its impact when it stops being about you. Katawa's writing largest strength is in how it manages to put you into the narrative, and when it looses that edge it falls just a little bit flat. As such, as much as I love both the characters of Misha and Shizune, I can't feel as involved in a conflict they're having, because Hisao is not involved. To make it worse, this combined with the strict first-person viewpoint makes a lot of the important scenes happen off-screen, like Shizune and Misha's fight. As such, it just feels as though you're being dragged into a film halfway through.
Not all is bad, though. Still in Acute Triangle, Shizune gets Hisao involved in trying to help restore her friendship with Misha. She's considerably more sharp and focused about this than usual, and her playfulness is left behind. This is actually a fantastic moment: It feels like we're finally seeing Shizune where she's most comfortable, under a lot of pressure and working hard. She comes across quite admirably, and you feel just how important Misha is to her. They end up changing topics, and Shizune mentions Hisao doesn't speak his mind as often as he should. Not only does this feel like a rather funny jab at the game itself, but it also brings up an important monologue by Hisao about his relationship with Shizune, and how he's changed. Because he hasn't gone on these too often, it feels interesting and fresh, and you can see his views slowly changing from the last such moment of self-introspection. It isn't the most amazing thing ever, but it's certainly a rare moment of caring about Hisao himself, which makes it that much more frustrating that he's not as involved in the plot as he should be.
The next scene is a fluff scene, and this is something this route does brilliantly: It keeps in occasional fluff scenes pretty much throughout the entire thing. I can't say I'm a huge fan of this scene in particular for the simple reason that it has Kenji in it, but, especially with how the plot is less oriented around Hisao's emotions, it's important to occasionally remind us what the relationship feels like when it's healthy.
The next scene is Tongue-Tied, and it's a pretty important one. The Student Council has one last meeting before the plot really kicks in. It's the three of them, yet the dynamic doesn't feel quite as natural as before. There's the constant feeling that Misha is somewhat resentful, or at least upset at Shizune. It's still entertaining, but there's obviously something missing, and you can feel a hollowness. It's strange, since I really can't point out how it's built into the writing, but point is, it's there.
After the meeting, Hisao heads off to his room. He relaxes a bit and considers the Misha-Shizune situation, before Misha knocks on his door. She's obviously sad and attempting to hide it, as well as going through very much clumsy attempts at seducing Hisao. Eventually, she acknowledges she's sad, and asks Hisao to "comfort her". Whether you choose to or not is the single choice in the entire route. Of course, refusing leads to the good route, so Hisao refuses Misha, and she soon realizes that this was a bad idea, and leaves, apologizing awkwardly.
It feels like a real emotional gut-punch. This is the first time we see Misha so obviously out of her usual constant cheeriness, and the contrast is really saddening. The fact that she initially attempts to hide it behind a façade of her usual behaviour, which is so ridiculously transparent it's somehow even more saddening. Refusing to "comfort her", despite being the obvious correct choice, is also really, really hard. You know that in the long run giving in will be worse, but she's so obviously distraught that turning her away seems like kicking her when she's down. It's possibly the only choice in the game where I feel connected to Hisao in how he's feeling, and have to go through the same internal struggle, and is truly impressive. Kudos to A22 for having managed to make Misha this likeable, and then been able to write her so believably and heart-crushingly distraught.
The next scene, Look Ahead, has Hisao waking up and reminiscing about the events in Tongue Tied. He eventually goes to the library, where he meets up and talks with a saddened Shizune. She feels like they're growing apart, and seems upset at the fact that both Hisao and Misha seem to be drifting away from her. It's interesting, because this scene only makes sense when you think back a little bit. Hisao hasn't done anything to distance himself from Shizune, yet if you look back you realize they've been seeing each other less, and less banter has been happening recently. You only really realize this at this point, and this puts you a little bit in Shizune's shoes, as she must be feeling a similar way about Misha.
The real meat of the scene comes in a bit later, when Hisao heads off to the rooftop only to find Misha sitting there, looking very much depressed. She doesn't even try to act cheerful this time, and apologizes for her behavior the previous morning. This is one of those gut-punch, swelling music moments: Pretty much the only one the game has. Misha ends up telling Hisao the entire story of her relationship with Shizune: How they became friends almost by coincidence after Misha's arrival at Yamaku to learn sign, how Misha stayed at Shizune's side when the Student Council fell apart. And, most importantly, how Misha was in love with Shizune, but was rejected, yet decided to stay friends anyway. It turns out Misha was so insistent in getting Hisao into the Student Council because she wanted Shizune to be happier, and allowed the two time together in hopes that they'd up in a relationship, so Shizune would be even more happy. However, her plan backfired: She can't deal with this anymore. As she says, despite trying her hardest not to hate Shizune for her rejection, and not to hate Hisao for taking her, she ended up doing that for a while, and, while she's over that, she's decided to not be around them anymore to prevent herself from hating them again.
It's a really powerful scene, plain and simple. While Tongue Tied portrayed a distraught Misha who was trying to somehow escape her situation, Look Ahead portrays a Misha who's completely given up and wallows in her misery. Seeing her in such a state is absolutely devastating, especially with how well the evolution from Tongue Tied carries over. The way Misha tells her sorry is also very hard-hitting: It still captures her usual semi-childish tone perfectly, and you're aware at every moment that it's her saying these things. The story is also really tragic, full of good intentions that just led Misha into hurting herself emotionally, to the point where she mentions considering suicide. It's not a scene that will make you cry, but it's a scene that will make you really, really want to give Misha a hug: The way she acted is ridiculously selfless, and she doesn't deserve to have come out this hurt out of it.
Hisao then goes on to make a speech about how he thinks Misha's acting the wrong way on this: He draws a parallel to himself after arriving at Yamaku, and explains how Shizune and Misha's involvement made him get out of his self-pitying rut. He also tells Misha he thinks she's making a mistake: Shizune is a difficult person to get along with, but they both know it's worth it. Before he can really speak his mind, though, Shizune interrupts them. Eventually, she manages to convince them to do something, and they leave, Hisao holding both Misha and Shizune's hands, and reminiscing about how familiar this feels, even if it's unnaturally tense right now.
And so ends Sleight of Hand. It's a good Act: It gets the plot moving in a way that feels natural, and has some of the most entertaining fluff in the route. There's very little wrong with Sleight of Hand beyond the premise of the plot it puts in motion, but there's also not that many hugely impactful scenes: For how long it is, you only get Tongue Tied and Look Ahead at the very end of the act. All in all, it feels somewhat less satisfying than Learning to Read, but is still great.
The final Act is To My Other Self, which is considerably shorter than the previous three Acts, though not nearly as short as Emi's Motion. It's also got a bizarre title and Act image, neither of them having much to do with the Act at all.
It starts off with Hisao in the library, re-caping the situation that Sleight of Hand left off on. This, more than perhaps any other act in the game, feels like an Act that's meant to be started off from a fresh session. Soon enough, Yuuko appears, and ends up giving Hisao some advice on how to act in this situation, encouraging him to try and get Misha and Shizune back together. She pretty much just echoes what Hisao already knows, though, and the scene feels rather pointless since no new information or advancement is achieved. Hisao then heads off into the Student Council room, where Shizune reveals Misha has been avoiding her even more vehemently and ropes Hisao into trying to help with restoring their friendship, even though she already did in Sleight of Hand. Still, it feels natural, and I didn't really realize that she'd already done it until it came time to write this review.
The next morning, Shizune shows up at Hisao's room with a picnic basket. It's meant to force Misha into a corner and force her to eat with them, during which Shizune hopes to make amends. It's obvious that Shizune's gamified this for herself, as she usually does, and is having just a bit too much fun for a situation that should worry her a bit more. She's managed to compartmentalize this Misha thing, as she does with everything. Unsurprisingly, Misha simply refuses the picnic and leaves, leaving Hisao and Shizune to eat it together. It returns back to a normal fluffy banter scene, and it's scary just how easily someone previously as important as Misha can be forgotten in the face of Shizune's insanely competitive attitude over something as simple as lunch. It works really well, and really subtly, not even being mentioned at all.
The next day has Hisao coming back to his room, only to find, to his own surprise, Hideaki waiting for him. It turns out Jigoro has come to Yamaku to inform Shizune that he's got a new mobile number, and brought Hideaki along with him. This seems like a very flimsy reason. Hisao briefly meets him in the Student Council room. Turns out, the Hakamichi's are planning a trip, and Shizune's invited. However, she refuses. Between this and his flimsy excuse, it's obvious Jigoro just wants to see Shizune, even with Hisao not mentioning it directly. It's actually quite moving: You can see Jigoro does care about Shizune, but just refuses to show it. Then Jigoro does Jigoro things at him briefly but hilariously, and leaves. Hisao points out that Jigoro may care about Shizune more than he is willing to admit, which Shizune agrees to, but the conversation soon shifts to the topic of Misha.
Hisao finally realizes that Shizune's biggest problem in trying to solve the Misha situation is possibly Shizune herself. Shizune's just too competitive and aggressive to be able to do it: If she acts normally, she'll end up pushing Misha away with lack of tact. If she softens up for Misha instead, Misha will see it as Shizune not really caring, and drift away further. That, and Shizune's way of thinking doesn't allow her to grasp the entire issue: She doesn't see Misha leaving as the culmination of a chain of cause-and-effect, but rather as a single episode in her life. This prevents her from knowing how to strike at the heart of the issue, and, even if she knew how, she would be unable to do it without somehow distancing Misha. Turns out, Shizune's realized something along these lines as well, having reflected upon how she became distanced from Lilly, whom she reveals she used to be very close with. It turns out both Hisao and Shizune happen to have come up with similar plans.
This is an interesting bit of character study: This Misha event makes Hisao come to realize a huge amount of things about Shizune, and the way Shizune acts tells the reader droves. Hisao telling us so much of it is kind of disappointing: Character studies are at their best when implied, but it makes sense from a narrative perspective and enough is still left unsaid that Shizune is still open to interpretation.
The next day, in class, Mutou sends one of his suspiciously common group assignments (Amusingly lampshaded by Hisao himself). Shizune and Hisao try to corner Misha, but she dodges talking about anything important. They leave it at the end of the period, when they come in heavy. Misha asks whether it's about Student Council, and, upon Shizune saying that it is, leaves in a huff, pretending to be annoyed at how this is all Shizune can ever think about.
This leads Shizune and Hisao dividing up to try and find her, though, in their mysterious plan, it's supposed to be Hisao who finds her. So he does, and invites her to a parfait, which she grudgingly accepts. There, they have a discussion about Shizune, where Hisao explains what he realized in the previous scene, as well as just explaining how Shizune feels about the whole situation in a way more comprehensible to Misha. It's a good scene: It feels heartfelt on Hisao's part, Shizune becomes even more likeable than she already was, and the way Misha's resistance slowly disappears is actually extremely heartwarming. The fact that Hisao puts the blame on both parties is also a really level-headed move, and rings true, even if we never saw their distancing. Hisao also moves on to explain how he's changed thanks to Misha and Shizune's influence, and encourages Misha to be more the way she made him.
Eventually, he drags Misha out of the Shanghai and back to Yamaku, to give her what he calls a "tour". As he goes through various locations, he reminisces about how they affected him, going all the way back to the gate scene in Life Expectancy, and ultimately asking Misha to not make the mistake he made and let herself loose her friends. It's a moving scene, and one focused on Hisao, which makes it doubly impressive. The fact that this tour of the school brings Misha along the scenes where she had an impact on Hisao, and improved him for the better, also rings very true of Shizune's philosophies about the stalls from the festival, which is a subtle reaffirmation of how much impact the two had on him that's not mentioned in the text. The scene feels like Hisao's being very honest, something you don't get much out of him, and it really feels like Hisao's exposing himself to the core.
The next scene starts with a decent bit of fluff, and one of the very few times Kenji manages to be genuinely amusing. After the fluff is done, Shizune and Hisao talk about Misha, and Shizune talks about the early stages of her relationship with Misha. Shizune seems genuinely happy to have her back, but also starts worrying about how her personality might push people away. She seems resolved to tone it down, but refuses to give it up, seeing as it's what she enjoys and what she considers makes her her. It's an interesting compromise, and seems very easy to mess up, but it at least shows she's trying to change.
The next scene, Succession, sees the trio educating the next Student Council as to their duties. The new Student Council leaves, and Shizune tries to organize the end of Student Council celebration she'd planned. However, Misha, resolved to keep the relationship between the two of them healthier than the previous time around, speaks up against this, saying she doesn't want a celebration that'll leave her feeling sad. It's a small moment, but one that I've always liked: Misha feels a lot less oppressed by Shizune's personality than before, but their relationship still feels as close as ever. On this note, Misha leaves, and the scene escalates into an H-scene.
One that I'm also not particularly fond off. It almost feels like it's supposed to be a reward, both for the player sitting out the tough bits before this and for Hisao helping Shizune get Misha back. This feels really skeezy, and I always leave this scene feeling quite unpleasant. It's a shame, too, because the scene in itself is actually rather well written, though some of the art looks a bit off. It also doesn't feel like a major character moment, and just seems gratuitously there. This is something that immediately makes me feel extremely uncomfortable reading any H-scene, no matter how well written.
After the deed is done, Shizune invites Hisao to come see something interesting involving Misha with her. Hisao originally refuses, and starts returning to his room, but feels he'll be unable to sleep and returns to the Student Council room, catching Shizune before she leaves. She ropes him into coming, and shows him Misha taking additional classes from Mutou. They hide in the room in front, and have a little talk, during which Shizune reveals much about her personality. It could be a mildly moving moment, but by this point we've heard this so many times it's getting stale, and this particular time doesn't have much new to add. Shizune also reveals she's come up with a plan for the future: she'll use her competitive nature to become a successful businesswoman, and then use her new-gained riches to act as a philanthropist. It's a surprisingly believable career path for her, seeing how much she seems to want to make people happy by working hard. This leaves Hisao as the only one who doesn't know what to do after school, which he reflects upon sadly. This is an odd subplot, since it's extremely short. This is the second to last scene of the game, and the subplot does get resolved.
The last scene of the route is named Infinity, and is one of my favorites in the game. It could be argued to be a fluff scene, but I wouldn't agree: It's a culmination of the plot. At the end of the school year, Hisao has said good bye to most of the people he feels he needs to say good bye to. Finally, he meets up with Misha in the Student Council room, hoping to also find Shizune, but she isn't there. Hisao and Misha banter a bit, and this feels extremely normal, right back to the dynamic they had before the main conflict started. Misha also admits her mistakes, finally getting them off her chest. Together, they head off to the school gate, where Shizune's being thanked by the new Student Council. They talk for a bit, and Hisao tells us he knows what he wants to do with his life: He wants to become a teacher at Yamaku, so that he can shake people like him out of their ruts upon being sent there. And, he says, "I also want to chase Shizune". It's a good conclusion to his arc through the route, even if the "what do I want to do with my life?" subplot wasn't so weirdly short. It feels like he's evolved, and it puts some good closure on his character.
Finally, the trio snaps up Yuuko, who's been taking photos of the leavers, and asks her to take a photo of them in a silly Three Musketeers pose, as Shizune insists that photos have to be memorable somehow, not just portraits. It feels like a complete return to the old style of banter, and is immensely fun and relieving to read. It truly feels like a return to normal. The route ends on the following exchange:
Hisao: "Do they do that reunion thing here?"
Shizune: [Of course they do]
Misha: "A student council member should know that~!"
Shizune: [Sooner than that, though, okay?]
Shizune: [Both of you.]
Misha: "Right~!"
Hisao: "Yeah."
Shizune: [Yuuko! You do the pose, too!]
Shizune: [Afterwards, we can go for tea.]
Shizune laughs, as if she doesn't have a care in the world, Misha's laughter joining in with her as easily as if it were her own. We'll meet again.
Which, somehow, also feels just perfect.
To My Other Self is by far the more emotionally charged bit of the route, and it's pulled off pretty well. The exchanges between characters all feel honest and genuine, and it's very much subtly touching. It doesn't have those gut-punches that most other routes like to pull, and is a lot of a more relaxed bad situation, if that makes sense, but is still effective. The pacing is next to perfect, and fluff is thrown in just often enough so that you don't become too drained. Still, as I pointed out, it's not nearly as effective as it perhaps should be, since Hisao isn't directly involved in most of the conflict.
That's, of course, an issue with the whole route: The big story beats have a nasty habit of taking place off screen, and you feel a bit uninvolved with the main plot. However, pretty much everything else makes up for it. Shizune and Misha are absolutely fantastically written, and the ol' "Shizune's competitive" stuff just doesn't get old. It's a joy to read the entire way through, and by far the most laugh-out-loud funny of the routes (though Rin arguably is funnier in a quieter way). The three characters are fantastically realized, with Misha getting a surprising amount of development, almost more than Shizune herself. Hisao's also surprisingly pleasant in this route, being far less of an obstacle to enjoyment than he is in most routes.
I really like the side characters in this route. The Lilly and Shizune subplot is used effectively, leading to Shizune realizing a lot about how why she's drifting apart from Misha. It's also nice to see a different side of Lilly than you often get to see: It's not the true self you slowly uncover in her route, but it's also not the excessively polite Lilly you see on most other paths. This is using character cameos at their best, and I wish more routes did this as extensively as Shizune's does. I also appreciate Akira's brief appearance, seeing how enjoyable it is to read and how real Akira feels.
Kenji's involvement in the route is rather strange: It seems to build up to something important, but it just kind of stops. It also has the only major CG of Kenji, which feels out of place. Still, he's by far the least annoying in this route, staying a bit further from his usual constant unfunny rants about feminists. Hideaki's appearance is also really weird in that it doesn't seem to do anything. He's just sort of there, and is an amusing character who doesn't serve any sort of purpose whatsoever.
Jigoro, on the other hand, is among my favorite side characters in any route. He's absurdly hilarious, and any scene involving him is sure to leave me with a huge smirk on my face. He's also a very important piece of information on Shizune's past, and helps a lot with making her character deeper. The fact that he's also subtly shown to not be that bad of a guy late in the route is also a surprisingly heartwarming moment.
I like how thematically consistent the route is, being all about difficulties in communication. Every plot thread somehow relates back to the concept, and it feels very much like a whole, very tightly woven packet. The way the themes are tackled are also interesting, focusing more on the difficulties in communication stemming from mutual respect than between lovers. It's an unusual take on the theme, but ends up working very well.
All in all, Shizune's route is definitely the odd one out, or, to use Shizune's beloved vocabulary, "abnormal". It's different in feel, theme, and structure to every other route. It feels like it's a lot less constrained by these things that other routes, which allows it to do absolutely fantastic things other routes just can't, but some of the constraints it throws away were there for a good reason, which makes it loose great part of its impact. My favorite scene by far has to be Infinity. It's just an absolutely perfect way to end the route, and manages to capture what makes the route great. Look Ahead and Throwing Balls are also fantastic stand-outs
In my next review, I play hide and seek with my own emotions!
It's hard to pinpoint just when it begins in Act 1, seeing as you can be locked into it at different points through the Act, and it feels like the route that flows the most naturally from events before you get any control. This is something I give it massive props for. Whilst most routes need to at least twist and tug at logic a bit to get Hisao to participate, Shizune's route feels like it just advances as it would (possibly just due to her massive presence in Act 1). It's the route that I'd say Hisao would end up following if left by himself in Yamaku. That or the Kenji route.
At any rate, the best point I can find to say it starts is at the scene Lunch Evolution Theory. If you've accumulated enough Shizune points by this point, Hisao can choose to wait for Shizune and Misha to make a decision. If you don't hit this choice, you can't end up on their route, though you can still end up on other routes if you do do it. This leads to Shizune and Misha leading Hisao around all over the place, eventually inviting him to the Shanghai.
Throughout this time, Shizune's gimmick becomes evident: She's extremely competitive, and takes everything as a sort of game that she must win. It sounds like it'd get tired after a while, but it doesn't. Most of Act 1 with Misha and Shizune is fluff of the highest quality. This is something that this route in particular does better than any other: Its filler is very, very funny, and, by extension, extremely entertaining.
If you don't wander off onto another route, Misha and Shizune's nagging eventually gets to Hisao, and they convince him to join them on Student Council. This leads to him being roped into making stalls for the upcoming festival.
I can tell at this point this route is going to be difficult to write about, because most of the scenes, even emotionally resonant, eventually develop into "Shizune somehow manages to make into a competition, Hisao gets absorbed into it and hilarity ensues". This is exactly what happens whilst working on the stalls, but it's still funny and believable. The fact that Hisao and Shizune's little bouts of competition never get old is extremely impressive, and is, by far, the biggest thing the route does right, and ultimately what makes it effective.
What's important to note is that at this point all of Hisao's communication to Shizune is done through Misha. This makes it really hard to tell at what point Misha ends and Shizune begins, and is an effective tactic in making the player more interested in Shizune herself. It's left ambiguous when Misha is interpreting, too, so both the characters kind of blend into each other in a really interesting fashion.
After building stalls, Hisao accompanies Misha and Shizune to the festival, in a scene named Throwing Balls. This is a fantastic festival, possibly my favorite in the game. Misha and Shizune do their Misha and Shizune thing, and Hisao finally starts breaking out of his apathy and seems to be genuinely enjoying himself. Seeing Hisao's bitterness melt away is quite moving, and whilst Shizune remains competitive she seems a lot more relaxed, which allows us to see a different side of her, which is always interesting.
The scene culminates with the trio going to the school roof to watch the fireworks display, with Misha falling asleep before the display begins, and Hisao and Shizune watching it together in silence. It's got one of my favorite moments in the route, where Shizune, unable to communicate, just opens her arms and makes Hisao look around her. It shakes Hisao out of his self-pity, and he thinks that "if it only takes a moment for there to be love, I may be falling in love with her". Whilst saying this outside of the route feels like things are moving too fast, it's completely believable within the game. The moment is so serenely touching that you can perfectly see where Hisao is coming from. The fact that, in further scenes, he goes back to treating her like normal also feels perfectly believable: The rooftop scene is just so beautiful you can see Hisao being infatuated with Shizune just for being there for that moment. It's actually one of the precious few situations where I feel completely immersed in Hisao's role in not just Shizune's route but the whole of KS.
And so ends Shizune's section of Act 1. Her Act 2 is named Learning to Read, but first, a quick review of Shizune's theme and scene. Shizune's theme is The Student Council, and her scene is Three Stars. These are both arguably also Misha's, since she is the other part of the Student Council, and one of the three stars. The Student Council, aside from a rather unimaginative title, is actually one of my favorite character themes in the game. Not only is it very nice-sounding and surprisingly catchy, but it fits Shizune and Misha's bubbly personality perfectly. Aside from Standing Tall, it's the only theme that gets played often during the girl's route, and it fits perfectly into every scene it plays over.
Three Stars is a strange one. The end of the cinematic is a very nice way of both foreshadowing and misdirecting the player as to what the issue at hand is. Before that, it's a nice representation of what goes on during the route, and makes one nostalgic when it's played. I like the title, since it points out the biggest thing Shizune's route does differently: It has three protagonists, rather than the usual two. The visual metaphor referring to stars is a bit strange, in that it feels like it was shoehorned into the route. Late in the route Shizune makes a passing mention to looking at stars, but it's not a major theme at all. I really like the music, but I'm not sure of whether it's great for Shizune and Misha. It's a lot calmer, and seems like something that would fit at the end of the route (or, even better, listened to by the player in their own time after finishing), allowing you to reminisce about the good times you've had. It's still an absolutely beautiful piece, and would definitely be my favourite scene piece if all of them weren't so great. Whenever I think of most scene tracks, I think "Oh, that's my favourite, for sure", until I remember another one at which point I'm not so sure anymore.
Here are the secondary characters important in the plot. As per usual, I'll discuss them as the review goes on and at the end. I'm not including Misha here, since she's one of the Three Stars.
-Hideaki Hakamichi
-Kenji Setou
-Jigoro Hakamichi
-Lilly Satou (Yep, she's important enough to where I consider her a secondary character here)
-Akira Satou (Briefly)
Learning to Read begins with a scene where Hisao stumbles upon Shizune on the Yamaku grounds, without Misha around to interpret. They resort to writing notes to each other. This is a short interaction, but it's important to note that it's the first time Hisao and Shizune communicate directly. Already, Shizune's personality feels very different than when transmitted through Misha. The conversation itself is rather unimportant, just some stuff about exams that are practically never brought up again. She's obviously a lot less excitable than when viewed through the lens of Misha, but has a sort of childish playfulness that's completely lost on Misha. However, Shizune also reveals she took Hisao to the stalls he helped build during the festival, to show him the fruit of his work. It's all part of her competitive view of the world: You must know what your work results in.
These kinds of things are common throughout the route. At various points, Shizune will go on about how she views the world. Sometimes it's for comedic effect, sometimes seriously, but if one thing can be sure is that it happens a significant amount. Most of this stuff doesn't really come into play at any other point, but it does help build Shizune's character. The varied ways in which it's expressed helps not make it feel stale, but it does get slightly tiring towards the later parts of the route. It's still a miracle it takes that long, though, which speaks to just how likeable Shizune is.
After this, Hisao bumps into Misha, and asks about sign language classes. He decides to join one, but asks Misha not to tell Shizune about it. For now, he explains this away as wanting it to be a surprise. Through most of Learning to Read, this fact remains hidden, and Hisao can't seem to keep it straight in his head why he wants to hide it. This is a detail I love. It feels exactly like the kind of stupid thing I'd do in my last year of school without knowing why, but the web of his confused self-justifications actually does create a certain kind of understanding in the reader.
The next few scenes are fluff. As I mentioned before, the fluff in this route mostly consists of Shizune involving Hisao in some kind of competition and hilarity ensuing. I want to reiterate that this works. The formula is applied to so many situations it feels varied, but the fact that it's so insistent on its structure really solidifies Shizune's personality in your mind. Pretty much at any point in her route, her competitive and fierce nature is relevant to the current going-ons in some way or another.
The fluff here consists of Hisao and Misha goofing around on the rooftop whilst Shizune is busy, Misha trying to help with his signing lessons, and Shizune and Hisao getting into a competition over a box that Kenji asks him to deliver. This stuff is really, really funny, and does the magical thing where it doesn't feel like filler. If you stop and think about it, you realize there's no way on Earth this stuff is plot-relevant, but it feels relevant in the moment.
One scene that, whilst not necessarily plot-relevant, stands out from the filler is Advanced Game Theory. It's a kind of scene that happens rather often, and is suspiciously absent from the previously reviewed Emi's route, a cameo scene. In most routes, a couple times in the route a girl from a different route will pop-up, and interact with the main characters. I don't really count appearances by Misha and Shizune as such, though, since they're pretty much omnipresent and appear relatively often in next to every route, usually when Hisao is in class. Advanced Game Theory is a Hanako cameo scene. The Student Council are having one of their usual bouts of hyper-competitiveness, bringing out various games to potentially play when Hanako enters the student council room, looking for a replacement student ID. She is about to back off, but upon seeing the chessboard on the table shows interest, and is invited by Shizune to a game.
The game is pretty interesting in how it plays out, with Hanako making much slower moves and Shizune responding quickly. Hanako eventually closely looses, and is challenged again to a game of speed chess, which Shizune wins easily.
Not only does this scene gel well with what goes on in both Hanako and Lilly's routes, but it provides some interesting insight into Shizune. She sees competition as its own reward, and she believes the reason Hanako looses is that she puts more value into the chess game than the competition. The fact that she loves chess is what makes her loose the game. This is actually an interesting parallel to some comments Hisao makes later in the route about Shizune herself. He believes the reason she's unintentionally pushing Misha away is because she cares too much to acts as competitive about their relationship, which Misha takes as detachment.
After this (and a single more scene of fluff), Shizune and Hisao agree to build stalls for the upcoming Tanabata festival together, but Misha has to be away for reasons. Hisao is still pretending not to understand sign at this point, but, after leaving Shizune at the Council room, Misha reveals she's told Shizune about his sign lessons at this point. Hisao was able to read most of what Shizune was saying through the fluff after Advanced Game Theory, but at the time it was irrelevant since it read pretty much exactly like Misha's translation.
The scene where the stalls are built is called Interface, and marks the first conversation Hisao has with Shizune in sign. It's not a long one, but it's even more visibly noticeable how different Shizune is when not viewed through the lens of Misha's translation. She comes across a lot more calm, yet still fiercely competitive and fun-loving. Hisao's first impressions of her way back when they met in Life Expectancy seem to be rather accurate.
This is some of the most interesting material in Shizune's route. The difference between how Shizune actually is and how she comes across through Misha is actually rather tremendous. One can't help but wonder how many of the problems Shizune had in dealing with the previous Student Council are actually Misha's fault. Shizune as viewed through Misha looses great part of her impish charm, as well as the ability to explain her actions more personally. Talking to her directly makes her come across much more like a much more reasonable authority figure. As such, it's disappointing that this stuff doesn't get explored a bit more during the route. It's brought up very briefly at one point, and then sort of dropped. It's sad seeing this wasted potential, but it's understandable that Anonymous22 (This being the writer for this route) didn't choose to go that way.
The next scene is a confrontation between Lilly and Shizune. I'm not fond of this scene. It doesn't really serve any purpose: It's already been established that Lilly and Shizune aren't fond of each other. It's not pleasant to read, since both Lilly and Shizune act rather unpleasantly toward each other, and take no regard for the fact that Hisao is caught in the crossfire. This would be alright, if it led anywhere, but this scene could be dropped and the route wouldn't suffer in the slightest. As it is, it's just an oasis of unpleasantness.
After this, there's a rather bizarre scene where Kenji appears and does his thing toward Hisao. Out of similarly nowhere, he takes his glasses off, a unique CG pops up, moving music plays, and acts normal for a few lines, actually saying some rather interesting stuff. Then he puts his glasses back on, his theme starts playing, and he starts acting like Kenji again. The scene has no follow-up whatsoever. I usually ignore Kenji scenes for a reason that I'll explain in a dedicated post about Kenji, but this one seems like it was meant to be special. However, it has pretty much zero follow up and is just bizarrely there. My theory is that the CG was left-over art from the rumored cancelled Kenji route, and they just had to find a place to shove it in.
The rest of that particular scene is spent in the school cafeteria and in the Shanghai, the tea shop in town. It's a fun bit of bickering, and really does just feel pleasantly relaxed, like a day out with friends would. It's entertaining to read, and involves some explanation of why Shizune is upset by Lilly. This is way better advancement toward that particular subplot than the scene before when Lilly and Shizune fight. It's actually relevant for character development later down the line, and fills in some of the blanks in that particular subplot (which is spread out through both Lilly and Shizune's routes in a rather clever way. I might write a one-off post about it sometime).
The final act of the scene is When Stars Embrace, where the trio go to Tanabata. It's a similar scene to the first festival, but holds a different role plot-wise. There's the same fun bickering going on, but Misha leaves quite early, leaving Shizune and Hisao alone. They end up just goofing around for a while, until returning to the ground really tired. They have some more conversation in which Shizune reveals some more of her life philosophy. She believes that if her competitiveness makes people happy, then it's alright. This is accompanied by some of the most gorgeous artwork in the game, a fantastically drawn picture of Shizune. Before going their separate ways, Hisao brings up his courage and asks Shizune "Do you want to be my girlfriend?", to which she, after a little fumbling, answers "Okay", and embraces Hisao, ending the act.
It's a fantastic scene. The section during Tanabata is just as entertaining to read as the school festival, but feels different enough in tone and inter-character relationships to not be repetitious. Shizune's talk about her life philosophy feels more genuine and from the heart than before, possibly just because of the more somber mood the scene ends up in. It's also the first long block of interaction Shizune and Hisao have on their own, which allows the scene to feel more personal, as well as showing off that these two really can feel good around each other. The internal monologue leading to Hisao's asking Shizune out also feels very believable in a "Yep, I remember being that way" kind of way.
The actual dialogue when he does ask her out is so awkward that it feels fantastic. It itself has very little impact, but the actions around it are what is shocking and moving. It feels supremely real.
And so ends Learning to Read. It's a set-up act, in much the same way that Form was in Emi's route. It's by far the funniest act in the game, as after it the route starts moving in a more plot-oriented direction. Still, it has some excellent character-building in it, and gives you plentiful amounts of fluff to then take away from you when the situation becomes worse. A couple unnecessary-feeling scenes aside, Learning to Read is a blast to read through.
The next act, Sleight of Hand, begins a few days after Learning to Read ends. Shizune and Hisao meet in the Student Council room before the usual time. After a little bickering, Hisao asks whether Shizune wants to do something on the weekend, to which Shizune responds asking whether it's a date or not, and then stating she wants it to be a date. This is one of the few acknowledgments to the fact that they're now a couple through the route. I believe that's one of the major problems of the route, but I'll go into that in detail when the plot kicks into full gear.
Still, the date/not-date is not to be, since Shizune is going to visit her family with Misha. She insists Hisao wouldn't find it fun, but invites him to come along after he insists. Hisao comes across as a bit of a dick here, almost self-inviting himself to an event Shizune didn't mean for him to come to. This is one of the major problems with him as an entity through the entire game: The only times he really stands out is when he's being unpleasant.
Anyway, it works fine to move the plot forward. By the next scene, they're traveling to Shizune's house, which turns out to be large enough that Hisao calls it a manor. Shizune denies this heartily. After a while, Hisao meets Hideaki, Shizune's little brother. Hideaki's a bizarre character. He reminds me of Rin somewhat, having the same unflinchingly blank feeling she does, though not being quite as weird. He looks extremely feminine, and is very calm and collected for his age. For the time being, all he does is make a few competitive jabs at Hisao. It's interesting how competitive Hideaki's actions manage to feel coming from a person who's about as expressive as a brick wall.
Coming into the house, Hisao also finds, to his surprise, Lilly and Akira, discovering Shizune and Lilly are cousins. For reference's sake, this is actually one day before most of Lilly's good ending happens (and the day when her bad end leaves off). Shizune's route goes a lot further into the future than any other route.
Akira, Lilly's sister is quite a major secondary character in Lilly and Hanako's routes. Here, she serves practically as a cameo. I'll go into her more in-depth in the routes she's relevant in, but I really like her role here. Shizune and Akira end up convincing everyone to go on a fishing trip, which Shizune, of course, turns into a contest. Akira's really well written here, and her personality feels very much like in the routes she's more present in. We also get to see her deal with Shizune and Lilly's enmity and defuse it for a brief while, which seems very fitting with her "responsible, yet still cool, adult" vibe. She clearly understands both these people, and knows that they're still silly teenagers at their core, no matter how intelligent both of them are.
The fishing contest is a really fun scene. It's not quite as entertaining or heart-moving as either of the festivals, but it's enjoyable to read, and serves as a much better demonstration of the Shizune-Lilly rivalry. They're still at each others throats, and there's clearly a lot of bad feelings between them, but you can see that even though they're not friends, and not likely to be friends any time soon, they can get along.
The next day, the Satous have left (such a huge event in Lilly's route! Jesus Christ!), and Hisao wakes up to find he's alone in the house with Hideaki. They talk for a bit, and eventually Hideaki takes him out to the park. It's obvious he's just doing this to entertain Hisao, and tries to manipulate him into doing what Hideaki wants. They end up just talking at the park, in a magnificently pointless scene that goes nowhere until Misha and Shizune turn up. It's one of the few parts of the game that feels like filler as you read it. It doesn't feel relevant, and thus I can't qualify it as fluff. You know the entire time you're reading it that it's going absolutely nowhere.
The next day Hisao comes to breakfast to find the rest eating breakfast with Shizune's father, Jigoro.
Jigoro is amazing.
At first, he seems like a nice enough guy, greeting Hisao warmly and cooking him breakfast. However, the omelette he makes turns out to have egg-shell in it, and he rapidly starts insulting Hisao and getting offended over the smallest things. Jigoro's trains of logic are amazing to behold, and he's by far one of the funniest characters in the game. He does the comedy character thing correctly, unlike a certain bespectacled annoyance. He's a huge ass, and manages to go off on barrages of things that manage to be nonsensical, stereotypical and hypocritical at once. Anyway, as appropriate when in the presence of such a magnificent asshole as Jigoro, Hisao, Misha and Shizune retreat.
The next scene sees Hakamichi going to Hisao's room whilst he's practicing sign. Eventually, Hakamichi shyly (If Hakamichi can do anything shyly) asks Hisao to teach him some sign as well. The lesson doesn't go very well, since Hakamichi keeps derailing it with questions that become more and more irrelevant. Still, Hakamichi's interest in learning sign is somewhat moving, yet feels odd, kind of like the way a robot expresses emotion feels. I'm pretty sure this was intentional, though. Eventually, they go to the garden to continue their lesson, where the longest of the confrontations with Jigoro happens. It's absolutely hilarious. Jigoro manages to be quite possibly the biggest asshole in existence, and Hisao is baffled at his logic.
Misha eventually shows up, with a new haircut. She's removed her classic pink drills in exchange for shorter, more tomboyish hair. It's still pink, though. Jigoro gets into an equally funny shouting match with her, and Shizune tells Hisao to sneak off with her while he still can.
They have a little private discussion in the salon, in a new scene named Closer, and Shizune mentions that "it's fun dragging more and more people into my life". However, after a while, they stumble on the sofa and Hisao ends up on top of Shizune. Much like a similar situation in Emi's route, the UST comes to a head.
Hisao then heads to his room, and reflects on the disadvantages of sign language, but is again interrupted by Shizune. For the first time, she expresses a bit of doubt in her life philosophy, saying she doesn't know if the way she treats people is the right way anymore. They banter a little, and Shizune tells Hisao to close his eyes, kissing him and then tying his hands behind the chair.
This is the first H-scene of the route, and themed around very (and I do mean VERY) light bondage. Hisao's tied to the chair the whole time the scene is happening. This scene also feels rather hollow, as though it's there just to be there. It's not particularly character-relevant, apart from being the first time Hisao and Shizune really act like a couple. This is just kind of uncomfortable to read.
The next morning marks another Jigoro scene. It's not as long or funny as the previous, but is still a joy to read. Here, we discover that Jigoro hired tutors for twelve years to try and make Shizune talk, but these attempts fail. Despite it being hidden under a sea of jerkassness, he actually shows that he cares about this and feels like it's his fault, as little as this makes sense. It's both sad for Shizune to have endured it, and actually surprisingly moving for how Jigoro takes it. Even a jerkass can be sympathetic, sometimes. He also catches Hisao out on not having talked to his parents much since he's been at Yamaku, and Hisao feels bad about it. It seems like it'd be an important character moment, with at least some follow up, but it's just kind of forgotten about.
Something way less important than Jigoro's hilarity here (probably not, actually) is that Shizune and Hisao feel rather awkward after what happened the previous day. Shizune kind of semi-avoids him, and the conversation they have is noticeably uncomfortable. It feels real, but doesn't really serve any kind of purpose. They're back to acting normally toward each other without any resolution by the next scene anyway. This scene just feels like the beginning of some kind of tension that doesn't happen.
The next scene has the trio return to Yamaku. Hisao receives Iwanako's letter on the next morning, and reads through it. This isn't a very emotionally resonant Iwanako's letter, but still interesting in how Hisao has developed. This time around, he recognizes Iwanako is right in that he did let himself drift away, and is disappointed in himself, saying that he'd probably hate his past self if he were to meet him right now. He doesn't blame Iwanako per say, but notes that if she acted more like Shizune, with less pity and treating him more like a fully-functioning person, she could've prevented this distancing. Still, he doesn't dwell on it too much. Soon, Kenji arrives and has an actual relevant scene for once. Prompted by the letter, he describes his thoughts about women (only the non-feminists though, har har har), and actually helps Hisao realize how many weird ways love can take, making him feel better about his relationship with Shizune.
Soon enough, the trio return to Student Council work, planning the election for the next year's Council. Shizune shows herself to be even more passionate than usual about this. They have an interesting discussion as to why Shizune's in her position: She loves the work, but the reason she chose Student Council is because she feels a strong sense of duty to her community. She wants to make everyone's experience at the school better.
Later, after Student Council, Hisao runs into Misha, and the two end up going to the Shanghai. Misha eats a parfait, which is described in weird detail, and, after a bit of bickering, both talk about how Shizune is starting to feel more distant. They both makes excuses for her, but none feel real. A really nice touch is, when Hisao responds to Misha's question as to whether he thinks Shizune is avoiding him in the negative, Misha seems disappointed. Hisao passes this off as him misinterpreting her expression, but it's nice foreshadowing for the revelation of Misha's true feelings, if not a bit unsubtle.
The next scene, Acute Triangle is where the route's main plot really comes into focus. Hisao arrives at a Student Council meeting, only to find that only Shizune is there, with no Misha. After some banter, they have a little accident, and Shizune ends up bumping into Hisao, looking strangely afraid, at which point he realizes her position likely grants her information about his condition. This is a really strange thing to put here: It seems like set-up for something else, and considering the plot is about to be set in motion seems really out of place in retrospect. Still, in reading it it seems perfectly natural, if without a real purpose.
Student Council work happens, and Shizune and Hisao end up playing some board-games to relax after finishing. The scene seems to go as normal, Shizune being her usual uber-competitive self and Hisao seeming relatively comfortable, when out of the blue Shizune asks "Is Misha angry at me?"
The sudden way this thought interrupts a comfortable, familiar scenario is actually really effective. You've been through these motions so many times before during the route that not being allowed to finish is actually quite startling. I really like the way it's introduced.
It turns out, things between Misha and Shizune have recently been tense. They had a fight a while back, and haven't really gone back to working normally together. Both seem to feel like they're in the wrong, judging from the new context put on the parfait scene, but neither knows how to approach the other. Shizune in particular feels deeply grateful to Misha for joining the Student Council just to be with her, and for sticking with her so long. She'd usually move in aggressively, but respects Misha too much to do this. Misha, in return, sees this as Shizune being distant and feels hurt. This isn't all revealed in Acute Triangle, but becomes apparent over the next few scenes.
This, to me, is the greatest weakness of the route: Its main emotional conflict isn't between Hisao and someone else, it's between two people Hisao gets to know At a glance, this seems like a good idea, especially considering that Hisao is a pretty huge barrier to me getting to immerse myself in the story, since I don't really like. Someone like Misha, who is much better defined a character than Hisao and just a lot more likeable would surely make me take this conflict much more seriously.
Sure, except for the fact that I am Hisao. As much as Hisao is in that awkward uncanny valley of not being well defined enough to be likeable, but being just defined enough to impede acting as a blank slate, he is the character I identify as "me". Interactivity of certain media is a double edged sword, and Katawa Shoujo mostly manages to avoid cutting itself with it: It uses the fact that you are Hisao to make scenes hit you harder. However, the opposite is also true. As selfish as this sounds, a story in which you're supposed to be participating looses a lot of its impact when it stops being about you. Katawa's writing largest strength is in how it manages to put you into the narrative, and when it looses that edge it falls just a little bit flat. As such, as much as I love both the characters of Misha and Shizune, I can't feel as involved in a conflict they're having, because Hisao is not involved. To make it worse, this combined with the strict first-person viewpoint makes a lot of the important scenes happen off-screen, like Shizune and Misha's fight. As such, it just feels as though you're being dragged into a film halfway through.
Not all is bad, though. Still in Acute Triangle, Shizune gets Hisao involved in trying to help restore her friendship with Misha. She's considerably more sharp and focused about this than usual, and her playfulness is left behind. This is actually a fantastic moment: It feels like we're finally seeing Shizune where she's most comfortable, under a lot of pressure and working hard. She comes across quite admirably, and you feel just how important Misha is to her. They end up changing topics, and Shizune mentions Hisao doesn't speak his mind as often as he should. Not only does this feel like a rather funny jab at the game itself, but it also brings up an important monologue by Hisao about his relationship with Shizune, and how he's changed. Because he hasn't gone on these too often, it feels interesting and fresh, and you can see his views slowly changing from the last such moment of self-introspection. It isn't the most amazing thing ever, but it's certainly a rare moment of caring about Hisao himself, which makes it that much more frustrating that he's not as involved in the plot as he should be.
The next scene is a fluff scene, and this is something this route does brilliantly: It keeps in occasional fluff scenes pretty much throughout the entire thing. I can't say I'm a huge fan of this scene in particular for the simple reason that it has Kenji in it, but, especially with how the plot is less oriented around Hisao's emotions, it's important to occasionally remind us what the relationship feels like when it's healthy.
The next scene is Tongue-Tied, and it's a pretty important one. The Student Council has one last meeting before the plot really kicks in. It's the three of them, yet the dynamic doesn't feel quite as natural as before. There's the constant feeling that Misha is somewhat resentful, or at least upset at Shizune. It's still entertaining, but there's obviously something missing, and you can feel a hollowness. It's strange, since I really can't point out how it's built into the writing, but point is, it's there.
After the meeting, Hisao heads off to his room. He relaxes a bit and considers the Misha-Shizune situation, before Misha knocks on his door. She's obviously sad and attempting to hide it, as well as going through very much clumsy attempts at seducing Hisao. Eventually, she acknowledges she's sad, and asks Hisao to "comfort her". Whether you choose to or not is the single choice in the entire route. Of course, refusing leads to the good route, so Hisao refuses Misha, and she soon realizes that this was a bad idea, and leaves, apologizing awkwardly.
It feels like a real emotional gut-punch. This is the first time we see Misha so obviously out of her usual constant cheeriness, and the contrast is really saddening. The fact that she initially attempts to hide it behind a façade of her usual behaviour, which is so ridiculously transparent it's somehow even more saddening. Refusing to "comfort her", despite being the obvious correct choice, is also really, really hard. You know that in the long run giving in will be worse, but she's so obviously distraught that turning her away seems like kicking her when she's down. It's possibly the only choice in the game where I feel connected to Hisao in how he's feeling, and have to go through the same internal struggle, and is truly impressive. Kudos to A22 for having managed to make Misha this likeable, and then been able to write her so believably and heart-crushingly distraught.
The next scene, Look Ahead, has Hisao waking up and reminiscing about the events in Tongue Tied. He eventually goes to the library, where he meets up and talks with a saddened Shizune. She feels like they're growing apart, and seems upset at the fact that both Hisao and Misha seem to be drifting away from her. It's interesting, because this scene only makes sense when you think back a little bit. Hisao hasn't done anything to distance himself from Shizune, yet if you look back you realize they've been seeing each other less, and less banter has been happening recently. You only really realize this at this point, and this puts you a little bit in Shizune's shoes, as she must be feeling a similar way about Misha.
The real meat of the scene comes in a bit later, when Hisao heads off to the rooftop only to find Misha sitting there, looking very much depressed. She doesn't even try to act cheerful this time, and apologizes for her behavior the previous morning. This is one of those gut-punch, swelling music moments: Pretty much the only one the game has. Misha ends up telling Hisao the entire story of her relationship with Shizune: How they became friends almost by coincidence after Misha's arrival at Yamaku to learn sign, how Misha stayed at Shizune's side when the Student Council fell apart. And, most importantly, how Misha was in love with Shizune, but was rejected, yet decided to stay friends anyway. It turns out Misha was so insistent in getting Hisao into the Student Council because she wanted Shizune to be happier, and allowed the two time together in hopes that they'd up in a relationship, so Shizune would be even more happy. However, her plan backfired: She can't deal with this anymore. As she says, despite trying her hardest not to hate Shizune for her rejection, and not to hate Hisao for taking her, she ended up doing that for a while, and, while she's over that, she's decided to not be around them anymore to prevent herself from hating them again.
It's a really powerful scene, plain and simple. While Tongue Tied portrayed a distraught Misha who was trying to somehow escape her situation, Look Ahead portrays a Misha who's completely given up and wallows in her misery. Seeing her in such a state is absolutely devastating, especially with how well the evolution from Tongue Tied carries over. The way Misha tells her sorry is also very hard-hitting: It still captures her usual semi-childish tone perfectly, and you're aware at every moment that it's her saying these things. The story is also really tragic, full of good intentions that just led Misha into hurting herself emotionally, to the point where she mentions considering suicide. It's not a scene that will make you cry, but it's a scene that will make you really, really want to give Misha a hug: The way she acted is ridiculously selfless, and she doesn't deserve to have come out this hurt out of it.
Hisao then goes on to make a speech about how he thinks Misha's acting the wrong way on this: He draws a parallel to himself after arriving at Yamaku, and explains how Shizune and Misha's involvement made him get out of his self-pitying rut. He also tells Misha he thinks she's making a mistake: Shizune is a difficult person to get along with, but they both know it's worth it. Before he can really speak his mind, though, Shizune interrupts them. Eventually, she manages to convince them to do something, and they leave, Hisao holding both Misha and Shizune's hands, and reminiscing about how familiar this feels, even if it's unnaturally tense right now.
And so ends Sleight of Hand. It's a good Act: It gets the plot moving in a way that feels natural, and has some of the most entertaining fluff in the route. There's very little wrong with Sleight of Hand beyond the premise of the plot it puts in motion, but there's also not that many hugely impactful scenes: For how long it is, you only get Tongue Tied and Look Ahead at the very end of the act. All in all, it feels somewhat less satisfying than Learning to Read, but is still great.
The final Act is To My Other Self, which is considerably shorter than the previous three Acts, though not nearly as short as Emi's Motion. It's also got a bizarre title and Act image, neither of them having much to do with the Act at all.
It starts off with Hisao in the library, re-caping the situation that Sleight of Hand left off on. This, more than perhaps any other act in the game, feels like an Act that's meant to be started off from a fresh session. Soon enough, Yuuko appears, and ends up giving Hisao some advice on how to act in this situation, encouraging him to try and get Misha and Shizune back together. She pretty much just echoes what Hisao already knows, though, and the scene feels rather pointless since no new information or advancement is achieved. Hisao then heads off into the Student Council room, where Shizune reveals Misha has been avoiding her even more vehemently and ropes Hisao into trying to help with restoring their friendship, even though she already did in Sleight of Hand. Still, it feels natural, and I didn't really realize that she'd already done it until it came time to write this review.
The next morning, Shizune shows up at Hisao's room with a picnic basket. It's meant to force Misha into a corner and force her to eat with them, during which Shizune hopes to make amends. It's obvious that Shizune's gamified this for herself, as she usually does, and is having just a bit too much fun for a situation that should worry her a bit more. She's managed to compartmentalize this Misha thing, as she does with everything. Unsurprisingly, Misha simply refuses the picnic and leaves, leaving Hisao and Shizune to eat it together. It returns back to a normal fluffy banter scene, and it's scary just how easily someone previously as important as Misha can be forgotten in the face of Shizune's insanely competitive attitude over something as simple as lunch. It works really well, and really subtly, not even being mentioned at all.
The next day has Hisao coming back to his room, only to find, to his own surprise, Hideaki waiting for him. It turns out Jigoro has come to Yamaku to inform Shizune that he's got a new mobile number, and brought Hideaki along with him. This seems like a very flimsy reason. Hisao briefly meets him in the Student Council room. Turns out, the Hakamichi's are planning a trip, and Shizune's invited. However, she refuses. Between this and his flimsy excuse, it's obvious Jigoro just wants to see Shizune, even with Hisao not mentioning it directly. It's actually quite moving: You can see Jigoro does care about Shizune, but just refuses to show it. Then Jigoro does Jigoro things at him briefly but hilariously, and leaves. Hisao points out that Jigoro may care about Shizune more than he is willing to admit, which Shizune agrees to, but the conversation soon shifts to the topic of Misha.
Hisao finally realizes that Shizune's biggest problem in trying to solve the Misha situation is possibly Shizune herself. Shizune's just too competitive and aggressive to be able to do it: If she acts normally, she'll end up pushing Misha away with lack of tact. If she softens up for Misha instead, Misha will see it as Shizune not really caring, and drift away further. That, and Shizune's way of thinking doesn't allow her to grasp the entire issue: She doesn't see Misha leaving as the culmination of a chain of cause-and-effect, but rather as a single episode in her life. This prevents her from knowing how to strike at the heart of the issue, and, even if she knew how, she would be unable to do it without somehow distancing Misha. Turns out, Shizune's realized something along these lines as well, having reflected upon how she became distanced from Lilly, whom she reveals she used to be very close with. It turns out both Hisao and Shizune happen to have come up with similar plans.
This is an interesting bit of character study: This Misha event makes Hisao come to realize a huge amount of things about Shizune, and the way Shizune acts tells the reader droves. Hisao telling us so much of it is kind of disappointing: Character studies are at their best when implied, but it makes sense from a narrative perspective and enough is still left unsaid that Shizune is still open to interpretation.
The next day, in class, Mutou sends one of his suspiciously common group assignments (Amusingly lampshaded by Hisao himself). Shizune and Hisao try to corner Misha, but she dodges talking about anything important. They leave it at the end of the period, when they come in heavy. Misha asks whether it's about Student Council, and, upon Shizune saying that it is, leaves in a huff, pretending to be annoyed at how this is all Shizune can ever think about.
This leads Shizune and Hisao dividing up to try and find her, though, in their mysterious plan, it's supposed to be Hisao who finds her. So he does, and invites her to a parfait, which she grudgingly accepts. There, they have a discussion about Shizune, where Hisao explains what he realized in the previous scene, as well as just explaining how Shizune feels about the whole situation in a way more comprehensible to Misha. It's a good scene: It feels heartfelt on Hisao's part, Shizune becomes even more likeable than she already was, and the way Misha's resistance slowly disappears is actually extremely heartwarming. The fact that Hisao puts the blame on both parties is also a really level-headed move, and rings true, even if we never saw their distancing. Hisao also moves on to explain how he's changed thanks to Misha and Shizune's influence, and encourages Misha to be more the way she made him.
Eventually, he drags Misha out of the Shanghai and back to Yamaku, to give her what he calls a "tour". As he goes through various locations, he reminisces about how they affected him, going all the way back to the gate scene in Life Expectancy, and ultimately asking Misha to not make the mistake he made and let herself loose her friends. It's a moving scene, and one focused on Hisao, which makes it doubly impressive. The fact that this tour of the school brings Misha along the scenes where she had an impact on Hisao, and improved him for the better, also rings very true of Shizune's philosophies about the stalls from the festival, which is a subtle reaffirmation of how much impact the two had on him that's not mentioned in the text. The scene feels like Hisao's being very honest, something you don't get much out of him, and it really feels like Hisao's exposing himself to the core.
The next scene starts with a decent bit of fluff, and one of the very few times Kenji manages to be genuinely amusing. After the fluff is done, Shizune and Hisao talk about Misha, and Shizune talks about the early stages of her relationship with Misha. Shizune seems genuinely happy to have her back, but also starts worrying about how her personality might push people away. She seems resolved to tone it down, but refuses to give it up, seeing as it's what she enjoys and what she considers makes her her. It's an interesting compromise, and seems very easy to mess up, but it at least shows she's trying to change.
The next scene, Succession, sees the trio educating the next Student Council as to their duties. The new Student Council leaves, and Shizune tries to organize the end of Student Council celebration she'd planned. However, Misha, resolved to keep the relationship between the two of them healthier than the previous time around, speaks up against this, saying she doesn't want a celebration that'll leave her feeling sad. It's a small moment, but one that I've always liked: Misha feels a lot less oppressed by Shizune's personality than before, but their relationship still feels as close as ever. On this note, Misha leaves, and the scene escalates into an H-scene.
One that I'm also not particularly fond off. It almost feels like it's supposed to be a reward, both for the player sitting out the tough bits before this and for Hisao helping Shizune get Misha back. This feels really skeezy, and I always leave this scene feeling quite unpleasant. It's a shame, too, because the scene in itself is actually rather well written, though some of the art looks a bit off. It also doesn't feel like a major character moment, and just seems gratuitously there. This is something that immediately makes me feel extremely uncomfortable reading any H-scene, no matter how well written.
After the deed is done, Shizune invites Hisao to come see something interesting involving Misha with her. Hisao originally refuses, and starts returning to his room, but feels he'll be unable to sleep and returns to the Student Council room, catching Shizune before she leaves. She ropes him into coming, and shows him Misha taking additional classes from Mutou. They hide in the room in front, and have a little talk, during which Shizune reveals much about her personality. It could be a mildly moving moment, but by this point we've heard this so many times it's getting stale, and this particular time doesn't have much new to add. Shizune also reveals she's come up with a plan for the future: she'll use her competitive nature to become a successful businesswoman, and then use her new-gained riches to act as a philanthropist. It's a surprisingly believable career path for her, seeing how much she seems to want to make people happy by working hard. This leaves Hisao as the only one who doesn't know what to do after school, which he reflects upon sadly. This is an odd subplot, since it's extremely short. This is the second to last scene of the game, and the subplot does get resolved.
The last scene of the route is named Infinity, and is one of my favorites in the game. It could be argued to be a fluff scene, but I wouldn't agree: It's a culmination of the plot. At the end of the school year, Hisao has said good bye to most of the people he feels he needs to say good bye to. Finally, he meets up with Misha in the Student Council room, hoping to also find Shizune, but she isn't there. Hisao and Misha banter a bit, and this feels extremely normal, right back to the dynamic they had before the main conflict started. Misha also admits her mistakes, finally getting them off her chest. Together, they head off to the school gate, where Shizune's being thanked by the new Student Council. They talk for a bit, and Hisao tells us he knows what he wants to do with his life: He wants to become a teacher at Yamaku, so that he can shake people like him out of their ruts upon being sent there. And, he says, "I also want to chase Shizune". It's a good conclusion to his arc through the route, even if the "what do I want to do with my life?" subplot wasn't so weirdly short. It feels like he's evolved, and it puts some good closure on his character.
Finally, the trio snaps up Yuuko, who's been taking photos of the leavers, and asks her to take a photo of them in a silly Three Musketeers pose, as Shizune insists that photos have to be memorable somehow, not just portraits. It feels like a complete return to the old style of banter, and is immensely fun and relieving to read. It truly feels like a return to normal. The route ends on the following exchange:
Hisao: "Do they do that reunion thing here?"
Shizune: [Of course they do]
Misha: "A student council member should know that~!"
Shizune: [Sooner than that, though, okay?]
Shizune: [Both of you.]
Misha: "Right~!"
Hisao: "Yeah."
Shizune: [Yuuko! You do the pose, too!]
Shizune: [Afterwards, we can go for tea.]
Shizune laughs, as if she doesn't have a care in the world, Misha's laughter joining in with her as easily as if it were her own. We'll meet again.
Which, somehow, also feels just perfect.
To My Other Self is by far the more emotionally charged bit of the route, and it's pulled off pretty well. The exchanges between characters all feel honest and genuine, and it's very much subtly touching. It doesn't have those gut-punches that most other routes like to pull, and is a lot of a more relaxed bad situation, if that makes sense, but is still effective. The pacing is next to perfect, and fluff is thrown in just often enough so that you don't become too drained. Still, as I pointed out, it's not nearly as effective as it perhaps should be, since Hisao isn't directly involved in most of the conflict.
That's, of course, an issue with the whole route: The big story beats have a nasty habit of taking place off screen, and you feel a bit uninvolved with the main plot. However, pretty much everything else makes up for it. Shizune and Misha are absolutely fantastically written, and the ol' "Shizune's competitive" stuff just doesn't get old. It's a joy to read the entire way through, and by far the most laugh-out-loud funny of the routes (though Rin arguably is funnier in a quieter way). The three characters are fantastically realized, with Misha getting a surprising amount of development, almost more than Shizune herself. Hisao's also surprisingly pleasant in this route, being far less of an obstacle to enjoyment than he is in most routes.
I really like the side characters in this route. The Lilly and Shizune subplot is used effectively, leading to Shizune realizing a lot about how why she's drifting apart from Misha. It's also nice to see a different side of Lilly than you often get to see: It's not the true self you slowly uncover in her route, but it's also not the excessively polite Lilly you see on most other paths. This is using character cameos at their best, and I wish more routes did this as extensively as Shizune's does. I also appreciate Akira's brief appearance, seeing how enjoyable it is to read and how real Akira feels.
Kenji's involvement in the route is rather strange: It seems to build up to something important, but it just kind of stops. It also has the only major CG of Kenji, which feels out of place. Still, he's by far the least annoying in this route, staying a bit further from his usual constant unfunny rants about feminists. Hideaki's appearance is also really weird in that it doesn't seem to do anything. He's just sort of there, and is an amusing character who doesn't serve any sort of purpose whatsoever.
Jigoro, on the other hand, is among my favorite side characters in any route. He's absurdly hilarious, and any scene involving him is sure to leave me with a huge smirk on my face. He's also a very important piece of information on Shizune's past, and helps a lot with making her character deeper. The fact that he's also subtly shown to not be that bad of a guy late in the route is also a surprisingly heartwarming moment.
I like how thematically consistent the route is, being all about difficulties in communication. Every plot thread somehow relates back to the concept, and it feels very much like a whole, very tightly woven packet. The way the themes are tackled are also interesting, focusing more on the difficulties in communication stemming from mutual respect than between lovers. It's an unusual take on the theme, but ends up working very well.
All in all, Shizune's route is definitely the odd one out, or, to use Shizune's beloved vocabulary, "abnormal". It's different in feel, theme, and structure to every other route. It feels like it's a lot less constrained by these things that other routes, which allows it to do absolutely fantastic things other routes just can't, but some of the constraints it throws away were there for a good reason, which makes it loose great part of its impact. My favorite scene by far has to be Infinity. It's just an absolutely perfect way to end the route, and manages to capture what makes the route great. Look Ahead and Throwing Balls are also fantastic stand-outs
In my next review, I play hide and seek with my own emotions!
