Discussion topic for the ALKA arc in Summer Pockets. Feel free to discuss anything from ALKA or the heroines leading up to it without [spoiler] tags, but please tag anything from the Pocket arc or outside works, providing adequate context in parenthesis.
What would you rate this arc?
0 voters
“I don’t… want to run away anymore…”
Oooh, we finally have the Alka topic~ When all the heroine routes are done with, we get this. Alka. A long and familiar journey with some very notable differences. Together with Umi and Hairi, let’s discover the truth behind Summer Pockets.
No one can tell me that song at the start didn’t sound like the Rewrite OP.
I went into this route still convinced that Hairi had been on this island before… The VN kept making sure I knew he hadn’t been here. It even pulled some twists based on my expectation that he had visited the island before…
But within a couple sentences I was resolved in my opinion. This boy has definitely been here, just not in the way I originally thought.
First of all, I love the name discussion at the start of the route. I assumed Umi’s name was written that way originally because she was a kid or something silly like that… It’s nice to see the details.
Second of all, you know that South Park episode about the Oculus Rift? Where whenever something happens, the characters respond “Oh fuuuuuuck yoooou.” That episode was playing in my mind throughout this entire route.
But have they answered all of my questions in a satisfying and courteous manner?
While I’m not particularly fond of the whole revisit the prologue thing, I do like how well everything comes together in this route. All of the little moments and phrases that later come to define the Umi we knew.
Shiroha is back and more main girl than ever, and boy is she cute. Her and Umi are a great pairing, one I wouldn’t have thought of. Hairi, Shiroha and Umi make a ridiculously adorable group. I love how noticeable their gradual changes are. All three of them start to feel more comfortable and start to speak more often.
It’s a simple group dynamic, and really the route itself is equally simple. It’s not a monumentally different piece to the rest of the VN, and I think I prefer that. It does enough to distinguish itself apart from the other heroine routes without being the sole important part of the entire VN.
I don’t think it’s my favorite route in the game, but this strange little (very long actually) route was nice to sit through. I have some problems with it. It’s a bit too long and a bit too samey to some other Key stories. Regardless there are definitely people out there who will love absolutely everything about this route.
I still don’t know what “Alka” means though. Is it supposed to be Ark or something? I dunno.
Also, if an anime adaptation of this show does happen… Here’s a tip for the director. Hard cut the fireworks scene. Please. Music and everything. Just instant transition from the big moment of that scene into silence.
Yeah that’s a big letdown. The new track in ALKA–which sounds like Philosophyz–is called ‘Twinkle of Alcor’ and that’s like the only new clue. Much time was wasted on Wikipedia for this. Alcor is a star that’s like barely visible because --as seen from Earth–it’s very close to Mizar which is part of the Big Dipper constellation. The Big Dipper can be called ‘The Seven Stars’ in Japanese. The star on the end of the “handle” is called Alkaid, and that name comes from an Arabic phrase for like ‘Leader of the mourning daughters.’
So there’s stuff there that fits the story’s motifs, but it feels pretty arbitrary and unsatisfactory.
Alka…line?
Did some digging and found this theory:
児化 (アルカ、アル化とも) Pronounced Aruka, somehow
Grammatical term in Chinese that means, regress into a child
ある夏 (ある か) Aru ka, a certain summer
Referring back to the OP song アルカテイル Alka Tale, the song title would mean “Story of a certain summer”.
Arca (方舟) Ark
“To sail the seven seas”
アルカトラズ (監獄島) Alcatraz Island, the famous former prison in San Francisco
Summer loop = Trapped in the summer = Prison
Literally they are just trying to be clever, instead of calling the route “Umi”.
