Welcome to the first update of Shizune’s route, and by extension, Emi’s.
As I mentioned in the past update, we’ll be picking the bottom option, since this path is for Shizune’s route.
: “Yeah, sure. I mean, isn’t that normal?”
: “Of course. But not everyone likes being at the center of attention.”
: “Right, but it’s no problem.”
: “Let’s go then.”
Interestingly, the framed drawing at the bottom of the ramps is an original piece of artwork done specifically for the game. Its name is “Rainbow Wizard”, and it is actually available on the game’s website as a wallpaper. There are a few more like this that we’ll see later on.
I’ll never be able to hear the words “get a grip” again without thinking of Hotline Miami 2 and how that part was the only good part of that entire game.
Most of the characters on this side of the screen are references or people’s OCs - the male student in the front row is a genderflipped Haruhi Suzumiya, and I’m pretty sure the girl next to him is supposed to be a Clannad reference. Remember when people thought Haruhi was good?
And there’s Shizune. Surely, that’s as far right as the image is going to go, and..
Oh god, what is that horrible drill-haired gremlin next to her? Also, what the hell are you doing here Miles Edgeworth don’t you have murders to solve?
God dammit no, that gremlin is not cute. That gremlin looks like the horrible anime girl I make in any game with a character creator.
Said gremlin (who we’ll meet in just a minute and then promptly wish we hadn’t) is also the only person at Yamaku to have a non-natural hair color - even though Shizune’s hair is blue, it’s not seen as being artificial.
: “…Please welcome our newest classmate.”
: “So… I’m Hisao Nakai.”
: “My hobbies are reading and soccer. I hope to get along well with everyone even though I’m a new student.”
Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever heard an amusing introduction at school before. There was the time I told a club in college that my name was Spartacus (referencing the classic film by the same name) and no one realized it wasn’t my real name for the entire year.
I thought for a minute the clapping was a reference to a 4chan copypasta from a few years back, but as it turns out that happened four or five months after Katawa Shoujo released.
: “Yeah, that’s fine with me.”
: “That’s good, you can work with Hakamichi. She is the class representative. She can explain anything you might want to know. And who would be able to do that better, right?”
Admittedly, Mutou’s way of talking is a little robotic, but you have to remember that the writers were a bunch of kids on /a/.
: “Oh, right. Hakamichi is right there, Shizune Hakamichi.”
So yeah, meet Shizune. I’ve been totally clowning on you all this entire time.
: “Hey, I guess you’re Hakamichi, right? It’s nice to meet you.”
Her disability is that she’s afflicted by a terrible wasting disease that makes her more and more anime until she eventually becomes two-dimensional.
This is Misha, the school’s resident horrifying anime gremlin. She was actually probably the character 4chan made the biggest deal about before the game released. With most of the characters in this game, it’s immediately evident why they’re at Yamaku - but not Misha. In fact, it got taken so far that some people were convinced she’d be added as a sixth full route.
Not surprisingly, there are mods that exist that make her a sixth route.. in fact, one just came out a few months before I started this LP.
Both Misha and Shizune’s portraits have a “signing” animation that lasts a fraction of a second and is very difficult to capture in screenshot form.
This is what happened when I tried. Truly, Shizune is the most powerful character in all of Dragon Ball because she moves so quickly that no one can see it.
: “It’s nice to meet you.”
: “…”
: “I can see you’re a little confused. Right? Right? But I understand why you’d think I was Shicchan!”
Next time, we’ll attempt to fend off this horrible gremlin and continue making our way to Emi’s route.