I mean, if the traveler Rei comes across is any indication, he’s not the only human left in the world with such optimistic goals. I imagine that in the time between the ending and the epilogue, Rei is able to find at least a few more people who share his ideals, and was only able to ultimately restore the village because he wasn’t alone. Even with the knowledge he received on the tablet, rebuilding a town while researching how to fix phiroids, avoiding any harmful humans he came across, and trying to survive in a land that provides so little on his own would be not just dangerous, but probably impossible. If Rei was confirmed to be the only human with any shred of emotions left, I would brush the ending off as overly optimistic. But it’s the opposite that is made clear to us, which I think makes it much more possible.
My issue is, it took Rei a long time to even find a town where there were any survivors. Since the ravagers actively sabotage both Phiroid and human villages alike, I imagine there are more dangerous humans than there are idealistic ones nearby, since Shinoa explains that these people have hit several locations. Considering how much of a wasteland the world is, I cannot abide this being skirted over.
While I agree the ending was overly optimistic, I also think people are assuming a bit too much in terms of how long it took to achieve the ending. I was under the impression it had been at least 200-300 years, making any current situation stopping Rei a bit moot. The reason I thought this is because all the characters talk about Shiona’s song as something that everyone has been singing since long ago. No one knows the origin of the song anymore because it’s been way too long. Rei is long since dead, and the only things he left behind were information and the song. Since they only had information to go off of, it makes sense they don’t yet have the technology to create new phiroids; as they can only fix broken ones, that’s why we see all the familiar faces doing similar things. Furthermore, Rei’s information was probably ignored for years and years while humans continued their infighting. It was only when humans finally solved their differences and natural resources became more common as the earth recovered from the initial catastrophe (this being the biggest point - you can’t fix the earth in just a few decades) that they could finally look at his information and follow it.
That’s how I interpreted the ending. It’s not about what Rei achieved; it’s what humans managed to achieve because people like Rei didn’t give up on our fellow mankind. While I do still think it kinda ruins the atmosphere and tone of the overall story up to that point, it’s a lot more plausible than thinking it’s Rei’s accomplishment even if you can make most anything plausible by slapping on a several hundred year timeskip.
I’d be able to buy that. The only problem with that theory is Shinoa’s narration, which suggests that the Doctor looks familiar to her in a way she can’t put into words.
The doctor could have been a descendant of Rei. I guess you could say that this is just going on compounding assumptions though. But then again, if there are so few humans in this world then at some point, it couldn’t be too far fetched for someone to look like someone else generations before. I think.
I just feel like putting the translations for the track names of the OSTs. Source is Wiktionary (how credible hahaha) and latin-dictionary.org.
- Terrarum - ground, land; played during Rei’s journey in the arid lands
- Oppidum - non-Roman town, referring to the humble town of the Phiroids
- Vitae - lives, this is a pretty cheery track
- Cantus - sung, chanted; Shiona’s theme?
- Library - actually the only English-titled BGM in the list, Tipi’s theme?
- Tristitia - sadness; the track played during a funeral scene so yeah
- Pecado - is actually Portuguese/Spanish; sin; feels track
- Rruinis - perhaps Ruinis; collapsed; also another feels track
- Reditum - return; was this the track that played during the arrival of humans? This is a pretty ominous track.
- Harmonia - harmony, music, peace; this is a pretty uplifting track
- Caveam - cage; this is pretty ironic considering this is an orgel arrangement of the more adventurous of Terrarum
- Risu - laugh; orgel arrangement of Cantus
- Scindet - will cut, will divide, will destroy, will disturb; arrange of Library, perhaps referring to Tipi’s separation from her loved ones, or her being disturbed from her normal life
- Spero - hoping, trusting; orgel arrangement of Todoketai Melody
- Halitus - exhaled breath; melody of Shiona’s orgel and the accompaniment of her song Towa no Hoshi e
Personally I really loved this. Took my time reading it just to take in the atmosphere, really loved the OST, fitted the atmosphere/setting/art of the series perfectly in my opinion. The character designs were excellent, so was the background art, the CG scenes plus having the dusty wind blowing animated in and that sketch like texture over the characters was a very nice touch. The sound effects with the wind helped a lot also bringing out the feel of the almost dead post war planet.
While it was short I felt they did an excellent job with the characters and story. From the beginning making you think he was a Phiroid due to the machine like nature of not having emotions at first, not knowing what these emotions were called, his mechanical hand, his dream of rusting apart, him wanting to live to make people happy and him coming out of a chamber where there were Phiroid parts laying around.
Everyone else being the Phiroids was a nice twist and really effective in my opinion. To be honest I didn’t really suspect it due to their personalities being much more human than Rei’s plus how they acted. I did at one stage think that Tipi or Shiona may be but was only a slight sense of suspicion so was still surprised by the twist.
I think the themes they tried to get across was very well portrayed and perfect for a Key Game, especially as a 15th Anniversary Project. The main focus seems to be on emotions, especially love. I found it interesting that it was the Phiroids that taught Rei, the human about emotions and love. The Phiroids who are robots are more human than the humans you could say. The town getting slaughtered was extremely hectic and when Shiona got shot I thought that was the end of her, it was great animating her jumping in front of Rei, added more impact to the scene.
Tipi - bloody hell she had me crying so damn hard. I just wanted to protect her and see her have a smile on her face. Then Shiona, always trying to make everyone smile and happy, bringing joy to others with the song she loves, really loved her personality. I thought the happy end was going to be Shiona and Rei living together and traveling until they find a new town or something then teach humans and emotions and love but was mistaken - instead she reveals she’s about to die - which hit me damn hard. Cried way too much during chapter 8 and think 7 as well.
The epilogue I wasn’t expecting but was a great touch making it start how the beginning of the kinetic novel started. I think the doctor is Rei’s descendant, either his son or grandson or even maybe further down the line (who knows), plus the general store is related to Madd’s son (as in his son’s’ son or something like that) or is him. I think Rei on his journey was able to find a town or collapsed outside one again then someone saw him and helped him. He used the harmony of the music box to bring people happiness and once again emotions again I think - definitely the ending is related to the harmony of the music box. He may of even sung the song himself or found someone to sing the lyrics for him then went around place to place spreading the song, bringing smiles to people’s faces again, making them feel emotions they may have forgotten or never felt before. Rei must of also dedicated the rest of his life on researching Phiroids.
Anyway, 9/10 for me - perfect ‘Onion Cutting Simulator’
I definitely enjoyed this novel. At first I thought it was weird that this seemingly normal town survived after the hell he walked through to get there, but by the time I realized they were all Phiroids, it all made much more sense. My view on how the town was pretty much went from me thinking Rei was a Phiroids, while the town was human and that they all knew he was a Phiroid because they talked about ‘emotions’ and ‘humans’ in abnormal ways. Then I realized that they were probably all Phiroids which is why they understand how he’s trying to learn emotions, but I was totally wrong, I thought it was genius that it turned out he was the only human and that humans were the ones without emotions in this world, while Phiroids were trying to make them remember. That idea really gave me a lot to think about.
Thinking back, there were definitely tons of foreshadows for where the story would head and I’m kind of glad I only noticed some of them since I got to be surprised when I neared the end. More on Madd would have definitely been super interesting, but the way I see it, his situation was actually just like Tipi, where he was waiting endlessly feeling a single emotion and ended up trying to isolate himself. Though they didn’t go into detail with it, I think it isn’t that big of a deal since we can try to fill in the gaps with out imagination based on Tipi’s story.
Obviously music and art were phenomenal, I’ve been listening to the soundtrack in the background for hours now and the art felt so alive (a little does a lot when it comes to that little animation each sprite has). The detail on Shiona and Tipi especially were vibrant and beautiful. Excited to see what Hinoue produces once she goes freelance, she will probably keep getting better and better now that she can make what she wants.
All in all, Harmonia was a great VN that I would (and have) recommend to friends looking to try out VNs (cheap, short, simple, well-made, representative of what it’s like to play a VN) 9/10
I think it represents one possible outcome of how Rei’s journey could have turned out. It reminds me a lot of the Hoshi no Hito drama CD where (Heavy Spoilers for Hoshi no Hito) the Junker’s journey to find someone who would believe in the stars leads him to find others (three children specifically) who believe and take on his role as a messenger of the stars. Even assuming Rei is not the scientist who wakes Shiona at the end, it still implies that he was successful at convincing enough people to change their ways.
As I said before, I think this ending was perfectly justified given what had happened to Rei and the others in chapters 6-8. There is a visual novel that does this kind of ending better IMO, but for this story, it’s fitting and satisfying for me. My only complaint is that I wish there were more… 
I don’t think emotion is exclusive to humans; my family’s cats feel fear, hunger, pain, loneliness and pleasure when occasion permits. In fact, I don’t think any of these options are unique to humanity. I just think humans hold a greater ability to express each of these traits because (going into religious beliefs here, which is totally relevant because there’s a tiny bit of Christian symbolism in the story) we were designed in the image of God, who created all things and gave humanity dominion over all the earth. In order to become gods ourselves, humanity was given a higher level of reasoning and agency, in order to test and prepare us for this higher calling. For that purpose, I think what makes humanity unique is the power to create, whether it be stone tools or printed books or robots or other humans.
In the context of Harmonia, I don’t think it was humanity’s intention to create Phiroids to replace themselves, it just turned out that way based on the demand. Sure, they share nearly all the same capabilities as humans, and perhaps what separated them from humans was their strict adherence to help humans regardless of the consequences. But when we see the lines blurred between human and robot in such a way that they are indistinguishable for a great deal of the story, it becomes shocking to see that quite a few humans have removed themselves from feeling. Humans are far more malleable creatures than robots are because of the greater degree of agency and free will within themselves. They can be as kind as they want, or as cruel as they want.
Nevertheless, humans are inclined to do what they believe benefits them the most. Usually this means taking the path of least resistance to get what one wants faster, since waiting and wading through crap to get what you want is painful. The idea behind Phiroids was to make life more pleasurable and convenient at a cost for humans, which they paid dearly. It might be easy for Phiroids to be blamed as the cause of the war that destroyed human civilization, which was clearly the case for those raiders that showed up at the village Shiona and the others lived in. They took the most straightforward and forceful way to living in such a fallen world as the one portrayed here, without showing gratitude or any semblance of sympathy. To them, Phiroids were expendable because they weren’t real humans, and were only making things more difficult by trying to act like another human. In a way, this can be a parallel to how modern society takes shortcuts to meet its own needs and the potential outcome of letting technology dominate our lives, which is what hard science fiction is supposed to portray.
tl;dr There’s very little separating humans from any other living creature on earth, it’s just that we do things a lot better than everyone else. However, that also means we are the biggest influences on what happens to the world around us, and we need to be careful with how we use this great ability of ours. Just like how Rei was the biggest influence to the town of Phiroids and presumably became a major influence to human society, we need to consider exactly how we influence others and use our better judgement to ensure the best possible outcome.
drops mic
I doubt these two stories are much influenced by Christian. There are so much quote from Bible but as for planetarian, Yumemi’s thought for heaven seems not so similar to Christianity. Futhermore, the pray of Shiona doesn’t look like conveying important meaning in the story. I admit Hoshino hito from planetarian have some relationship to it, but at least for Harmonia, I think it is used only for the symbol of foreign life (Christian is minority in Japan and only 1.5% of Japanese are Christian) or the ceremonial affair remaining without meaning. So the religion was selected because it is the biggest one in the world. However, I think you can read it in the context of Christian, after all, it is you that decide what you read in the works.
I think it is because orange are mainly associated with warmth but yellow(黄色) has widespread meaning. Yellow has links to gold(money), light, warning(like yellow card), race and so on. In addition to them there are some negative idiom with yellow in Japanese like 黄色い声(shrill voice of girls or children), 嘴が黄色い(immature).
I wanted to go over the meaning I see in the novel’s two songs. They’re very straightforward most of the time and connect strongly to the ending. I don’t think Shiraneehito’s translations are perfect, but that’s easy to say in hindsight, and I don’t have anything better.
Todoketai Melody is from Rei’s perspective from after he leaves the shelter. He thinks of what Shiona has given him and sets out on a journey to fix the world using her song. The song reawakens emotions in people, and he’s able to gather people. He swears to keep singing to deliver those emotions to the future and Shiona. That’s where the short version ends. The second verse starts by claiming Shiona’s voice will “fill the gap in time.” That could refer to her revival or that Rei just believes her song will bring back the world of harmony between man and robot. The lyrics mentions Rei screaming presumably from not being with Shiona, but he doesn’t let sorrow damage the future he’s building. No matter how far, he will reach “something.” That could be either Shiona or harmony: it’s ambiguous. The line about wiping tears is probably a reference to Shiona crying in the end, or it’s about Rei teaching other people that crying is okay. Once again he promises to deliver the melody to a new future. Not sure what small hands he’s talking about. Finally, he says the melody will connect the boundless Earth.
Towa no Hoshi he has a very similar message, though it mixes in descriptions of Earth after being restored. One part matches Shiona’s speech about love eternally shielding, and it also draws connections between said love and the Earth. The most interesting part, though, is how they repeat the phrase “Let’s return/go back.” It’s possible that’s referencing the Doctor’s line in the epilogue.
Edit: It, for some reason, completely slipped my mind to talk about the titles of the songs. Todoketai Melody is pretty simple. A rough translation would be “The Melody I Want to Convey,” and the phrase is repeatedly used in the song. Towa no Hoshi he means “To the Eternal Planet.” This could be interpreted in a number of ways: the song could be a message to the Earth, or it could tie into the line about returning meaning the song becomes about returning Earth to it’s previous state.
I kinda skimmed Harmonia again just to get some thorough notes and I noticed that no one actually has talked about Rei’s dream yet. So I encourage you to ask yourselves, How do you interpret Rei’s dream? To me, it’s a foreshadowing.
The dream starts with Rei entering the church. He sees Shiona crying and goes to wipe her tears. However, his hand is mechanical and suddenly he loses mobility. He reaches but never can comfort her and then her breaks apart until he is a pile of metal.
First, the fact that he is depicted as a robot reflects his current thoughts, but it is actually reversed. For the sake of simplicity I will just say phiroids as townspeople and humans as outsiders. In the real world, the outsiders have become more robotic than the townspeople and the townspeople have become more human than the outsiders. So while Rei doesn’t know it, he is depicting himself as an outsider. Shiona then represents the townspeople. As it follows, Rei wants to help the townspeople, but because he is an outsider, he cannot. Basically, the dream is a foreshadowing because in the latter half of chapter six all the way to the ending, Rei definitely wants to help the townspeople but doesn’t have the power, or at least not yet. As we will see, this changes when Tipi grants him the power of knowledge.
I agree with your interpretation. Rei is fearful throughout the story that if the townspeople “discover” he’s a phiroid, they will reject him and any advice he may be able to give them. The stigma phiroids received that lead to the world’s current state doesn’t exactly ease his concerns. As sad of a thought as this is, he feels the only reason the people around him are so kind is because they believe he’s human. Near the story’s end, this belief of his is turned on his head, and he soon realizes that the phiroids may be more humane than humans themselves.
Hmm… I hadn’t thought about it that way, but that’s a good point. I knew that there are a very small number of Christians in Japan which made me wonder why there was any reference to Christianity at all, but maybe that’s exactly the reason why; it’s, as you said, foreign. That just makes me wonder where it’s actually set even more!
To be honest, I would have almost been more surprised if the story hadn’t revealed that the town was all Phiroids and Rei was a human. That’s just how these stories seem to go in science fiction. I hadn’t consciously worked it out by the time the reveal happened, but I wasn’t shocked to hear it. Plus, it makes more sense thematically to be the way it ended up, so I am glad they did it. I would have liked to be more surprised, but maybe I’ve just seen too many of this type of story.
Also of note is the human ability to remember, and keep history. Even before the written word, stories were passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. Keeping history has allowed human society to collectivity learn from its mistakes and grow over time. Which brings us back to Harmonia. It’s through knowledge of the past (Tipi’s library) that Rei is able to do the things he does in the story (like fixing the music box, and surviving in the factory at the end), and presumably that’s how he manages to change the world for the better by the time Shiona wakes up again.
Even Shiona’s song plays into this. When she wakes up again, it has become an important part of the new society; no one remembers where it came from, but it has meaning for all of them. I think we’re supposed to take it that Towa no Hoshi e is actually the song that Shiona sings, which works out nicely. According to the lyrics that @HeliosAlpha linked, the song is about restoring the beauty of Earth: both the beauty of nature and the beauty of human love, which will protect the planet. “Let’s return” is said multiple times, speaking to a desire to lean from history and return the world to like it once was.
I just finished reading it. My disordered thoughts:
When I first heard the plot synopsis and saw screenshots I thought it looked like a gender-swapped rehash of planetarian. Not a flattering first impression, but I still wanted to see what the whole story was like.
Sadly, I think that first impression turned out to be largely accurate, only it turns out it isn’t even gender-swapped, so it’s just a plain old rehash. Many of the themes explored in Harmonia (e.g., humanity’s self-destructive decadence, the goodness of humanity encapsulated in robot form) are similar, if not identical, to ones explored in planetarian, but told in a far less compelling story.
As others have noted, the first half or more of the narrative is bland, with little to no impetus to keep reading. All of the main characters - Rei, Shiona, Madd, and Tipi - are basically cardboard. The story may try to justify this with later plot revelations, but it doesn’t change the fact that pretty much every character interaction in Harmonia is sentimental pablum. (The story’s all about emotions, I know, but that doesn’t mean the vast majority of the dialogue has to consist of the characters saying they just want to be together forever.) Even when the story looks like it might get interesting with the human invasion, it’s all over so quickly there’s not even time to feel invested in anything that happens.
It was interesting to me that Christianity was even more explicitly present here than in planetarian, yet its presence played no substantive role in the story. Quite a lot of interesting angles could have been explored. How did Shiona come to be acting as a nun of sorts? Was her playing that role just part of the larger project to preserve what humans had left behind, or did she actually come to believe in Christianity? Could Rei have seen it as the key to restoring the broken world if he had ever thought to ask her about what the prayers meant, or the God of love, or the hope of resurrection Shiona spoke of? Sadly, none of this was ever addressed.
Gotta give credit where it’s due, though, I did like the character designs and how nicely colored they were. The music was serviceable, but nothing memorable.
Maybe my opinion is overly critical. I just think even short VNs can be much better than this (planetarian is only one example). Harmonia barely manages to be average, much less great.
I understand where you’re coming from. However, the main character’s motivation revolves around discovering his emotions. Since he’s convinced he’s a phiroid, regaining his ability to empathize and support those around him is the only thing that gives him purpose. Every moment where he succeeds in connecting with someone else, Rei believes he’s one step closer to reaching total fulfillment. Learning how to interact and satisfy the needs of Shinoa, Tipi, and Madd broadens his emotional horizons and opens his eyes to how complex people are underneath it all. The child-like exploration of emotions each of the characters embark on not only foreshadows the nature of the townspeople but emphasizes how straightforward and earnest Rei’s desire to help people is. The village is an idyllic place, sharply contrasting the selfish realities of the world outside. As the second half of the story makes clear, the characters in the village are hiding, in a way, from the current state of the world. None of the phiroids fully explore their emotions, even though it would be necessary for growth as individuals, because of the cruel reality that awaits them. Shinoa expresses to Rei late in the story that she hoped to live on in this peaceful if uneventful life with Rei forever. However, whether phiroid or human, everyone needs to identify with their desires and understand why they have them. I believe this key focus is what differs this story from Planetarian (I could also mention the ending, but as I laid out earlier, I believe it was far too idealistic for the hopelessly post-apocalyptic world the story had established)
I do understand your desire for the Christian imagery used in the novel to play a bigger part in the story. I was somewhat disappointed when it turned out to be little more than a motif, with Shinoa’s faith having no bearing on her character. Her personality is mostly derived from her emotional inclinations as a phiroid, rather than her apparent occupation. However, I believe the deeper shade she, Madd, and Tipi share is that inside, they all have a desire to branch past their ordinary behavior. Part of them wants to find a way to resolve the feelings inside of them by confronting what causes them in the first place. I believe the “sentimental pablum” you discussed is deliberately invoked to emphasize how detached and distant their vision of the world is. While the characters refuse to embrace a cynical view of the world, they learn to accept them, while still finding a way to hold on to their idealistic beliefs about the good side of all beings.
See, I actually liked the first few chapters despite their relative lack of noteworthy events. I liked those first few moments where Rei showed flashes of understanding new emotions based on what seem to us like normal, everyday events, but to him are brand new experiences. In a way, Harmonia is like a condensed version of how life really goes: we begin with the eyes of someone brand new to the world, and during their “childhood” the world is painted with a brush of idealism. Nothing noteworthy happens, but every day is still faced with a sense of wonder. Sure, there are a few bumps in the road (needing to apologize to Madd after breaking the clock, for instance), but at the end of the day everything is smoothly resolved.
Then, around the midway point, “adolescence” hits. Suddenly the people around Rei aren’t quite as one-dimensional and easily pleased as they once were, and the issues that arise can’t be viewed with a black and white sense of morality. Shiona, the mother figure of sorts that Rei had come to trust so much, has begun acting like a different person entirely, and Rei can’t figure out why. He’s torn between helping Tipi when no one else will, and believing in the girl who “raised” him. There are no right or wrong answers, and all Rei can really do is feel around and hope that he’s doing the right thing.
Finally, not too long after the raid on the village, everything is revealed, and Rei has to take on responsibilities far heavier than he ever imagined. He has to accept the truth behind not only the world around him, but also his own identity. This could be viewed as the moment Rei hits adulthood.
I mean, coming-of-age stories aren’t exactly uncommon, especially coming from Key. But I think the way they handled it in Harmonia was actually pretty masterfully done, especially considering the short length.
Harmonia is a story in a post-apocalyptic setting where robots who are capable of emotion turn out to be more “human” than actual humans. It’s not the first of its kind and certainly not the last. As it should be. After all, us humans really need to be constantly reminded of what it is that makes us human, since we tend to forget it quite easily. You could even say that the ability to have feelings is where human greatness comes from. The other humans in Harmonia did little more than kill, steal and destroy, while Rei, being a person with fully developed emotions, managed to help others, to bring them happiness, and even to literally rebuild and restore their world. Forgetting all emotions (Harmonia) or concentrating on the negative ones (Planetarian) is a surefire way for us to go extinct.
While Planetarian is more about rediscovering and nurturing what little warmth is left in a world that has ended, Harmonia, goes beyond that and concludes the story on a more hopeful note, where said warmth becomes a means of reaching a future of harmony happiness.
I really enjoyed Harmonia and the beautiful visuals exceeded all of my expectations. It was not exactly a mind-blowing or heart-rending experience, but definitely a time well spent. I was skeptical about the unusual text placing, but it turned out to work perfectly.
What I liked the most was the gradual “revelation” of Shiona’s “dark side”. Despite several hints being dropped here and there, her behavior in chapters 4 and 5 came as a huge surprise in terms of how far she has gone with her personal agenda. Good thing I’m familiar with these kinds of situations in Key works, or I might have ended up hating Shiona.
But really, thinking about how Tipi was all alone in the library, crying, while Rei and Shiona were being lovey-dovey left a bad aftertaste.
Expecting a real-world religion to play any kind of role in a story in the anime culture is weird. It’s a rare occurence. Normally, the author just borrows a few characteristics, concepts or legends to build his story and/or characters around. So a motif is usually all it is. A nun is a woman that wears a certain uniform, does certain things in certain places and is associated with certain personality traits, just like a nurse, a stewardess, etc. For all we know, Hinoue probably just wanted to draw a certain outfit and that’s how Shiona’s character design came to be.
The bookclub did discover a lot of christian themes and imagery in Planetarian, but that’s one of those rare cases.
So I don’t see anything to be disappointed about.
[quote=“EisenKoubu, post:30, topic:3261”]
Do you think the strong emotional labels each of the major characters other than Rei held made them compelling and essential to Rei’s development? Is there any way you think could have been improved in this approach to storytelling?[/quote]
I believe it was necessary given the story’s length and also in order to drive the point home that we can become dependent on a single feeling to the point where we would break if we were to lose it.
I did get LB vibes, but not the ones you did.(Little Busters spoilers) You see, what Kyousuke did to Rin was dragging her out of her comfort zone in order to make her stronger. Shiona, however, acted purely in order to preserve Tipi’s current fragile state. That’s almost the opposite of your example. I think the same as @cjlim2007 onthis one: What Shiona did to Tipi was the same as (Little Busters spoilers) how Kanata acted in front of Haruka. She fuelled Haruka’s negative emotions, which were one of her few pillars of support, while taking away her new-found hope, which Kanata believed would destroy her sister in the end. All the while, Shiona/Kanata acted as the bad guy.
And it’s precisely because I remembered this that I decided not to be hasty and make the same mistake as I did back when I was reading that particular LB route: Hating the “evil” character before knowing their true motive.
I understand there was no real reason for me to have such expectations. However, Gen Urobuchi tackled Christianity and the implications in following it in Fate Zero, so I was a tiny bit hopeful.
Pretty good visual novel! The atmosphere conveyed through music alone was incredible, and the whole thing was just really pleasant to read. I feel like hitting my head against a wall for not seeing the human-phiroid twist coming even though Shiona, Tipi and Madd were all such hilariously obvious caricatures of their respectively represented emotions and I’d been questioning the need to make Rei “that” close to a human instead of keeping some of the advantages from being a mechanical being from the start. Though having it suddenly click into place when Shiona’s hand is revealed was a pretty satisfying moment.
I didn’t really have a problem with the ending. Of course it’s not satisfying, we weren’t given the journey towards it after all. But it does show that a journey that leads to that conclusion can exist, leaving us with an optimistic feeling. It’s not a climax; it’s just showing that bringing the warmth of the original world back is not a hopeless endeavor.
