Cross 12 Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 (edited) Three Remarkable Protagonists - Part 2 By Cross This is the second part of a three-part series dealing with my favorite protagonists in Visual Novels. As always: SPOILERS ( for Saya no Uta this time). Sakisaka Fuminori (Saya no Uta) – Two against the World (literally…) When I started with Visual Novels I stumbled upon a VN with a Loli dressed in white on the cover. What a promising title, I thought. After two minutes I quit playing. It was the most awful beginning I ever encountered. You only get to see some horrible, twisted flesh-monsters screaming like in your worst nightmares with some spooky BGM on top. I deleted the game files and started some fluffy Bishoujo game to calm my nerves. I read in several threads that other players were discouraged by the first minutes, too, so I decided that I won’t appreciate it anyway. After some months I checked the best ranking VNs on VNDB and among them was Saya no Uta. How could so many people rate an awful game like that so highly? I had to start it again to see if it was a mistake to quit it. It was. The Story Fuminori is a medical student with a promising future and three reliable friends at his side. One girl of the group is even in love with him, everything seems perfect, until Fuminori nearly dies in a traffic accident that kills his parents. He gets an emergency operation, including his brain. After some weeks he awakes and realizes that something is not right. The hospital stinks like a slaughterhouse, everywhere is blood and rotten flesh. There are no humans, only twisted abominations speaking in terrifying voices to him, asking him how he feels. He realized that they are actually humans, but the operation changed his perception of reality. Fuminori perceives the world as a living hell, every human is a beast, everything is covered in bloody flesh and the food tastes like raw meat. After one week he is on the verge of madness, thinking about suicide to escape his never-ending nightmare. That’s when Saya appears. One night, when Fuminori lies awake in his blood-covered bed, a little girl enters the room. She is the first person looking like a human to him. She introduces herself as Saya and is quiet surprised that he doesn’t panic at her sight (you’ll understand this at the end of the story). When he leaves the hospital he asks Saya if she wants to live with him. She accepts. Why Fuminori rocks Fuminori starts as a victim. His life was turned to hell and without Saya he would have killed himself. Later in the story he turns into a villain protagonist engaging in cannibalism, rape and murder. Fuminori becomes a male Yandere. He would do anything to protect his life with Saya, no crime is too low for him. And I could understand him completely. Most villains were written as somebody the audience can hate. The natural enemy of the hero that gets defeated in the end. Guys being evil for evil’s sake, without a basis for identification for the reader. Fuminori is different. All his doings have a simply justification. For him it’s a matter of life and death. Saya is not just his girlfriend, but a personification of hope and life as a whole. Without her he is doomed to crawl through an eternal nightmare without humans (at least his perception runs that way). With this fact in mind all his crimes are understandable. His only options are killing and violence or a cruel death in madness. Can we really judge him that he chooses life? How far would you go to protect your life? Would you kill, rape and eat human flesh? How much are ethics and moral worth when the most important thing is on the line? That’s what makes Saya no Uta such a great story. Fuminori is a deep, compelling protagonist because he challenges our views on human society. Good and bad persons, altruism and caring for your fellow men? All of that is far away when you fight for survival. He and Saya are no longer part of society, having only each other. All the time I rooted for Fuminori and his desperate love for Saya. Even after all he has done (including the apocalyptic end of humanity as we know it…) I understood that he never had a choice. Fuminori and Saya doom the world for their own sake and I cannot even condemn them. I would have done the same and so would you. Their love is not lust or convenience, it is life itself. Without each other they cannot exist. That’s why Saya no Uta is the most romantic Visual Novel I ever read and Fuminori belongs to the best protagonists ever written. --------------------------------------------------- Two revealed, one to go. Who will be the final remarkable protagonist? Please return next weekend to read the big finale of my three-part article. Until then, best regards from your Cross Ps.: Thanks to all, who tried to guess the protagonists two weeks ago^^ Ps. 2: If you never understood the story here’s an accurate abstract: Link Edited September 7, 2012 by Cross Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gerard the Lone Wolf 10 Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Thanx for writing this Cross, you've managed to persuade (or encourage?) me into playing this VN. Saya no uta was actually in the bottom part in my "VN that I've to read" list. But now, my curiosity has been aroused. “ψ(｀∇´)ψ~~Gahahahaha.... I will definitely read Saya no Uta after I finished Edelweiss, Kamidori & Clannad. ＼(^__^)／ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cross 12 Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 I'm always happy when I succeed to spread the love^^ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
udizzle 11 Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 (edited) Before i read your article i was never even considering playing this vn for obvious reasons...and after reading it even though i enjoyed your point of view of it i still am no way in hell not reading this vn. Dont get me wrong i am no way hating on your view or this thread but i just dont see how doing "those acts" to keep him and her together justifiable or make him a "remarkable mc". i dont want to start a rant here so ill stop here, btw i did enjoy the read and hope to see your next one Edited September 7, 2012 by udizzle Quote Link to post Share on other sites
OneManArmy 82 Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Specific visual novel for specific people, sadly I wasn't one of them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
iLoveTsundere 10 Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Saya no Uta is a great VN , movie worthy in my opinion. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kyokuza 10 Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 I really enjoy this VN so far it's perfect. And yea since he's a real-deal guy who happen to met such a bad luck and yet he's a strong one! i love this guy! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cross 12 Posted September 8, 2012 Author Share Posted September 8, 2012 I perfectly understand if somebody doesn't like Saya no Uta (as I wrote I quit it in the beginning, too), but personally I believe that Urobochi Gen (the author) will never be able to top this story. Oh, thanks for reading btw.^^ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The First 10 Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 i've read this VN and i will say it is one of the best i've read, but a movie of this would be disturbing... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
OneManArmy 82 Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 I perfectly understand if somebody doesn't like Saya no Uta (as I wrote I quit it in the beginning, too) It's not that I don't like it, I gave it 7/10 after all, but for me the whole thing was "just" interesting, nothing more. Anyway, my fridge will never be the same. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The First 10 Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 (edited) lol everytime you open your fridge you may see some human organs or body parts lying around =) no idea how to use the button to reveal spoilers so just highlight my entire post to see spoiler Edited September 8, 2012 by The First spoiler Quote Link to post Share on other sites
OneManArmy 82 Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 *beep*beep*beep* Spoiler detected! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hyromaru 29 Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 another nice review cross thx buddy! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
iLoveTsundere 10 Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 i've read this VN and i will say it is one of the best i've read, but a movie of this would be disturbing... I would definately be interested if it ever had a live-action movie adaptation , too bad thats most likely impossible though. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kyokuza 10 Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 I would definately be interested if it ever had a live-action movie adaptation , too bad thats most likely impossible though. But we got a comic of saya no uta which is.. not my cup of tea.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cross 12 Posted September 9, 2012 Author Share Posted September 9, 2012 I would definately be interested if it ever had a live-action movie adaptation I'm convinced that the medium Visual Novel is much better in transporting emotions, relationships and thoughts than movies or anime. Because it is basically a book you can explore your characters so much deeper. Till now I only found 1 VN that would be better as an anime: Hanachirasu. Battles and descriptions of sword techniques don't make sense in a novel... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
OneManArmy 82 Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 Till now I only found 1 VN that would be better as an anime: Hanachirasu. Battles and descriptions of sword techniques don't make sense in a novel... I don't know about the movie but I definitely agree when it comes to that high, and annoying, amount of descriptions. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kyokuza 10 Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 Wait Fuminori eating flesh of human.. so a cannibalism which is i just notice, Maybe i really into the characters, Who knows what i might not notice.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
iLoveTsundere 10 Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 (edited) Wait Fuminori eating flesh of human.. so a cannibalism which is i just notice, Maybe i really into the characters, Who knows what i might not notice.. Cannibalism on Saya no Uta is one of the lesser sins Fuminori commits , but to his defense he wasnt aware he was eating human flesh at first , he thought it was fruit because of his brain surgery side-effects. Edited September 30, 2012 by iLoveTsundere Quote Link to post Share on other sites
iLoveTsundere 10 Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 (edited) You are implying that Fuminori thinks in the same train of thought that everyone does. He doesnt. Everything about him is turned inside out. What you consider "the right thing to do" is the complete opposite of what someone like him would consider what's right. Point is , Fuminori has always been a mysanthrope ever since the accident and getting the senses turned inside out side effects from brain surgery. This made him escape the status quo at least in his mind. He is criminally insane sure , but everything he did was because he loved Saya. Everything and everyone who threathened what he loved the most (Saya) would get the *insert weapon of choice here* , he just didnt give a fuck about anything else but Saya in the end of the day , so in his mind , this justifies killing anything in their way with a smile on his face , like his best friend. Im not defending his actions , all im saying is that he thought outside the normal way of thinking , to extreme consequences. If he suddenly had Saya taken away from him he would probably kill himself , even if he knew she was a monster she gave his life a meaning , in his own sick and twisted way. He is a good main character because he is unique in that sense. To him reality and the normal way of thinking were both an abomination. If seeing is believing , even when its not true at all , its all the truth anyone will accept. I feel some empathy for him. WALL OF TEXT KTHXBAI. Edited November 30, 2012 by iLoveTsundere Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stàr 10 Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 (edited) Well first of all I don't know how you managed to understand half of what I said in that horrible wall of badly written text. Omega wall of text that is probably badly written and that I won't realise how badly written it is till to late: I didn't deny that he loved Saya and that he was doing it for love, but he gave up on the 20 so years of his life before Saya and he didn't take them back when he could have, he refused to take what he knew was reality to stay in his now comfortable bubble of insanity. He would rather smile at the death of the monster that was once his friend and that he knows very well is still his friend outside of the disgusting exterior, so he won't face the horrible things Saya did, so as to avoid seeing how disgusting Saya truly is because he knows he could not bring himself to love Saya in reality. He gave up reality and he went into what he knew was cannibalism, rape, murder....he did it for love, but it's a love he doesn't have the balls to see, love that makes him give up everything else but he accepts it saying it's love, he says that this love that he knows is deceiving him is so great that friendship and many other things are worthless before it. I dislike Fuminori maybe because I place a lot of value in friendship but also cause I feel he is weak for not even wanting to truly see his own actions and rather just justifying them with an insanity that he can fix and that he realises isn't real. I feel that his actions are more disgusting than Saya and any of her actions, more disgusting than anything he saw and felt, and he knows that but decides to ignore it and run away from it, killing anything that reminds him of his old self and calling it protecting his love. Like I said I even if I was saved by someone as beutiful as Saya even if I loved her, I would rather end the sick monstrous reality one way or another than to continue it. I would most likely if I was Fuminori, kill my best friend despite all that man has done for me and only because if we keep to the chronological order I don't think Saya would have done quite enough to push me over the complete edge yet even if she had twisted the dad of the family that lives right beside me into someone exactly like me in an attempt to find herself another fuck-buddy that would treat her nicely, and even if she had in the proses of doing that killed what I knew was an innocent little girl and her mother but when I saw Yoh I would have slapped the "innocent" Saya and driven myself to the nearest cliff, Fuminori wasn't an idiot, even if he didn't reason out that Saya was probably a beast as disgusting as what people look to him now, he should be able to tell that if Saya didn't touch him and if that a somehow horrible creature had turned into the shape of a beautiful woman some hard core shit must have happened, when Fuminori saw Yoh that should have been a slap by the reality he had denied, he knew Yoh and this time he had no illusion, no disgusting monster or image to hide behind, this time he knew what he was doing and he welcomed it, cause like you said "seeing is believing" and there is no wonderful smelling fruit to hide what he is eating this time, there is only that fact that Saya did something so horrible to Yoh that she got physically twisted so badly that her monster shape got changed to that of a beautiful woman and all he did was delight in raping and abusing that Yoh he had once known. I feel that I can say that I dislike and that I want to hate Fuminori cause of that, I would shoot him and kill him so he suffers no pain if I saw him and if I was him I would rather drive off a cliff that keep going with all that. tl;dr: READ THE THIRD PARAGRAPH I TOOK MY TIME WRITING THIS SO THE FIRST AND THIRD PARAGRAPH SLIGHTLY CONTRADICT EACH OTHER BUT IT IS THE THIRD PARAGRAPH THAT BEST EXPRESSES HOW I FEEL Edited November 30, 2012 by Stàr Gahaha no matter how badly written it is now, this was once worst Quote Link to post Share on other sites
iLoveTsundere 10 Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 I see where youre getting at , and i agree that Fuminori has its flaws , one of those is getting carried away by his lust (in Yoh's case). Also when it comes to Saya , she is an inteligent being , but first and foremost she is an animal , and i guess it was her "intelligent instinct" to proceed with her lifecycle that made her kill/experiment. In other words , she only cares about reproduction , and so she will do anything necessary to "research" the human genes (fucking Fuminori or turning humans into those fucking blobs , poor Yoh. ) I dont think Fuminori saw Saya for what she really is (an animal working its way to end its lifecycle) , he saw her as how he'd wish to see her , maybe even her form of a petite girl was a fabricaation of his mind as well , in his sub-conscious that was the perfect girl. If that is what he's seeing amongst all that non existent gore splattered on the streets/walls/etc its something that he feels he must protect no matter the circumstances. He is pretty despicable though , and he is a murderer , but is he and Saya "evil" ? I dont think so. Do they deserve death? Does Saya deserve to be put to death for killing/experimenting on humans to get her lifecycle done? I dont think so As you said out of the two , she's the one who would deserve the less hate and i agree with this. Does Fuminori deserve death for being an unknowing murderer/cannibal and wanting to protect Saya? No he doesnt , he had no control. Does he deserve death for choosing to willingly kill his best friend to protect Saya as she was giving birth? Thats a harder question , because in one side you have his questionable crimes that he should account for , and that makes him a character to hate , on the other side he did that because not only was he a few screws lose but he did that out of love , normally one would say "FUCK THAT SHIT AND BURN HIM SLOWLY" ; however , he kills his best friend assuming youre on his true ending (humans get turned into abominations worldwide because of saya's spores , blahblahblah , otherwise he gets locked up on a mental institution , and that sounds more "justice" to me than putting him to death. Fuminori deserves whats coming to him , but does he deserve death? I dont think so. At most he was a psychopath , and that means he was fucked up in the head , thats a mental illness. I'd only agree with killing him in self-defense if he threathens your life , not as revenge for his crimes. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stàr 10 Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 (edited) I'm torn in between if I like the ending where they die or the true ending as you called it and I think we can both agree on almost everything but this "does Fuminori deserve death for being an unknowing murderer/cannibal and wanting to protect Saya?" The problem is that Fuminori knew all along what he was doing he knew what he was doing but he couldn't see it and that greatly justifies it, that's why I don't feel like I can condemn Fuminori for his actions but there is a point (when he sees Yoh as human) that he right there should be have been hit by the reality he always knew was there but he decides to fully give into his insanity and continue as he was with rape and murder. I cannot believe in a love that great, a love that somehow justifies raping what he knows is an innocent girl and making her a toy after having have tortured her. Fuminori did that not out of love, not out need, but out of lust and sadism; Fuimori stopped being able to justify himself at that point, at that point he got undeniable confirmation of his acts and he accepted them. I only say the things about shooting Fuminori cause he disgust me like I said but it's just a figure of speech to show how I feel, I would have him locked up as in the first ending where he goes back to reality because that feels like the most correct thing to do but if I knew I was in risk of been mutated by his sperm I would shoot him <.> also gonna deviate this thread a little by saying this: I'm against the death penalty but I believe if that each person is the owner of their own lifes and I'm not against suicide and I believe that some of the people in the real hardcore prisons if they rather die than spend their whole life's locked in a box they should have the right to choose that. **not that I have any idea of how a "hardcore prison" looks like. Anyway had a lot of fun writing this, so thank you Tsun, always fun to able to express one's opinion. Edited November 30, 2012 by Stàr Quote Link to post Share on other sites
iLoveTsundere 10 Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 (edited) Haha , yea , with the whole Yoh thing he was like "OH FUCK THIS ITS SEXY TIME" , he gave in to his lust there. Also , the only reason he killed his neighbor was before he knew the true nature of Saya , to him it was just a monster (that he may or may not have recognized as a human in the heat of the moment because cmon , its an MC with mental issues) attacking the only thing he put value in his life. It was more despair than wanting to kill at that point, I do agree with you in Yoh though , even if he didnt understand just why he was suddenly able to see her "normal" again , what he did is pretty hateful , but its that sort thing that makes a main character three-dimensional , instead of being the stereotypical HERO or the guy-who-knows-X-is-wrong-so-he'll-stick-to-his-ideals , he's the exact opposite. He gives no fucks about it anymore. Even if he doesnt fully understand whats going on , which is not really the case 100% at that time , its something that is questionable , in that sense he is weak for giving into lust and not reason. But what would you expect from a mysanthrope turned murderer/cannibal? Might as well add "torturer/rapist" into the mix to complete the sadism. I would blame all of it in his mental problem , but in Yoh's case he is fully aware of what he's doing. Thats one of his flaws , and makes him a complex main character. Edited November 30, 2012 by iLoveTsundere Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stàr 10 Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 (edited) No he killing the neighbour was only natural, even if he had seen him as human I would still say that it's natural to kill him if you see him defiling and hurting that which is most precious to you. And as an MC he is as good as the VN he is in (good) just that I wouldn't call him a hero of love and if I had to classify him as good or evil, I would classify him as a good man that gave into evil for Saya, so he became evil and gave up all his morals by in the end with Yoh and that's why I can't like him but like you said that's why he isn't a hero and why he is his own character and why he isn't me either. Edited November 30, 2012 by Stàr Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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