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←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Episode Six -- “What Is Going On?” I realized right around when I started everything up for this final post of this portion of the LP that if there are three more save points, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be doing one point five times the work (three save points instead of two), it means I’m doing twice the work (four segments instead of two) since there’s obviously going to be something after that final save point. Well, far be it from me to renege on a promise, especially for this blog, whose weekly premise I’ve somehow been able to keep for almost a year now. I suppose a double episode it is, then. One thing I didn’t mention (I didn’t forget, I just didn’t bother) is how this game comes on two disks. I obscured the changeover when it happened for a bunch of reasons that aren’t really worth getting into, but it turns out almost the entire game fits on disk one -- it’s only day four that needs that extra space. Which makes sense, actually. There’s a lot of extra video in this final segment and we’re definitely not going to see it all on this playthrough. All that out of the way, let’s see what happens. One thing you can’t really capture with screenshots is music, and the music here is rather ominous for a simple greeting scene. I suppose it’s to get you ready for the big reveal the moment you press the button to progress: Surprise! There are actually two reveals here, each maybe a bit subtle and easy to miss by themselves, but with both present, it’s difficult to miss both. The first is that Miki’s rose is now closed, just like his heart. The conversation even continues regarding him and Kozue, which implies that he’s been spending more time offscreen dealing with Kozue and Chigusa’s relationship than we have seen onscreen. The second is he doesn’t even address Mary at all -- she is already beginning to disappear, just like Chigusa threatened (even if (for some reason) Mary’s not sure it was Chigusa yet). Speaking of Chigusa, she also makes an appearance, though with a different lover this time. Girl, like, everybody and their mother is bi at this school, it’s not strange at all. We can see Chigusa’s little mini-plots from throughout the game starting to converge here. Miki wants to know where Kozue is, and so Chigusa invites him along to the old fencing hall, just like she had taken Saionji the night before. Neither Utena nor Anthy seem to care despite Mary’s protestations, though -- the most concern they seem to have is that they’ll be late to class. I assume again that it’s another limitation of the system. You’d think Utena at least would be a little more sympathetic, but, again, the game doesn’t know what it’s already told you. Anyway, Mary tries to follow Chigusa, Touga, and Miki to the chalk-white fencing hall, but, of course, there’s nothing there but ruin. All we find of the student council members are pieces of their uniforms. I don’t actually know what these are? They’re color-coded, though, so I don’t have to. These things plague our mind all through morning classes, but, before we know it, they’re over. Yeah, I just said that. It turns out there are no afternoon classes today. There isn’t a stated reason, but I like to think Akio is manipulating everyone for optimum amounts of misery. We also get the exact same conversation we just had while sleeping with Utena the night before, like, if it wasn’t such a pain to go back and check, I’d compare them word-for-word because they feel really close to identical. Thankfully, either Mary thinks the same as me here, or “if it were me I would not be anxious” hits differently than it did the night before, because she immediately decides to go find someone else to talk to. Chigusa and Utena aren’t on this list for obvious reasons, but it’s interesting that Touga, Saionji, and Miki are, given, you know, that they’ve fallen already. We’re not going to think about why that could be right now, we’re just going to select the only real option for us, Juri. While looking for her, though, we run into someone else. Classic anime stereotype of running into your future love interest. Really Mikage’s just here to be foreshadowing (he is a ghost, remember) since his arc technically hasn’t started yet. He says basically the same thing Akio did about friends (“It’s always good to have someone to talk to”), invites us to “talk about things” at his seminar, and lets us go on our way. AAAAAA Anyway. Juri doesn’t have much advice either, unfortunately. It’s not her dueling, and she’s been a little out of the loop, focused more on her duel with Chigusa than anything investigative. She does empathize with our restless worry, however, and tells us to look into the newspaper club again. “They won’t be able to tell you what to do either,” she warns. “She’ll just give you information. What you decide to do with it is up to you.” It’s better than Utena, though, both in nobility gained and in actual advice. We decide to take her up on the newspaper club offer, only to run into more problems on the way. The bullying actually takes a different tack than it did yesterday. Instead of focusing on how great Nanami is and how we should totally be respecting her, now Nanami and her cronies are focused on our perceived flaws. Mary’s “the daughter of such shameful people, after all.” Mary, of course, has no idea what they’re talking about, so Nanami has Keiko educate us. Okay, this is about as close as the game gets to examining this relationship in any sort of negative light. Like, obviously it’s about to come up again with Chigusa but that’s not really examining it in the way I’m talking. In a show that’s seemingly all about toxic relationships, a teacher-student romance should be high up there, right? I can think of a few similar instances in the show, just off the top of my head. But there aren’t many consequences besides “they got expelled from the school” (kicked out of Ohtori for obscene relations! Can you imagine…). It almost makes me think the relationship isn’t real, which I don’t think is supported by the text, but it’s interesting to think about, and I could be wrong. Anyway, luckily for us a friend is nearby to save us from this torment. I guess Utena isn’t completely the worst today. Nanami and her gang scatter pretty quickly, and, besides a “don’t believe a thing she says, obviously” from Utena, she does too, letting us visit the Newspaper club by ourselves. Since we visited a few days ago, they’ve gotten a bit more information for us. Unlike the fire to what became Nemuro Memorial Hall, there weren’t a hundred people trapped inside. Just one, someone named “S-san.” She’s finally starting to get it. “I don’t know much about that period,” says the newspaper club representative, “But apparently she was captain of the Fencing Club then.” We also find out the significance of the twenty-fifth: today’s the fifteenth anniversary of the fire exactly. What a coincidence, today also happens to be Mary’s parents’ fifteenth anniversary. Weird how that works out, even if Mary’s still in denial about it. Thankfully, she’s not so in denial that she’s not willing to pursue the truth, and she starts to look for Chigusa to confront her directly. Wakaba gives her a step in the right direction. “I think I saw her and Anthy going to the rose garden,” though by the time we get there, only Anthy remains. As we all know, even Anthy’s stares are ominous. This is kind of a weird scene, actually, since Anthy gives us a letter from Chigusa saying to meet her at the Chalk-White Fencing Hall with our dad’s fencing saber, and then Chigusa immediately shows up as soon as we leave. Like, you couldn’t have just told us that yourself? Or just given us the letter yourself? The perspective break serves to imply that Anthy’s been helping Chigusa with her schemes -- probably the same ways she helped Mikage, like stealing Juri’s necklace or making sure Kozue and Chigusa could meet up. That doesn’t mean it’s not weird, though. What a line to give to someone who probably doesn’t care. Anthy has seen hundreds of duelists lose, you’re just one more. She finally gets it There’s a little reflection here. Utena shows up to give us some final words of encouragement, but Mary’s more bracing herself for whatever Chigusa has in store for her. And so we return to where it all started. To finish what- Yes, thank you, Mary. Some things have changed in the building since we were last in there, though. It’s an ending tracker, obviously. Whatever it actually is, we can’t examine it too closely before Chigusa finds us. She wants to tell us things, and Mary wants to ask her questions, so clearly this will be a happy meeting. Not so, of course. We have to follow her deeper into the building, first. Deep underground, where nobody can hear us. You know, for reasons. Thankfully, we still get the exposition. Can I make it any more obvious? Chigusa was best friends with our mother, but the two became part of a love triangle with Mary’s father, the fencing instructor, as the third side. Chigusa trained harder than ever to earn his favor, but in a match between her and Mary’s mom, a match Chigusa won with a relentless attack, the instructor rushed to the latter’s side first. Then everyone found out about their relationship. Then they were expelled. As if to rub salt in the wound, they invited Chigusa to their wedding, and instead, on the day of, she set fire to the hall, preferring to die in the blaze. “My prince chose a girl who passively waited for her happiness, over me, who worked and worked and worked. I realized I was never going to be a princess, so I chose to become an evil queen instead. “On behalf of all queens everywhere” Yaaas queen slay Using the power to revolutionize the world, Chigusa will give herself the happy ending she so obviously deserves, breaking apart the relationship. And if Mary’s mother and father never get together… Obviously, Mary tries to fight her. After all, she has a fencing saber with her, and she’s not afraid to use it! But Chigusa has other plans. We can’t win a four-on-one and are knocked out for our troubles. A few moments later… Alright, all together now: Zettai! Unmei! Mokushiroku! Zettai! Unmei! Mokushiroku! … At the top of the stairs, of course, is Chigusa, and we finally see what her gym clothes look like, I guess. Before they fight, though, we cut back to the old Fencing Hall. I just said… There is a way out, obviously, but someone stands in the way. Uh-huh Fortunately, we have friends on our side as well. Ignore how Juri got in here. I certainly did. What follows are a series of fights that basically are meant as a final Nobility Check. Each duelist fighting gets a set number of randomized animation clips. At the end of each one, one of those roses in the corner falls off. If enough have happened, Juri wins. If she loses all her roses, she loses (Starting to feel like I don’t have a lot of agency here but okay). This is all intercut with Utena’s fight with Sanjouin, which has a similar mechanic going on. Juri fights Saionji, then Miki, then Touga, losing two roses each time. Juri is more right than she knows… But wait, Juri had five roses at that beginning screencap, and two roses per duel puts her at minus one by the end. Does that mean… It does. Touga manages to strike her down. And once our one defender is gone… … Okay so obviously that wasn’t ideal. But I think that gave a basic idea of how the game runs and a general feel of the plot. Now we need to start collecting endings, and for that, we have to break out a walkthrough. -r Total drinks: 17 (0 this episode) Next Time: We get the ending we were supposed to get this week. Let’s actually kiss Juri. ←Previous Post -- Next Post→

I don't think you understand how heavy plate armor is, but I digress. There is probably something you can find on the replica prop forum/RPF. Tons of knowledgeable people there that strive for as high of accuracy as possible. If you're interested in fiberglass, there is information on it there, that's where I learned it. Seriously though, be careful with that stuff. The dust is a carcinogen.