#I don't think I can very easily articulate to you how genuinely insane my mother is

[i-am-literally-deranged]

So I've spent years trying to convince my mother, who is 53 years old and really into otome games, to play Hatoful Boyfriend. And she did, but she INSISTED on stopping before BBL out of spite, because I haven't finished her favourite game yet. And I just thought that you might enjoy hearing her bizarro takes on the characters when I asked her what she thought of everyone. She's played everyone's route but has refused to start BBL. She has some of the worst opinions I've ever heard.

SHUU: is her favourite character. She can't remember anyone's name, so she just calls him "My Honey" She says that he's the sexy one of the group, and the best part of the game. She likes his purple eyes and murderous tendencies, and says that it would be a privilege to have her head cut off by him. She also says that she would like the game more if more of the characters killed her. I politely held my tongue about BBL and why she should get right to it.

ANGHEL: The only character whose name she consistently remembers. She's deeply baffled by his gender, but I think that's fair given that she doesn't really grasp the concept of gender in general. She has referred to him as being friends with Shun Kaido before, and I don't know what sort of little crossover she has going on inside of her head where they have met and are best friends, but it sounds adorable and I love that. Notably, she doesn't remember Shun's name very well, so she usually refers to him as "Anghel's little friend from the Saiki K show"

SAKUYA: We're going to have some disappointment in the audience with this one. She fucking hates Sakuya. Hates him to absolute DEATH. She calls him "the ponce" and got annoyed when I mentioned him to ask her for her take. By far her least favourite character. She said that she hopes the windows in the student council room are extremely clean.

YUUYA: So she actually didn't remember who Yuuya was, and I had to retell her what happens in his route, and when he finally remembered who he was she said "OH YOU MEAN CHRISTMAS DINNER BOY!!"

"Yeah I like him! He's a pretty swell guy." I asked if she had any further comments on him and her only responses were "He owes me compensation for the fact that his dipshit brother is still alive and I have to know him." And "Yummy."

RYOUTA: She likes him! She said that he's one of the best, and that she cried in his route. She called him "Your sad little friend" and expressed concern for his wellbeing. Ryouta passed her vibe check with flying colours! Yay for Ryouta.

NAGEKI: Another one whose name she often remembers, but it's hard to say exactly how often, because she refers to him as "The dead one." My mother dislikes Nageki, but not actually for his own sake, but because when I played the game for the first time I couldn't shut up about Nageki, and now she has a sort of built up resentment of him. When I asked her for her opinion of him on his own merit, her answer was "I simply do not care about him."

OKOSAN: "That is an animal. That is literally an animal. Why was he an option in the first place?? I don't understand it. I do not like him. Why is he here."

KAZUAKI: Easily her second favourite character. She didn't remember his name, but when I told her that he was the teacher, her response was to say "Oh....." very softly, then go into a long tangent about how she hopes he's doing okay, he seemed so sad and she likes him a whole lot. She said that she cares about him, and he seems very broken, but still very good. She said he was her best friend when playing the game. She then asked me if he lives to the end of the story, and I told her to play it and find out for herself. She refused.

[stealerofthe2ndbraincell]

ask and you shall receive: top 5 inside n9 episodes please!

Thank you!!! I had so much fun thinking this up.

This kind of involves more my top 5 favourites then the top 5 best, cause there are some episodes that I think are genuinely excellent and some of the best of all time, but that I wouldn't call a favourite because I often have a really hard time rewatching them (e.g. Wise Owl<333 which I absolutely adore).

5. How Do You Plead

God it was difficult to pick between this and two others for this slot, but I think I'm happy with my decision. Up until Steve appears as the LITERAL Devil, it really feels like a two act between Urban and Webster and the dynamic is written so well. Their dialogue flows well, Reece and Jacobi are excellent in this and the little fake court get up is one of my favourite bits in the whole show.

Urban is utterly fascinating and my favourite fella here but I always feel like slightly out of depth figuring him out. It's superb.

THE LIGHTING DIRECTION IS INSANE ON THIS and I love it. The shift is done so subtly and so well. This and Mother's Ruin are some of my favourite examples of night time scenes that are still kept realistically dark but also still very visually interesting. That whole turquoise (?) hue near the end is perfect.

Also Steve as the literal Devil cannot be mentioned enough. Excellent.

4. Diddle Diddle Dumpling

This is one I always really liked, but only ended up loving when I was showing a friend the show for the first time. It became their favourite so quickly and being able to watch it with them and hear them talk about it really made me reflect on it and holy shit it's excellent.

David's spiral is so well done, so well paced and builds to such a devastating conclusion.

I'm a sucker for symmetry irl and this episode delivers so hard on that for such good thematic reasons.

Everything about this one feels like it's a decision that's been laid out with such care and thought with the careful use of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" really tying the atmosphere together, if that makes sense.

3. The Last Weekend

Despite how much I've talked about this episode before, it's really hard, for some reason, to articulate why I love it as much as I do.

The rewatch value of it is insane and the twist really recontextualises practically every interaction. I love the character writing so much and honestly Chas is one of my favourite written characters in the whole series.

The 5 stages of grief are included very tastefully in my opinion with the part of Mollie deconstructing really prepping you (imo) for that incoming twist and for who or where the stages are applicable for. Elements such as that, the lack of "I love you" reciprocation, the constant bug shots etc. feel like they're so in your face obvious on rewatch, but they really slip by so well and I have to applaud that.

Finally, the ending is fucking visceral and I don't think I need to hark on how excellently acted that was for both.

2. Zanzibar

I love me some Shakespeare.

I feel like a sort of Shakespeare pastiche like this could easily come across as pretentious or boring, and this script refuses to be either of those at every opportunity.

To me, this is probably the most charming episode of the show, and it's so self-aware of what it is, which only makes it better. It takes itself just about seriously enough to be entertaining and to throw these more ridiculous of tropes from that period in with the reckless abandon it needs.

The set design in it is also really well done. It feels both taken straight out of some theatre production and close to a typical posh hotel environment.

It's also a lot more raunchier than I remembered it being. That piss sublot (?) was nuts.

Also Henry is so <3333

Cold Comfort

This is one of the earliest episodes I tend to introduce people with both because I think it's a great episode to introduce some very consistently good elements of the show as a whole and so I can yap about it as soon as possible. I have rewatched this one so many times, and I lost count so long ago.

The method of filming is absolutely excellent, just generally and for that setting specifically. For example, I think that kind of cold and objective forward-facing camera really helps establish Andy's lack of preparedness, and it's an underrated Steve performance all around, imo.

George is also probably my original favourite character because, GOD there's so much going on with him and they peel back just enough that it's almost satisfying but you're still left with a lot to chew on. I am so not normal about him. I need to put him in one of those bug cages kids use to observe butterfly metamorphosis.

Also, a bonus silly reason is that it made me like the song Shine. I hated it for years after it was one of the songs I had practice constantly for a dreadful school play back in primary school and this episode finally broke my hatred of it. (Haven't stopped hating Fix You by Coldplay yet though lol).