History VisualNovel / SubarashikiHibi

[[redirect:VisualNovel/WonderfulEverydayDownTheRabbitHole]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/subahibi.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: “Live Happily! That's all.”]]

'''Wonderful Everyday''', known in Japan as '''Subarashiki Hibi: Furenzoku Sonzai''' (Japanese: 素晴らしき日々 ～不連続存在～, "Wonderful Everyday: Discontinuous Existence") and sometimes abbreviated on the internet as [="SubaHibi"=], is a Japanese adult visual novel developed and published by KeroQ. It was released on March 26, 2010 for Microsoft Windows. It was released in English in August of 2017.
It is widely regarded to be a great, if strange, Visual Novel.

Subarashiki Hibi contains six stories, the titles of which are taken from chapters in [[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]] and Through the Looking Glass. Most of the stories take place in the fictional Suginomiya neighborhood of Tokyo and recount the month of July 2012 from different perspectives.

'''Many of the tropes in this work count as spoilers, ESPECIALLY if you haven't finished reading the first chapter. Proceed with caution.'''

! Tropes:
* AdaptationExpansion: Big time. For reference, the original ''Tsui no Sora'' is estimated to take less than 10 hours to fully read through. ''Subarashiki Hibi'' takes about ''50''.
* AGodAmI: Mamiya Takuji proclaims himself to be a 'Savior' and starts a cult in the school to prepare for the 'End Sky'.
* AliceAllusion: An Indirect version. All the chapter names come from {{Creator/Lewis Carroll}}'s works. Several passages and poems are also quoted word-for-word in the openings of some of the chapters.
* AmbiguousSituation: What is really going on at the school? Who is Mamiya Takuji? Will the world really end on the 20th? Made more confusing by showing conflicting events through the eyes of a series of {{UnreliableNarrator}}s.
* AnyoneCanDie: Yes it does. By the end of the game, [[spoiler:the only main character that are still alive are Tomosane and Hasaki.]]
* ApocalypseCult: Takuji's followers are willing to do ''whatever he says'' to be "saved" before the appearance of the 'End Sky'.
** [[spoiler: Takuji and Hasaki's mother was a part of one of these when they were growing up.]]
* ArtShift: Some sequences are illustrated with a disturbingly childish styling.
* BestialityIsDepraved: The one CG cut from the English release was for this reason. The scene in question is kept largely intact through the text and was very short anyway.
* BlackSpeech: In ''It's My Own Invention'' Takuji and [[spoiler: The magical girl Riruru have a... conversation(?) that gets more deranged as it progresses.]] Eventually instead of voiced lines the player just hears assorted noises and static sounds represented by symbols, giving this sort of impression.
* BrotherSisterIncest: In ''Jabberwocky I'' [[spoiler: Tomosane and Hasaki have sex on the rooftop before he confronts Takuji.]]
** In the ''Wonderful Everyday'' ending [[spoiler: Kimura even teases Tomosane about his relationship with his sister, implying it continued after the events of the game.]]
* TheBully: Several of the minor characters, notably Shiroyama, Megu, and Satako.
* ButThouMust: One of the 'choices' in ''It's My Own Invention'' is forced onto the player in this way. The entire screen fills up with the words [[spoiler: Reject the Black Surge]], forcing the player to click on it. This is hammers in Takuji's mental state at the time to the player.
* CannotTellFictionFromReality: Early on in ''It's My Own Invention'', rejecting or accepting Takuji's erotic delusions determines which path you're put on for the chapter.
** For added emphasis you're ''repeatedly'' given the choice to accept or reject the delusions during the scene in question and continuing to accept it leads you onto the main path for the chapter.
--> [[spoiler: '''Takuji'''']]:"There's no way that was a delusion! If I had such a realistic delusion like that, I wouldn't... I wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between reality and my delusions!"
* {{Chuunibyou}}: Mamiya Takuji is stated several times to be an Otaku and something of a loner. His 'fantasies' and hobbies further confirm this.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Zakuro seems to be like this at first. In her chapter most of the nonsense she's babbling about makes sense to her.
* {{Cult}}: Mamiya Takuji starts one in preparation for the 'End Sky', as more and more of his predictions come true his following grows.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Incredibly, the ''entire game'' is this once you get past the [[NonIndicativeFirstEpisode first chapter.]]
* DecompositeCharacter: Kotomi Wakatsuki, the ChildhoodFriend and LoveInterest of ''Tsui no Sora'', is split into twins Kagami and Tsukawa. [[spoiler: As well as Hasaki.]]
* DefiledForever: Takuji tells Zakuro he's burning a manga because the heroine isn't a virgin, invoking this trope. Later, [[spoiler: Zakuro herself gets extremely anxious over this while being raped, worrying that Takuji won't love her if she's been defiled by other men.]]
** The idea that [[spoiler: she could get a 'new' body if reborn as an angel plays a big part in her agreeing to do the Spiral Matai]]
* DemotedToExtra: The Yokoyama siblings Kiyoshi and Yasuko were prominent supporting characters in ''Tsui no Sora'', with Kiyoshi being Takuji's first follower and Yasuko being a major follower as well and the one who served as Takuji's second-in-command. Both of these roles are given to Kimika, and the two end up ''very'' minor characters with only a few lines each.
* DissonantSerenity: Shows up quite a few times. [[spoiler: Takuji and Kimika falling to their deaths is treated very calmly and even happily as they accept their situation and hit the ground.]]
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnFemale: Averted. The sexual harassment and abuse [[spoiler: Megu and Satako]] inflict on [[spoiler: Zakuro and Kimika]] is shown to be horrifically traumatizing.
* EroticDream: Some of the 'daydream' scenes early on in ''It's My Own Invention'' wind up like this.
* EnemyWithin: [[spoiler: Takuji tries to take over Tomosane's body to fulfill her mother's prediction of the end of the world.]]
* FanDisservice: The game has quite a few sex scenes, but a fair amount of them involve rape, harassment, bullying, torture, or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking happen during hallucinations]] turning plenty of them into this.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Loads towards the two biggest twists in the game, that [[spoiler: Yuki, Takuji and Tomosane are three personalities inhabiting the same body]] and that [[spoiler: Kagami and Tsukasa are actually just a projection on Hasaki and her stuffed rabbit]]:
** Despite being supposedly a notorious delinquent, Tomosane is never mentioned over the course of ''Down the Rabbit Hole''. [[spoiler: Because, from the perspective of everyone aside from Takuji, ''he's'' the notorious delinquent.]] Same goes for the suspicious absence of Hasaki in ''It's My Own Invention'', as well as [[spoiler: the lack of references to the twins from other characters aside from Yuki and Takuji]].
** Early into ''Down The Rabbit Hole II'', Kagami talks about how she mistook Yuki for a boy when they were young. [[spoiler: As it turns out, Yuki ''is'' a boy, or more precisely the SplitPersonality of one.]]
** When Hasaki is introduced, she makes a bizarre joke where she multiple times gives BlatantLies regarding her relationship with her brother. [[spoiler: As shown outright later on, she's deliberately lying to gauge which personality she's talking to.]]
** Yuki's sudden, abrupt FreakOut when investigating the fingerprints in her house, which is strangely never referenced in subsequent scenes. [[spoiler: ''Jabberwocky'' reveals that Yuki and Takuji's minds have built themselves to reject anything that would controdict their mental perception of the world, meaning the bizzare blackouts were just their minds going into shutdown.]]
** Takuji mentions that Shiroyama and his friends stopped tormenting him after Tomosane asserted control over them. [[spoiler: This is because Takuji and Tomosane as the same person]].
** Partway into ''It's My Own Invention'', Yasuko references [[spoiler: another Takuji going around asking questions]]. This sounds like nonsense, befitting the tone of the story at that point, [[spoiler: but the description she gives is basically what Yuki was doing in the previous arc]].
** An eagle-eyed reader may notice that, throughout all of ''Down the Rabbit Hole II'', [[spoiler: Kagami is never shown without Tsukasa, a major hint that she's just a mental projection on a rabbit doll Hasaki carries around]].
** At one point in ''It's My Own Invention'', [[spoiler: Takuji mentally sees the twins merging into a singular person]].
** [[spoiler: The fact that Tsukasa and Hasaki have the same HairDecorations.]]
** When Takuji orders [[spoiler: Kagami raped and tortured to death]], his followers act noticeably confused by the order, which seems strange given the horrible things they're otherwise willing to commit without question. [[spoiler: Their confusion is actually because he's ordering they do such a thing to a stuffed toy.]]
* GeniusBookClub: During ''Looking-Glass Insects'' Takuji is seen reading a wide variety of literature, notably the play [[Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac Cyrano De Bergac]] (both in Japanese ''and'' in the original French) as well as Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant.
** Takuji mentions that he doesn't understand French fluently and is mostly just picking up a few phrases here and there with the help of a dictionary, but he still wanted to try his hand at understanding it.
* GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals: Hasaki takes her stuffed rabbit doll ''everywhere'' with her. [[spoiler: It's because her brother made it by hand and she holds onto it to recall a time when things were better.]]
* GoOutWithASmile: at the end of ''It's My Own Invetion'' [[spoiler: Mamiya Takuji, Kimika, and the other students gleefully jump off the roof and 'fly' into the sky.]]
** In ''Looking-Glass Insects'', [[spoiler: Zakuro believes that having a near-death experience will complete the 'Spiral Matai' and leaps from an apartment building. She went out with a smile, dragging her screaming friends with her...]]
** In ''Jabberwocky I'', [[spoiler: Tomosane/Takuji has a peaceful look on his face as he takes a knife to the chest.]]
* GratuitousRape: Some of the [[spoiler: 'Delusion' scenes]] in ''It's My Own Invention'' can be this for viewers, especially since [[spoiler: they don't do much aside from highlight how Takuji has lost touch with reality, and/or titillate the player. TheReveal that a good many of the H-scenes didn't happen takes aways some of the punch.]]
* HateSink: Each and every single one of the bullies, male and female alike. Every one of them is cruel in their own way, with little to no redeeming qualities.
* HumbleGoal: Arguably part of the ''point'' of the idea behind the "wonderful everyday" that the characters strive for is to appreciate living a peaceful, ordinary life. And after some of the things the characters go through, it isn't hard to imagine that just ''normality'' is something worth striving for in their case.
* ImaginaryFriend: Magical Girl Riruru to Takuji.
* IntrepidReporter: Kimura, a minor character who appears in later chapters, tries to be this while reporting on the events surrounding Kita high.
* LeanAndMean: Tomosane and [[spoiler: Takuji]] are noticeably skinny, but still manage to be stronger than most all the other characters. This is somewhat justified as both characters had extensive martial arts training as children.
* LonersAreFreaks: Both Takuji and Zakuro are seen as loners by the school, and both of them are bullied harshly.
* MadOracle: Those who believe him take Mamiya Takuji to be this.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: A recurring question is where the tie between reality and fiction, and if anything supernatural is even happening, or if it's just the head of the protagonists. [[spoiler: While the majority of the "supernatural" occurrences are more or less revealed to be fake by the end, whether Yuki and Takuji were really the ghosts of the real people or just split personalities modeled on them is never revealed, and nothing remotely hints on what Ayana even ''is''.]]
* MindScrew: Bizarre symbolism, obscure literary references, {{UnreliableNarrator}}s, graphic erotica, nonsensical conversations, and philosophical musings all come together to create this trope quite nicely.
* [[spoiler: MultiGenderedSplitPersonalities]]: In ''Jabberwocky'' it is revealed that [[spoiler: Yuki Minakami is a ''personality'' of Mamiya Takuji and is supposedly the sort of person he always wanted to become.]]
* MultipleEndings: Both for the visual novel as a whole, and for individual chapters.
** The three major endings to the game are ''Wonderful Everyday'', ''Hill of Sunflowers'', and ''[[GainaxEnding EndSky II]]''.
** Notable branches include Kimika's endings to both ''It's My Own Invention'' and ''Looking-Glass Insects''.
** The Kagami/Tsukasa endings to ''Down The Rabbit-Hole I'' are much more brief and only differ by a few scenes.
* MultipleRouteMystery: Each chapter shows a little piece of what's ''really'' going on.
* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: Most everyone in the school interprets Zakuro's death and the 'accidents' that follow as her cursing her bullies for tormenting her. [[spoiler: This isn't actually what's going on.]]
* NonIndicativeFirstEpisode: "Down The Rabbit Hole I" is VERY different from the rest of the game. Afterwards things get progressively DarkerAndEdgier.
* ParentalIncest: A very...''weird'' take on it. [[spoiler: It's actually the adult-aged 'child' in this case who rapes the parent at the behest of a deranged cult leader.]]
* RapeAsDrama: Near the end of ''Looking Glass Insects'' [[spoiler: Zakuro is drugged and gang-raped by Shiroyama and his friends. She grows to hate herself and tries to block out the idea of the experience until it is too much to handle.]]
** In ''It's My Own Invention'' [[spoiler: Mamiya Takuji is sexually assaulted by his bullies]] but it's not brought up during the chapter after the scene and doesn't seem to affect him very deeply at first. ''Jabberwocky'' reveals that [[spoiler: the trauma from this experience is what lead him to create [[SplitPersonality Tomosane]] ''The Destroyer''.]]
* RapeByProxy: Takuji tells the teacher, Asumi Kiyokawa, in order to become one of his followers she must [[spoiler: Have sex with her own [[ParentalIncest Father]]. In a game full of disturbing sex scenes it manages to stand out.]]
** The worst part is [[spoiler: Takuji doesn't care about the mental and emotional trauma this caused, and tells the students to use her as a [[NauseaFuel ''toilet'']] after her ordeal.]]
* RapeLeadsToInsanity: In the case of one of the characters, ''committing'' rape made her decide to run around the town naked and laughing like a lunatic. [[spoiler: To be entirely fair, it wasn't her idea.]]
* RayOfHopeEnding: The [[spoiler: "Wonderful Everyday" and "Hill of Sunflowers" endings]] are surprisingly hopeful despite all that happened. [[spoiler: Tomosane and Hasaki get to live out mostly normal lives in both of these endings, and "Hill of Sunflowers" even brings back Yuki, in some sense.]]
* RedOniBlueOni: Kagami is the Red Oni to her twin sister Tsukasa's Blue Oni.
* SanitySlippage: Several characters, but [[spoiler: Zakuro after her gang rape]] and [[spoiler: Takuji after Zakuro's suicide]] stand out, in part because it's witnessed first-hand.
* ShamefulStrip: One of the ways the school bullies harass their victims in a few chapters.
* ShoutOut: All over the place throughout the visual novel, many of them count as GeniusBonus.
** [[Creator/EmilyDickinson "The brain is wider than the sky..."]]
** [[Creator/LewisCarroll "’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe..."]]
** [[Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac "I know them know, my ancient enemies― Falsehood! . . . There! There! Prejudice― Compromise― Cowardice―"]]
** [[Creator/LudwigWittgenstein "The subject does not belong to the world, but it is a limit of the world."]]
** A pair of purple-haired twins named Kagami and Tsukasa, wonder why that sounds [[Anime/LuckyStar familiar...]] [[spoiler: This actually plot-relevant.]]
** [[{{Creator/Socrates}} "Let us reflect in another way, and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good;]] for one of two things, either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another."
** At one point Takuji burns a manga and claims it was because the heroine wasn't a virgin, calling to mind the outrage around Manga/{{Kannagi}}.
** References to the works of [[Creator/HPLovecraft H.P. Lovecraft]] appear, including name drops of Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth, as well as [[Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness "Teke-li-li!"]]
* SlippingAMickey: Happens to [[spoiler: Zakuro. She is forcefully drugged by her bullies and raped during her chapter.]]
* [[spoiler: SplitPersonalityTeam:]] In ''Jabberwocky'' the scenes with [[spoiler: Tomosane and Yuki have shades of this as one takes over when the other has more relevant skills.]]
* StripPoker: In the first chapter Yuki, Kagami, Tsukasa, and Zakuro play a game where the loser had to obey the winner. It wound up like this eventually, with Yuki being the only one left with clothes.
* TeensAreMonsters: Some of the bullying in the story is...''extreme'' to say the least.
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: In ''It's My Own Invention'' [[spoiler: the player will see ''many'' of Mamiya Takuji's delusions]].
** Some examples include [[spoiler: drawings on the wall speaking to him, believing he had the ability to 'purify' a concoction full of drugs, and several ''strange'' [=CGs=] in the gallery that flashed in front of him during his breakdowns.]]
* TomatoSurprise: [[spoiler: Despite what you're made to think, the houses which Yuki and Takuji live in are actually the same building, since the two are actually the same person.]] Cleverly, the game hides this by only showing one side of the building until TheReveal.
* TraumaCongaLine: ''Looking Glass Insects'' is this for Zakuro from the halfway point onward.
* UncannyValleyGirl: Otonashi Ayana, who appears to each of the protagonists in their respective chapters.
* UnreliableNarrator: Takes this trope to new levels by having this with ''multiple narrators'' during the story.
* WhamEpisode: ''Looking-Glass Insects'' changes virtually the entire direction of the story. [[spoiler:Particualy crucial is the reveal that Yuki, Kagami, Tsukasa and Tomosane don't actually exist, with the twins just being a mental projection on Hasaki, and Yuki and Tomosane being different personalities of Takuji]].

* TraumaCongaLine: "Looking Glass Insects is this for Zakuro from the halfway point onward.

* UnreliableNarrator: Takes this trope to new levels by having this with ''multiple narrators'' during the story.

* SanitySlippage

** A pair of twins named Kagami and Tsukasa, wonder why that sounds [[Anime/LuckyStar familiar...]]

* ArtShift

* ButThouMust: One of the 'choices' in ''It's My Own Invention'' is forced onto the player in this way. The entire screen fills up with the words [[spoiler: Reject the Black Surge]], forcing the player to click on it.
** This is likely to hammer in Takuji's mental state at the time to the player.

The chapters are as follows (descriptions taken from Wikipedia):
* '''Down The Rabbit-Hole I''': "The story of the sky and the world." The protagonist of this story is Yuki Minakami, who one day encounters a girl named Zakuro Takashima as she is throwing stuffed animals off a rooftop. Zakuro soon begins living in Yuki's house with her, as do her childhood friends, Kagami Wakatsuki and Tsukasa Wakatsuki. Together, they enjoy a peaceful school life and help Zakuro search the stars for a local legend - the 'girl of the sky.'
* '''Down The Rabbit-Hole II''': Though considered part of the ''Down the Rabbit-Hole'' story by the game, this branch is the true beginning of Subarashiki Hibi's plot. Yuki Minakami is the protagonist of this story, who one day encounters a girl named Zakuro Takashima whom she does not remember meeting before, but who seems to know her well. The next day, she learns that Zakuro has killed herself. A boy in Yuki's class named Takuji Mamiya makes a speech claiming that Zakuro's death was an omen of the coming apocalypse, to take place in one week - on July 20th.
* '''It's My Own Invention''': "The story of the beginning and the end." The protagonist of this story is Takuji Mamiya, who one day encounters a girl named Zakuro Takashima. It reveals the events that led him to make his prophecy and the cult that develops around him, retelling the chronology of ''Down the Rabbit-Hole II'' from his perspective, as well as introducing his conflict with Tomosane Yuuki.
* '''Looking-Glass Insects''': "The story of the literature girl and the chemistry girl." The protagonist of this story is Zakuro Takashima, who one day encounters a boy named Takuji Mamiya. Occurring prior to ''Down the Rabbit-Hole II'', the story focuses on her relationship with Takuji and the events that led to her suicide.
* '''Jabberwocky''': "The story of the savior and the hero." The protagonist of this story is Tomosane Yuuki, who one day encounters a girl named Yuki Minakami. It reveals the truth of many of the bizarre events in ''Down the Rabbit-Hole II'' and ''It's my Own Invention'', while introducing further mysteries related to Yuki, Takuji and Tomosane's past. Hasaki Mamiya first becomes a major character in this story.
* '''Which Dreamed It''': "The story of the brother and the sister." The protagonist of this story is Hasaki Mamiya, who one day encounters her brother, Takuji Mamiya. Shorter than the other stories, it offers a third perspective- perhaps the first reliable one- on the events of the final week, as well as providing the first concrete details of the Mamiya family's past, foreshadowed in ''Jabberwocky'' and fully revealed in ''Jabberwocky II''.
* '''Jabberwocky II''': "The story of the sunflowers and the hill." The first part of this story takes place seven years in the past in the isolated village of Sawaimura, where the Mamiya and Minakami families once lived. From the recollection of their past, the protagonists finally find the strength to change their fate and arrive at one of three endings: Sunflower Road, Wonderful Every Day, or Endsky II.

* AGodAmI: Mamiya Takuji proclaims himself to be a 'Savoir' and starts a cult in the school to prepare for the 'End Sky'.

* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: Despite the overall bleakness of the story [[spoiler: the "Wonderful Everyday" and "Hill of Sunflowers" endings are surprisingly uplifting for Tomosane and his little sister.]]

* MundaneLuxury: Arguably part of the ''point'' of the idea behind the "wonderful everyday" that the characters strive for is to appreciate living a peaceful, ordinary life. And after some of the things the characters go through, getting to live an average life ''is'' seen as something of a luxury.

The Kagami/Tsukasa endings to ''Down The Rabbit-Hole I'' are much more brief and only differ by a few scenes.

** At one point Takuji burns a manga and claims it was because the heroine wasn't a virgin, calling to mind the outrage around Manga/Kannagi.

[[caption-width-right:350: “It seems one can’t say anything more than: Live happily!”]]

* TraumaCongaLine: [[spoiler: "Looking Glass Insects is this for Zakuro from the halfway point onward]].

** In ''It's My Own Invention'' [[spoiler: Mamiya Takuji is sexually assaulted by his bullies]] but it's not brought up during the chapter after the scene and doesn't seem to affect him very deeply at first. ''Jabberwocky'' reveals that [[spoiler: the trauma from this experience is what lead him to create [[SplitPersonality Yuuki Tomosane]] ''The Destroyer''.]]

* [[spoiler: SplitPersonalityTeam:]] In ''Jabberwocky'' the scenes with [[spoiler: Yuuki and Yuki have shades of this as one takes over when the other has more relevant skills.]]

--> [[spoiler: Takuji]]:"There's no way that was a delusion! If I had such a realistic delusion like that, I wouldn't... I wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between reality and my delusions!"

** [[Creator/Socrates "Let us reflect in another way, and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good; for one of two things, either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another."]]

* ShoutOut: All over the place throughout the visual novel, many of them GenuisBonus.

** [[Creator/LewisCarroll "’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe..."