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[Kon22]

To be fair, I never considered Emi a "kinky" girl. I always thought that her liberal sexual demeanor was more about she not wanting to get into deep relationships with people, and using sex as a way to get "closer" to people, without really having to develop an important emotional bond. But hey, that might just be me. Alternate character interpretation, I guess.

[TheHivemind]

I was wondering if we could get an official dev statement on the nature of Emi and Misha's friendship? The subject was broached on page 226 of the thread, and the exchange went something like this:

Like Aura said, there was originally going to be more hints that Emi and Misha had crossed paths on more than one occasion. It was discarded (or more accurately, never really explored) due to a myriad of reasons, some to do with being a lousy writer, others to do with the fact that Emi's path was scrapped and started from (almost) scratch about four years into development. Other hints of the Emi/Misha connection include some editorial comments from Misha during a lecture on PDA (which, come to think of it, might have also been removed but I don't remember anymore) and the fact that Misha is the one to talk to you if things go poorly (which was not so much a vestige as it was a reference to what could have been, if I'd been a) better at writing b) better at negotiating c) less burned out on the project by the end of the writing process). I think there might be one or two off-handed comments from Emi and Misha in the path that serve as more references to it (and there was something in the dinner scene at one point, but again I can't remember what made it in and what didn't).

Isn't it sad Micchan ;____; etc. etc.

OK, so here TheHivemind says that Emi and Misha having crossed paths before was never really "scrapped", just not explored. That there's still hints of it in the final game would seem to place it on the same "implied canon" level as Kenji x Yuuko...

Heh. I thought that comment meant that Emi and Misha had been friends with benefits at one point. I may have been reading a little too much into it

Ha ha ha yes how ridiculous.
<_<
>_>

...but then he jokingly implies that they were meant to be friends with benefits. This supports what I've heard about an earlier version of KS where Emi and Misha would hook up regularly in the art room. I know that we're only supposed to treat what's in the game as canon, but this seems to be a special case in which something is only hinted at, and yet by a dev's admission, not scrapped. So as a result we know that they are (or were) friends, but what's the nature of their friendship?

I'm struggling to imagine how a Emi x Misha "friends with benefits" relationship would fit with Shizune's route even if it had been fleshed out. I could see a curious Emi experimenting with Misha maybe once or twice, but I'd find it harder to feel sad for poor, "lonely" Misha if she was getting pussy every other day from her BFF. And if it's true--just not explored--how would it have fit into Misha's character arc, in which is she seems infatuated with only Shizune?

Hive never put in the work necessary to figure out the Emi-Misha relationship so it fizzled out without getting anywhere. It's kind of a bummer because the story sure could've used character interplay that didn't involve Hisao. The amount of work would've been quite high though, so it's understandable that it didn't work out.

I don't think the friendship was to have a "friends with benefits" thing, but Emi and Misha, or Emi and Rin, having experimented sexually (once) was a real concept Hive had to underline Emi's liberal and aggressive attitude towards sex. It's one of the more interesting aspects of Emi's character, but Hive didn't quite get the theme and ideas polished to perfection. Emi sex scenes do an acceptable job communicating the theme, but maybe aren't reflected upon sufficiently?

Like I said in my original answer (and like Aura further stated), Emi and Misha were meant to be friends--and to have briefly been more than friends, set around the time after Shizune first rejected Misha's advances (and Emi similarly would've made a pass on a completely oblivious, nonresponsive Rin...or something like that. There's a bit on the fanfic forum that explores the idea a little, but it's unpolished as FUCK, so consider yourself warned), but I fucked it all up--and yes, the two of them having experimented together was a real thing that I (and others) considered having happen, because if anyone was going to wind up experimenting, it was going to be Emi. As Aura said, she's open and pretty up-front when it comes to sex, and who she would like to have sex with. I even strongly considered making her bisexual at one point (there was a scrapped, time-skipping bad end that would've made that more obvious, and I considered it being one of the things she mentioned in her list of facts in the graveyard), but it would have taken a lot to get that off the ground (again, both in terms of convincing the rest of the team to put up with the extra work and coordination across paths to make it fit, and in terms of backfilling it into the path without it coming off as shoehorned in at the last minute). I've stated on multiple occasions that I have no regrets about how the path wound up--and I still don't--but it's completely true that Emi's path could've used way more work and skill than I was capable of producing at the time. If I were to undertake the project now, it would probably be better, but that's walking down the path of pure speculation.

Also, one of the most unfortunate things about Emi's route is that the track shed scene is a stupid fucking meme amongst the fans (THEM LEMONS XD) and no one actually thinks about why on earth would Emi act like that. This tangent aside, if you think there's "implied canon" or "early versions of KS", sorry to disappoint you. We had hundreds of ideas that got scrapped, and many of them have some remnants left in the script for whatever reasons. This is just another one. Also semantics lawyering is pointless. "Not explored" means the exact same thing as "scrapped", because both have the same end result, which is that the idea did not end up in the actual story. So yeah the official answer, whatever that means, is that they know each other, are probably friendly, but aren't really buddies.

That bloody track scene is probably my greatest failure, because it was meant to highlight something about Emi's character and everyone only remembers the goddamn lemons. Oh well.

But yes, Misha and Emi are on friendly terms officially, whatever that means. They are at least on good enough terms that Misha cares enough to step in and slap Hisao in his big dumb face if necessary to get him back on the right track.

Unofficially, they met up again when they both wound up in the same area for college and grew much closer, culminating in the traditional rainy confessions and they lived gayly ever after, I dunno.

[TerrorOfTheHighSeas]

That bloody track scene is probably my greatest failure, because it was meant to highlight something about Emi's character and everyone only remembers the goddamn lemons. Oh well.

And that's exactly what it did. I think more people understood and appreciated the true nature and intent of the track shed scene that it appears, regardless of the jokes made. It was brilliant. Not only because it gave us a look at another side of Emi and highlighted one of her many interesting characteristics, but also because of the style in which it was written. The clumsy, comical, and unpleasant (well, for them) experience made it seem all the more realistic and rather accurately portrayed how the scenario would actually pan out. Come to think of it, playing Emi's route (or any route, really) with adult content disabled and missing out on these scenes really must feel different and leave the player not understanding aspects of Emi (or others) nearly as much, especially without that track shed scene. But I wouldn't know, seeing as I have yet to disable the adult content. I don't think that scene could have been done in a better way

[Notguest]

I don't think disabling adult content actually disables the scenes, it just replaces the pictures with photos of innocuous objects.

[Kon22]

If it's okay to answer, how were the cutscenes made? And I assume they were made after everything else/on the last stages of the game?

[Notguest]

According to the credits, Mike Inel did the Act 2 opening FMVs.

[TheHivemind]

If it's okay to answer, how were the cutscenes made? And I assume they were made after everything else/on the last stages of the game?

This post sums up the process pretty nicely, I think.

[DSQ]

Did any of the writers decide to go into writing officially? I think that every story line in the game shows a level of skill that was almost professional. In fact better than professional when compared to other video games.

[TheHivemind]

Did any of the writers decide to go into writing officially? I think that every story line in the game shows a level of skill that was almost professional. In fact better than professional when compared to other video games.

I write for a living, but it's all marketing material. I've picked up some freelance writing on the side now and again (website stuff, mostly SEO-geared material) as well.

Writing for a living is surprisingly satisfying, even if it's marketing crap.

One day I might finish and polish up any number of short stories and see about getting them published, but at the moment I'm more content just writing things of that nature to amuse myself.

[DSQ]

One day I might finish and polish up any number of short stories and see about getting them published, but at the moment I'm more content just writing things of that nature to amuse myself.

That's good view to take.

I know a couple of people who, while aren't as good at writing as you guys are, was a fair writer but cared waaay to much about what others thought. IMO the best writers are like you and write to make themselves happy, Lord Byron is a good example (though he was more of a poet) but he may have been a little extreme!

[cpl_crud]

Did any of the writers decide to go into writing officially? I think that every story line in the game shows a level of skill that was almost professional. In fact better than professional when compared to other video games.

I have written a number of technical articles and press releases for teh monies, but all of my fiction is simply a wa way to blow off some steam...

[azarga]

...As Aura said, she's open and pretty up-front when it comes to sex, and who she would like to have sex with. I even strongly considered making her bisexual at one point (there was a scrapped, time-skipping bad end that would've made that more obvious, and I considered it being one of the things she mentioned in her list of facts in the graveyard), but it would have taken a lot to get that off the ground (again, both in terms of convincing the rest of the team to put up with the extra work and coordination across paths to make it fit, and in terms of backfilling it....

Ok, I've cut some quotations off to avoid cluttering the page too much.

This is a question to Hivemind.

I remember your other comment on Emi's "good end" afterstory

Do you feel that the sheer amount of love expressed in this game between two characters such as Hisao and Emi is possible in real life?

Well yeah dude, it is just regular old love going on there, it's nothing earth-shattering. It only seems earth-shattering because it's high school.

Here's an illustration for you. It's the way I figure things play out:

Hisao and Emi are super-happy together for a while, but they don't go to the same college. They drift apart and eventually, they break up. Hisao takes it harder than Emi, or at least spends more time talking about how hard he's taking the breakup. Then they both get distracted by all the cool stuff you get up to in college, and get over it.

Eventually they both meet someone else and it happens all over again. But they remember each other, and eventually they stop focusing on how the breakup hurt and start focusing on the good bits. Maybe they run into one another a few years out of college. They talk like old friends, and then part ways again after exchanging email addresses.

Fifteen years after that, Emi will be at his funeral. She'll talk to his wife and tell him what a great honor it was to know him. She'll go home and cry into her lover's arms, who will understand the whole high-school romance angle because she'd been through it too, once. Then they'll go to bed.

Was that a typo?
Emi is my favorite although all katawas are best katawas, and I want to know as much as I possibly can about her.

[Valjean Lafitte]

She'll go home and cry into her lover's arms, who will understand the whole high-school romance angle because she'd been through it too, once.

Misha?

[TheHivemind]

Huh, I'd almost forgotten about that bit of writing. Well, here's your answers:

Was that a typo?

Nope!

Misha?

History does not relate.

[azarga]

Huh, I'd almost forgotten about that bit of writing. Well, here's your answers:
...
Nope!
...
History does not relate.

Well, I guess I'm replacing my headcanon now. Thanks!