5/01
sigh
Where do I even start.
First thought here is… Is Noa’s power actually eavesdropping? Or are Kakeru and Kujou actually extremely bad at having a secret conversation in a relatively low tone of voice? This is the second time she overhears them talking. So many things seem so careless in this scene - using a power in the middle of the day, in the middle of park, for no good reason, openly revealing Kujou’s power without knowing if Noa can really be trusted in the slightest… I’m inclined to think that they are indeed actually just careless. But I won’t rule out the eavesdropping power just yet I guess.
That scene made zero sense to me. Wait, you are going to prove your innocence by having your ally steal your memories? And the only reason that would work is because Kujou is bad at lying? Excuse me, WAT?
I mean, in the end it does look like Kujou is indeed lying and Noa takes it like a normal, coherent person would. I can’t see how someone with any sense of logic would have believed Kujou even if she said Kakeru was innocent with a complete poker face. It’s disappointing how this “demonstration of innocence” is not only a pointless nonsense, but it also triggers the happenings of the next two days. It’s almost… infuriating.
I’ll admit I never realized why Kujou lost it after reading Kakeru’s memories here. My first reaction, given that this VN is supposed to have some romance, was that she had realized his feelings.
Going a bit back, one thing I noticed that seemed a bit off. It seems Kousaka whenever she’s “normal” she seems to be sick or nauseated. I wonder if this is somehow related to her using her powers too much?
Lol, I couldn’t agree more with that statement!
5/02
I was disappointed by the fact the Kujou’s power seems to be so over-reaching. Like… what for did we have that scene where details like Kujou knowing the position of an object she wanted to steal, or having it in her line of sight was important and so on… if she can now easily just mind-read all of someone’s memories? Somehow it feels like the author thought that “person X’s memories” can be easily treated like a single object of some sort, which I feel makes little sense.
Then there’s something else that I also find baffling. When Kujou steals an object, she also removes the owner’s memories of owning the object. So… why does Kakeru (or the others) not turn into a blank person with no memories at all as soon as Kujou steals them? We do know she can “return” the memories, but it feels off that she can do both things instantly without any consequence for the victim.
Even taking for granted she can indeed just mind-read everything… I’d expect that digesting such a quantity of memories couldn’t really be an instantaneous process. I’d have expected Kujou to be at the very least stunned, if not something a lot more drastic, the moment she “borrowed” all of someone’s memories.
Somehow it feels like the author was like… setting up some rules and limits to powers so that they could then be combined in interesting ways as the story progressed, but then seems to discard all of that out of the blue and then accelerate the happenings at a ridiculous pace.
At least, I appreciated how Kakeru’s line of thinking is explained. He feels lost, and keeps going in circles, second guessing himself. I felt at least that part made sense.
5/06
Well, knowing that there was a mandatory bad end made it pretty easy to guess where this was going…
I actually didn’t hate how cold Sophie was in that last scene. I think, in a good way, it makes it very clear that she’s detached from humans and even sees them with disdain - clearly one of them dying doesn’t mean much to her. I feel this is actually how a proper alien person should be portrayed. Her emotions and values are different. In a sense, that’s why I usually don’t enjoy science fiction stories like StarTrek or StarWars where “aliens” feel pretty much like humans, maybe just with small cultural differences. The emphasize on the “alien” is too much on the external appearance, and not enough on the mental side.
Well, then… not sure if everyone else also feels this is obvious but… isn’t Kakeru’s power turning back time? I feel the game goes way too openly about this. Sophie goading Kakeru into awakening. Kakeru not directly mourning Kujou’s death but instead using the phrase “let’s return” which feels off when you have someone turned to stone in front of you. Then the game not directly sending the player back to the home screen, but instead forcing the player to take the specific choice of beginning again.
Yeah, that was very odd. I did see the English translation went with “fan club” here, though sadly I can’t remember what the japanese term was exactly. My mind kinda ended thinking this somehow meant her friends, and not her actual fans, which would make more sense I think. Need to go back and check that part again.
Bonus question mark because why not
Next Week (Week 8)
show up. I’ve seen that with other words, but it’s still hella cute to me.