KS Emi Story (Major Spoilers)
Compared to Shizune's story, I have very few profound things to say about Emi's story.
Some interesting thoughts I had in general, though, were about the overall style. I forgot that each route was written by a different person, as well as the art style appearing to be significantly different. Emi's story art is a lot more round and cutesy while Shizune's story art was longer and sharper. I feel like this art change took years off of Hisao's face, and was a welcome change.
Emi's story was cute. It was simple, funny, and easy to follow. I was giggling a lot at the banter between Emi and Hisao, and I felt like the casual relationship they both have with each other and the Nurse felt natural. I found myself able to relate to Hisao's humor much more in this story than Shizune's as well. I often would think of a joke, or comment on a situation, just to have Hisao say exactly what I was thinking a few sentences later, which made me feel much more immersed. But hearing the Nurse's theme music constantly was definitely the icing on the cake. Damn I love that song.
And if I can get real for a second... why do they have so much sex? They have so much sex. All the time. I was getting scared that someone would walk into my room during one of the unpredictably lewd or straight up sex scenes and think poorly of me. Coming from Shizune's route, where they only really had sex twice and both scenes were very far apart and significant to the plot, Emi and Hisao just casually fucked constantly. That, while definitely a horny teenager's dream, was really weird to me. I mean hell, they had sex 2 times on-screen and several more off-screen in the first 3 days of them actually dating, and Hisao implies they had all sorts of sex off-screen on several occasions. Just... damn. I get it. Emi has a plush bunny in her bedroom but that doesn't mean they have to fuck like rabbits.
That aside, though, I really did find Emi's story to be quite nice. I had some problems with the pacing and understanding some parts due to tone issues, but otherwise the story felt very different from Shizune's story in a nice way.
Shizune's story is like dark chocolate. If you don't like it at first, you won't like it at all. But those who appreciate it can see the richness and craftsmanship hidden underneath the wrapper better than anyone else. Plus, I love dark chocolate so this metaphor works for me in both contexts.
Emi's story, however, is like Starbursts. The story appeals to a lot of different types of people. It's short, sweet, a little childish, and not too complicated. Very few people don't like Starbursts; they just have their own opinions on the best flavors. In this context, I believe the flavors to be how people imagine Emi and Hisao's relationship going after the credits roll, since it didn't have a clear conclusion like Shizune's.
Speaking of the conclusion, I wanted to contrast Emi's ending from Shizune's, since they are so very different. Emi's ending is the "happily ever after" type of conclusion that I'm not a huge fan of, like I wrote in my Shizune post. I get that Emi now trusts Hisao and wants to get serious with him, but why end it there? Why is the, "I trust you now" the last important thing in the story?
This brings me back to my pacing complaint. The plot didn't follow a structured line of exposition, rising action, climax, descending action, and resolution. Rather, it was a series of emotional bumps, awkward teenage encounters (*cough* lemons *cough*), followed by Emi giving Hisao the emotional cold shoulder for pretty much ALL of Act 3, and then finally Emi lets Hisao in... BAM-- the end. It was incredibly anti-climactic. There was no clear climax of emotions, just Hisao getting frustrated over Emi being defensive and shutting Hisao off, followed by several chapters of meaningless conversations while she's cold-shouldering him. I read somewhere that if I made some different choices that I'd get the climax that I'm looking for, but it involves me intentionally making a misstep and correcting it in a later chapter. But I made the "right" choices in the context of the story, so I don't understand why the intended "good" route didn't feel complete.
In the comparatively short time it took me to complete Emi's story (about 60% of the time it took me to complete Shizune's), I can honestly say that I enjoyed it for what it was. It was goofy, light-hearted, and hella lewd. It reminds me of the "dating my best friend" feelings I had in high school. Like I wasn't stressing out trying to impress her or hiding part of myself to make her happy. It just worked. And that's a refreshing feeling that I don't think is entirely realistic for adults, but is still something I feel that I should strive for.
And of course, the lesson I took from Emi's story is that you should not be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Even if you feel strong enough to do something on your own, having someone who can support you makes the journey far easier.
I don't know which story I'm going to end up doing next, as long as I save Lilly's for last. Meaning it's Hanako's or Rin's. So stay tuned for that!
Some interesting thoughts I had in general, though, were about the overall style. I forgot that each route was written by a different person, as well as the art style appearing to be significantly different. Emi's story art is a lot more round and cutesy while Shizune's story art was longer and sharper. I feel like this art change took years off of Hisao's face, and was a welcome change.
Emi's story was cute. It was simple, funny, and easy to follow. I was giggling a lot at the banter between Emi and Hisao, and I felt like the casual relationship they both have with each other and the Nurse felt natural. I found myself able to relate to Hisao's humor much more in this story than Shizune's as well. I often would think of a joke, or comment on a situation, just to have Hisao say exactly what I was thinking a few sentences later, which made me feel much more immersed. But hearing the Nurse's theme music constantly was definitely the icing on the cake. Damn I love that song.
And if I can get real for a second... why do they have so much sex? They have so much sex. All the time. I was getting scared that someone would walk into my room during one of the unpredictably lewd or straight up sex scenes and think poorly of me. Coming from Shizune's route, where they only really had sex twice and both scenes were very far apart and significant to the plot, Emi and Hisao just casually fucked constantly. That, while definitely a horny teenager's dream, was really weird to me. I mean hell, they had sex 2 times on-screen and several more off-screen in the first 3 days of them actually dating, and Hisao implies they had all sorts of sex off-screen on several occasions. Just... damn. I get it. Emi has a plush bunny in her bedroom but that doesn't mean they have to fuck like rabbits.
That aside, though, I really did find Emi's story to be quite nice. I had some problems with the pacing and understanding some parts due to tone issues, but otherwise the story felt very different from Shizune's story in a nice way.
Shizune's story is like dark chocolate. If you don't like it at first, you won't like it at all. But those who appreciate it can see the richness and craftsmanship hidden underneath the wrapper better than anyone else. Plus, I love dark chocolate so this metaphor works for me in both contexts.
Emi's story, however, is like Starbursts. The story appeals to a lot of different types of people. It's short, sweet, a little childish, and not too complicated. Very few people don't like Starbursts; they just have their own opinions on the best flavors. In this context, I believe the flavors to be how people imagine Emi and Hisao's relationship going after the credits roll, since it didn't have a clear conclusion like Shizune's.
Speaking of the conclusion, I wanted to contrast Emi's ending from Shizune's, since they are so very different. Emi's ending is the "happily ever after" type of conclusion that I'm not a huge fan of, like I wrote in my Shizune post. I get that Emi now trusts Hisao and wants to get serious with him, but why end it there? Why is the, "I trust you now" the last important thing in the story?
This brings me back to my pacing complaint. The plot didn't follow a structured line of exposition, rising action, climax, descending action, and resolution. Rather, it was a series of emotional bumps, awkward teenage encounters (*cough* lemons *cough*), followed by Emi giving Hisao the emotional cold shoulder for pretty much ALL of Act 3, and then finally Emi lets Hisao in... BAM-- the end. It was incredibly anti-climactic. There was no clear climax of emotions, just Hisao getting frustrated over Emi being defensive and shutting Hisao off, followed by several chapters of meaningless conversations while she's cold-shouldering him. I read somewhere that if I made some different choices that I'd get the climax that I'm looking for, but it involves me intentionally making a misstep and correcting it in a later chapter. But I made the "right" choices in the context of the story, so I don't understand why the intended "good" route didn't feel complete.
In the comparatively short time it took me to complete Emi's story (about 60% of the time it took me to complete Shizune's), I can honestly say that I enjoyed it for what it was. It was goofy, light-hearted, and hella lewd. It reminds me of the "dating my best friend" feelings I had in high school. Like I wasn't stressing out trying to impress her or hiding part of myself to make her happy. It just worked. And that's a refreshing feeling that I don't think is entirely realistic for adults, but is still something I feel that I should strive for.
And of course, the lesson I took from Emi's story is that you should not be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Even if you feel strong enough to do something on your own, having someone who can support you makes the journey far easier.
I don't know which story I'm going to end up doing next, as long as I save Lilly's for last. Meaning it's Hanako's or Rin's. So stay tuned for that!
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