Three Remarkable Protagonists - Final Part

[Cross 12]

Three Remarkable Protagonists – Final Part

by Cross

 

 

As you may have noticed my last article is from nearly 3 months ago, so let me tell you briefly what happened: first my pc died. If you spend as much time with your computer as I do this is not a mere nuisance, it's more like the death of a beloved friend. After I put him six feet under I ordered a new one – but it was not working properly. Now I use an old laptop from my family with Windows XP...

 

Shortly after I became sick and wasn't able to read VNs for some weeks and then my new semester started – to make it short I lost my connection to Visal Novels.

Now I'm feeling better and started to read again (Fortune Arterial, seems promising) and remembered that my series on protagonists was still not finished – so I decided to end at least this little project of mine.

 

So before you post „Cool story, bro.“ I'll begin with the last part. Sorry for the delay, it's good to be back home again.

 

 

(As allways: Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler)

 

 

Nishijou Takumi (Chaos;Head) – One of our kind

 

 

 

http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/4052/otaku1aye6.jpg

 

 

 

Chaos,Head is a murder-mystery story about a serial killer in Tokyo. Later it becomes even apocalyptical with the world being nearly destroyed, but what got me wasn't the story, it wasn't the girls and it wasn't Moe. No, the strongest point of this VN is it's hero: Takumi.

 

If you played it you may wonder why I appreciate him. In fact, Takumi is the exact opposite of a hero. He's a weak-whiny hardcore-Otaku living in his own world of dreams and illusions.

But let's start from the beginning:

 

Takumi is a high school student, but here the typical features already stop. He lives alone in a metal box (don't know the word, it's about as large as a room) on the top of a construction site. He has a bed, a pc and a fridge – he doesn't need more to live. Takumi collects figurines of Eroge and Anime girls (I spotted Saber and Arcueid, but there are more) and spends his time with 3 things: an online-rpg, playing Eroges and chatting with his only friend (he only knows his nickname though). To minimize the time he must waste in school he made a minimum-attendance table. In school Takumi tries to be as unrecognizable as possible, because he always fears to be bullied, but actually his classmates only ignore him.

 

Chaos;Head has an unique decission system: instead of typical choices you can decide if Takumi has a positive or negative illusion (like daydreams) at certain points. If you press the button he starts to imagibe the craziest things instead of listening to his dialogue-partners. Want an example?

He has a sister (pretty snappy, but she cares a lot for her useless brother). When she visits him he can't play games, so usually Takumi is very rude to her. Once you can decide if Takumi has a daydream and those are the results:

 

 

positive illusion: his sister becomes horny, opens her shirt and tries to seduce him (wincest!! but sadly all ages...)

 

 

 

 

negative illusion: his sister drinks poisened cola, vomits blood and dies right in front of him

 

 

 

 

Of course nothing of this really happens, but it's very intriguing to share the fucked-up mind of a crazy freak like Takumi. I love this choice system, because it gives us the freedom to decide whether we like the story to become more strange and crazy or not.

 

Chaos;Head features severeal good looking girls, but our hero is already in a relationship with his imaginary girlfriend. Yup, that's right, his imagination is so strong that he's able to project the heroine of an anime into his reality. This girl named Seira is sometimes the only thing that prevents him from going crazy in dangerous situations.

 

 

 

 

Those are the most importand facts about him, but why is he such a great character to me?

 

Because Takumi is an evil caricature of us, the Otakus. The author created a mirror showing us an exaggerated distorted image of ourselves.

 

We like gaming and Eroge, Takumi is addicted to it like to a drug.

We enjoy to explore fictional relationships, Takumi doesn't even have any others.

We fantasize about 2D-girls, Takumi despises the real girls.

We like to escape from reality from time to time, Takumi already lives in his daydreams.

 

Everything he does and likes is a cynical parody of Otaku-lifestyle. The way we see Takumi, a weak, disturbingly strange loser, is the way society sees us. Would you tell other people that you like japanese stories of underage girls having sex on screen? Incest? Or the strange stuff like Nekomimi, Maidos or Guro? Probably you won't, because you don't want to end like Takumi.

 

The author doesn't only underline the negative images. Because of his strong fantasy Takumi is able to save people and later even the world, but Chaos;Head is still the only VN I played where this whole Moe-industry and the digital culture in general is examined critically. Imouto incest, Otaku-girls, Tunderes, emotionless girls; Chaos;Head introduces those archetypes to Takumi only to ridicule him. Nothing is real. The girl who pretends to want to buy Anime-figurines with him only wants to investigate the murders, his sister seduces him only in his dreams, the Tsundere is not secretly in love with him, no, she really dislikes Takumi.

 

All those destroyed archetypes and tropes show us how dull most of the writing in the media actually is. Sadly the latter half of Chaos;Head turns into your typical shounen fight stuff we all know well enough, but I still won't forget the fascinating beginning of it.

 

Takumi's catch-phrase, when he feels observed, „Whose eyes are those eyes?“ constantly mocks us readers, showing us that we try to read another convenient story, but the author won't let us from the hook this easily. Takumi really gets observed, by us. We get thrown onto the meta-level, whether we like it or not.

 

This subtle deepness is unusual in VN. Chaos;Head uses the typical japanese cliches only to invert them later

 

Chaos;Head's special twist is that the story expands out of the screen, playing with the readers. When you look at the screen you see Takumi's screen. It's like we are sitting behind him, but this time the fictional character knows it. He knows that somebody is there watching him.

 

We are. Whose eyes are thoses eyes?

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

That's it. I just finished my magnus opus, the thrilling analysis of the most fascinating protagnonists. I guess most of you didn't expect Takumi, some even seem to hate him and his voice actor (who is in fact really fantastic, don't you agree?). Some mentioned guys like the hero of Sharin no Kuni or Majikoi, but, while being cool in their own rights, those are your typical badass-heroes. I will always prefer the flawed protagonists, the ones with weaknesses and problems.

 

Thanks for reading. I don't know if I'll continue with my written explorations of Visual Novels but I'm glad that I could at least finish this series.

 

Straight outta XP

your Cross

 

 

PS: All hail to the Gero Froggy!!!

 

 

[iLoveTsundere 10]

Sono me , dare no me?

 

I approve of your de-construction of Takumi. Takumi is like you said the epitomy of an hikikomori, taken to very negative undertones , his delusions being alegoric to him being so out of touch with reality. Like you said , he is so paranoid and unconfortable with being in the outside world that the line "Whose eyes are those eyes?" refer not only to his paranoia but also break the 4th wall (the reader's eyes). I think he's a very complex character that seems to be straightforward simple , and the author plays with that notion a lot to tease the readers (So you think Takumi is X , but how about now? *shows a delusion*) ; i thought it was very clever how Chaos;Head starts off as innocent with showing us how Takumi deals with reality at first (he doesnt , or avoids it) and then you start seeing just how fucked up his mind got for all that isolation , taken to the most extreme overtones , pretty much as you said above.

 

I approve and i hope this really isnt your final de-construction of main characters thread because it was a very interesting read , as it was with Fuminori (i only caught up with those two threads. )

[pramit 22]

First of all, very nice article. Maybe you should link your first two articles for first time readers like me?

 

Imo, takumi is a good representation although it borders a bit on the extreme side. yes, its very cynical indeed. Its not just otaku's who behave like him. I am sure, even among non-otaku's you will find weird people, its all about your principles and experiences. Takumi is someone who is capable of making his imagination a reality, hence its no wonder he would turn out like this. If you had the power to turn your lies into a reality, wouldn't you choose a imaginary and comfortable world for yourself?

 

Another thing, the "aggression" that people experience(the senior detective's observation), what do you think of that? Maybe it was just a part of plot(to scare him), but i believe it was related to the sale of gero froggy?

 

What is your opinion on the muv luv protagonist? A normal harem protagonist suddenly thrown into the alternative universe.

Edited November 29, 2012 by pramit

[Cross 12]

You can see a user's posts and threads on the profile pages

 

I don't know what you mean by aggression (it's a while I played Chaos;Head). I don't remember the stuff behind the froggies either, I only remember a scene where the detective intentionally misspronounces the name to troll a rude clerk^^.

I recommend everyone to play it: just watch this scene as a teaser:

 

 

I never played a MuvLuv game, because the first one didn't work on my pc (and Alternative is a direct sequal right?). Maybe I try it on my laptop.

 

btw thanks for reading and replying

Edited November 30, 2012 by Cross
search IDs are obviously temporary

[Geass 17]

Wow this is really well put together. What I like the most is that you took a character that allot of people (from what I seen) hate. The reason why I didnt watch the anime was pretty much because people kept telling me that the protag was terrible but I might look in both the VN and the anime after reading this!

 

Hope to read more from you!