ルーパーズ ♾ Chapter 12 (Visual Novel Book Club)

Current chapter start date: October 7, 2022
Home thread: ルーパーズ ♾ (Visual Novel Book Club) // Currently Reading!

Loopers

Previous part: Week 11

Next part: Week 13

We’re reading ルーパーズ as part of the Visual Novel Book Club!

As of the time of posting this, reading is scheduled for 1 chapter per week. But feel free to jump in and ask questions or give your thoughts later! There are always people watching these threads :eyes:

Pace

The current chapter can be seen in the menu, and you’re encouraged to keep an eye on that if you wish to read at the club’s official pace! To make this easier, the following image also marks the end of the chapter. While the image may not necessarily be a meaningful spoiler, it’s collapsed by default as there’s no reason to immediately display the images to anyone who crosses through this thread. 用心するに越したことはない

Chapter End Image

Discussion Guidelines

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, do your best to provide context. Pasted text, screenshots, descriptions, etc. Unlike book clubs we can’t flip to relevant pages, so we may need a little help identifying exactly what is being discussed.
  • Feel totally at ease to ask questions or give your thoughts, any time! Clubs live and die by participation, and asking whatever question you have, no matter how silly it may seem, helps others who are reading it and even the answerer themselves.
  • Have fun, and do your best to interpret anything said with as much good faith as possible :slightly_smiling_face:

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7 Likes

Just finished the chapter.

Chapter spoilers

Hmmmm. The overall feeling of the chapter was too cheery, like everything was going so well and perfect and everyone was thinking already about how life is going to be great outside of the loop. It kinda felt evident that we’re being set for a twist, obviously it was not going to be this easy, we have chapters to fill after all. Again a mention of 探し女, and this time finally acknowledging that she does look a little bit like ミア (I was not crazy with my theory! :joy: ).

Now, that ending though got me off guard. What kinda looked like a love confession, ended up feeling much more like something is definitely wrong with ミア and she didn’t say anything about it. Her telling タイラ that she wanted to continue treasure hunting forever kinda tells me that she’s suddenly not going to be around. Add the crying too :sob: , ミア why would you cry in such a melancholic way? What’s wrong with you, don’t go ;-; .

Also by now I think I can officially say that タイラ, ミア and サイモン are my favourite characters. タイラ and ミア is a hard number 1 spot to decide. Their interactions are great, and this chapter was super nice for them. Great backgrounds and BGM too.

Taking what I came up with in the previous threads, now my theory looks like this: 探し女 has once again repeated directly to タイラ that he was right and she was wrong, and that she has to find “it”. I’m thinking that that “it” is something related to the story in the prologue that mentioned to never find the treasure again (or maybe disobey the advice of giving it to another person?). タイラ told ミア in the hospital about it if I remember correctly, that’s why he told her to give it to someone else. Maybe she never did, or perhaps it’s another treasure of hers, or it simply came back to her somehow. Because of that something happened to her and that’s what made her 探し女. Now, how is that related to the loop is quite hard to think about. Perhaps it’s a loop within a loop? That would be trippy :joy: . If she ends up disappearing next chapter(s), then she certainly knew it would happen because she was crying about it beforehand. If she already knew, does that mean she was reliving the past or simply knew somehow? Was she a memory or a vision all along? What does that mean for the rest of the cast? Supossing they don’t disappear as well D: . Questions :exploding_head: . Imagine サイモン disappears too and suddenly there’s no one to deal with クロ and カイ :joy: . That would be a savage introduction for sure, ahhh, would be interesting. I don’t think we have enough chapters left for such a dramatic twist… unless?

I’m hyped for the next chapter.

9 Likes

I just finished the chapter.

Spoilers

It was another rather cheery chapter outside of the ending I suppose. I was glad that the 探し女 did appear again. If タイラ didn’t say anything, I’m not sure if I would have thought she looked too much like ミア but after he said that, I think its rather obvious foreshadowing that ミア is her.

In the moment I was thinking she was getting emotional about being more or less rejected but now that you mention it, it wouldn’t surprise me if she goes missing here soon or something similar. I am guessing something bad is going to happen in the next chapter with her that ends up relating to 探し女. There’s only a few chapters left so I’m interested in how the rise to conflict and resolution happens here. I kind of wish the conflict would have started sooner but its too early to judge if it will feel rushed or not.

If I’m remembering correctly, I think in an earlier chapter they said when the opening to leave the loop happens, there’s a chance you could miss the opening or something similar? I can’t remember the exact thing that I think サイモン said but it makes me wonder if as they’re getting ready to leave, if ミア somehow misses the opening and gets stuck in the loop and becomes the 探し女 due to that or something. :thinking: The next chapter or two should definitely be interesting

8 Likes

I’d say it will be interesting right to the end :slight_smile:

5 Likes

Still a week behind, but I’m here; I managed to do the thing. I logged about 7500 characters if this helps anyone remaining :slightly_smiling_face:

A little off topic health rambling

It’s always something with me – the past several weeks I’ve had various issues arise in both hands, things somewhat mimicking De Quervain’s, trigger finger, etc. Basically, various instances of what looks like tenosynovitis. Would consider that a mild thing that just happens (and couldn’t get much more out of a doctor) but it’s occurring around so many different joints near the same time and is completely unresponsive to not just NSAIDs but even some corticosteroids. Plus there’s more going on but this is the main one preventing me from doing things. So I have some thoughts on the origin but… I am seeing some improvement right now, whether coincidentally or because I’ve been putting a lot of effort into rehabilitating both hands (rice bucket and other exercises). Longer term rest was seemingly making it worse but I have splints just for sleeping, have tightened my already good diet to be even more anti-inflammatory (and added a lot of collagen since there’s some evidence in that direction), etc. Happy this is improving but annoyed that the pattern for a few years now has been for something to get dramatic and limiting, then improve in a month or two, then be replaced by some new awful thing. I’m trying though. More than anything it’s just the mental toll this stuff takes making it so hard to do something mentally demanding. :person_shrugging:

About the actual chapter

Pretty much the usual feelings about the early parts with the side characters, but I always enjoy more ミア. When you all talk about “something wrong” with her it makes me think back to her probably being in the hospital and we better not be leading to the end of the loop making some illness she has worsen when time actually moves. It’s probably something wilder than that given 探し女, but it would be pretty sad.

Either way, yeah, looks like we’re leading into the juicy stuff now that they had their final pre-exit party. Since it’s Key I mostly expect the sadness to be ramped up considerably (but probably ultimately be cathartic, I mean that’s their whole thing). Seconding that I loved the backgrounds, especially the ferris wheel stuff.

9 Likes

Finally got around to finishing the chapter.

off topic

Uggg, so getting into crazy stuff. I was already behind, but then my dad had some stuff happen and went through two unexpected surgeries 6 days apart. He’s fine, but now that things are settling down it’s kind of a pain getting back into a good rhythm.

chapter

I’m so glad they did that alley scene with the illusory bits. The prior explanation when they talked about the 探し女 was little hard for me to follow and seeing it like this really helped break it down. It was also fun seeing Tyler make the comparison to Mia like that after all of those theories from the past.

Thinking a bit on that myth what about intangible treasures? I should probably reread the prologue at some point since it’s been… well, just about forever and honestly I don’t remember the story book segment, but it does seem like everything is coming together finally. Honestly, I kind of forgot there was other plot. The Leona events were pretty satisfying on their own and at this point Hilda/Leona seem like they’ll be happy no matter what so Imma call it a good ending already.

Oh, seriously? I’m not really knowledgeable on the devs for this industry since I’ve really only played a few games. Not sure I can handle getting another Angel Beats situati- Hmm, Key did the VN adaptation of that too… F.

8 Likes

Key is famously known for making/popularizing the 泣きゲー genre and almost all of their games follow the same formula. They do some anime originals like Angel Beats and almost all of their VNs get anime adaptions too (Clannad is probably their most popular - I highly recommend it!).

short genre description of 泣きゲー taken from VNDB if you're interested on their structure

This type of a story is designed to have an emotional impact on the player and make itself memorable, crying is usual but mostly optional.

It’s explained in wikipedia article about KEY like this:
The developers at Tactics created a simple formula for a game: a comedic first half with a heart-warming romantic middle followed by a tragic separation and finally an emotional reunion formed what is known as a “crying game”. The main purpose of such a game is to make the player feel for the characters and make them cry due to emotional scenarios which serves to leave a bigger impact on the player after the game is over.

8 Likes

Getting there… this took 1h.

Bracing myself for impact because the 探し女 is back and it seems unavoidable that something really bad is going to happen to ミア any minute now and she’s one of the best characters so it’s going to be tough. I’m scaaared.

9 Likes
Chapter notes & reactions to other posts

I wasn’t super impressed in the beginning with this chapter, but then each consecutive location switch got better and better. Joe was meh, Ritapon and Holly at least had Holly, Simon was okay (plus I did like the mention that he might be afraid of being lonely again, which is a new side to him), Hilda and Leona horsing around (sorry not sorry) was kinda fun, and then we got some sweet Mia and Tyler scenes!

Until we got that end, that is. How could you, Tyler. >:(

Glad that it picked up again, after me being a bit disenchanted with the whole thing from the middle of that last chapter. Hope it doesn’t drop the ball again, there’s still plenty to read before it’s over, and I’d like to stay motivated!

Also, fresh from the “Be careful what you wish for” front:

  • Mia wanting to go on a treasure hunt that lasts forever.
  • A 探し女 who kinda looks like Mia who is forever searching something.

I thought it was unlikely to be anything apart from the rejected love confession, but then I read @Daisoujou’s post and… yeah, right, the hospital. Maybe she’s ill, so actually spending time “forever” is but a dream for her, independently of whether Tyler feels the same about her.

Although I feel like if she had a terminal disease, she would be a bit happier about being in a time loop, trapped or not? It would be like getting suddenly gifted dozens of years. And I think she would probably be much more emotional about Tyler coming in so late, now that she figured out how much she enjoys being with him, and about the time loop suddenly ending. I don’t know, if there were signs apart from the hospital, I must’ve missed them.

And whatever it is she is sad about, it is highly likely to be unrelated to the 探し女, considering it even took her a while to see the similarity. And I don’t think the possible implications of “Huh, but I don’t remember searching anything around here…” (namely, that it still has to happen) have quite sunken in yet.

My money is still on the rejection being the reason for the tears.

That’s not to say that bad shit isn’t going to happen to her. It’s absolutely going to happen to her, what’s with that “Doesn’t this mad, regretful ghost kinda look like you” foreshadowing flag.


Also, some comments on scenes with images...

I present to you, “Simon cooling down”:

…ah, wait, I mean “Simon already planning to get right into it again before it’s even over.”

(I wonder how much he enjoyed being in there.)


I love how playful Mia has gotten! :heart_eyes:


And now we hear it from Mia instead of from Tyler, who said a similarish thing back on the beach in that first super long slice-of-life episode. Nice!


Oh no. This is all gonna end in tears, isn’t it? (And I don’t mean the tears at the end of this chapter…)


Mhm. I’m quite sure they are alluding to that scene in the hospital in the beginning, but… wasn’t that like, half an hour in total or so? Surely it was too short for Tyler to build a connection so meaningful that this feeling of 落ち着く could now feel 懐かしい…


Also, no questions this time! What are the odds… :laughing:

5 Likes

Wait what? Oh no! I’m behind. xD

1 Like

I was like “Aah, I finally finished last week’s chapter, I’m so late” and then I saw I was posting first :laughing:

1 Like

I kinda took three days off reading because… I don’t know, just didn’t read, I guess. (I haz no excuses.)

But considering the length of this chapter, I’ll knock it out in 1-2 sessions so I’m not worried. As long as I pick up Loopers to read again, I’ll get caught up and finish last week’s and this week’s chapter before this week is over or on Monday. Something like that. ^^

1 Like

Hey, I’m the one who suddenly took 11 days off Loopers because I discovered the joy of being able to actually already read Kino no Tabi, so…

Yeah, that’s what I figured too for myself! These chapters are really good for catching up, with 7500, 6000 and 5500, before we’re heading off to the finale with three progressively longer ones.

2 Likes

Here I am now. These normal length (for this VN) chapters feel so short. And when I started this VN, they felt so long. 懐かしいな。

Anyway, here are my thoughts

The classic “we’ve never talked about love but I’m gonna confess” scene. In real life, people, if you ever do that, don’t expect a good answer even if the person you’re with actually returns your feelings. It puts them on the spot and anxiety and awkwardness levels rise to over 9000!

No but seriously, it is such a weird thing to me. But at least I felt this one was kinda nicely done. And I didn’t feel like Tyler was rejecting her as much as he was put on the spot and doesn’t think too much about his feelings so suddenly having to put it into words and define it made him loose his words. At least, I’m pretty sure he’s kinda interested in Mia that way, even if their age difference and stuff is a bit iffy at that time of life.

And yeah, doesn’t feel like Mia takes it as rejection either. She clearly has more on her mind, and Tyler just completely missed her saying this would be the last fireworks they saw together in this world. Whatever she meant by that. I guess I’m supposed to assume in the loop-de-loop world, but… Mia was very sick in the hospital and she’s being all “I need to tell you how I feel” which in games/movies/books rarely is because of wholesome reasons.

That jumping around at the beginning of the chapter was pretty jarring (especially since I’d just taken a break from Loopers). It is a bit interesting though that the three extra characters all had hobbies that pretty much got nullified by the looping. So much potential there that is kinda wasted, but at the same time, I feel like we have a much bigger cast for this story than we ever needed.

Maybe these last few chapters will prove why so many was needed, but if those three extra had been entirely cut, and we’re down to Mia, Tyler, Hilda, Leona and Simon. Would the story have suffered? Or would we have had a chance to deepen even more into the five main ones? Especially Simon has been more short-changed than the rest of them. Hilda and Leona have their story line even if it is kinda shoved in between the main story plus Mia/Tyler scenes, like a sub-plot poorly integrated to the main story. (Except it started the whole story.)

And I just realized another reason why this middle have dragged so much. All main story development have been long exposition parts (basically), it was only in this chapter with seeing 探し女 again that actually the main story got some action-ish screen time, and not just long exposition speeches (mainly from Simon). Obviously, Hilda and Leona’s side story arc is different, for the whole one and a half chapter that got.

Anyway, now that the main story is moving again, it seems that the last parts of this VN will be good.

5 Likes