{"id":7071190,"date":"2026-10-01T10:15:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7071190"},"modified":"2026-10-01T10:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:15:26","slug":"shizuku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7071190","title":{"rendered":"Shizuku"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

*WARNING* spoilers for Shizuku. <\/i>Also, incoherent rambling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So yeah, Shizuku <\/i>– which, admittedly, I have read in the recent English translation<\/a>\u00a0because I’m already slogging through Kanon and wanted to get through this one at a reasonable pace… and works out fairly well in its own right, as there is a lot to be said comparing the two.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

First of all, let’s get the easy part out of the way: the OST slaps, hard. For the most part it’s the work of Orito Shinji, aka ‘Oribass’, the same guy whoe would later on pretty much become the go-to musician for visual novels, including but not limited to fundational works such as One<\/i>, Moon, Air, Clannad… <\/i>and Kanon, <\/i>leaping from studio to studio as part of a VN think-tank of sorts. <\/i>Here in Shizuku,<\/i> Orito shows full command of composition and sound synthesis, squeezing the mximum out of the PC-98’s sound capabilities. Composition wise, there are some real bangers (‘The Spirit World’, ‘During a Lesson’, ‘Ruriko’) that avoid those tear-wrenching, sappy tropes that make stuff like Kanon <\/i>or Clannad<\/i>‘s OST more miss than hit. Saori’s theme sounds a bit out of place compared to the rest of the soundtrack, but I guess it fits the character.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Now, as for the visual novel itself. We all know that Shizuku <\/i>is the first occurrence of the ‘visual novel’ tag (in the fourth wall-smashing bonus story)\u00a0and generally seen as s cornerstone of the medium’s early days. It’s easy to see why, as this is where a lot of the tropes so typically associated with H visual novels find their origin: the school setting; the deeply disturbed, amoral protagonist; the denpa<\/i> subplot; mindfuck as a fetish – it’s all there. H-novels have always been more about power fantasies of control than the depiction of intercourse itself (I have a really hard time imagining how anyone could be aroused by the chacters’ Looney Tunes body proportions), and Shizuku <\/i>makes good use of such a power fantasy in a horror setting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tame as it might be by today’s standards, Shizuku <\/i>is certainly a work of horror fiction as much, if not more than erotic fiction. While I won’t spoil the story in its entirety, it has that ‘uncanny into reality’ vibe that would make it a perfect Twilight Zone <\/i>episode: a flash of the impossible ruptures into everyday reality, changing the perceptions of all involved. The sublime background art, enhanced rather than humstrung by the dithery limitations of the PC-98 hardware really help to this regard, lending the game a stylish, reality-bending look that the 2004 remaster utterly destroys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

\u00a0How such perceptions change, varies wildly based on the path chosen. None of the endings give the ‘full story’ – in fact, one could argue that we are not given the full story at all since, as far as I could tell, we’re never really told how Ruriko got her denpa<\/i> powers in the first place and all of a sudden. We are treated to a variously sized slice of truth based on the heroine we pursue, with Ruriko’s obviously disclosing the lion’s share of the events behind the mysterious happenings at the academy, and Mizuho’s arguably not really giving any clue at all. Saori’s is in sort of a weird place, as her path is ironically the one that removes her the most from the events, turning her into a sort of a ‘character study’ rather than a player in the crisis at hand. Still, it’s nice to see all of the heroines play a part in each other’s story, and the overarching plot, to an extent; it’s an approach I prefer to Kanon<\/i>‘s, in which the heroines you choose not to pursue just… sort of fall to the wayside, as if they never existed. It lends more cohesiveness to the whole, so to speak.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

A must play for all retro gaming, visual novels, and horror fans; especially if you prefer creepy mysteries over world-shatterin cosmic horrors. I’ll now try and wrap up Kanon <\/i>before moving to a couple more indies. Exam session is also pretty much over, which should help with free time and such.\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*WARNING* spoilers for Shizuku. Also, incoherent rambling.\u00a0 So yeah, Shizuku – which, admittedly, I have read in the recent English translation\u00a0because I’m already slogging through Kanon and wanted to get through this one at a reasonable pace… and works out fairly well in its own right, as there is a lot to be said comparing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7071191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12036],"tags":[232271],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7071190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anime","tag-shizuku"],"yoast_head":"\nShizuku - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7071190\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shizuku - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"*WARNING* spoilers for Shizuku. 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