Discussion topic for Tsumugi’s arc & character in Summer Pockets. Feel free to discuss anything from the route, but mark any comparisons to events outside of her arc and the common route with the [spoiler] tag.
What would you rate this route?
0 voters
“This time that seemed infinite… Drifts away.”
Mugyu~?
Tsumugi is a bit of an anomaly on this island. She’s off in her own corner of the world, following the latest trends in waste collecting, and singing songs to herself. No one else really recognises or acknowledges her outside of the route, and it’s very strange. It’s a very isolated existence, one that rarely transcends the scope of this route. For that reason and many others I think this route works best as the final heroine route, leaving my ideal route order as Shiroha > Ao > Kamome > Tsumugi.
Tsumugi actually gets to meet some of the other characters in this route, but for the most part it’s just her, Oppai-san (who I also haven’t seen outside of this route) and Pairi. Together the three spend their time making boob jokes and singing songs. Tsumugi’s thing is that she wants to find something to do before she leaves. She’s a seemingly simple girl.
There is one of those “other character” interactions that I especially like. Tsumugi and Shiroha are adorable together. I love how they call each other after the foods they like: Watermelon Bar-san and Cotton Candy-san. It’s one of those details that, after having read Shiroha’s route, is charmingly funny. I wish the two got more time together.
I’m not fond of the other character dynamics in this route. I like that every character gets involved in this one, and in a way it does feel like the last hurrah for the heroine routes… But there is just so much of it. Every hour of the VN is the same. That’s a good way to describe the entire route I think.
The lighthouse-bound Tsumugi is interesting, but she is present for such a miniscule amount of time that it seems too little too late. The revelation at the end is amazing, but it comes at the tail end of a long repetitive journey. Everything else the route does is done in an average fashion, and despite empathising with the characters by the end of the story, overall it doesn’t connect with me.
I can see the route’s big moments. I can see where the emotion would be for others… But I’ve seen it all and I’ve seen too much. In that way it’s similar to Little Busters’ Komari. It’s not a bad route, it doesn’t do anything terribly… But it doesn’t do anything outstanding or even interesting.
I think, if you haven’t read many VNs, or if you really like Tsumugi’s character, you could completely fall in love with this route. All of the pieces are there to make it a good story… But it isn’t what I’m looking for from Summer Pockets. So I guess this route just isn’t for me… It’s great advertising for Pringles though.
So in Ao’s route you get to see the memory of Tsumugi-chan(ツムギ)'s husband-to-be. He continued to believe in her, but died in–presumably–WWII.
I think my route order has been less than ideal, but at the very least I am incredibly glad to have read Ao before Tsugumi for the above-mentioned revelation. It left quite an impression.
Moving onto discussing the route itself…I have to say it was quite a bumpy ride.
It starts off with regular visits to the cute lighthouse girl, Tsugumi, to kill time. Almost immediately, a new face is introduced in the form of, wait for it… “Miss Boobs”. Miss Boobs aka Mizuori Shizuku and Tsugumi’s best friend, thus becomes a main character for the rest of the route.
From there, it starts off with some pretty silly humor and is genuinely entertaining for a while. Unfortunately, it drags on far too long. They spend a great deal of time and effort side-stepping or otherwise outright ignoring their troubles. As if it was written this way on purpose so they could have it all blow up at once in the end for one nice big feel party.
When they finally start to confront their problems, it truly feels as if far too much time as has been used writing the previous feel-good slice of life content. Due to this, the details get heavily trimmed in the later half of the route. The half where I feel people would have actually wanted to read. We could have gotten a lot more interactions between Tsugumi, who is rarely seen in other routes, with the other girls.
Despite having said all that, the final scenes were well executed. Truly, a nice big feel party as you are lead to expect.
One more thing I’d like to mention is that the actual character interactions between the main three in this route feel really rough. Sometimes it really felt like they just didn’t… “click”. It felt awkward and forced.
As a closing, I’d like to ask if anyone else noticed an excessive absence of Umi in this route? She literally disappeared and I’m not sure if this has to do with the main story or the route itself.
EDIT: One thing I forgot I had wanted to mention was Tsugmi’s voice acting was superb. Although her verbal tick got a little old after a while, during emotional scenes I really felt the effort Iwai Emiri put into conveying the right emotions.
It worked for me. Tears were shed.
Feels about the same as the other routes except Shiroha’s.
TFW Tsumugi is a stuffed animal and constantly eats cotton candy
Edit: I guess her moe cry is also an onomatopoeia for something being squeezed or hugged.
“…and just like the clouds, the time flowed. Slowly, but certainly.”
Tsumugi’s route was as odd as Tsumugi herself. It was just so different from the rest of the game. Be it how the characters were presented, the type of moments some tracks were used in, the fact that they continue to use the day system after the 15th, and well… a lot of what I considered common sense in Summer Pockets.
First, I would like to state that, personally, I think Golden Hours is one of the best tracks in the entire game. It’s so full of joy, and I love the articulation on the brass and percussion. I think it reflects Tsumugi quite well (I just couldn’t couldn’t stop thinking on how pirate-y it sounds and that a certain pirate needed a better character theme though…).
Having everyone together was quite fun too. I honestly never thought I would get to see Kamome and Tsumugi together, for example. But either way, it felt like the scenario runned out of ideas to stuff the story with and then, to have something out of the main circle of the route, they decided to do those interactions with the more secondary characters just for the sake of it. It was cool seeing everyone together but it felt pretty meaningless.
Oppai-san was a character I really enjoyed reading. Her comic moments were the best and she seems like someone who would be really fun to talk with (well, now I know what cooper’s ligaments are). I still couldn’t help but notice that she needed two or three more sprites because sometimes the scenario didn’t match her sprite, specially in emotional scenes.
Tsumugi’s voice is just out of this world. There were times I simply couldn’t proceed reading because I was catatonic after bursting out in starfish mode. It’s sooo cute.
Some flashbacks and those scenes were they show us they having fun during the last week of summer vacation were a turn off. They dragged too much and just got nowhere. Quite unnecessary.
Although the story seemed a little stucked, just dwelling on the same things for a good while, I really liked the themes they explored in this route. Something I thought was very cool was how everyone got all euphoric to live their summer vacation to its fullest, almost like a battle against time. But, I mean, time wasn’t the villain here. Because even though time was the one who ended everything, time was too the one who made everything happen. I got the feeling that Hairi accepted that before leaving the island, and it left a really good feeling of resolve.
Well, my mind was quite overloaded when I finished this, and I honestly still don’t know what I really understood and what I didn’t, but it relieves me that there is something to be revealed in Ao’s route that complements Tsumugi’s route. Really relieved. Honestly, the ending of this route was too stuffed, and it couldn’t handle itself very well. Anyways, I’ll probably go back to reread some parts of Tsumugi’s route after finishing Ao’s, just in case.
Also, I actually experimented mugyu-ing some songs. It was a pretty enlightening experience (y’all should try it too) and I intend to do it again. Maybe later today…? Oh damn, what am I saying… I’ll do it right now!
mugyu… the most complicated route ever
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW AND COMMENTARY (or at least I’ll try)
Oh wow… what to say about this route?
A story about enjoying your summer vacation to it’s fullest, since time flies and those good days will eventually come to an end.
A girl who is searching for herself while also searching for what to do. In order to help her with these, two people from outside the island become friends with her and start doing all kinds of fun stuff together. Eventually, one of those friends would fall in love with her.
At first, I didn’t expect things would turn out the way it happened. Most of Tsumugi’s route was calm and nice, just like it was a continuation of the common route. Suddenly, everything turns darker and dramatic, making you feel more invested in the story in order to figure out the mistery about her past. At a certain point, the route becomes cheerful again until it reaches the final scene, when you start crying like a baby (it’s Key we’re talking about, after all).
The main point, however, is that you only fully figure out the mistery about Tsumugi’s backstory in the post-credits scene, after the route ends. Until then, the sequence of events will actually create more questions than give answers. I’m not sure if I liked that way of storytelling, specially because you usually don’t expect there would be an post-credits scene.
By the way, I’d like to point out something very suspcious. Like, what the hell happened with Umi-chan!? After the route starts, she literally disappear from the house, and Hairi and her aunt don’t even mention it, like if they completly forgot about her existence. Actually, there is a line where Hairi says “Tsumugi will sleep in a room that was being used until recently”, though he doesn’t even mention Umi-chan. Why has she vanished all of sudden? Could it be she also have misteries that will be revealed later on? Hm…
So in the end, I have mixed feelings about Tsumugi’s route. I honestly think the first part of her route was unecessarely long. Although I do understand they wanted us to spend a slice-of-life moment between the protagonist, Tsumugi and Shizuku, I think there was no need to be written in a daily system like the common route. They could’ve time skipped it a little and left only the most memorable days.
As for the dramatic part of the route, I loved the way they make you feel invested on the story, wanting to finish reading the route all at once. However, the fact that the mistery isn’t fully explained until the post-credits scene still bugs me.
The finale of route, well… I don’t even have words to describe it. It’s totally Key-like, so you better prepare your tissues in advance.
So, for now, I’ll give it 4/5. The route isn’t perfect and it sure does have its problems, but when it ends and you start crying like a baby, you’ll most likely think it was worth it reading.
Yeah, I figured out Tsumugi’s “Mugyu” would be related to the sound a stuffed animal makes when squeezed. This only made the post-credits scene even more sad and hard to endure…
I haven’t noticed the cotton candy part though. It really makes sense now that you mention it.
I haven’t participated much in individual character discussions during my time here on Kazamatsuri, so even though it’s been a while since I played her route (and Summer Pockets), I think I want to briefly write down my thoughts about Tsumugi, my favourite character in Summer Pockets.
I should start off by saying that, while very enjoyable, I don’t think Tsumugi’s route is the best story told in the game (that’s coming from her route’s translator). Tsumugi certainly hits all the right moe spots, but I think one thing that I really like about her personality is just how caring and considerate she is despite her circumstances. This shows in multiple areas: when she invites Hairi to play in the water with her, how she decided to take up (Katakana) Tsumugi’s place so that others won’t forget about her, how bad she feels when she starts meeting up late in the mornings, and especially when she breaks down in tears after she couldn’t go on that trip off the island with Hairi and Shizuku.
One part that always gets me is the final night as they walk down the candlelit path, especially when she tells Hairi about Katou-san. While I find them talking about all the things they would do in a future that wasn’t meant to be very emotional, the particular bit about her conversation with his grandmother feels to me that’s when Tsumugi’s kindness and hard work over the years are finally redeemed.
So while I am not sure I would call Tsumugi best girl (I find that very difficult to decide with Summer Pockets), she has certainly earned a very special place in my heart that isn’t matched by many other Key characters.
Mugyu. Let’s get dangerous.
