Katawa Shoujo Common Route Thoughts

12 years later

I was talking to my close childhood friend recently. About life and our various going-ons. About food and how things aren't like they used to. And lastly, about Katawa Shoujo.

Just like 12 years ago, when it fully released during our sophomore year in high school. When we were our dumb teen self with little care in the world, little experience on how things truly were outside our little bubble that is high school band.

12 years later, Katawa Shoujo has found its way back into the forefront of my mind. With it now being released on Steam (soon at the time of my writing this), I decided to jump back into the world of Yamaku Academy in the shoes of Hisao once more.

Perhaps also motivated by nostalgia and a curiosity to see if this personally influential visual novel still holds up today, I decided to use a more modern version of the game supported and created by fans - the "re-engineered" version. While I appreciate the classic 4:3 ratio windowed box that was a perfect fit for the Dell laptop I was using at the time, technology has changed in 12 years. Especially if you're like me and have been reading through modern visual novels.

Booting it up, immediately it all hit me once I heard the opening chord to the title theme "Wisonia". Feelings of warmth, feelings of bitterness with a tinge of sad, and feelings of hopefulness.

I knew it would be a good ride back for me. A kind of homecoming, if you will.

After playing through the entire common route, there was a sense of discovery that was interesting for me to experience as I made it through event after event. A lot changed in 12 years. Too much so that even a brief summary from me would still take an entire page. So, I'll just boil it down to: I've changed, I matured, and I experienced life and living.

Compared to me of olden times, I felt more empathetic to every one of the main cast and even side characters this time around. Meeting Misha and Shizune the student council duo and their attempts to both help you get acquainted with your new surroundings while trying to get you to join their club - what a boisterous group with strong attitudes despite one of them being mute. In contrast, meeting first Lily then Hanako could not have been more different - calm and a bit meek but naturally gentle souls. Then the last of the dynamic duos, Emi and Rin. Honestly, both a bit of a one-track mind in their own fields and are unique in that sense.

The cast has a well-achieved balance overall, and that's the real beauty of Katawa Shoujo, among many. There's a reason why this visual novel is so beloved. Why the /vg/ general of this VN has surpassed a thousand threads or just an anonymous person and group of those internet folks keeping an image-forum post series alive for years and years. There's an archetype for everybody, but once you get to spend more time with these characters, they far exceed those expectations. Despite the tiny bit of clunkyness of this common route, these girls are introduced so well, and the dynamics between the cast too. Shizune's beef with the way Lily handles her student council duties, the way Emi holds a reputation for herself around school much to Shizune's ire, and how Rin is still true to her strange self even with being around Lily. Hanako's here too, but only if you pick certain route options which I didn't too. But I'm sure she's a good girl.

What I felt the most out of these 2ish hours of quickly reading through the common route was just how much I really related to Hisao, a feeling that I do not remember feeling so strongly 12 years ago.

Hisao is forced to enroll in Yamaku for his heart condition, so he has to navigate not only his new environment but also a new routine. Taking pills upon pills, probably complete with its own side effects both physical and mental. Managing being active and not over-exerting himself. And the one big one that gets me on a personal level: him having to explain his disability to others.

Arrhythmia, irregular heartbeat. To the observer, you would never know unless told. To the holder of such an "invisible disability", it is like being cursed with knowledge. Medically, you have a problem. And like all medical terms, it's just scientific and a bit cruel but it's not anyone's fault. It is what it is.

Socially, though, that's another beast. When you first meet Rin, you can immediately tell why she's enrolled in Yamaku. When Rin meets you, however, she's blunt. "Why are you here"? Hisao's first real social reminder of his disability, and his internal crisis of "how do I explain this" and "should I explain this to others I meet". The pecker jokes (or with Rin she's probably was serious) did diffuse the situation a bit. But it's food for thought for Hisao.

Food for thought that was the same for me, a person with an "invisible disability". You would never know it unless I told you or you have observed me for a while: I am deaf in my right hear. 100% deaf, making me affected SSHL or single-sided hearing loss and making me SSD or single-sided deaf. I wish we had a better-looking acronym. But that's another problem.

I struggled with the should I of telling someone I am SSD. I still struggle today. To me, it's both a matter of "I don't think I should curse them with this knowledge too" and "I shouldn't be an inconvenience to you person I just met". I know what you are about to say, it's what everyone says. I'm trying to get better at it. But habits die hard. Almost 30 years like this. 30 years of this song and dance of should I or should I not. Even to this day, my coworkers don't know. Some of my friends do not know. I even wonder who even remembers.

Hisao reminds me of my struggles in a way that I feel strongly about as I went into my college years. It's all about identity. But what the girls at Yamaku showed me and even Hisao that it's not a disability controls what you can and can't do. It doesn't define you, but it is you. No matter what you're going through and how it affects you - mental, physical, visible or invisible, big or small - you have potential for anything you set your mind to. As long as you have and drive to try with your whole spirit as best you can, anything is possible.

I believe Katawa Shoujo has a universal message for anyone who reads it. After reading through the common route even after all these years, I believe it holds up. Again, there are some clunky spots and some dated parts that you have to understand the time it was written and the character (I do not blame Kenji for being the way that he is). But I firmly recommend now that it is coming on Steam: read through Katawa Shoujo, one of the greatest and most influential VN's at the time. Whether you read it before or it is your first time, you will not regret it.

Now, onwards to doing all the routes I haven't done. Starting with Rin. Which I am both excited and also scared about. Scared that I might find myself too much in her route.