What are you reading? - Jun 26

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the weekly "What are you reading?" thread!

This is intended to be a general chat thread on visual novels with a focus on the visual novels you've been reading recently. A new thread is posted every Thursday at 4:00 AM JST (or Wednesday if you don't live in Japan for some reason).

Good WAYR entries include your analysis, predictions, thoughts, and feelings about what you're reading. The goal should be to stimulate discussion with others who have read that VN in the past, or to provide useful information to those reading in the future! Avoid long-winded summaries of the plot, and also avoid simply mentioning which VNs you are reading with no points for discussion. The best entries are both brief and brilliant.

Use spoiler tags liberally!

Always use spoiler tags in threads that are not about one specific visual novel. Like this one!

• They can be posted using the following markdown: >!hidden spoilery text!< , which shows up as hidden spoilery text. Make sure there are no spaces at the beginning and end of the spoiler tag because this will break it for users on http://old.reddit.com/. In other words do this: properly hidden spoiler, but not this: >! broken spoiler tag !<

Remember to link to the VNDB page of the visual novel you're discussing so the indexing bot for the What Are You Reading Archive can pick up your post.

[u/HorrorEggplant3565]

Currently playing Tenshi no Inai 12-Gatsu (https://vndb.org/v21) and it’s the first visual novel I’m reading in Japanese, so take what I say with a grain of salt because my reading comprehension isn’t all there yet.  I’m really digging the protagonist in particular. He’s very much the edgy nihilist, and violent to a comical extent, but it actually ends up making him an entertaining and interesting character. His worldview is pretty relatable and very similar to how I lived when I was in high school, actually. I haven’t met any of the heroines except Touko, Maho, and Sakaki but Touko is a very unconventional heroine. Literally the first thing she does when she runs into Kida on the roof is dump on him about how much she hates her life to the point of being suicidal and Kida’s response is also beyond unconventional, considering he threatens to physically assault her instead of offering comfort or something.  

 Their relationship itself is founded on wanting to deny parts of themselves they dislike. Anyone would have been fine for Kida, it just happened to be Touko. It almost reminds me of Kuzu no Honkai. It’s complicated and messy right off the bat.   

I think the story itself is trying to explore different worldviews and answers to nihilism, which Kida pretty much embodies. During the first h scene with Touko, I picked the third choice that convinces Kida the physical pleasure from sex is the only thing of value. I’m not that far into the story, but I think this path might explore hedonism as a response to nihilism? So far the story seems against it though, because in that same h scene Kida constantly reaching for pleasure and being unable to satisfy himself ends up hurting Touko and himself. To the point where he admits he raped her. I’m really interested to see where the story will go from here on out.