#Overflow Universe

[boopeth]

today i found out that school days is even more messed up than i remember.

[theshadowmenlounge]

The Mystique of Tomaru Sawagoe

I would say I've never been so fascinated by a villain who's actual stories I haven't read directly, but then I remember way back in 2012 when I hadn't bought any Paul Feval Novels yet but was reading about them on places like the CoolFrenchComics website and thus already compelled by the Aurora around characters like Colonel Bozzo-Corona.

Given Tomaru's wealth and connections Headcanoning him to be a Blackcoat is very plausible.

The late Brian Stableford often talked in his Introductions and Afterwards of his Translations often talked about how many Feval Villains were treated more as Personifications of specific Sins rather then believable people. And in that sense Tomaru Sawagoe fits in with Paul Feval villains perfectly as the personification of Rape and Child Molestation.

[kuuderekun]

It truly be one of the Crossovers of all time.

with the success of multiverse brand crossover media, now seems like the ideal time to release a heartwarming story of sawagoe tomaru amassing his bastard children and descendents into a great and powerful army. haven't thought much about the rest of the plot but I assume the idea guys will have the specifics under control

[firstfullmoon]

Zakaria Mohammed, “Untitled Poem, IV,” trans. Lena Tuffaha

[skyward-floored]

fic idea for lu where all of the Links dead bio parents are chilling up in the sacred realm or wherever and they all get together and watch all of their sons meet and goof off and are basically just the unseen cheering section

[sugar-grigri]

I just saw someone name me as their favorite CSM artist? How about I cry in front of you?

[kuuderekun]

If only we could actually play the other Overflow Games in English, I as someone who's refused to play any of the VNs that inspired many Anime I have 10/10s to on MAL because of how boring the act of playing one usually seems would absolutely play the Radish Trilogy just to see all this madness for myself if I could.

Anonymous asked you: On the shitty anime dad o meter were does Makoto’s dad score ?

I just went ahead and drew you a chart for convenience. It should help make things clear.

But seriously, Tomaru Sawagoe is probably the single most depraved character I have ever seen in any work of fiction.

There is absolutely not a single positive quality to be found within this man. He is a man who goes out of his way to ruin people’s life, not just content with taking what he wants from everyone, but making sure to make them feel as miserable as possible in the process.

And he has absolutely no standards whatsoever. It doesn’t matter who you are, he will send you through as much abuse as he can conceive of. Just for kicks.

He is a terrible abomination of wickedness, and yet I’m utterly obsessed with it.

I’m starting to think I have some issues.

[normal-thoughts-official]

It's still so funny to me that Mal tastes like dates and cinnamon. like. his mother's name is Maria. he is associated with dates. but also with cinnamon. is he coded as latino, south east asian, or middle eastern/north african? yes

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Overflowing Basin by Marina Ortega Lorente

[fishyartist]

It’s still so fucked to me that u can y2k some computers whenever u want by setting the date far enough forward

[kuuderekun]

PureMail OVAs

PureMail is a 2 episode Hentail OVA from 2001 that is an adaptation of a 2000 Bishoujo Game Visual Novel made by Overflow the same studio that made School Days and its “sequels”.

It is also in the same universe, the character named Miki Sawagana is the older sister of Taisuke Sawagana.  That’s the familial connection that is made obvious by surname, but I'll get to the matter of Overflow Universe world building later.

First, what do I think of this OVA as a stand alone work of art?

The thing about Erotic Art that wants to be more than just Porn is that I want it to be more than just a Good Story with good fappable Sex scenes, they need to inform each other, to be firmly integrated.  There are lots of mainstream movies where it’s part of the Plot that sex happens, but it doesn’t need to happen fully on screen.  In Erotic Art it has to be more than just that Sex happens but the specifics of the Sex have to matter, some of the character development has to be tied to how they do or do not enjoy it.

And it’s that test which PureMail fails.  I find the story and characters very interesting and I found at least some of the H scenes very Fappable.  But those H Scenes also feel like they’re interrupting the story rather than enhancing it.  There are times when the conversion happening after the sex directly picks up where they left off before, but because it’s separated by the 5 minutes mindless screwing the viewer loses the train of the conversation.

I’ve watched two versions of PureMail.  I watched its English Dub unedited and uncensored on a Hentail website I won’t name here. And I watched an English Subbed version on YouTube that has the explicit parts edited out.  And it demonstrates my above criticism that the edited version actually felt like it had better pacing.  It removed vestigial organs while in ideal erotic art removing the sex scenes would be removing the heart and soul.

Unfortunately that edited version is no longer on YouTube, I neglected to download it and I don’t remember the name of the Channel, so it looks like it's probably now Lost Media that only I care about.

School Days and some of its “sequels” are known for not being presented how most Visual Novels usually are but being basically interactive Anime.  PureMail as far as I can tell wasn’t like that, it was a more normal Visual Novel.  I bring that subject up here because it means the actual source material for the Days series can be compared to PureMail’s adaptation at being an Erotic Anime.  Now I currently have not seen all the Erotic content that School Days HQ and Shiny Days have to offer, but I’ve seen some that definitely do succeed where the PureMail OVAs failed.  Even if it would be hard to argue anything is specifically absolutely necessary; they still convey things about the characters which those so easy to edit out PureMail scenes did not.

As the title of PureMail implies it involves some characters communicating via Email, so it’s perhaps one of the earliest Hentail to feature the Internet as a plot point.

One thing that I feel vindicates my vocal interpretation that Otome raped Makoto in episode 9 of the School Days Anime is that that Women Raping men is a theme in these prior overflow Overflow works.  The MC of Large PonPon was abused by at least 2 older women.  And in PureMail at least in the OVA version Kei is Blackmailed and Raped by Yumi Matou, and it’s framed as traumatizing not comedic or harmless.

So yeah there is good material here, if that edited version were the official version I’d probably give it a higher rating.  But I also imagine like many VNs adapted with so little runtime the storytelling was also hurt by being condensed and trying to make everything fit one timeline.

Now let’s return to world building.  The Overflow Universe Family Tree is a bit of a Meme to those of us who know it exists.  But in a way PureMail’s connections to all that shows how perhaps not well thought out it actually is.  Again I like most English speakers have no first hand information about these games, I’m mostly trying to draw conclusions from the overflow Fandom Wiki (I wish I didn't have to use Fandom but no one’s cloned this content on an alternative Wiki network.)

These PureMail OVAs are technically the only onscreen Anime appearance of Tomaru Sawagoe. In the games his onscreen appearances are in the Radish Trilogy, only they have character designs for him, and even the first of them came out after these OVAs.  Going off the OVAs Kei’s father isn’t mentioned by name and there isn’t even any hint at that father not being who he gets the surname Ogata from.  The OVAs felt they needed to actually animate a flashback and in it the character design of Kei’s father is a generic White Trash Wife Beater type who seems to be “Lower Class”.  Tomaru in the Radish games has a more distinct and flamboyant style and is very wealthy owning the titular restaurant chain and a hospital.

Basically Kei’s father being identified with the villain of the Radish series seems like a Retcon.

Online discussion of all these Overflow games focus on how they relate to School Days because only it ever became truly infamous in the general Anime community, especially in the Anglosphere.  So Tomaru Sawagoe is defined first and foremost as Makoto Itou’s father and all the games set before School Days are talked about as if they are prequels to School Days even though they were all made before School Days.

Snow Radish Vacation was made as a prequel, but to Large PonPon, Overflow’s first game.  The Inou and Sawagoe surnames originated there and then become the focus of Snow Radish Vacation; no surnames you recognize from the core cast of School Days are in either of those games.

Large PonPon, PureMail and School Days all seem like they are set in the then present of when they were made (9199, 2000 and 2005) like the average Visual Novel.  It’s only the Radish Vacation games that have to be Period Pieces for the Timeline to make sense.  But I have no way of knowing how good they are at feeling like Period Pieces.

Summer Radish Vacation was a sequel to Snow Radish Vacation, but Summer Radish Vacation 2 is in some ways more of a spin off then a sequel.  School Days I think was originally made without how it connects to the other games being all that set in stone originally.  In fact I’ve learned there was originally a family tree chart published by Overflow which made Sekai and Setsuna children of Tomaru rather than of Shun.

Summer Days' relationship to School Days is more of a completely alternate timeline rather than a Sequel or a Prequel.  But thanks to Shun’s role it’s actually more of a direct sequel to Summer Radish Vacation then Summer Radish Vacation 2 is.

Point is, the core world building starts with Large PonPon then goes through the Radish Games to end with the Days series.  PureMail and other Overflow games mentioned on the genealogy are largely afterthoughts.  The genealogy makes Ayumu the father of multiple PureMail characters and I really doubt the game was originally written with that in mind.

[numbuh424]

WHO sent the ask about my death note oc and do you understand what you are walking into asking for more info about them 🫵 /lh

[harrylights]

i’ve verbalized this to a couple people now but honestly my biggest takeaway from louis’ show is how he brings out so much love, compassion, support, and acceptance in practically everyone at his shows. the amount of love i felt in that room was unparalleled. i am so grateful to him and so proud of him for the fact that by just being his authentic self he helps others feel seen for who they are, helps others heal, and in turn we help each other and love each other more and i’m just soooo thankful to him for going thru everything he has to get to this point. he deserves every ounce of love he receives and i’m so glad that he seems to feel like he finally deserves that bc he really fucking does <3

[deus-ex-mona]

[doom-dreaming]

well that post broke containment in a way i wasn't expecting