Hatsuru Koto Naki Mirai
Entry posted by Clephas
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Well, that was a bit of a surprise... after people's iffy ratings of the trial, I'd honestly expected this VN to be disappointing, in general, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that the VN as a whole exceeded the expectations I'd had for it previously. What were those expectations? I thought it would be a mere variation on the usual 'human goes to another world, gains ultimate power, defeats the evil, and gets a harem' theme that defines most VNs that have a protagonist go to another world... with a strong taste of Japanese nationalism. However, it wasn't anything of the sort.
Oh, the protagonist is indeed a kamikaze pilot, as advertised... but his outlook is a lot more interesting than you would have expected from someone willing to smash himself into the side of a ship with a plane. In fact, his view on patriotism in general is pretty negative, despite his own insistence on his duty. He is short-tempered, quick to get in a fight... and just as quick to drink and party with those he was fighting with a moment before (if they weren't trying to kill each other). He is definitely a soldier, because his point of view is written in a very similar way to that of various historical fiction written by Vietnam and WWII vets (outside of some certain areas). It does retain that uniquely Japanese 'emotional surrealism' that is a part of all otaku literature, and he spends an indecent amount of time philosophizing in his head for someone who is essentially an iron-skulled grunt by nature. His description of his feelings about WWII resembles a great deal several first-person accounts written by soldiers on the Japanese side, and it is quite obvious that the writer of the story did at least some research on the matter.
One thing some of you should keep in mind is that, despite the fact that a lot of girls fall in love with him, this protagonist is not a ladies' man and he generally doesn't indulge, except with his chosen heroine (he's definitely monogamous, lol), so you needn't worry about the kind of careless going back and forth between various women that defines a lot of 'go to another world' protagonists. If you were looking forward to a harem story, you'll be disappointed though.
This VN is a lot darker than it shows from the front, much as Grisaia was designed to be much darker than it seemed at first (has the same writers, so it stands to reason). While there is a lot of light-hearted stuff in here, there is also a lot of bloodshed, slaughter, and betrayal as well. This is perhaps one of the grittiest 'trip to another world' VNs I've ever read, and I honestly was impressed with the degree to which the writers and artists were willing to dig into the down and dirty aspects of the war.
The issue that will, on some level, inevitably come to the mind of anyone who reads this VN all the way through is the zombies... to be honest, the artistry of the zombie designs in this VN is a bit ridiculous, in the sense that they actually went to the trouble to make them look graphically disgusting (torn off ears, exposed muscle and sinew, etc etc). There are even dragon zombies, which are pretty freaky as well.
Story-wise, this VN has pretty much just two pitfalls... it requires you to read between the lines on a lot of issues, and there is perhaps less detail to the endings than you might wish. Frequently, you'll be directly prevented from knowing the thoughts of certain characters at certain important moments, simply to keep you from spoiling the heroine routes or to give impact to later scenes. This is actually a well-used technique, but it also makes the dog-people chapter a bit hurried toward the end, because of how much isn't touched upon deliberately to make Aira's path more powerful. The endings... honestly, Yukikaze's and Aira's are good. However, Ria's and Meltina's endings are kind of lacking. In Ria's case, this is inevitable, for reasons that become obvious at the end, but in the case of Meltina it is just a little frustrating. Ria's path is unique amongst all of them in that it is almost entirely told from the heroine's perspective, outside of some scenes near the end. Indeed, the protagonist's on-screen role is very limited, and the most important scenes are always away from him, with Ria on her own.
You are required to play Yukikaze's path first... and the reason for that is pretty obvious... she's the main heroine. The heroine paths are all distinct toward the end, but it is Yukikaze's that has the most straight-out, easy to understand impact. Ria's path has a lot of impact for another reason... but it also has the weakest ending/epilogue (though Meltina's is also a bit weak).
The music in this VN is really good... but it is also a mix of rearranged and slightly altered themes from several chuunige that I recognized... surprisingly this doesn't matter all that much, because the music is extremely well-used, frequently with an artist's touch for timing.
Visually... if you liked Grisaia's everyday visuals, you'll probably like the everyday visuals here. The protagonist in this VN is deliberately made to look like a somewhat ugly guy in his late twenties, so that is a change... and as I said before, the zombies in this VN are pretty hideous (in a 'good' way). For some reason, they reused Michiru's mouth design on a number of characters in this VN, and I found myself considering them to be morons from first meeting, even i they weren't, lol.
Unfortunately, this VN won't be for everyone... people who want a moege won't have much fun with this, and there is perhaps a bit too much moe for those who want something really dark. At the same time, people who can't stand zombies will hate this VN, because zombies make a lot of appearances (and one of the heroines is a 'special' zombie). The fact that the main heroine is a bit overly idealistic/emotional at times will also be a letdown for someone expecting her to be a classic warrior princess. However, this is also a VN that brings a lot of disparate elements together to create an interesting whole...
In other words, for me it was a good ride... for you? Honestly, there are a lot of points in this VN that will bother at least some of the population, and there is a lot of subtle criticism of certain WWII issues that might offend others or make them feel like this is a purely ideological piece. Indeed, there is a definite sense of 'Gundamness' around some of the themes, but I honestly found it enjoyable and stimulating, overall.
Edit: I'm finding it kind of funny that some people are joining vndb just to give 1 scores to VNs to drag the numbers down... Anyway, what I really wanted to add a few points... first, a lot of people are going to be tempted to see Visra as the US... but it is actually a lot closer to if you added Nazi Germany's leadership to America's industrial and natural resources, with an even stronger dose of 'ethnic cleansing'.
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