Discussion topic for the Pocket arc of Summer Pockets. Feel free to discuss anything from Summer Pockets without tagging as spoilers, but please tag anything from outside works, providing adequate context in parenthesis.
What would you rate this arc?
0 voters
“I am waiting for Summer to pass.”
Oh no… We’re sadbois today.
I didn’t know what to expect from this. I had no idea what it’d be… Following Alka, following that straaaange ending, we arrive at the cliff, in the dark. The exact scenery we once heard of.
It’s pretty rough to jump from Umi’s story to Shiroha’s story like this. They’re two sides of the same coin; fundamentally the same, but oh so opposed to each other. Shiroha wants to go back, just like Umi did… So to see ol’ Seven Seas over here bridge the gap and bring those two stories together is super interesting.
I said before (in the Ao thread I think?) in reference to the Shiroha route, Summer Pockets does a great job of tying all the threads together. This has never been more true. Pocket ties everything together.
I like the subtlety too. We learn about Shiroha’s mother and everything she’s done without being explicitly told. We learn about Kyouko and everything she knows without being explicitly told (Finally! Her connection to Umi was suuuuspicious!)
I wasn’t too sure what to think of Alka. It had some good and it had some bad, and I couldn’t really form an opinion of it… But Pocket has formed that opinion for me. It was a good route. Two good routes in fact. A ridiculously long true end. Ridiculously long… But I’m sad to see it end.
The route was no doubt a bit samey to several other Key stories. It wasn’t original, it wasn’t the best executed version out there, and it wasn’t the most enthralling experience… But it was a good enough conclusion.
A few details I noticed:
Shiroha wears a pink ribbon throughout the VN. Nanami wears a ribbon of the same color. A memorial?
The seven seas are mentioned at the end of Kamome’s route in regards to Hairi’s journey. Foreshadowing?
Umi’s light (or butterfly, or memories) return to the warehouse. Kyouko later talks about how sometimes you forget something in your pocket, and that thing gets crushed and washed and turned into fragments. I see you Kyouko. Grandma (hitomi?) must’ve been storing some special antiques.
The bird story from the start makes a return. Two injured birds rely on each other to fly, eventually seperating from the flock. Two healthy birds have no such reliance.
The very early quote said by Nanami “I am waiting for Summer to pass” is incredibly indicative of her character despite her not knowing it. The end of Summer means the end of all this.
Staring a new game after beating Pockets, and selecting the onii-chan option, will completely change all of Umi’s voiced lines into her Alka voice. Nice touch.
Oh and that ending song! Sooo gooood.
Album time~
The number seven appears in: seven seas, seven color of a rainbow, the shichieichou(lit. seven shadow butterfly), and Nanami who’s like an embodiment of all of the above. The cove with Kamome’s ship also has a 7 in its name.
After read and finished this a few days ago, still Pockets climax touched my heart so I cried like af, it’s a short route but it was a best good climax after Alka. Surely, Umi is a best girl.
No matter times I repeat, still I want spend my summer with with you
How happy I am that I can save you
Be Happy, Mom
Got to give credit too to Shiroha for trying to stop Umi from erasing herself from existence.
Finished it a few days ago. Though the climax isn’t strongest, I think it really has high quality and also should be memorized as one of key great works.
It is true that Summer Pockets resembles with post key works in many ways, they at least try to do some new things and to do so, they also utilize the feature of old works. Furthermore, the theme also includes how to overcome beautiful old memories and progress into the future.
Here are some quick thoughts and questions after the playthrough
About the skill of fishing. Nanami, the mother of Shiroha and the protagonist are good at fishing but Shiroha isn’t. Is there any special connection between them?
About the warehouse(蔵), where he found the paper airplane, Tsumugi’s picture, the story on Sichieichou(七影蝶) and he finally met with Umi, is this have some special nature? It is also notable that the protagonists noticed sounds of sea sound too close in some scene at common route and protagonists finally reunite with Umi here. My speculation is it also has a feature like Mayoi-Tachibana where past, future and even possible future can connect (may be called as a four-dimensional pocket?). It is also interesting Hairi can organize the warehouse. This may be because he unconsciously holds many possible memories of future or past.
The sea in last CG of Umi looks like a sea at OP (where Tsumugi stands). Is there any connection?
Hairi’s name 羽依里 is also remarkable. 羽(hane; feather; maybe suggesting シロハネ, 七影蝶) 依(depending(依存,依頼)) 里(sato; village; hometown)
what is the true ending of the picture book they made? My quick speculation that follows with explicitly written ending “people’s tears become rain” is " and the rain cause rainbow", " and the rain returns to the sea " or “the water of the rain circulate over the earth”.
But it is too weak to make these assumptions, I expect more explicit hints are shown in the game itself, but I can’t find it so far.
if two birds are not injured, they wouldn’t meet each other? Is a quite suggestive question for key games, because almost all key games are concerned with the trauma of heroines and healing the mental injury with protagonists causes heroines to fall in love. This feature of key games is always criticized from some critiques. However, he finally met with Shiroha without trauma. This can be looked as an advance from previous works.
(Spoiler of AIR) AIR resembles this story in terms of how protagonists relate to the story. In the last arc, the protagonist can’t do anything; Yukito became crow and what he can only do is watching over Misuzu and Haruko. But in Pocket arc, it is worse. He didn’t do anything in the last route. (Maybe good summer memory is one of his achievement, but isn’t that too weak to lessen his guilt for Umi?)
How the protagonist’s powerlessness of last routes Protagonists should be interpreted as?
And I have to catch all Shima-mon and beat Tenzen and fill up all records…
My guess would be it’s a hint that Nanami and Hairi are related, Nanami inherited his fishing genes, I can’t think of anything indicating it’s something more.
I think I would agree with your speculation here, Pocket makes it clear the warehouse represents the timespace continuum and Hairi organising it is a symbol of everything returning to normal without influence from Shiroha/Umi’s time-travelling. I’d also add that the warehouse was originally owned by Hairi’s grandmother, it’s interesting to speculate about how much she knew.
It’s reasonable to assume there is one, since they’re in a similar position of fading out of existence, right? So maybe it’s meant to represent the nothingness you go to when you cease to exist?
If there are more explicit hints I haven’t found them, my guess would be it’s intentionally left up to interpretation but if not I’d be interested in knowing this too.
I think this is because the focus on ALKA/Pocket is more on the relationship between Umi and Shiroha, while Hairi is important the core of these routes is about those two trying to save each other and sacrificing themselves in the process, personally I found this extremely powerful.
Since Hairi never dies, it seems unlikely he’d be a butterfly, it seems more natural to assume it’s just because Umi is Hairi’s daughter and because of Shiroha’s mother.
I don’t think there is, outside of finding a video or extracting them directly from the script.
Kyoko-san also knows, she even “asked” Shiroha’s mom if the outcome was for the best.
Some people found z3136 in koe file includes (it is unprotected file) the lacking part.
According to them, it’s like (Spoiler from hidden data)
雨が止むと、蝶は大きな虹になっていました。
世界を包むような、とてもきれいな架け橋です。
みんなが見上げてありがとうといいました。 .(quotes from here)
So this part is corresponding to the rainbow paper airplane in the final arc. The paper airplane finally connect Shiroha and Hairi. (And it returns to where it should be, maybe suggesting reincarnation)
Some people doubts that one of Shichieicho in Ao route is Hairi (the one in which a man lost his daughter and wife). But it seems the situation is quite different from Hairi.
.
I looked through discussion in 2ch (5ch?) and finds some interesting perspective.
On a fundamental level, galge are pretty far from gender equality. But on a case-by-case level, I wouldn’t say Hairi and Shiroha’s relationship is unequal especially when their relationship is mirrored in Shiroha’s parents. I’m not really sure I see what you mean is supposed to be a moral issue though; there’s nothing redeemable about the original timeline.
On a side node, I wouldn’t make light of Hairi’s trauma. The dude gets violent flashbacks. It’d be interesting to hear someone in the know’s take on that compared to the much less realistic depictions like Komari.
Looking for all the KanaHana narration scenes, but I’m not finding all the lines in the z0264 folder.
1-17 Start of the game
18-42 First route
43-62 Second route
63-82 Third route
83-102 Forth route
103-136 Alka between 21st and 22nd
137-139 ? [Calling out to the the shadow with no answer]
140-167 Start of Pocket
168-172 ? [Calling for mother and reaching for the Moon]
kinda late to the party. I finished this game few months ago so i’m writing this based on my memory. I liked the idea of the arc, I liked the climax (final scene), but overall it’s a little bit underwhelming because of the slightly lack of development form the start of the route to that final scene. It was a slice of life of Nanami with a loli Shiroha and suddenly one day, (s)he decided to pull the trigger and that’s it. The transition seems a bit rushed and sudden. I loved the conversation between Umi and Shiroha at the end, but the author could’ve build-up the emotion of the readers more before he reached the final scene.
The whole route just felt too short as well compared to Alka. I would love to have seen more of Nanami’s intermediate thoughts about Shiroha and who (s)he really is instead of jumping from knowing nothing to knowing everything in a split second.
A 3 to 3.5/5 from me.
i have some questions
(miss some little details because my japanese grammar not that good)
1. why shiroha cant buy the suikaba herself?
2. Ai not wake up if you doing other routes right? :’(
3. true reason why umi gone? is it because hairi and shiroha not married again?
4. in the true end, hairi married with shiroha again or no?
5. why kamome still appear in the island? didnt her wish already fulfilled? what happened to her in the true end? she didnt rest in peace, wandering forever?
6. tsumugi true identity? is tsumugi lighthouse only an astral from actual tsumugi memory
I have thought hard about a lot of things and here is what I came up with, lmk what you guys think
Why does Umi transform into Nanami?
Possible answer: Since too many time iterations have gone by Umi needs to disguise herself so past Shiroha cannot recognize Umi at all.
Why does past Shiroha and Shiroha show up at the same time during the sacred tree clearing scene?
Possible answer: This area is a place where time behaves very differently, past, present, and future come together so we see two Shirohas.
Why is it that this final time iteration that we know Shiroha won’t die?
Possible answer: Since this time around Umi has erased herself from existence she will no longer be born. We can think of Umi as the cursed child and her only goal was to save Shiroha from death during childbirth.
Why does Umi go to the events 10 years prior to the main events?
Possible answer: Umi needs to find out the truth behind the Shichiechou and the only way to do so is to go back to when Shiroha’s parents disappeared. We learn that Shiroha’s mother used her innate power to transform into a Shichiechou to meet her husband again (clearly irresponsible parent to leave her child alone). After Umi learns of the truth behind Shichiechou, Umi then prevents Shiroha from using the power herself and to live according to the present and not the past.
What really caused Shiroha’s death in the first place?
Possible answer: At first we thought that only one person at a time can carry the power but clearly this is not true since Shiroha and her mother both had the power when they were alive. This question remains a mystery still…
What is Shiroha’s family power specifically?
Possible answer: Due to a calamity that happened long ago on the island her family has carried the power to foresight the future and also to sacrifice oneself and turn into a Shichiechou in order to reunite with deceased ones and travel into the past or future.
What does the Shichiechou symbolize? What is its purpose?
Possible answer: simply put, memories and the soul of a person itself.
The good:
-Shichiechou are past memories that can be used to save people who are close to death (Ao route)
-Shichiechou are able to traverse across time to meet a loved one
-Shichiechou can help grant wishes and create good memories
The bad:
-Once one turns into a Shichiechou one is forever trapped in an endless timeline
-If one successfully accomplishes the goal of meeting or saving the targeted loved one then one is erased from existence since one has already given up their existence to traverse in time.
-One can take in lost memories via the Shichiechou however the body can only take in so many before the body’s own Shichiechou leaves the hosts body
Criteria A:
One who uses the power to traverse over time will disappear after they accomplish their task of saving a loved one or changing the future.
Criteria B:
One who uses the Shichiechou purely to obtain a good memory will not disappear and that only their projections will disappear. In the case of Tsumugi, her projection then becomes her true form after her wish is granted
How do each of the routes connect to the Shichiechou?
Possible answer:
Shiroha: We don’t really learn much of Shichiechou however we do come to a scene where Umi is at the sacred tree clearing which we learn from Alka is where she is able to continuously repeat the same summer over and over again.
Ao: The purpose of the Shichiechou was used to save Ai however Ao took in too many Shichiechou to find Ai’s
Kamome: Shichiechou here was used to help Kamome obtain a good memory.
Tsumugi: We learn that Tsumugi disappeared a long time ago. We can assume this is the work of the Shichiechou, although it is said that the power to traverse across time is a special power that is only possessed by Naruse family perhaps Tsumugi somehow obtained this power as well (not sure how). Tsumugi was trying to find her loved one and somehow turned into a Shichiechou, as a result she got trapped into the lighthouse which became tied with the sacred tree clearing. Since Tsumugi was never able to reunite with her loved one she made a reincarnation of herself in order to have a fun summer. Tsumugi then disappears after her wish is granted however her reincarnation is then given a chance to stay in the present timeline.
Why does Hairi meet Umi in the storage area in the final iteration?
Possible answer: Although it is true that Umi has erased herself from existence, Hairi has gone thru too many iterations that he still retains memories of Umi. Hairi doesn’t physically meet Umi, instead he just remembers that after touching the rainbow colored airplane that he has memories of Umi.
There are still a lot of stuff that feels fuzzy for me but this is the best I can do.
I still really want to know what is it that causes Shiroha’s death to begin with
Edit: I did some more analyses afterwards and also talked with some people as well as read some blog posts so you can ignore what I wrote above for some of the stuff
got any update?
