Online Japanese KS reception

[OldBoy]

I imagine that 2ch, at least will mostly rubbish the game firstly purely for the fact it is made by people outside of Japan.
Plus the Japanese are a largely ( NOT wholly ) openly racist population who also have no time for people of disability, homeless
and all foreigners. Even victims of bullying are hushed up and even made to be punished for apparently bringing thier school into the
public eye as a school that cannot keep bullies in line.

Anyone who wants to fool themselves as being truly welcome in their land, if you are from elsewhere, are sadly
mistaken. Foreigners, particularly Westerners are still in 2012, viewed as an entertaining curiosity at best. They don't mind you going there
for a holiday and spending your money in their country, but they really dislike us working there, taking native Japanese jobs, as it were.
And to decided to live there? You will NEVER be accepted as a Japanese national, no matter what your passport says. I assume the fact that
the Western world conspired to and eventually dropped two atomic bombs onto their army...er and innocent men, women and children might
have something to do with the resentment, but that's purely conjecture on my part...

And yes, i have had first hand experience of Japanese racism. I was besotted with the place until the people there kind of put me off somewhat,
sadly. It is a beautiful, wholly interesting and jaw droppingly exciting country, but the people are mostly unpleasant, to foreigners and themselves.
just look at the sadistic nature of their pornography. NO ONE in the world does spiteful, humiliating and grotesque porn like the Japanese. I feel
they have a very deep rooted and repressed inner core of violence and hatred for something that, instead of exploding outward, seems to be rising
slowly to the surface in recent years, as if a pan was starting to boil over.

The hilarious hypocrisy of many of those 2ch remarks makes me sad.

Let me just make it clear, i am talking purely about native Japanese, not those who have chosen to live in another land and have been wilful and
intelligent and thoughtful of others enough to join in and happily get along with other cultures/societies around the world. And yep, racism is the world over
but I am talking about the reaction of 2ch forum members to a foreign game, so why digress any further than i already have?

By the way. I truly truly love this game. Infact, having played games for many years now and ( bar maybe the Half Life series ) having constantly rolled my eyes
and sighed heavily at the adolescent dialogue and character arcs, no matter how technically competent the game is...it is such a breath of fresh air to finally
play something where the characters truly talk in a believable and human way to the point where it affected me emotionally. NEVER once before has any game
given me ANY emotion other than frustration due to it's rubbish mechanics !

So a huge thank you to everyone involved in making this game. Absolutely amazing ! The writers are something special, in my opinion. And that's what matters to me
the most. A story told well, with characters you want to invest time in. F*** shaven headed muscle men, saving the world in HD graphics in ever increasingly preposterous
situations and then reaming off cliche after tired cliche in the writer's assumption that we aspire to be like them. So bravo, to you all who made this game so nice
and interesting to play !

[Uliana]

I think it's already been established though that the 2ch comments in Sankaku are handpicked responses out of several hundred in a thread, done to promote sensationalist journalism and promote misplaced outrage. Essentially, taking the 10% of posts and calling them the 90%. Most Japanese seem to be neutral at the very idea of the game, while others are still waiting for the translation before pitching in their responses, and some are giving good wishes for the game getting completed. So it's hardly that bad. And while I do know about Japanese racism, like all other countries it should be noted that not all of them are that incredibly racist. I've met a lot of Japanese, and many of them have been friendly and quite helpful.

It actually gives me a morbid curiosity though on what the Japanese reaction to the story will be once they do get the Japanese translation, whenever that's released...

[XanatosPlannedThis86]

You know I'm looking forward to the time when this game finally makes it's Japanese language debut. We'll finally see legitimate 2chan commentary. In a way it comes full circle. I remember way back in the day when I was writing a college paper about the history of anime; During the course of my research, I discovered that the character designs or drawing styles origins typically used in anime and manga could be traced to the popular Disney cartoons and shorts which were popular during a couple of years after World War 2. Astro Boy was one manga which was greatly inspired by Disney cartoons.

Now several years today, we have the Visual Novel. A medium created in Japan, and now we have people in the West taking that medium and really doing something special with it. Granted, I believe there are a few VN's created by westerners but none that have garnered as much attention as Katawa Shoujo. I can see one of two outcomes from audience response. Either extremely positive (maybe we will see Katawa shoujo cosplays in some of the cons over there) or Extremely negative. There might be a middle ground to it though. Chances of that happening seem to be low.

[Dollywitch]

Sankakucomplex is dick. There could have been thousands or responsives and they picked the most troll-like.

[CindehQ]

I imagine that 2ch, at least will mostly rubbish the game firstly purely for the fact it is made by people outside of Japan.
Plus the Japanese are a largely ( NOT wholly ) openly racist population who also have no time for people of disability, homeless
and all foreigners. Even victims of bullying are hushed up and even made to be punished for apparently bringing thier school into the
public eye as a school that cannot keep bullies in line.

Anyone who wants to fool themselves as being truly welcome in their land, if you are from elsewhere, are sadly
mistaken. Foreigners, particularly Westerners are still in 2012, viewed as an entertaining curiosity at best. They don't mind you going there
for a holiday and spending your money in their country, but they really dislike us working there, taking native Japanese jobs, as it were.
And to decided to live there? You will NEVER be accepted as a Japanese national, no matter what your passport says. I assume the fact that
the Western world conspired to and eventually dropped two atomic bombs onto their army...er and innocent men, women and children might
have something to do with the resentment, but that's purely conjecture on my part...

And yes, i have had first hand experience of Japanese racism. I was besotted with the place until the people there kind of put me off somewhat,
sadly. It is a beautiful, wholly interesting and jaw droppingly exciting country, but the people are mostly unpleasant, to foreigners and themselves.
just look at the sadistic nature of their pornography. NO ONE in the world does spiteful, humiliating and grotesque porn like the Japanese. I feel
they have a very deep rooted and repressed inner core of violence and hatred for something that, instead of exploding outward, seems to be rising
slowly to the surface in recent years, as if a pan was starting to boil over.

The hilarious hypocrisy of many of those 2ch remarks makes me sad.

Let me just make it clear, i am talking purely about native Japanese, not those who have chosen to live in another land and have been wilful and
intelligent and thoughtful of others enough to join in and happily get along with other cultures/societies around the world. And yep, racism is the world over
but I am talking about the reaction of 2ch forum members to a foreign game, so why digress any further than i already have?

By the way. I truly truly love this game. Infact, having played games for many years now and ( bar maybe the Half Life series ) having constantly rolled my eyes
and sighed heavily at the adolescent dialogue and character arcs, no matter how technically competent the game is...it is such a breath of fresh air to finally
play something where the characters truly talk in a believable and human way to the point where it affected me emotionally. NEVER once before has any game
given me ANY emotion other than frustration due to it's rubbish mechanics !

So a huge thank you to everyone involved in making this game. Absolutely amazing ! The writers are something special, in my opinion. And that's what matters to me
the most. A story told well, with characters you want to invest time in. F*** shaven headed muscle men, saving the world in HD graphics in ever increasingly preposterous
situations and then reaming off cliche after tired cliche in the writer's assumption that we aspire to be like them. So bravo, to you all who made this game so nice
and interesting to play !

If you strongly dislike watching preposterous action movies...how about not watching them to begin with?

But seriously could we please stop using this thread as an excuse to go on anti-Japan tirades and make huge (and often offensively stereotypical) generalizations? Not to say that what you're saying isn't true, Japan does have racism and is a very pro-conformity country (as is any country that's been as culturally isolated and ethnically homogeneous for so long), but there's also a matter of staying on subject, rather then using this thread as an excuse to rant on how you've been poorly treated (there's like a buttload of "Westerners in Japan" forums after all). If you want to complain about that, go somewhere else.

Also remember that the comments from 2ch that have been translated and that have gained attention are the offensive ones, which are hardly representative of the overall opinion and should not be used to make generalizations. Controversy sells.

[Ockbald]

“I remember in ONE there is a scene with an actual retard, I was pretty shocked. Even more so that there was an ero-scene with her…”

If he is talking about Misha I find this hilarious.


They are right. The name is beyond awful. I think it speaks volume by the quality of the product despite having such name. But imagine the controversy if it was called "Criple Girl: The erotic visual novel" in the west or something to that extend. It would be really, really weird. The devs already gave their explanation all right, I won't hold anything agains't them. But I do feel the name could've use some work.

[Goldilurks]

I could actually see cripple girls (name uncapitalized, of course) as a Lifetime series or some shit. Degrassi-style edgy drama about disabled teens? It could fly.

[Darkish-One]

Ok so name controversy, and apparently the idea of girls with disabilities having a life with happiness, sadness, anger, or god forbid finding love is a disgusting idea. Sounds like typical image board trolling, hell I thought I saw some positive remarks from Japan but I guess negatives is the only thing to pay attention to these days.

[Ockbald]

I could actually see cripple girls (name uncapitalized, of course) as a Lifetime series or some shit. Degrassi-style edgy drama about disabled teens? It could fly.

It's all about the context. To someone who doesn't really now much about KS, finding out what is an "Eroge" and about a game called "Cripple Girl" might seen sickening, as in a cheesy porno with the crippled fetish on top of it.

Of course, the actual product couldn't be further away from that. Even if I think do some scenes are a bit awkward. And it's still a eroge. However it feels different to me, somehow. When I played a game like A Drug that makes you dream I went with the mentality that I was playing a porno game. And the game sure delivered that. It even tried to make me care about their characters, but for some reason I couldn't connect very well with then. KS puts the connection first, and to me this is what makes it a bit different from your regular Eroge.

It doesn't help that my favorite Eroges are from Alicesoft, games that are almost all about the sex. When I heard about "Katawa Shoujo" a game from the genre about cripple girls I though it was disgusting up until I played it.

[Fronzel]

“I remember in ONE there is a scene with an actual retard, I was pretty shocked. Even more so that there was an ero-scene with her…”

If he is talking about Misha I find this hilarious.

No, ONE is the name of a VN

[Tachikoma]

I have to admit, my initial interest in the game was nothing but a small curiosity due to the hot air around it. I'm the sort of a typical bloke gamer who is into FPS titles like STALKER, Deus Ex, Borderlands and the like. So yeah, blowing shit up and looting is my kind of thing. Basically this implies that KS is as foreign as it can get, as far as my gaming tastes are concerned.

I never played a visual novel game like this before. I struggled with my attention span. Was thinking, "wow this is boring, there is no interaction, it's not even a click and point adventure... and where is the smut?????". My decision to ditch the game before Hisao making it Yamaku was pretty much hanging by a thin thread.

Then I realised the time was 5am, and I played KS for 6.5 hours straight.

Honestly, I can't think of any game that made me emotionally attached to the characters as KS did. I mean, I wouldn't say the game had super strong character development, at times it was down right corny, and sappy... but I couldn't escape the fact that the characters affected me in some ways. The girls' background story was quite interesting and I also liked how they dealt with their own disability. Despite the game's simplicity, the narration had quite a lot of depth. Many big budget AAA titles rarely comes close to this.

I think the game has a lot of tact and the erotic scenes were portrayed in a well-presented manner. Not in the slightest offensive. And the naughty text was fairly innocent. So I don't know what's the big deal. Obviously the morons who are hostile against the game never played it.

I can't compare KS with other games of the same genre, but personally I think it was well done, and kudos to the indie game devs for making this. More so for touching a seemingly "controversial" subject like this.

I only managed to date Emi and Lilly so far, but Rin should be an interesting one... at least I'd like to learn what the fuck goes on in her head.
Oh, just wondering, is possible to date Misha? She is a nutter.

[DrSkulk]

[deleted]

[micechasekittens]

Not sure if this has been proposed yet and might be heretical to say on this forum: did they consider changing the name for Japanese release? For people who are not native speakers of Japanese, the title doesn't really affect us. Yet, for a Japanese audience it seems to create quite an uproar. As a writer, I understand how important the title is, but I was wondering if they were considering an alternate title for the Japanese release. Be interesting if there formed a huge following for the game over there only to realize that it was a western production^^.

Even knowing the meaning, I see it as quite powerful in the fact that many people have a conscious or unconscious feeling that those with disability are somewhat broken. Not saying people purposeful think that way, but like Hisao feels a bit awkward in not sure how to communicate with some of the girls at the beginning (echoing thoughts people have felt). The big lesson of the game is that everyone has challenges, but no one is lesser or different in a negative way.

[encrypted12345]

Not sure if this has been proposed yet and might be heretical to say on this forum: did they consider changing the name for Japanese release?

In all honesty, It wouldn't change much. This VN would then be known as the visual novel formerly known as Katawa Shoujo. It's far too famous the change the name.

[Snow_Storm]

Oh Japan...it isn't like you guys released any offensive material in gaming in recent years. Rapelay sure totally doesn't exist.

Also, SanCom is full of racist, lonely weeaboos and otakus. Their opinion is lower than shit and dirt.