#live neku reaction | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mageknight14 · 8 months

Text

Shoka Had a Hard Life: A NEO TWEWY analysis post

Posting yet another analysis thread from Twitter into a Tumblr format.

In a cast full of interesting and fleshed-out characters, I find Shoka to be one of the most fascinating in how she's written and one thing I find really interesting about her character in NEO TWEWY is how her prickliness serves both to protect herself as a façade and also speaks to real genuine facets of herself and how it doesn’t fully go away like some people would claim.

Throughout NEO, it’s heavily implied that Shoka didn’t exactly have the best life before she had joined the UG, to the point that she would rather stay in the afterlife than go back to her old life. Based off of some of her comments, reactions to Rindo’s insinuations about how she must've hated being a Reaper and was forced into it, and her not being as broken up over Shinjuku compared to others, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that she came from a broken home, one where she was powerless when it came to the choices in her own life.

So much so to the point that she didn’t mind flat out erasure as opposed to going back. However, when she had gained actual control of her life for the first ever, she fully embraced it, going so overboard with her newfound power that she had become a Reaper due to her prowess. In a lot of ways, Shoka shares a lot in common with Joshua in this regard when you consider the backstory he told Neku, with both of them feeling trapped and powerless in their lives and being heavily implied to be suicidal. However, whereas Joshua came to know about the UG through outside means (Hanekoma) and actively chose to put himself into the Game, it’s implied that Shoka didn’t know anything about that life before she had lost her own and when she had come across actual power and the ability to have some actual agency, she jumped onto the opportunity.

The rules of the Shinjuku Games demand that in order to get ahead of life, you have to become brutal and ruthless just to stay alive, which is a mindset heavily inspired by Shinjuku’s focus on business culture and sociality. I think it’s pretty telling that one of the key rules in Shinjuku is that once you're out of being a Reaper, Erasure is your only choice. Not even playing to come back to life, like Beat did in the Shibuya Games, just flat-out Erasure. If you can’t keep up, tough. Much like the original TWEWY's Game, it's a dog-eat-dog world out there.

Because of this, it should come to no surprise that due to a combination of this harsh environment and her own home life, Shoka came to enjoy lording her power and taking out her frustrations on others. You can see this with how she thoroughly enjoys kicking the shit out of Motoi. Not just because she was aware of how he was manipulating Rindo, her best friend (though that’s certainly part of it) but because she was taking out her frustrations after having to deal with her feelings of being caught between said best friend and her found family.

When it comes to children with broken homes, they are prone to imprinting on any adult figure that interacts positively with them and in Shoka's case, this is exactly what she did with the Shinjuku Reapers. Note how the first thing she asks of Ayano after her first day of training with her is for her to never leave Shoka. And at this point, you can hardly blame her. Even with her newfound powers and lease at life (or un-life if you will), she's still a kid amongst adults with loads more experience than she has had at this point of time. And after this, she ends up becoming attached to the Shinjuku Reapers as her newfound family, and she even admits as such to Rindo (except for Kubo because he's a prick.)

This is a very big contrast to how the Shibuya Reapers from the previous game worked, with the majority of them, except for Uzuki, Kariya, and the Def March, all being prone towards stabbing each other in the back if the opportunity presented itself, like Konishi and Kitaniji, Sho and just about everyone, and Kitaniji and the Reapers in general. By comparison, the Shinjuku Reapers all care for one another and its' implied that the rules of Shinjuku's Reaper hierarchy allowed for the Reapers to become less emotionally detached and able to form genuine connections with one another.

You can also see from the way that she snaps at Rindo and Ayano and some of her battle quotes that Shoka has a LOT of pent-up aggression and anger issues bottled up inside, as well as some self-loathing and resentment for when she lets those aspects out.

Combine this with how Ayano likes to gaslight her in an misguided attempt to keep her safe, her friends/family more or less turning away from her to keep up the illusion of the Game, and it’s no wonder that the girl is an absolute mental wreck.

And that's not even getting into her passive suicidal ideation. She has little-to-no regard for her own life unless it concerns that people she cares about and even then, she’ll still toss it away for them. Ayano is possessed and is about to attack the party? Shoka throws caution to the wind, ignoring Rindo’s warnings, and almost gets herself killed. Her reaction to her inevitable Erasure at the end of the week due to her not being a Reaper anymore? She’s more concerned about how it will effect Rindo rather than how she’s going to, well, fade away from existence. Hell, when Shiba offers her a chance to become a Reaper again, she refuses, not wanting spend another moment of her unlife watching life around her pass by. And that's not even getting into how her Telewarp power transports her to high places, usually over the edge of a building...

And even when she does join the Wicked Twisters, she still doesn’t tell Rindo the truth because of what will happen to her at the end of week 3. She didn’t want Rindo to go through the heartbreak of finding out that he got to be with his best friend before she inevitably dies at the end of the week and was content to die without him ever finding out. It was only when Erasure seemed inevitable for ALL of them (which isn’t helped by how the Noise gets stronger with each time jump) in the second-to-last timeline that she goes “fuck it” and tells him the truth.

So, with all of this in mind, it's no fucking wonder that she latches on so quickly to the Rindo and the Wicked Twisters, both as Swallow and her IRL self.

Imagine this; the small new life you've created for yourself after escaping your depressive old one implodes because your boss has seemingly lost his mind and helped blow up your city, one of your friends (Tsugumi) gets lobotomized into a robot and your boss tells you to fuck off instead of telling you why, another friend (Susukichi) gets conscripted to be a fake player all day every day, the boss's best friend (Hishima) has pulled away since he went crazy, the woman who you see as your big sister and has been taking care of you this whole time (Ayano) has to take his place instead, and then there's the creepy old guy (Kubo) you always hated.

You then have to spend every day for years on end supervising a BS game where nothing matters because your boss will just declare his own secret team the winner every time anyway and all you do is supervise the players you've been assigned to and make sure they keep marching into the meat grinder day after day by upholding the lie that they could win the game and escape. Over time, you start to realize you are complicit in the murder of probably hundreds of people all so you can blow up a city and murder millions more. You then lose faith in the mission but have to keep going along with it because no one is willing to betray their old friend even if he's nuts now. Your honeymoon phase with your powers is over because what's even the point when you can only use it on small fry players that can't challenge you at all and your friends have all been pulled away from you and so you probably spend most of your evenings alone.

And your one reprieve from all of this?

Talking to the one online friend that you met through a PokemonGo Clone and giving them some life advice.

Imagine spending some years of your life in a broken home TWICE and then coming across a group of people who not only accept you for who you are but also promise to be there for you no matter what and comfort/stand up for you however they can.

And it’s through their influence that you can see Shoka’s hidden kindness (which was previously hinted at with her interactions with Rindo as Swallow as well as the little ghost Shinjuku girl) shine on through when put into a positive reinforcement environment.

Hell, just compare how she initially reacts to sidequests, from begrudgingly helping out others when on pressed time to jumping onto the chance to help people out.

Of course, none of her issues just end up going away overnight. She still has a lot of she needs to work through but she’s actively trying to improve on herself.

I think the most impressive thing about all of this is that none of these traits feel contradictory. Like a lot of characters in NEO, Shoka is written like an actual human being whose certain personality traits manifest more prominently depending on the context of a situation. Like you and me, they aren't 100% consistent. Their personalities are steady but they react a little differently day to day depending on how they're feeling, in a way that feels genuine. Forgive me if I sound pretentious but the TWEWY devs just get people and how they act.

Shoka in particular is a great look at the effects a positive and/or toxic environment can have on a person and their outlook and I’m legitimately impressed by the level of nuance the writers had when it came to her (and this goes for the NEO cast in general, really) character.

#neo twewy #neo the world ends with you #twewy #the world ends with you #shoka sakurane #shoka twewy #analysis post

120 notes · View notes

aria0fgold · 8 months

Text

Hi, I'm Aria! Am now 24 years old >:3

'tis me ^ (old art but it's all I got. resized to tiny. as I am.)

'tis me too ^ (new art yay! resized as tiny once again.)

Any pronouns okay! I don't mind really! I use she/her for myself :3

Am writer!!! Aria0fGold in ao3 too, and a beginner artist! I have many interests :D But I'm currently hyperfixated on two, OMORI and Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku (Mahoyaku/mhyk for short). You're gonna see me talk a lot bout em.

──────⊹⊱✧⊰⊹──────

List of My OMORI AUs ehe

──────⊹⊱✧⊰⊹──────

Other interests are:

Detective Conan (Conan my disastrous son...)

Project Sekai (Emu is a sweetheart of a daughter and Akito is a rebellious son whose white knight card never came home)

AI: The Somnium Files (Mizuki and Iris are my daughters now and I will follow Boss to the ends of the world)

Pokemon (My childhood, only played up to B/W2 though and pmd sky? + the time one. It's been years since then)

TWEWY (Neku was a jerk but he was my jerk of a son and you're doing good sweetie)

Honkai Impact 3rd (Rarely play it now but Seele and Veliona are my daughters, Elysia and Eden are my queens)

Genshin Impact (Barely play it now too but Qiqi, Noelle, and Yoimiya are my daughters. And I hate Childe[lovingly])

Honkai Star Rail (Active in it, Asia server ehe. Seele all grown up now, proud of her. I hate Luocha and Kafka[lovingly])

And many more!!! Those are the ones I can list off the top of my head but there's lots more, like other anime, games, manga, manwha, manhua, songs (Mili)!

I love OCs too! I love anyone's OCs! I have a lot of OCs but you'll sometimes see me talking about mainly 5 (Alec, Ray, Water, Sephirah, Mel) + 1, the plus one is my OMORI OC that I've been neglecting for a while, sorry bout that Patch, dear.

──────⊹⊱✧⊰⊹──────

A list of my tags! I need this myself too:

aria rants - for when I talk about nearly anything

aria rbs - for reblogs (aria srb for self reblog)

ariart - for my art! :3

arianswer - for when I answer asks!

ariau - for my AUs! It's mainly OMORI AUs though!

ariawrites - for the very rare writing I put out

ariafic - for posting links of fics that I've written :D

ariaplays: [name of game here] - for when I live blog some of my reactions for a game I'm playing, used it for aistf! (ariaplays: aistf, the tag for it basically)

There's more, I'm sure there's more, but I can't remember them... But those are the main ones I use anyway so that's fine!

──────⊹⊱✧⊰⊹──────

Some more stuff about me:

Can be very talkative, I like rambling in the tags a lot, I put many additional thoughts there ehe.

I adore Omori (character) a lot, he is the bestest ever. And I adore Cain Knightley very much, and Owen, and I am a caiowe/owecai shipper (they make me insane)

There's multiple ships that I like in OMORI. I like photobomb, as well as sunflower, and kel/basil (I failed you both I'm sorry I don't know your shipname), suntan, sunny/aubrey (I failed em too, I'm sorry my brain aint braining well with remembering shipnames). Even the polycule ships are nice too. And heromari, of course :D

Feel free to send me asks! or dms! or tag me! I don't mind really, I like interacting with people. But at the same time I can be an awkward bunny that also doesn't know how to interact with people... unless you're a mutual, you'll be seeing me a lot then >:3

It's a surprise really how I managed to have mutuals, I love yall <3

──────⊹⊱✧⊰⊹──────

Aaannndd that's a wrap! Might edit this in the future to add more or something but I'm satisfied with this for now! Thank you for reading and have a nice day ehe! :3

#aria rants #introduction #this was harder than i thought #but it was fun nonetheless ehe!#aria intro #yea most of my tags consist of my name cuz why not #new pinned

8 notes · View notes

voicefromthecorner · 1 year

Text

Shoka’s Telewarp Essay (from YouTube)

I’ve been on a bit of a TWEWY binge since beating NEO and I came across a remarkably good essay in the YouTube comment section of NicoB’s NEO Playthrough ending, linked here.

Link to the specific comment here.

The essay is about Shoka and what her character’s ‘Telewarp’ power represents. It’s a really good essay in general that massively cracks open Shoka’s perspective and experiences that I just had to share it here. YouTube’s comment sections are often justifiably called a den of snakes, but there are some gems in there that some people type out just because they can.

I’ve tried my best to screencap it at a decent size and quality but Tumblr may make mincemeat out of it so there’s a transcript below.

Fair warning beforehand, the essay delves into Shoka’s “passive suicidal ideation”:

I can honestly say that “Shoka’s Telewarp ability allowing her to take her friends to out-of-reach and usually very high up places is indicative of her lack of regard for her own life and how her sole set of values are on other people around her” was not something on my NEO TWEWY bingo card, but special thanks to thebigchungus 451 for drawing so much attention to that and the plethora of other behind-the-scenes issues that Shoka was facing that make her an even more tragic character than she always seemed on the surface.

Even after the liveblog is done and I’ve finished the main story, I have a quota of “Poor Shoka” lines to meet!

Transcript:

43:23 This entire segment [The scene between Shoka and Rindo after Shiba reveals that Shoka is going to be erased for leaving the Reapers] is so interesting to me because it reveals so many layers to Shoka’s character. Throughout NEO, the main cast are shown to have the ability to use unique kinds of Psychs and these tie into their character traits/arcs.

Rindo is indecisive and can’t be arsed to make decisions, to the point that he couldn’t even decide what to eat before he found out about An0ther and decided to live his life by teachings without understanding what they truly meant and thus, he has the ability to time travel and redo his mistakes.

Fret is shown to have PTSD regarding his inability to prevent his best friend from committing suicide and has trouble with being genuine to his true self, so his ability is to trigger people’s thoughts and memories and on the very final day, he’s able to remind the people of Shibuya of their true selves after being subjected to Shibuya Syndrome.

Nagi is highly empathetic, sometimes dangerously so and is shown to be reluctant when it comes to trying to understand certain types of people so she has the ability to dive into people’s hearts and get a feel for their true selves.

A consistent part of Beat’s characterization is his inability to be there in time for the people he cares about most and his frustration over said inability, such as when he failed to save Rhyme multiple times in the OG and his failure in saving Neku from getting shot by Coco in A New Day, so naturally he has super speed, with said ability being tied to his desire to never again be too late to protect his loved ones.

And finally, there’s Shoka and her Telewarp ability and how this ties into a core aspect of her character: her passive suicidal ideation.

Throughout the game, it is shown that she has little-to-no regard for her own life unless it concerns the people she cares about and even then, she’ll still toss it away for them if the stakes are high enough. Ayano is possessed and is about to attack the party? Shoka throws caution to the wind, ignoring Rindo’s warnings, and almost gets herself killed. Her reaction to her inevitable Erasure at the end of the week due to her not being a Reaper anymore? She’s more concerned about how it will effect Rindo rather than how she’s going to, well, fade away from existence. Hell, when Shiba offers her a chance to become a Reaper again, she refuses, not wanting spend another moment of her unlife watching life around her pass by.

And that’s not even getting into how Telewarp has the tendency to teleport her and the others to high places/ledges or how she tells Rindo that she preferred Erasure over going back to the RG when they talk before fighting Ayano.

She has the tendency to isolate and distance herself emotionally from others, even from those she’s closest to (such as Ayano and Rindo), is painfully bored with life (or afterlife, as the case may be) to the point of losing interest in things she once found enjoyment in, such as her Reaper duties and is oftentimes cynical and pessimistic, having a hard time mustering the willpower to fight for things she believes in, which is partially why it takes her until Week 3 to stand up to Shiba and the other Shinjuku Reapers for both Rindo’s and Shibuya’s sake.

And honestly it’s no wonder why when you consider the events that happened: the small new life you've created for yourself after escaping your depressive old one implodes because your boss has seemingly lost his mind and helped blow up your city, one of your friends (Tsugumi) gets lobotomized into a robot and your boss tells you to fuck off instead of telling you why, another friend (Susukichi) gets conscripted to be a fake player all day every day, the boss's best friend (Hishima) has pulled away since he went crazy, the woman who you see as your big sister and has been taking care of you this whole time (Ayano) has to take his place instead, and then there's the creepy old guy (Kubo) you always hated.

Her biggest sources of conflict with leaving the Shinjuku Reapers was leaving those she cared about, such as Ayano and Susukichi. Her own existence never really mattered to her; she never questioned once whether she was willing to give up her own life for Shibuya’s sake. Ayano did—Ayano fought to have Shoka rejoin the Reapers for that very reason. But Shoka herself didn’t care very much. You even see hints at this too on Week 3 Day 2 when the wall Reaper you talk to in Dogenzaka starts to talk about how he can’t blame Ayano for freaking out over Shoka because they all know what happens to former Reapers at the end of the week and Shoka is shown to be briefly saddened by this.

And finally, there’s about how she didn’t tell Rindo the truth about her identity until she was literally on the verge of dying in the second-to-last timeline: she didn’t want Rindo to go through the heartbreak of finding out that he got to be with his best friend before she inevitably dies at the end of the week and was content to die without him ever finding out. It was only when Erasure seemed inevitable for ALL of them (which isn’t helped by how the Noise gets stronger with each time jump) that she goes “fuck it” and tells him the truth.

This is honestly a part of why I love NEO’s character writing more than the original’s (which is still very strong, mind you). All of these little details are so subtle but when you put them all together, it paints a really strong and consistent picture of the characters that helps to flesh them out beyond what you see on the surface.

#neo the world ends with you #ntwewy #twewy #shoka sakurane #essay #analysis #youtube #interesting

18 notes · View notes

hectopascals · 2 years

Text

live slug reaction

#twewy #the world ends with you #neku sakuraba #joshua kiryu #twewy neku #twewy joshua #another day spoilers #live slug reaction #kinda looks like the slug is saying it which is funny too methinks.

168 notes · View notes

sofiisu · 3 years

Text

How’s my aim?

Screenshot redraw from episode 6 of the twewy ani!

#twewy #the world ends with you #subarashiki kono sekai #subaseka #joshua kiryu #yoshiya kiryu #neku sakuraba #does this count as spoilers?#uh #I don’t know #ANYways that episode huh gamers #I’ve been showing twewy to my friend and so far birb’s been liking it #birb is also crying about joshua #:) birb’s not ready for the final episode #I will live vicariously through birb’s reaction #fhdhdhf anyways I loved this and last episode #I loved the episodes so much that I did a screenshot redraw #I just think week 2 is neat :]

111 notes · View notes

sunder-the-gold · 2 years

Text

How I learned to stop worrying and Daisuki the Bito

Alternative title: “How I learned to stop dismissing and love the Beat.”

Or, as a Redditor put it: “Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life thinking it is stupid.”

Bito “Beat” Daisukenojo isn’t stupid.

His teachers think he’s stupid, his parents think he’s stupid, even his little sister might think he’s stupid, so he thinks he’s stupid. But he’s not, no matter how much he lowers himself to their expectations.

Beat isn’t built for sitting quietly and attentively for most of the day as someone recites historical facts to memorize for the next test, or shows him mathematical formulas without using practical application to show him their value.

Beat lives in the immediate and practical Now, rather than the immutable past or the hypothetical future. He's built to react, move, jump, swing, and lift. A body as buff as his doesn’t happen accidentally!

In olden days or less wealthy cultures, Beat’s parents would have favored him over his sister, because his quick reactions and focus on physical activity would protect them from wild animals, ruffian neighbors, going hungry because no one tilled the hard soil, going cold because no one chopped down a tree and hewed it into planks to repair their house. Their parents would have constantly scolded Rhyme for having her head in the clouds when immediate, physical work needed doing.

In post-industrial, super-urban Tokyo, their parents don’t need any of those physical tasks done, so they favor Rhyme for naturally fitting into the current, academically-focused nature of Japan’s education system and employment market.

Since the Olympics wouldn't include skateboarding until the year 2020 (held in Japan, as it turns out), the most room that Japan’s education system and culture had for someone like Beat is formalized martial arts clubs. But formalized, sporting martial arts just don’t involve enough movement and danger for Beat.

He needs the wild freedom of skateboarding to challenge his mind as much as his body. He doesn’t want to start and stop in tightly-controlled rounds, he wants to achieve a perfect flow that ends only when he wants to stop, with his environment and his own imperfections serving as the obstacles to overcome.

That’s where his Imagination focuses. Skating is as much a craft, a performance art for him as sewing is a constructive craft and art for Shiki. He paints a fleeting masterpiece with the movement of his body.

Why do you think his latent Psyche is Sound Surfing?

Why can merely human Beat move faster than Reapers or even the likes of Arma Leo Cantus? Fast enough to evade an entire city of Players and Reapers hunting him for a few days?

Because none of them live as much in The Moment as Beat. Susukichi and Minamimoto carefully plan their moves ahead before they act, but Beat dedicated himself to jumping first and planning his landing in-midair. He’s crashed and bled so many times precisely to toughen himself up for bad landings, and to learn how to salvage bad jumps.

Even three years ago, even after losing his Reaper powers, Beat could shock Sakuraba “Legendary Player” Neku with his sheer brute force. Beat could outright smash his way through lesser Reaper Wall barriers that Neku didn’t even consider trying to break.

Whether Neku could have done the same hardly matters if Neku didn’t ever think to try, while Beat never stopped long enough to question whether he could. The ability to succeed belongs only to those who try.

Edit: Beat explicitly states that he used a “keypin” to smash the wall open.

#my twewy posts #the world ends with you #subarashiki kono sekai #twewy #bito daisukenojo #daisukenojo bito #beat #ntwewy #shin subarashiki kono sekai #neo: the world ends with you #skateboarding #athleticism #athletes #olympics #performance art

100 notes · View notes

greysfall · 3 years

Text

My 4444-word review of NEO TWEWY (with personal illustration + heavy spoilers)

My overall critical score for the game is 7.5/10, while my personal enjoyment score is 8.5/10. This review is posted as I have 80% completed the game, got the secret ending and achieved the Angel psychic rank. I’ll first start with the main pros and cons as follows.

PROS:

- Enjoyable as a whole, still upholding the first game’s spirit in world building and sharing the same backbone - which was mostly revealed in the Secret Reports, it’s impossible to grasp the story without reading them.

- The new cast and new game is charming in their own way

- The old cast’s return is one of the biggest highlights for sure, it was fun and impactful. Everyone stays true to themselves and also had their own stories wrapped up nicely.

- Boss designs are cool, new pins are fun to use and collect

- The connection between the old and new cast is well written and executed, including but are not limited to the tension between the old and new protagonist, the weird but fun interaction between the 2 Composers, the new friendships revealed and formed

- Sho being in the main cast is something so uniquely TWEWY and uniquely Sho

- Still good music

- Still many fun side quests, some of them really uphold the same quirky spirit of the old game and some are surprisingly touching

- Many new nice stores and yummy looking foods to explore

- The map is really easy to memorize for me, it’s fun to travel around the “current” Shibuya to see all the differences compared to the past

- The social network is crazy and interesting to read through

- Has an anti-frustration system to help 100% complete the game more easily and earn money faster, so post-game is relatively managable.

- Overall, I really feel the efforts the team poured into making this as their passion project, not just during the development process but for all the last 14 years. They showed the vision of what they wanted to make, at the same time giving something to both the old as well as new fans.

CONS:

- The biggest problem with the game is scenario writing. The story is so heavily back-loaded. The director himself thought it would be better to balance out the tension flow by adding more at the beginning but gave in to the scenario writer in the end, probably due to time pressure. This results in an underwhelming execution of characterization and lots of wasted potentials for the first half of the game.

- I struggle to view it as a stand-alone game, since the backstory and the old cast both play such an important role in the core of the game. If someone plays this game without having played the OG, they can only enjoy it on surface value at best.

- The new cast is nice but most of them aren’t quite as intriguing as the old cast, maybe it’s cuz they’re all too nice deep down that they lack a little bit of an edge, of that batshit craziness that everyone in the OG used to have? I think some characters (Fret, Nagi) ended up weaker in terms of characterization because the writer is too afraid of making them unlikeable – which kind of backlashed cuz they only became likable in the most expectable way to cater for a specific group of fans. I would have wished for the other team leaders to be more crazy too, had they not suffered 30+ loops of the Game…

- The CAMERAWORK IS HELL.

- Gameplay does get tedious at certain points with all the time travels.

- Shiba is so badly written as a villain, some Shinjuku characters should be given more screentime cutting into Shiba’s– like Hishima or Kaie or even, Hazuki (though his limited presence also solidified his importance).

- Some of the main character designs, for example Beat’s hairstyle and his food reactions are hilariously bad. What’s the point of covering up most of his unique facial features?

- Some of the minor/side characters’ design are too cool for them to have such a small role (eg: Ayano, Eiru). Ryoji did get much screentime but is nowhere as fun as Makoto was.

- Overall the scope of this game is made a little too big for the team to handle as perfectly as the last game that was very compact, it felt somewhat rushed in development too so the missing pieces are clearly there in the final picture

The entry fee versus paying for it all in the end

An important difference between the Neo game and the original Shibuya game was that the Shibuya rule asked for an entry fee that is the Player’s most important asset, stated as a chance the Composer gives them to reexamine themselves. Meanwhile, the Shinjuku rule neither encourages nor allows personal growth and ultimately aims to erase as many Players as possible. It’s a pity we were never introduced to the full Shinjuku rulebook, as it seems like the system there focuses more on building up power and a grand government to compare with the individuality-driven system of Shibuya.

When you have to compare the new game and the original game (OG), this is an important factor to consider. Also, the OG has a serious storyline running through and through, locked with a different partner/GM creating unique atmosphere for each week and you don’t get to see your old partners again until the end. NEO’s team system does not allow such deep insight and communication between the Players. All of your teammates are always there throughout, the dynamic does change with each new addition but it is not as prominent as a partner change.

Another important factor is how the OG was built from scratch for a new platform as “something no one has ever seen before”, while Neo recycled a lot of old unused ideas from the previous development (check out this interview for more details). The development team for NEO lacks 2 key members and had a change of writer so the final product is not as strongly bound together as the last game.

The new cast is definitely inspired by today’s teenagers (from the view of creators), compared to the old cast they’re more sociable and always seem to take whatever works for them despite feeling unstable inside. They are all innocent and genuinely nice kids, avoiding to hurt each other to a degree that they end up keeping some sort of distance. They’re also unable to communicate at deeper levels, always stagnant at this half-baked stage of equilibrium without any motivation to get to the core of things. That is the cost of entering the game without an entry fee, without even dying or having a reason to be there/to fight seriously. These kids were stolen from the RG into a Game that was decidedly the worst environment for them to change or develop, just wandering around cluelessly to find a way “out” until tragedies started to unfold one by one and they ended up being charged the total sum of the price for their actions – ultimately losing everything in the end.

That is, I believe, a story arc which can resonate more to the youth of today rather than of my generation. If the message of the old game was to “listen”, enjoy life to the fullest and accept to trust others, the message of the new game is to “speak up” from the inside, trying to understand yourself and take actions instead of just going with the flow and finally, to take responsibility for such actions.

If Neku was handpicked by the Composer for being the special one with an all-dense soul to ensure victory of the game then Rindo was just a normal kid chosen out of random by Kubo to be his back-up plan, who just happened to have a high enough imagination to awaken the incredible power from his pin. Rindo was then officially chosen by the Composer as Josh picked up and handed the pin to him again, this time not as Josh’s personal Proxy – but as the Proxy to represent the normal people of Shibuya and via whom he could gamble if humans can fight for their own fate.

The underworld heroine and the hero with little of his own

Shoka is for me a refreshing and layered heroine. She’s the kind of character that took at least 3 trials of creators to form as a complete individual – that included Nomura who gave her the base design and Reaper background, Gen who gave a more cunning touch and the writers who made her English dialogues more punchy. Dishonesty equals “tsundere” is such a cliché, so the English writers tried really hard to avoid that trope in my opinion, while still letting her good intention come through.

She serves as the character who is informed of everything the players should have known, and there was almost nothing she could do about it. Almost. Until she met Rindo.

They were drawn to each other by sharing a state of “not having anything of their own”. They both started out with not being able to truly know themselves, Shoka even hated her RG life but also managed to mature from that stage before Rindo. She must have vibed with Shiki’s love and passion in the Gatto Nero threads, initiating her connection with Shibuya and understanding herself more. With Shoka as Swallow, they were able to open up to each other and offer mental support… but was still not getting to the centre of their problems because for all this time, Shoka could not tell Rindo the most important things about herself.

How did Shoka feel when she met Rindo at the UG? She probably didn’t want to hope that he would live the day until she witnessed the Twisters’ potentials. From the very beginning, they were both incredibly conscious of each other and also constantly frustrated that the person they happened to “notice” was such a condescending bitch/a clueless loser. The Shinjuku Reapers are overall quite drunk in power and uncompassionate to Players, Shoka included. She is also a master of dissociation, which results in her constant boredom, tone swings, haughtiness and subconsciously distancing herself from the friend – the boy she cares about – from false hope, as she judged from facts that it was a hopeless situation where nothing could ever be. Maybe she is naturally a bit of a chameleon just like her name suggests (Shoka 紫陽花 = hydrangea, the color-changing flower), so putting on an act and always dissociating herself from what’s important was easy, while hiding her contradiction was impossible. It was the ex-Reaper Beat who broke it out to her, that she should decide whether she really cared and wanted to do something for a change. He knew how it felt like to cross that line, and knew she wanted to too.

Shoka is endeared by many of the Shinjuku Reapers and has shown independent acts of kindness (the Shinjuku ghost), proving that her kind and truthful side is as real as her harsh and dishonest side – which makes her a nice mirror to the previous heroine Shiki, who also embraced a dichotomy of self-complex and self-love within her character. In the end, she was the first of the new cast to ultimately accept all that is important to her and independently made the decision to help save Shibuya despite all costs.

She was jealous at Rindo’s interaction with Tsugumi and Kanon but remained silent cuz she wasn’t at a place to have any say about it. She also didn’t reveal about Swallow because that would only add an awkward irrelevance to their current situation, as she was too ready to face erasure at the end of the Game. She only wished to “play a game” with him, be it FanGo or the Reapers’ Game. The tension that the team could only feel at the end, she’s felt it the entire time. The song “DIVIDE” is applicable to not just one bond in the game, but it always makes me think of theirs. There is always a “divide” between her and Rindo throughout the course of their journey, as the living and the dead, as a Player and Reaper, as someone who has a place to return to and someone who doesn’t, someone who knows little but wields too much power and someone who knows a lot despite not being able to do much.

“If only I had the chance to connect with you on the other side

But time goes on, and without us realizing it

The battle is getting heated

Time goes on, and without us realiazing it

Divided again”

To be honest, maybe I didn’t grow any affection for the new main cast from Rindo’s perspective but from Shoka’s. Since I started to sympathize with Shoka, I started to see the boy in a more “real” way. The real Rindo, behind his peaceful façade with others, would lash out on Shoka for her unfairly harsh attitude while none of the others cared. He could also subtly feel that mantle of unspoken secrets from her, her own contradictions, the unresolved chemistry between themselves – and not knowing what to do with it rather than to feel angry with all the unfairness he could not process. (As a Libra too, he’s triggered the most by unfairness!)

It is actually a positive development as he’s at least “reacting” to something strongly now rather than to keep evading his problems. During my replay, I clearly saw the difficult situation Shoka was in, her remaining harshness after the Motoi incident was due to her internal struggle with a mission to save her own life, versus a chance to really be with the team. Her decision was to do both at the risk of losing favour from both sides. Rindo started to accept her layer by layer, as the person who resonated the most to her contradicting nature from the start and knew that via learning her resolve, he has learnt his too.

Later into the game, she even got too much of his attention. Maybe even without knowing she’s Swallow, he’s familiar with her thinking direction and Swallow had always been closer to him than any other friend. It was only after she had to betray her important ones twice that she could start being truly honest. The scene when she died a 2nd time left a strong impression in me, the little reveal let Rindo know that he is also losing Swallow as he’s losing Shoka – and that only death could drive the last secret out of her. Her final “Later, loser” echoed through Rindo as it was the final truth, with only him remaining to hear it: they had actually, already lost everything.

Rindo was the boy who never dared to face all that matters to him until he lost it all, fighting an unfair battle in the faith that they would somehow still win. Shoka was the girl who always knew what was dear to her, but never dared to think she could be together with them ever after and still threw her all into a battle she knew was losing. I think they stir each other on naturally to fill out their gaps, similar to what the Shibuya game partner systerm would have aimed for. The end reward was a little divine intervention to help close up the divide between them once and for all.

During the game there was not enough space to process anything personal so at the ending when they officially became “friends”, it was an important affirmation of their bond. Some people complained it was friendzoning but it’s not, they just have arrived at the perfect place to start something more. “From now on, we will truly be together” – I read it as that kind of message.

The heroine from a lost battle, with her story taken away

After reading the secret reports and playing the game to be surprised of how small a role Tsugumi had in the main game despite being the “Hype-chan” thought to be a major character of the next TWEWY installment, many fans would feel sad at a missed opportunity to see the Shinjuku arc in full depiction.

It was shown clearly that, a Shinjuku arc was very carefully planned out and is a vital part of the whole story, yet it could not be made due to various circumstances behind the development scene. I would assume, that the team were not able to make a TWEWY game that ended on a despairing note, but it already happened in their mind, thus becoming a mental burden that forced them to break away from it and started the game anew with NEO. A significant part of NEO became the healing arc for the Shinjuku characters, especially for Tsugumi though I really wished more emphasis should have been placed on her rather than Shiba. We didn’t even get to see her brother – Shinjuku’s Conductor who had a vital role and instead was given the clueless Shiba, who had absolutely no idea what’s going on all the way until the last day in NEO. It’s as if Tsugumi has had her story stolen away from her, because her own battle ended with a saddening loss.

I think every time the game creators look at Tsugumi, they would feel that sadness too. Maybe to them, she is a bigger character than what is seen by the fans, as despite their failed effort to depict her story, she’s lived in their mind for all these years through periods of destruction, healing and rebuild. Though it is a pity we could not get to experience the full scope of the Shinjuku story, the creators was clear about the place they wished for it to arrive at.

Individuality, connection and the social network

The team system adapted from Shinjuku rulebook does not allow much room for personal development, as the team dynamic is closer to a work relationship forced to bear results, than a spiritual bond to max out all corners of understanding as found in the partnership system. The old Shibuya system allowed only 1 winner and 1 week limit per game, while the new rule declares for a 1 winning team and only the team at last place will be erased – the other teams will enter another loop. Furthermore, whichever team to challenge the unwinnable Ruinbringers will face the risk of ending up dead last followed by erasure. As a result, the longest-standing teams are most likely not the strongest ever recorded, but the ones who have figured out a strategy to simply survive until something changes, enjoying their newly found social constructs while they are at it. Basically, it is a system to hypnotise players into the illusion that they are still “living”.

Therefore, we as players would not get to the core of each Player individually as fast and directly as we did in the last game. The Twisters were able to stand out not because they’re powerful, they only started to have a real chance after growing enough to each form a meaningful and personal connection to another teammate. It did not come as a team, nor did it intiate from the existing friendship between Rindo and Fret. In fact, I did not find much solidity or anything truly note-worthy about the main team and new characters within themselves until they started clashing with other team members, Reapers and new recruits from week 2 onwards. Rindo found his personal development with Shoka (via a clash with Motoi and pretty much a mini dating sim between them), then via the confrontation of his role with Neku; Fret found his with Kanon then Nagi, the team learned about the real Neku via Beat, Neku entered the UG via Coco’s wish to save Tsugumi… it was not the team but their personal links that empowered them to fight and solve each of their problems.

The other team leaders may have failed because they did not form such personal links, after 30+ hopeless loops Fuya’s team all fell apart to pursue their own interest even at the cost of erasure, Motoi quit his KOL façade to work like a dog for the Reapers (probably to save just his own ass not his team), while Kanon dropped her tricks to find changes via honest cooperation in acceptance of a fair loss. The despairing note in that is huge without making much of a scene because their failure didn’t happen at their best effort to “win”, but in their last attempt to find a way “out”. Even Shiba got his way “out” in the end thanked to his personal friendship with Hishima and Tsugumi.

Something has shifted in the mindset of the game creators in the last 14 years, as both games are about “connection vs individuality” but the last game focuses more on connection between just individuals and this one on the overall network that is formed out of those individual connections.

The introduction of Beat into the main cast was truly the bridge between old and new, they helped each other out in several turns before officially recruiting him. Beat is a character whom a lot of fans including myself have felt somewhat concerned about after Neku disappeared from the RG, so when the new kids welcomed Beat with warm and organic interaction and Beat seemed happy, I started to feel like I wanted to help them out too! I think the overall team chemistry is enjoyable enough for new players, but I could warm up to the new kids more from the pov of a returning character – whom I’m glad to be Beat, as the older brother figure who is genuinely kind, fun, serious and upbeat at the same time; who is needed and needs the kids in return.

The social network is a fun and refreshing feature. You can read all of the crazy tidbits about Shibuya and the links each character have formed with the town people, it’s also fun to visualize how the characters act off screen. Characters’ profiles provide extra insight into their background too, like how it reveals Tsugumi has been friend with Coco during her time in the RG. During the game when not all characters have showed up, you can sometimes guess which empty spot will belong to whom. For example there is a 1 character linking to Neky that is not linked to anyone else, so I could guess that was Joshua, and that another character linking only to Joshua was probably Hazuki, hinting that the 2 Composers are related before either of them even showed up.

Hazuki only showed up for 5 minutes, but his presence is so vital and true to the game that I think he is the most memorable out of the new cast. The two Composers have such an intriguing bond, with their yin/yang or phoenix/dragon themes, opposite color design, the sempai/kouhai tone and the way they keep some sort of distance/work relationship as if it’s mandatory between Higher beings, yet at the same time they can talk so casually because they are truly equal – and different from one another. I have written a separate meta on them here.

Some people pointed out, that all Shinjuku characters’ names and themes are based off Hanafuda cards and the Phoenix in Hanafuda belongs to the Paulownia suit – which is Joshua’s name flower. This is so interesting because it feels like the creators somehow saw it as a sign to interweave the Shibuya and Shinjuku storylines together. Though it doesn’t come out much on the surface, it’s fascinating nonetheless considering both Josh and Haz had at some point interfered with the other town’s affairs.

“Shibuya tour with Haz” was such a special scene, as it happened between 2 characters who do not/no longer have a reason to care about Shibuya, on the subject of what is worth saving about Shibuya. Hazuki carried out the purification of Shinjuku and stepped in to restore Shibuya just as part of his job and unlike Hanekoma or Joshua who both possess profound understanding of humanity, he really didn’t know humans at all. Rindo’s irrational wish invoked in him a sense of curiosity, to try gambling on something irrationally and learning a bit of what his senior have experienced. With all the pieces put together, it provides an overview on Higher beings as a whole, and that Joshua and Hanekoma are really the odd ones out with Hazuki being somewhere in between them and the rest.

The old friends

It’s easy to have returning characters overshadow the new cast as they have already matured out of their personal story arc and stayed in our hearts for all this time. In the end, I have managed to enjoy both the old and new cast separately and altogether, and they will both find their own place in our memory of this game for the long term.

Sho is truly as crazy as ever, the game wouldn’t be the same if Sho is any less of what he is. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like Neky or Beat is younger than Nagi at all, with moments when it seems like Neky has aged 14 years instead of 3 years. His friendship with Coco surprised me pleasantly, and their interaction together with Beat was fun to watch. Rhyme’s found a new dream and her friendship with Kaie is precious too, especially considering that she can still talk to him online after the game ended. Josh and Neku’s interaction suggested that they have resolved the past and are on equal terms now, they even parted ways in good spirit and I don’t feel any worry about them like I did before.

Neku and Shiki’s reunion scene was beautiful, theirs is such a special bond that it has grown and supported them even without being able to see each other. I am so happy to see them all again and that they stay true to who they are, albeit looking more grown up, cooler and happier than ever before.

Overall, NEO can’t become a classic on par with the OG, but is definitely a good sequel and a good game in its own rights. I’m happy with whether or not there will be a 3rd game to complete the 3 monkeys theme, but if there will be – I hope the creators can really find the time to learn from the last 2 games and start over with a fresh mindset and strong core.

#neotwewy #neotwewyspoilers #ntwewy #ntwewy spoilers #neo the world ends with you #twewy #review #meta #neo twewy #shoka sakurane #rindo kanade #tsugumi matsunae

181 notes · View notes

eternal-dawn15 · 2 years

Text

First of all I'm gonna preface this with the admittance that I have not played NEO TWEWY yet so if any of this is addressed in that game then please don't spoil it. Also this is just me rambling so I'm gonna repeat myself a lot.

One of the problems in the first game that is never really addressed is that Neku was ready and willing to kill Shiki to come back to life. She begs him to spare her ("Please don't kill me") and his only response is "I have to". Neku is cold, calculating, and self-centred to the point that he would rather kill his partner under the instruction of untrustworthy reapers than spend a week in the Reapers' Game. If Mr Hanekoma hadn't stepped in, I have no doubts that Neku would have gone through with it and killed Shiki, erasing himself in the process.

In the anime this event loses its meaning; Neku is possessed by noise and doesn't know what he's doing, evidenced by his confusion and remorse following the event. In many ways, it is far easier to forgive and forget what happens. In the anime Neku is generally cares much more about those around him; he shows compassion and a willingness to cooperate with others much earlier on in the week, and as such, it wouldn't make sense for him to willingly kill Shiki. It makes sense for the narrative the writers chose in the anime.

In the game, whilst Shiki quickly excuses Neku's attempt to kill her, it leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Neku tried to kill her of his own free will, and he shows no remorse for what happened, only anger at the reapers for tricking him. No matter how much he opens up to Shiki and his friends after the event, Neku's actions stick with the player. We are the only ones who know Neku's thoughts and feelings, the only ones who know what he has done.

Neku is a bad person.

Not because he's an introvert, not because he doesn't trust others. But because he tried to murder Shiki.

This is very important in the second week, when we meet the very person who murdered Neku. Joshua is annoying, speaking of death nonchalantly in a way that angers Neku. The hypocrisy is stifling and seems to amuse Joshua. They are both killers; Neku has no right to take the high ground. Neku's reaction to finding his killer is visceral anger, whilst Shiki's reaction was compassion and forgiveness. Joshua and Neku are paralleled in many ways- Neku is Joshua's representative after all- but their willingness to take lives is an approach that is rarely considered. Joshua killed Neku, yes, but he did so because he truly believed Neku was the key to winning the fight for Shibuya. Neku merely tried to kill Shiki for his own selfish gain.

The player can forgive Joshua for what he did to Neku by the end of the game, but Neku cannot. Perhaps in a way, this is because Neku recognises that what he himself did was unforgiveable. Perhaps it is easier to blame a God than to blame himself. Perhaps he is clinging on to the fact that he didn't technically kill Shiki. Perhaps he must forgive Joshua to forgive himself.

I used to wonder why Joshua chose Neku to represent him in the game. Sure, they both believed that the people were too egotistical to ever understand each other, that differing values and beliefs prevented people from ever truly caring for each other, but beyond that, they have little in common. Neku's journey of self-discovery brings their ideals and beliefs further and further apart, to the point where Joshua has to sacrifice himself to give Neku a reason to keep playing ("But Neku, I thought you couldn't afford to lose this game? Give up on yourself, and you give up on the world").

Even when we find out that Joshua didn't sacrifice himself for Neku, that he killed Neku and forced him into the game, it's hard not to forgive him. Joshua cares about Shibuya and its people, he cares about Neku, and his benevolence is what allows Neku and his friends to be reborn again. He is a morally ambiguous ethereal being who has chosen to spare the characters we have grown to love. When we see him stood by Mr H, watching Neku and his friends meet up in the RG, Mr H comments that Joshua seems jealous of them, and we are reminded of Joshua's loneliness. Why should Neku get his happy ending and not Joshua?

Neku tries to kill someone, shows no remorse, and yet is deemed worthy to return to life by Joshua. Joshua forgives him. Neku does not.

The game tries to redeem Neku for what he has done and yet villainise Joshua's actions, and it leaves the player with a sense of injustice, of unease.

Because under it all, Neku is still a killer.

The end :)))

#twewy #the world ends with you #twewy spoilers #neku sakuraba #twewy shiki #twewy joshua

68 notes · View notes

dittydipity · 3 years

Text

the twewy anime has made a number of changes from the game beyond the pacing in terms of added and rewritten scenes, but what i appreciate the most are the tonal shifts for almost everything regarding joshua. they’ve given his character the depth that we didn’t get to see in the game - actually showing us instead of implying everything through the secret reports. with how crucial his role is in the whole story, it’s something i found kind of lacking in the game so seeing it in the anime has been a treat.

i’m gonna go a bit into the scene near the end of episode 6 (the end of w2d5) since i haven’t really seen anybody mention much about it yet. before, this was an exchange i’d always brushed past as joshua just being a provocative bastard, but with the freedom of animation and voice acting to portray more expressions, the same lines have taken on some different undertones ↓

the game:

in a way josh is also playing to live again - he's playing for the kicks because he wants to feel alive again. he's physically “alive” but emotionally he's not, all the other players are just the other way around. for joshua that’s just minor technicalities and it’s all the same to him. simple. from his expressions, his words are patronizing, he’s explaining something that to him is obvious, and neku’s rightful anger only amuses him further.

when neku finally snaps and accuses joshua of killing him, josh teases neku and then pulls out what are probably some of the most infuriating lines in the game:

those shots really just speak for themselves. it’s a continuation of what he’s already doing, provoking neku for his amusement because this silly boy’s reactions are just so fascinating to watch. it doesn’t seem like there’s much else going on here - josh maintains the same attitude for the whole scene. if there’s any other meaning or underlying sentiment, he’s giving absolutely no sign of it.

the anime: neku’s lines and presentation are almost exactly the same, but joshua’s...

he’s actually surprised and mildly taken aback at neku’s outburst, and from his tone of voice and slightly more wide-eyed, open expression, there’s something more candid about his words here.

and this time, it’s phrased as a question - “isn’t it a good deal?” as opposed to “you still get something out of this”. he’s providing neku an opportunity to respond when in the game, he was simply stating what he saw as facts and neku would cut in with objections. here, it’s almost like he’s opening up for discussion to get a look into neku’s world when game!josh had no such desire and closed himself off from what neku, or anyone else, actually thought by projecting his own words/motives into other people’s actions. here, he’s making an attempt to understand. kind of.

joshua isn't even really trying to be a dick when he says this. he seems genuinely somewhat confused at neku being so upset. josh has alienated himself from how humans usually view the weight of death and seeing neku make such a big deal about it is kind of forcing him to consider how others see things.

which leads to this next part, when neku pulls out the “you killed me!”:

there’s a very distinct lack of the incredibly mocking “aww, neku. i thought you said you didn’t remember! you sneaky little thing.” that followed the accusation in the game. instead, josh just kind of pauses and gauges neku’s emotions in a weirdly calculating moment of silence. and then “so what if i did?”. his face is still more open than we’re used to seeing. compare the body language as well - here, he’s got his hand out in an almost offering gesture while the game has him turn away with a sly expression and a hand blocking himself off. my point is that when he asks this question of “so what if i did kill you?” in the anime, it seems like it’s at least partly sincere and there’s some genuine puzzlement.

it really strikes home that josh's morals and sense of.. everything has lost some of its humanity. he doesn't see death as a threat or anything actually meaningful because from the viewpoint of the higher planes, death doesn't mean anything besides a change in a being's soul code, and those of the higher planes can just change that to whatever they want anyway. why does it matter who killed someone? it was just a means to get neku into the ug. so neku's freaking out over being dead and joshua being alive and joshua, having forgotten the value of what all that means to a normal human, is just "ah right, people usually care about that sort of thing” but doesn’t really get it.

and joshua doesn’t like not knowing things. he’s been forced to face and reflect on how disconnected his status as composer has made him from everyone else. he doesn’t like the position he’s basically put himself in.

so he picks up that his questions have only been making neku angrier and sees it as an out:

only now does he fall back on his usual tactic (defense mechanism?) of deflecting from his own lack of understanding and connection to others by being a dickwad, slipping the flippant dismissal back into his voice, closing off his expression to nothing but smugness, and following up with questions he knows will rile neku up even further to distract himself from his lapse into something uncomfortably sincere. of course, neku’s understandably caught up in his frustration and anger and misses the quick flips in joshua’s attitude, taking the whole conversation as joshua being a smug bastard.

i’ve been viewing the anime and the game as alternate/parallel universes and it’s almost like anime!josh hasn’t been composer for as long as game!josh yet when this all goes down, so his facade isn’t as practiced and his real emotions (or lack thereof) slip through more often.

on a more lighthearted note,

neku: YOU killed me! joshua: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

will never not be funny

yeah. episode 6 good.

#twewy #twewy anime #twewy spoilers #joshua kiryu #also another thing in the anime i didnt catch the first time: the way joshuas face fell for like a second after neku goes 'youre... alive?'#pain. suffering if you will #rotating joshua in my head like 'ooo youre a fucked up lil guy aint ya yeah you are yes you are'#analysis #character analysis #.d

93 notes · View notes