Zenos Yae Viator
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2025
Okay, Ill simply break down the themes then, for starters there are exactly 3 male characters in the entire plot
Shu, the "best friend next door" who is secretly (but everyone knows except Hinako) deeply romantically and platonically in love with Hinako, he wants Hinako to resolve her internal problems and he is willing to stick with any and all answers or outcomes she decides on, obviously he hopes that she will leave her Husband to be and choose him, but he knows its not likely.
Shu developed a drug to help this process using what we know to be White Claudia, and had given this to Hinako before her Wedding, both of which are 20 years old in reality, this drug causes the entire events of the game, as Hinako is in essentially a Spirited Journey both inside her self, and also the Spirit realm, covorting with higher powers that have their machinations over her.
Kotoyuki, the betrothed, depicted as Fox Mask most of the game, is a young man who also fell in love with Hinako from an interaction where she saved him and took care of him form a violent incident when they were very young, she doesn't remember this incident at all, but this became a core driving force for Kotoyuki, who spends the rest of his life working to secure connections, wealth and also make himself the head of his noble family who he was a Bastard of, he succeeds on all accounts into his 20's, essentially a fucking impossibly driven go-getter, all so he could be the "Prince" to ask for the hand in marriage of the girl who saved him as a child.
Possibly, he was driven by these desires by the O-Inari O Kami, AKA the Fox Gods, who he is, if you are to believe the spirit realm shit in the game, descendent from, and they basically put a spell on him to seek out Hinako and marry her.
Regardless of this wrinkle, he's polite, considerate, caring and deeply loves Hinako and wants her to be happy.
Hinako's Father is the 3rd man in the game, and is a hard working, but alcoholic man, who had his saved funds as a younger man stolen by his to-be business partner, putting him into debt, he spends the rest of his life trying to take care of his wife, and his two daughters, and struggles with conforming to what society expects of a Head of the House, and fell into booze, Hinako's mother develops brain cancer and the Father is broached by Kotoyuki for HInako's hand in marriage and will pay for all of the treatments and then some, the marriage is arranged, and despite him going through with it, Father is stricken with guilt over it, the game goes out of its way to lie to you about this person in your first playthrough, but on unlocking more endings it becomes apparent he deeply cares, but is just sort of an asshole about it, because he thinks he has to be, despite this, he deeply apologizes because he comes to the realization that his actions might make Hinako hate men.
I think with this you can pretty much assume the actual themes.. its societal isolation, Hinako's character has been gone over in this thread, but essentially she doesn't hate men, or the marriage, she hates that she has been isolated from society, and all her decisions are made for her, she likes Kotoyuki quite a bit, and would like a real relationship with him, but she also fears becoming how she see's her own Mother, depicted as a faceless slave, same as how she sees herself on getting Married, her entire childhood was isolation from men and women who viewed her as odd for having any qualms with just going with the flow, the game doesn't' depict "men bad" or "Patriarchy bad", as much as it depicts everyone in the plot as bad, Hinako included, as she simply refuses to make a decision at all, causing internal turmoil as depicted by their being Two Hinakos, battling it out.
