Katawa Shoujo / YMMV

YMMV with their own pages:

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- While on the surface Kenji looks like a He-Man Straw Misogynist, there is a fairly good case for his being Armored Closet Gay and hiding behind his hatred of women and belief in conspiracies involving them to avoid acknowledging that he's attracted to men. More than a few Real Life Armored Closet Gay men have ostensibly had such views. It helps that he was originally supposed to be the game's Gay Option.
- Is Kenji the Conspiracy Theorist simply as a joke, a facade for his homosexuality or because he was ignorant of the drawbacks of sex (as implied in the Bad Ending), or is he a true believer in his hateful theories about women, which would imply either paranoid schizophrenia or the use of certain paranoia-inducing drugs?
- As shown in several routes, Kenji has nothing against women themselves but despises feminism. Is Kenji actually a misogynist or is he just anti-feminist either out of ignorance, fear (e.g his behavior regarding Shizune, who's the most intimidating of the girls, whereas he's relatively nice to Hanako) or because he actually believes that feminists are a danger to society?
- Was Iwanako's ceasing her visits to Hisao six weeks into his hospitalization her callously abandoning him, her feeling guilty about his heart condition and thinking he'd be better off without her, or the result of him pushing her away? Hisao's differing degrees of sympathy towards Iwanako in each route add to this.
- Is Shizune someone who believes that only she is competent enough to run the school council and therefore is strict out of a belief that she must maintain a high set of standards, or did she drive out the former members due to being overly controlling and heavy handed in her authority?
- Rin having autism or a learning disorder, as well as the precise nature of her mental health issues. Lilly says in her route that Yamaku isn't for students with mental health issues, but it's possible those are undiagnosed.
- A forum thread (specifically everything from the member ProfAllister) has pointed out Jigoro might actually be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and just dislike Hisao because that from his perspective, Hisao is his daughter's "loser boyfriend".
  - This has been brought up again in another thread on the forums. It's headcanon yes, but it makes a lot of sense once you stop to think about it.
Is Nomiya a well meaning teacher who is maybe a little too invested in Rin's art career, is he secretly grooming her to be a replacement for Sae's deceased husband or is he a Dirty Coward who wants to vicariously live through Rin because he's afraid of ending up like Sae's husband? Is his rant towards Rin a fair reaction after she left the art exhibition they spent months working towards, or was Nomiya just projecting his own past failures on Rin and indirectly admitting he was only using her for her artistic talents?
Is Hisao's love for Hanako genuine, or does he suffer from limerence and an inability to move on from Iwanako? Unlike the other girls, Hanako is the only one who explicitly asks about Iwanako, and Hanako's route is the only one where Hisao admits that he's unsure if he's really moved on from Iwanako.^note If that's the case, then is is possible that Hisao subconsciously views Hanako as a second Iwanako]? Both Hanako and Iwanako are dark haired fragile looking girls with similar names, and Hisao does spend a lot of time thinking about Hanako and trying to make her happy, even at the cost of his own needs. In the bad ending route, Hisao's limerence is blatant as he's obsessed with Hanako, wanting to be around her and being outright nervous during their final encounter, even as it becomes gradually clear that Hanako is uncomfortable with Hisao's obsessive pushiness and obliviousness to her actual feelings. However, the good ending proves that his feelings were genuine in that Hisao wilfully makes himself emotionally vulnerable to Hanako and it's his willingness to talk things out with her and see her as an equal that allows him to save his relationship with Hanako.
Aluminium Christmas Trees: Some players find the idea of a general-purpose special school that all children with special needs get collectively shuffled off to be unrealistic, but there are actually several such schools in Japan. The devs did their research on this one.
Awesomeness Withdrawal: It did coin the term "Katawa dick", for not being able to get into things after reading... watching... playing... uh...
Base-Breaking Character: Shizune is rather controversial even apart from the divide over her route. She can come off as highly abrasive, resulting in most of her schoolmates disliking her, including her cousin Lilly, but at the same time, she struggles with her own communication-related issues as a deaf girl whose father had little to no interest in helping her. The main divide is whether her behavior is understandable and whether her eventual Character Development on her route redeems her.
Broken Base: Which girl has the best route? Was it worth the wait? Is it even worth playing? The Hype Backlash does not help, and there are three routes in particular that get this reaction:
- Shizune's route is either a terribly written route lacking in romantic relations with an unlikable character, an overly verbose route that expects the reader to endure walls of text and an entire filler arc with Shizune's family instead of Shizune herself or a route with a more subdued, Slice of Life romance justified by Hisao and Shizune's respective characterizations and trust in each other. Word of God states that many parts of her route, including what happened to the characters in its Good Ending, were deliberately left vague so that they would be open to interpretation by the players. Apparently, more than a few players didn't appreciate this. It also doesn't help that it's one of the more linear routes, with only a single (albeit critically important) player choice.
- Rin's route can be seen as overly pretentious, forced and melodramatic to the point of emotionally manipulating the viewer into feeling guilty for even questioning anything related to Super Woobie Baby Rin, as well as hard to understand due to Walls of Text and Purple Prose. Or as an awe-inspiring piece of literature that reaches huge Character Development for both of them, plays the Darker and Edgier trope right and realistically, and can be played easily if you pay a little more attention. Alternately, was Hisao's anger and frustration towards Rin justified or did Hisao pick up the Jerkass Ball for the sake of adding more drama to the story?
- Lilly's route is a sweet and adorable romance between two people who are Wise Beyond Their Years and manage to support and understand each other faster than many teens in love, or a super boring piece of unrealistic and diabetes-inducing Glurge with a self-righteous Purity Sue that belongs more in a Harlequin Romance Novel than a somewhat realistic Visual Novel.
- Some of the H-scenes have resulted in quite a few shouting matches over whether they were sufficiently consensual, such as Shizune tying Hisao's hands, leaving him unable to protest, Hisao masturbating Rin during their time in Sae's gallery, and Hanako giving only vague implied consent and being noticeably uncomfortable during the scene.
Common Knowledge:
- During the bad ending, a lot of fans believe that Hisao is murdered by Kenji. In actuality, the narration mentions nothing about Hisao being pushed, implying that he fell off the roof by accident. It's likely that this came from a line from "Piracy on the High Seas" (a scene from Emi's route) where Kenji mentions that if he were to kill someone, pushing them off a roof is the best way to do it; fans simply took it as Foreshadowing and conflated the two scenes, despite Kenji's statement contradicting what actually happens in the Act 1 bad ending.
- Hanako's sex scene is considered to be one of the most intensely debated in terms of actual consent. However from the way some fans speak about it, you'd think that Hisao coerced Hanako into having sex with her and that the game itself saw no problem with this. This is completely wrong. Hanako's route is the only one where Hisao explicitly admits that he's concerned about Hanako's ability to consent, and actually regrets his moment of passion immensely, fearing that Hanako sees him as someone who used her for sex. During the final scene, Hisao admits to Hanako his worries about their sexual tryst, with Hanako admitting that she allowed it in order to prove to him that she's more than someone who exists to be protected by others.
Crazy Is Cool: Kenji, a paranoid, misogynistic, overly hyper, manly, loud jerk? Yeah, this is pretty much the reason he became so popular.
Crosses the Line Twice: The game's censored version replaces explicit details with a random image. One possible coincidence is Hanako's H-scene being concealed by fried shrimp.
Cult Classic: Odd, off-putting premise? Check. Enthusiastic (if small) fanbase? Check. Ignored or panned by mainstream reviewers? Check. Though it was a better example of this trope before the full version came out.
Diagnosed by the Audience:
- Hideaki Hakamichi's bluntness (without Shizune's deafness to justify a lowered social tact), naturally monotone voice, and apparent obliviousness to social norms (particularly signified by his effeminate clothes) are often seen as signs that he's autistic.
- Rin could also be considered autistic due to her being hard to understand yet also intelligent and eloquent in her dialogue, her desire to be understood by a world that has trouble understanding her, her troubles communicating with others, her trouble with social cues, her gravitation towards artistic mediums and even having what could be considered sensory overload during her art exhibit.
- Kenji gets this quite a bit due to his nature as a paranoid Cloudcucckoolander who believes that feminists are trying to undermine the social order and are out to get him. Some fans seem to think he has paranoid schizophrenia, though it could also be possible that Kenji is autistic due to his trouble understanding metaphors, hyper specific interests, gravitation towards solitary behavior and his difficulty with social cues.
Delusion Conclusion: Lily's route can be considered a traditional love story where Hisao and Lily fall for each other, and after realizing that he'll never see her again goes pell-mell trying to catch up to her. After trying his damnedest to call for Lily at the airport, he ends up suffering a heart attack which by all means should be fatal for him. With that in mind, the last few scenes after "False Candence" could be interpreted as either Hisao awakening from a dream of an idealized love life still trapped in hospital; or that Hisao actually died at the airport, and that everything after is his Dying Dream allowing him to give himself closure with Lily and live out a happy life with her.
Die for Our Ship:
- Poor Shizune seems to have suffered the misfortune of being practically set up of this. First, her route is very much an acquired taste, relying more on intellectual nuance, Foreshadowing and subtext than the "feels" that are common in other routes, meaning that you need to play it a few times in order to truly get it. (The fact that it is the most linear route besides Lilly's^Explanation, with only one choice, doesn't help matters.) Second, she is a Spirited Competitor to a degree that one either finds charming and endearing or obnoxious and annoying; she can also can be rather blunt (justified in part because she is deaf-mute). Thirdly she is The Rival to Lilly who is by far one of the most adored characters in the game and whose route is seen as much smoother and sweeter except near the good ending. Lastly, her best friend Misha is an Ensemble Dark Horse who doesn't have a route of her own and is, in fact, in unrequited love with Shizune herself - which is what triggers THE single choice in the Shizune route. Not to mention that readers prefer the other stories because they give them "the feels," and Misha, due to the sad nature of her emotional turmoil, is much more of a woobie than Shizune, causing the readers' attention to be directed towards Misha and Shizune to be left in the dust. You'd think people would not be able to pour so much hate at an eighteen-year-old deaf girl. Interestingly enough, in Lilly's route, Shizune reconciles with Lilly, and initiates the process. And instead of competing with the other girls over Hisao, Shizune, along with Misha, is a Shipper on Deck in others's routes.
- Lilly also gets some of her share as well. Due in large part to her being so popular that fans of the other girls are starting to resent her a little bit.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Hideaki, who only appears a handful of times in his older sister Shizune and cousin Lilly's routes. Even before he actually appeared in the game, he sure had a lot of fanart.
- All the extras from Hisao's class that are not cameos, especially Miki.
- Rika and Saki, the girls of the non-existent expansions from the 2011 April Fools' post.
- The heroines themselves are more or less the Ensemble Darkhorses of the doujinshi that spawned the idea, considering they were features in an extra in the book.
- Misha and Kenji are considered this for different reasons, though they're both popular enough that some fans wish that the developers would add routes for both characters.
- Yuuko's got a sizable fanbase, with many people finding her Cute Clumsy Girl personality rather endearing. It also helps that there are implications scattered throughout the game that she was an ex-girlfriend of Kenji's, which adds some depth to both characters.
Epileptic Trees: Misha's lack of disability and the reason for her not having her own route is the source of much Wild Mass Guessing among fans (though in the game it's stated that she doesn't have any physical disabilities). Observe.
Fan Nickname:
- Kenji Setou is often referred to as "Kenji Potter" for his general resemblance to Harry Potter (hair, build, glasses, dress style), as well as being at a boarding school where he is a little out of his depth, though that's where similarities end.
- The creepy portrait in one of the school hallways is usually called "Rainbow Wizard" by the fans.
- Suzu is called "Snoozu" by some of her fans, in a punning reference to her narcolepsy.
Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Shizune's alpha route is often considered superior to the final product, though it has been criticized for trying too hard to be a Tear Jerker (this is due to the same alpha containing the infamous Hanako arc full of nothing but Bad Endings).
Gateway Series:
- Naturally, since it is a well-made English language Freeware Visual Novel. Let's just say that before this, significantly less people were aware that the Visual Novel genre existed. It still remains to this day the go-to recommendation by VN veterans to those wishing to dip their toes into the medium.
- About a week after its creation, the reddit group /r/katawashoujo had more readers than /r/visualnovels.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- Kenji's crazy rants come off as rather more uncomfortable to read now than when they were originally written, after things like the rise in Incel culture demonstrated that real people who think like that exist and aren't always as harmless as he is.
- The Preemptive Shipping between Shizune and Misha is a lot sadder after the game's release, because of the latter's unrequited love for the former.
- In early builds of the game Misha would commit suicide in Shizune's route because of her unrequited love for her. Sounds kind of like the problems Sayori and Monika face.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Early in the game, Misha tells Hisao about the book club, only to inform him that they're currently full and not taking any new members. That's probably not a bad thing.
- Despite being solidified as a character before such people became infamous on the Internet, Kenji is one fedora away from a point-by-point parody of stereotypical toxic "manosphere" types. Actually, he does mention that he has a favourite hat; sadly, he doesn't specify whether it's a fedora or something else. Furthermore, in Shizune's route, he says "we live in a society", a phrase often attributed to the Joker (particularly Arthur Fleck) who ended up being seen as a "Sigma Male" figure by some in the manosphere.
- Misha is known for being a character with pink curly hair, a rubenesque figure and a vibrant personality who is important to the plot (in Shizune's route at least) yet also has Hidden Depths and tends to have a lot mysteries tied to her character that fans go crazy over. A decade or so later, Steven's mother Rose Quartz is a character with a similar description, though unlike Misha, some of Rose's secrets were far more polarizing.
- Shizune's brother Hideaki Hakamichi is a character who is considered quite feminine in terms of appearance and dress style (right down to wearing stockings), existing decades before femboys would come into existence.
Ho Yay:
- Kenji. Particularly during the earliest possible Downer Ending where - as he gets closer and closer to Hisao - the love-theme To Become One plays.
- Lilly and Hanako's routes only split in the last choice of Act 1 and even then, in Lilly's ending you spend the festival, and the majority of later acts in both routes, with both of them. In Hanako's route, she says she "love(s)" Lilly in the scenes leading to her Good Ending. Lilly gives Hanako a hug in her early birthday party in both girls' routes, and in her own route, tells Hanako that she did not befriend her out of pity, but because of who she is, culminating in what appears to be a kiss on the forehead.
- Emi, without any embarrassment, helps Rin get dressed, and helps her in the bathroom. Can't get much closer than that. In Rin's route, Emi also mentions that they used to sometimes sleep in the same bed. Also, Rin is amazingly unfazed by walking in on the aftermath of a sex scene with Emi. Then again, this is Rin.
- Naomi and Natsume. It's right there in their concept picture.
Hype Backlash: Some fans were a bit disappointed that the game didn't live up to their expectations. However, this was probably unavoidable since the game had been continually building up hype for at least five years.
Incest Yay Shipping: Hideaki is shipped with Akira, his cousin whom he often tags along with, more than he is with any other character in the game.
Informed Wrongness: While it's likely that Hideaki was intended to be seen as a grating, annoying socially inept know-it-all in order to make you empathise with Hisao, for some, Hisao's occasional difficulties with him does come off as overblown in comparison to his interactions with Jigoro or even Kenji.
Love to Hate: Jigoro is beloved by some for his jerkass nature, likely because of how over-the-top and comical it is.
Jigoro: Now you are insulting my book and, by extension, my entire life. What gives you the right to do that? Arrogant. I'm trying to think of how I could make you understand my struggle. Maybe by beating you. With my autobiography.
Memetic Badass:
- Emi as Horatio Caine.
- Rin is the Crippled Master!
- Akio Mutou.
- The manly picnic Non-Standard Game Over has skyrocketed Kenji's popularity over the fandom. You thought it was the bad end... but it's only just the beginning.
- Give Lilly a Sword Cane and you get Satou-ichi. Lilly is said to be skilled with swords in general, in part because of her Japanese/Scottish heritage. She can wield most any sword, from the lightweight cane sword, to the medium-weight katana to the heavy-weight Scottish Claymore.
Memetic Molester:
- The nurse. He actually jokes about seducing Hisao in Emi's route.
- Inverted with Yuuko, a Memetic Molestee.
- Played straight with Miki, but Molly often becomes a molestee.
- Hachisame, a non-canon character ^note she is a moe-ified Sharktopus with tentacle legs.
- Nomiya. His borderline obsession with Rin's art to the point of making special arrangements to skip classes already makes him look suspect. His facial expressions being unintentionally creepy does little to help his case, and several players thought he was going to molest Rin sooner or later.This screenshot◊ shows him with his tongue sticking out of his mouth in what looks like a lecherous grin, asking, "I wonder if this is what every old geezer of an art teacher who got his hands on a young and fiery prodigy felt like."
Memetic Personality Change: There are quite a few fan works that make Miki a pothead, mainly due to the "Math is for gaylords, I'd rather smoke weed" meme.
Memetic Psychopath:
- Fan Art occasionally casts Hanako as a yandere or an insane murder who kills the other girls.
- Kenji often gets fan-art of him of doing battle with or outright murdering the other girls due to his anti-feminist leanings. To a lesser degree, some fans do believe that he murdered Hisao during the Act 1 bad ending despite that being Common Knowledge.
Moe:
- Hanako is probably the best candidate for this, but her route is a deconstruction of the concept. Hanako becomes well aware that Hisao feels sorry for her and sees her as The Woobie, and she greatly resents it. In her Bad End, she calls Hisao out on this, yelling that she hates him for this behaviour. With the way she's facing the screen, however, it doesn't seem that she's yelling at Hisao so much as she's yelling at the player. In her H-scene, the reason she has sex with Hisao in the first place is so that he'll stop seeing her as someone to be pitied and protected.
- Emi is a more straightforward example. Even lampshaded in-universe, with Hisao commenting on how her puppy-eyes are a deadly weapon.
Misblamed: In regards to Act 1's bad ending, fans blame Kenji for pushing Hisao off the school roof. In actuality, Kenji warns Hisao that leaning on the roof is unsafe, and Hisao's death is an accident that happens due to his own alcohol induced stupidity.
Narm:
- The crayon drawings as Hanako explains her house fire. They either enhance the Tear Jerker aspect of the scene or ruin it.
- Emi has the same devilish grin she has in all the sex scenes when she walks in on Hisao talking to her mother and angrily forces him out of the house.
- Jigoro's jerkassery gets cranked up to such ridiculous levels that you simply cannot take him seriously. A little more subtlety, please.
- One of Nomiya's expressions has him with his eyes closed and smiling. It was likely intended to look wistful but you'd be forgiven for thinking that he jizzed himself every time he uses that expression.
- A lot of the Off-Model moments can be like this, such as the first CG with Lilly's eyes being far too low, or in Rin's route in the atelier, with the smoke when the eyes are way too big and they both look like 10 year olds.
Never Live It Down:
- Despite Emi being a character known for her upbeat, almost whimsical personality, her willingness to improve Hisao's life through exercise, her drive to continue in spite of her personal hardships and dealing with the trauma of losing her father, Emi is often known for her ill fated attempt at anal sex, an attempt which neither she or Hisao enjoy.
- Due to the Broken Base in regards to how consensual various sex scenes in the game are, Hisao ends up getting this due him being the one who initiates some of these scenes.
- Though the Shizune route is known for a lot of things such as divided fan reception, its only dialogue choice, which is considered quite memorable due to the bad option "Comfort Misha" leading to a very unexpected turn in which Hisao ends up cheating on Shizune to have sex with Misha, something which many fans still remember alongside Emi's lemons to this day.
Periphery Demographic:
- This is yet another example of a male-oriented eroge managing to attract a surprisingly large female fanbase. There is also a good portion of the fandom that is under the age of 18... technically making them too young to legally download the game in many jurisdictions.
- Also unsurprisingly, there's a small but devoted fanbase from of blind and visually impaired players, as one of the few works to portray blindness with realism and respect. The fact that it's one of only a handful of visual novels said fans can play and that the CGI isn't strictly important to the plot certainly justifies it.
Preemptive Shipping: Right from their announcement, fans had a field day shipping the deaf-mute Student Council President Shizune and her sign language interpreter/Voice for the Voiceless Misha. On release of the full game, they turned out to be a drama-heavy case of Incompatible Orientation, and coyness about this was almost certainly a ploy by the creators.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: Pretty much comes with territory. While Lilly and Hanako have the largest camps, every girl has a strong following. Shizune fans in particular can be downright militant in their support, largely as a result of having to constantly battle the Hatedom the character has developed since release due to the divisive nature of her route, and her rivalry with the much adored Lilly. This is somewhat interesting, considering In Lilly's route, she and Shizune reconcile, while in Shizune's route, Shizune admits to Hisao that she herself was the unreasonable one in her disputes with Lilly.
Signature Scene:
- "Little Wing" during Lily's route due to it beginning with Hisao's glorious overdramatic declaration befitting a horror game and later ending with you having lunch with most of the main girls (aside from Shizune and Misha).
- "Measuring Shadows" for those on Rin's route due to it being the scene where Nomiya loses his composure and angrily rants at Rin, exposing himself as an entitled jackass who was only using Rin for her artistic talent.
- "Storage Space", or more specifically Emi and Hisao's ill-fated experiment with anal sex is generally considered the most memorable part of Emi's route, and one for the game in general.
- Missteps can be considered one of the more memorable Bad Endings due to Hisao's industrial grip on the Idiot Ball making for a scene that is absolutely painful to watch, and will likely make you feel just as angry as Hanako does when she finally hits her Rage Breaking Point.
- "The Deep End" is considered this for first time players or players who mess up certain choices in Act 1. The scene has Hisao throw his lot in with Kenji, they get drunk, and we learn about Kenji's failed relationship before Hisao accidently falls to his death from the school roof.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: In Rin's route, Hisao may end up quitting the art club midway through depending on your choices, an interesting case in which your choices may alter the story without changing the ending. Unfortunately, it only results in a few lines of dialogue being changed.
- Shizune's route doesn't really lean into the angle of Hisao dating his boss during his time working for the Student Council. If anything, a route where Hisao engages in the pleasure and peril of learning to navigate a workplace romance in addition to learning more about Misha as a person would've had real potential.
Tough Act to Follow: Any of the routes if you do the one for your favorite character first can be this.
Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Nomiya's expressions can come off as this due to him being the only character in the game whose facial expressions are drawn more realistically, making his face seem more detailed than any other character. Unsurprisingly, it makes Nomiya's sillier expressions seem less goofy and more gross, which doesn't exactly help the perception of him being a Memetic Molester.
Visual Effects of Awesome: Despite the game being freeware, many of the game CGs are downright beautiful. Add to that the gorgeous animated sequences introducing each girl's route, all of which single-handedly made by one artist, Mike Inel.

YMMV / Katawa Shoujo

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