Review: Katawa Shoujo

By: Derek Yu

On: February 8th, 2012

[This is a guest review by Tof Eklund.]

“Everyone wants someone there to pull them up, out of their self-pity.” -Hisao Nakai

Katawa Shoujo is a visual novel that takes place at a school for the disabled. The game’s protagonist, Hisao, arrives there reluctantly after a long hospital stay for life-threatening arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). His first episode occurred when a girl at his school confessed to him, setting the tone of heartbreak, isolation, and the difficulty of human connection for the game. Thus the game’s logo, a yellow heart criss-crossed with bandages: wounded and frightened.

This is a relationship/dating sim game, but it is closer in feel to Evangelion than any of the “harem” anime and manga (Tenchi Muyo, Love Hina) that it may seem, on casual inspection, to resemble. Each of the girls that Hisao can wind up falling in love with at Yamaku Academy has a different disability, and that, combined with the fact that there is (semi-)explicit sex in this game, is the reason some people have dismissed it, unplayed, as a fetish-fest.

The thing is, though Katawa Shoujo is painstakingly detailed and accurate in its representation of different forms of disability, it isn’t about disability. Hisao is the only character in the story who is learning to live with and accept his handicap. None of the girls in the game need or want a helper or caretaker. The first thing that Hisao, and the player, starts to see is that the people around him aren’t charity cases. Each one lives with their disability, taking blindness or armlessness the same way you or I take the fact that we can’t fly – when was the last time you worried about that?

There is an exception: a nearly-blind social phobic (hikkikomori) named Kenji who lives across the hall from Hisao. He alone, out of all the characters, has completely failed to adapt, and lives a small, pathetic life of isolated paranoia, characterized by extreme gynophobia. Kenji is a kind of dark and distorted mirror of what Hisao could become if he lets himself wallow in his own misery.

The real challenge in the game – and it is a challenge – is emotional trauma. If Katawa Shoujo has an underlying theme, it is that we are all disabled and “normal” alike, walking wounded. Even the teachers at Yamaku Academy (who are, as far as we can tell, not disabled) show some emotional scarring. The name of the game is “the hedgehog’s dilemma”. Sometimes the “obvious” decision, an attempt to get closer, pushes the other character away.

If you treat other characters as invalids to be taken care of or broken dolls that Hisao must “fix”, you won’t get far in Katawa Shoujo.

For all its strengths, Katawa Shoujo is still prone to the flaws common to visual novels, like decision points where reasonable actions are not available and occasionally some lack of clarity about where a single choice will lead the conversation or action. In many visual novels, choices are either head-smackingly obvious or impossibly vague. This is especially true of games translated from Japanese, where differences in degree of politeness are hard to convey. In Katawa Shoujo (which was written in English), the choices generally feel credible, and decisions are usually made difficult by apparent tradeoffs between options rather than lack of clarity about what the options are. Some choices yield fairly clear and immediate consequences, but many take time to play out, increasing suspense and replayability.

There is sex in this game, and it’s an important part of the game. There is a general division of dating sims (visual novel or otherwise) into “sex” and “no sex” games, with the former group often making sex the goal of the game, in the vein of “sow wild oats, then (maybe) pick which girl to settle down with”. I think it’s inevitable that the sex in Katawa Shoujo will act as a “carrot”, a part of players’ interest in the game, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. What’s interesting, then, is that sex is also depicted realistically in the game. Sex isn’t a cure-all. In the game, it sometimes deepens intimacy or releases tension, but it can also really mess things up.

Most interestingly, it can even be desired and appropriate, but go poorly. There is one scene in the game that involves poorly-informed experimentation with anal sex. Rather than succumb to the porn-industry cliche that the only thing better than vaginal is anal, this scene leads to a much more likely conclusion: both characters vow to “never do that again.”

There is an option in the menu to skip the game’s adult content, a key design decision. Four Leaf Studios clearly recognized that there are people who would want to play this game but would be put off by the graphic sexuality. This self-censorship, when enabled, is crude but functional. There is still sex in the game, and it is obvious when it happens, but it happens offscreen. To be clear, images with nudity and/or sex acts are skipped, as is the most explicit text, but there is still sexually suggestive content in that mode of the game.

However, there is no option to “lock out” the adult content. This is consistent with the developers’ 4chan origins: you don’t have to see things you don’t want to, but other people have a right to. The lack of an option to lock out the adult content means, for example, that a parent who thinks the expurgated version of the game might be appropriate for a young adult would have to trust their child not to turn the sex back on.

That’s my one complaint about the game: the no-sex version of Katawa Shoujo could be appropriate for tween/teen audiences, and maybe even educational use, but that won’t happen when the adult content is just a click away.

Posted in Freeware, Interactive Fiction, Linux, Macintosh, Windows | Tags: 4LeafStudios, ReviewedByTofEklund

Armada

Yay, cripple porn.
Now let’s see the weirdos post the usual excuses in 3,2,1…
Anonymous

It is quite a ride. I’ve only done two of the routes so far, but they have both been emotionally trying. Perhaps my biggest complaint so far is the lack of an epilogue for the stories, which I feel would’ve made things more satisfying, but the endings I’ve seen so far have been nice and fitting, so hey.

Also, I won’t try to defend it in anyway or convince people to get it. If you don’t wanna play it, that’s fine, different people different taste. But if you’re willing to give it a chance, you’ll find some well written stuff in there, tugging ’em heart strings. Not anything as crazy as To The Moon I admit, but not bad.

Alas, let the arguments begin.
http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

This again? But this has already been on the front page…

You know, I actually downloaded this game just to see what the hype was about; it seems like everyone is talking about this game. First of all, the whole thing was TL;DR. But I’ll admit that when it comes to reading in games I draw the line at RPGs; I’m not one for heavily text-driven games. The art was… Well… The characters looked nice but very “moe” or whatever… I really can’t stand that. As for the backgrounds, I was not only surprised but disappointed to see they had opted for such a lazy route of just applying a filter to photographs. I would have been a LOT more interested in playing this game if the backgrounds were actually hand-painted, which is a huge draw of anime for me in general. Instead, we have something that’s strictly about the characters; a strange and somewhat creepy girlfriend simulator.
Rabid

No excuses, just pity that you can be such a closed minded individual. It’s quite a shame that people like you still permeate in our wonderfully creative industry.
ForTheUSSR

Does it pass the Bechdel test?
TedofChicago

Yes.
Masdas

There’s a post on their blog about why they didn’t go with drawn backgrounds. http://goo.gl/Xe1v5
John Sandoval

Thanks for posting that! Though yes, the non-drawn backgrounds are a disappointment, I understand having to skimp on certain aspects for the sake of completion. It’s really quite impressive that they managed to finish a project of this magnitude at all, especially over the internet. Major kudos.
Goodbye Standards

A video game about having sex with vulnerable cripples is pretty darn creative! I SHOULD be looking for girls with disabilities, never would I have thought to do so, I mean if they don’t have legs they can’t run from me! Personally I think they should be covered in feces too, and if you were open-minded you’d agree to this. We can all share our disgusting fantasies and indulge within them, it’s fantastic that we can all share and express ideas in this medium.

If you sad miserable lowlifes cannot appreciate this piece of fine art, you can turn off the sex scenes. I mean they’re the whole reason anyone would play, but the characters are really deep. See they say a lot of words, stuff about emotions, lots of words I skimmed just to get their clothes off. Good stuff.

Overall Katawa Shoujo is my favorite trend I ever hopped on, and even with the porn off if you can’t appreciate it, whatever! If you don’t like it why are you saying anything? It’s 2012, you’re supposed to keep conflicting opinions bottled so things like cripple porn can be widely appreciated since nothing negative is being said on it. Ponies, cripple girls, furries, what a fantastic world we live in today. Katawa Shoujo gets a solid 10/10, it’s a must read!
Anonymous

The Independent Visual Novel Source.
The reviewer almost had it, calling this what it is – a visual novel – but ruined it in the very next sentence with the word “game”. So close.
…

Jesus…I think you might need help.
http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

Katawa Shoujo sounds about as porny as Night Slave:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VybrBZJAwY4

What do you think? Run n’ gun with a few hentai cutscenes or straight-up lesbian porn? What should we call it?
Goodbye Standards

See it’s unfair to make that comparison, one at least has a game in there somewhere, the other is just a book building up to a money shot onto a girl who can’t even see it. I would have no issue with all the fascination around Katawa Shoujo if people were honest about what it is, that being a cripple-fucking simulator. Preaching about it and having to type paragraphs to try to steer people into thinking it’s not smut, if you’re so defensive about this game it’s clear what you truly think about it. Just man up and say that either you hopped on this since everyone else was or because you want to fuck vulnerable crippled girls. You’re a disgrace to humanity, but at least you’re honest about it.
http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

Holy shit, are you part of my consciousness that has broken off and gained independent sentience on the Internet?
http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

WTF… I scrubbed through that whole video and didn’t see any hentai cutscenes… I’m disappointed. My penis was out and everything :(
Guest

It’s the other way around, it’s a love story interactive novel under the pretense of being a cripple fucking simulator.
http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

“The Independent Cripple Fucking Simulator Source” doesn’t have the same ring to it, unfortunately…
Guest

“Make the cripple fucking simulators you want to make!”
Armada

My apologies, I meant cripple UNDERAGE porn, beccause those characters are obviously not older than 12.
BellosTheMighty

”
is closer in feel to Evangelion”

Uh, no. Have you ever seen Evangelion? That series is dark, hopeless, and obscure, KS is nearly the opposite.

And I think, in general, you’re treating the game with a lot more gravitas than necessary. You portray Kenji as a miserable, isolated character, where in the game he’s a comic-relief goofball. You talk about emotional trauma, and while that is a significant factor in the various storylines, the game is a lot lighter and softer then the angst-fests that usually come out of such ponderings. I’ve played most of the game, and the tone you’re taking here really doesn’t match up with how it “felt” to me.
Mentos

That’s just ANIME. They are, canonically, 18, seniors in high school. Emi’s actually 19.
Guest

what does this mean
News

peanut gallery dweller
Goodbye Standards

It’s not just anime, I heard from Klasky Csupo that the Rugrats aren’t actually babies? Canonically they’re all 18 except for Angelica who is 21 and Chuckie who is 20. It’s alright to be attracted to them now.
Anonymous

Why can’t we be friends, why can’t we be friends~
OOOOOO

Yeah, he’s the one that needs help. Not the nerd culture that jumps from swarmy pedophile-ish trend to trend. But you guys are in it for the story right? It’s a good thing western culture doesn’t have thousands of years of literature to read so that you have a totally legit excuse! Ponies forever, right man??
Nobleanimefanbakagajin

Oh, well if it’s just anime! Don’t worry Dad, it might look like I’m jacking off to babyfuck but that’s just ANIME, nothing for me to be ashamed of here.
Notext

I actually agree that criticism of KS is hamstrung by its inability to mention that it is a porn game. Which it is, unless you’re splitting hairs on “porn” and “game”, in which case it’s an interactive piece of software with win/lose conditions that borrows its structure from a genre infamous for pornography, so you shouldn’t be splitting hairs. Unfortunately it’s impossible to sensibly discuss KS without bringing up the fact that it’s porn, and once you bring up the porn it becomes impossible to sensibly discuss, because once the PC puts his dick in a schoolgirl there isn’t really any mature response to that.

On the other hand, if you’re talking about keeping conflicting opinions bottled, being all EWWW DISABLED PEOPLE YUCK about the game, sprinkling the word “cripple” all over the place, and going on about how disgusting the game’s players are is a pretty good way of doing that. Which is I guess why you’ll see decent criticism of the game that doesn’t mention the fact that it’s porn – because there are people interested in discussing the game and its numerous faults but want to have some kind of maturity about it.
Goodbye Standards

I am sorry but you can’t argue that it was immature of me using the word cripple when the title of the game is Katawa Shoujo, the term Katawa directly translating to cripple and being considered a heavily derogatory term over in Japan. I’m also not going to overlook that this is a game appealing to individuals with a weird fetish for disabilities because I don’t consider welcoming all bizarre fetishes a “mature” trait to have. An individual who can’t get it up unless his love interest was horribly burned is not something I can respect. If you want to defend the deep backgrounds and emotional aspects, you’re looking at heavily sexualized girls with disabilities that in the end you’re trying to fuck regardless of their background, there is nothing to respect there. Lastly there is nothing to respect about people who defend this game trying to OVERLOOK the sexual aspect and pretend it is much more than it really is, trying to pretend it is “honoring” people who were maimed or deformed despite the title and the fact that the goal is to fuck them. The review here says it should be used for educational purposes. Seriously what the fuck is that? I’m sorry you find my vocabulary to be immature since I was just being very blunt, but maturity is up in the air on a game like this. Sex may be an adult subject, but by no means do you have to be “mature” to discuss it. If you’re defending this garbage you’re probably the LEAST mature out of anyone since you can’t accept yourself for why you honestly enjoy a game like this.
Guest

For those in support of this game/whateverthefuckitis – I bet you couldnt actually explain it to your girlfriend / partner and get them to understand without them thinking you just earned a place on the sexual offenders list. Better yet, the mother test. Explain the idea to her and actually digest what she says. You know damn well the response wouldnt be good
http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

How are the girls in these screenshots “heavily sexualized”?
Anonymous

I get slight kicks out of the thought that this isn’t the case in my situation. My partner knows I love this game and my mother is… well, a rather acceptive person. Of course, there’s no way I can prove this, but just to let you know anyway.
Goodbye Standards

In little anime girl terms I weigh them in by the size of their eyes and how underage they look. The visuals are typical anime schoolgirls but from the text I’ve seen in screenshots, there’s plenty of moments where they just explain in great detail how attractive they are and setup for numerous occasions for boner material. It’s not like it’s a nice little romance story with a sex scene at the end, it’s constant cock teasing and sexualized imagery and descriptions to get your cock nice and buttered before it’s game time. Considering how everyone says the plot is dark and emotional, that first screenshot up there sure doesn’t show girls who look anguished at all. They’re all bright and bubbly with designs catered to hentai-aficionados who’d want to go to town on them without a moment of hesitation.
http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

LOL
wayinstainmother

sorry for you lots
KNau

I imagine it’s mostly Americans posting here because you’d never see this level of venom thrown at the latest Call of Duty / Battlefield war-porn. I get it. Violence and murder is teh awsum but,
as Goodbye Standards points out, sex is filthy and evil and the human body is smut. Now go read your bibles and beg your spaghetti monster in the sky for forgiveness!

Switching gears…yeah, this isn’t a game. Unless you get a woody from the epic “gameplay” of Choose Your Own Adventure books (which are written for 8 year olds, I might add) this is the gameplay equivalent of a TV test pattern.

The only way it could be less of a game is if Tale of Tales developed it (woot! sick burn!) so I assume the only reason is was posted to TIGSource was because of the molest-a-cripple angle, which isn’t cool.
Hulkthehitmanhogan

if the game was about shooting little malformed girls you would probably get the same response but thanks for trying to insult 300 million people because of your own misconceptions internet person
Nuke

Why the hell is there so much trolling in TIG’s comments?
News

private/public distinction
Notext

Again, I don’t disagree with the majority of what you’re saying, but I think you’ve mistaken what I mean by criticism – by which I mean not you’ve taken it literally enough. There is some highly intelligent criticism of the game out there that completely dismantles what it is doing in terms of fetishising disability, and how the story and character exist to serve necessity for a sexual relationship, rather than the other way around. But the argument is hamstrung because the author, for one reason or another, does not point out that the game is porn.

Perhaps this is because it’d be stating the obvious, or it’d make the preceding argument a statement of the obvious, but without being able to engage with where the actual problem, there’s no way to work your way towards a solution. I mean, there’s clearly an interest in this game, and it just as clearly not all prurience – people WANT to think that there could be something interesting underneath it all, and to claim that everyone who’s played it is trying to achieve an erection is projecting a whole lot. There’s something there, and people want to know what it is. Could the game be rehabilitated if it wasn’t very deliberately trying to take its place in a porn game genre?

Unfortunately, at the point you do mention that the game is porn (and, let’s reiterate, it definitely is), that becomes a way to shut down the conversation, because at that point CLEARLY the only reason to play it is because that is the ONLY way you can achieve an erection, and lol cripple girls they can’t run away wanna fuck the burn victim I’m being totally ironic honest. At least the developers have the excuse of not actually knowing what Katawa meant by the time they released the demo. The people saying this shit know exactly what they’re doing. Impossible to discuss.

This isn’t directed specifically at you, and it definitely isn’t a problem unique to Kawata Shoujo – it meant that, when Christine Love made a genuinely intelligent and highly critical deconstruction of the japanese high school visual novel, she was actually accused of being a paedophile in some quarters. Even though there is an in-game conversation where a forum poster is ridiculed for trying to justify playing a pornographic VN, which the player is forced to read before continuing! There is literally no way to miss what she is doing in-game, but people managed to do it anyway.

Like I said before, I genuinely don’t think there’s a way at the moment to talk about these games from the point the PC puts his dick (or even tongue) in a schoolgirl. I kind of think the only way to rehabilitate in the public eye at this stage would be to go full-on Nintendo with it – high quality story based VNs for children with no sex, no blood and a find/replace on “beer” for “root beer”. But who would want to make that game?
Guest

Looks like somebody didn’t even give it a chance.
Lucid

JUST IN FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF FACTS:
(1) Disabled people are people.
(2) Disabled people have sex lives.
(3) Disabled people also read books.
(4) Disabled people also play video games.
(5) Disabled people also watch porn.

The assumption that the game is shocking (or intended to be shocking) because all of the protagonists are physically disabled is false.

The assumption that the characters in the game do something perverse or shocking because they do such things as (e.g.) studying for their exams, complaining about their parents, compete in sports, and awkwardly attempt to date one-another, is also false.

The game depicts disabled people living normal lives. The abnormal thing about it is simply the setting: it is an idealized school (with unlimited funding, etc.) very different from any disabled peoples’ institution you’re likely to visit in this world.

The assumption that disabled people themselves don’t play this game (or find it offensive) is false.

The comments on TIG seem to reflect the fact that Americans (whose lives revolve around video-games) have even more warped ideas about physical disability than the Japanese do.

Grow up.
Lucid

Think again:

Imagine that you, yourself, are a disabled teenager, who does all the things that other teenagers do, but who rarely sees/reads fiction that actually reflects on the issues that you deal with in your life.

Then you play this game.

You might discuss it really openly with your parents: it’s a game that really reflects on the difficulties that disabled people have in coping with their own conditions, and each other, and in planning for the future, and in dealing with things like writing high-school exams… when you know that you might die before age 30 (because you’ve got a fatal heart condition, in the protagonist’s case).

Plenty of disabled people have to meditate on their own mortality; they have to meditate on what options they’ve got, and what options they never have. Disabled people also have sex.

Grow up.
Anonymous

Because it’s not a game, and you’ve got normal people who are calling it out for what it is, and the pseudo-intellectual, artsy, film-school dropouts who disagree.
buttfaggotflipdick

Yeah, GROW UP and play a animeporn cripple schoolgirl jerk off dating sim made by 4chan like a real man would. Typical Americans. Thank God the Department of Facts was deployed by the Anime Defense Force to teach us the TRUE and honest opinion we should have.
buttfaggotflipdickjr

Also I don’t think anyone is arguing that disabled people aren’t playing the game. It’s pretty evident that the target audience is severally socially disabled.
http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

So are you actually disabled or just using this argument as an excuse for your fetish? Of course disabled people are sexual, and usually with other disabled people, but do you think this is the result of what they sexually after? Or is this the result of what they’re limited to? Hey, not my rules; blame society.

But do you actually think that a disabled person would truly opt to immerse himself in a fantasy simulation about being a disabled person when games mean you can go beyond your physical limits? No… I don’t buy that for one instant. Sure, I can see a disabled person seeing this game and being able to relate to it because it poses a similar situation (though the protagonist’s arrhythmia is not on the same level as being paraplegic IMO, but that’s another debate)… But I also think just as many disabled people would also be leery of the fact that this game is also exploitative and fetish-focused: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attraction_to_disability

In summation, I don’t think you are disabled or know anything about having a disability, and I think you’re pretty low for trying to rationalize your argument with this sort of comment.
http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

It’s funny how much I agree with you, yet want to break your jaw for the way you said it.
http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

Again, you sound less like a genuinely disabled person who’s pleading for clarity on the subject than you sound like a creep who wants to rationalize his fetish of wanting to fuck disabled girls by using a strawman about disabled people being sexual.

Your argument would be valid if the game was presented as an RPG where you chose your IRL disability at the start, and then navigated a world where you were limited by your disability, and just as many non-disabled girls to interact with (because what are you saying? that only disabled people can fuck other disabled people? That shows how little you know about disabled peoples’ sexuality, which is why I think you’re full of shit)… How fun would that game be now? How popular would it be? How controversial would it be? Do you see my point?

The fact that you, someone who is probably not physically disabled (though undoubtedly mentally so) would use disabled people’s sexuality to defend your argument for this game is nothing short of disgusting.
Veridical Driver

I tried to be open-minded… But all the rationalization in the world isn’t going to change the fact that this is virtual crippled child porn and is highly disturbing.