#and how a lot of the people who haven't read the source material mischaracterize him (and others)

[accirax]

Nene’s Role in Wonderlands x Showtime

The release of The Miniature Garden’s Coral seems to have confirmed some things I’ve recently speculated might transpire in future Wonderlands x Showtime events-- namely regarding Nene and how she may actually be the most important member of the troupe-- so, let’s talk about them! I’ll be using zui’s lyrics video for my translations, so hopefully they’re accurate.

With the past couple of WxS events in mind, it’s easy to see that this 3DMV is also about endings. While the MV begins in a sunny blue afternoon light...

...the characters and set eventually bask in a beautiful sunset orange, signaling the end of the day. The lyrics even mention being “between the end of the blue sky and the beginning of the night sky,” further emphasizing that we’re in the middle of the story. When the sky is blue, the troupe expresses uncertainty: Rui mentions that he feels lost, and Tsukasa, scared. But eventually, Nene admits that, in this beginning period, she was “spoiled by the sound of the waves,” AKA that the commotion surrounding WxS’s formation led to a troupe that became a source of comfort for all of them.

Once the sun sets, there are a lot of “even ifs.” Nene sings about how she’ll continue to sing this song, even if things are starting to look unsteady and she’s not sure if she should proceed. However, by the end of the song, she resolves to "still sing this song” while keeping up a smile.

I think that the fact that Nene says she will sing this song is incredibly important, because, as established, this song is about endings. Meanwhile, back in Mr. Showtime, Tsukasa firmly didn’t want WxS to end, and was holding out until closing time. Rui’s What Sort of Ending Are You Wishing For? and Emu’s Starry Sky Orchestra seemingly both acknowledge an ending as well, but it’s not at all easy. Rui seems to fall into a resigned depression at the thought, keeping a whimsical facade up when the very thought of separating kills him inside. The thought haunts him, MV riddled with hourglasses that he can’t get out of his head. Emu can only tolerate taking the first step towards a breakup with tooth-rottingly sugarcoated promises of eternal togetherness and literally holding hands as they go (I love her btw this is not Emu slander). She never even says the word “end,” only “tomorrow.”

Rui, Emu, and Tsukasa are basically Denialx3. Rui tries to deny his emotions regarding disbanding, Emu tries to deny that the ending is coming at all, and Tsukasa tries to deny that there’s nothing he can do to keep them from inevitably drifting apart. And that’s where Nene comes in again.

Rui’s dream is to perform technically complex shows that will resonate with an audience. He can do that from Phoenix Wonderland. Emu’s dream is to keep the Wonder Stage up and operating forever. She has to do that from Phoenix Wonderland. Tsukasa’s dream is to become the number one world star and make everyone smile. While this would likely take him away from the park, in another story, I could see it being possible that, in the end, Tsukasa decides that making the people in his local community happy is more important than trying to change the entire world. Thus, he could also follow his dream from Phoenix Wonderland, even if it’s not ideal.

But then there’s Nene. Her dream is, and always has been, to perform in Broadway musicals. Broadway is a live performance in New York City. There is no possible way for Nene to get what she wants while staying in Phoenix Wonderland. And that is possibly why Wonderlands x Showtime’s ending is the easiest for her to process.

Now, I’m not trying to say that Nene doesn’t love her friends. She adores them. Her three previous commissions have proven that. It’s the amount of love she has for them that will propel her to make what is actually the best choice for their dreams. Nene is the little mermaid, both when swimming freely the oceans with a beautiful, unstoppable song, and when enduring pain herself to stand with and for the ones she loves. Her friends, in this situation... are coral.

Remember that coral, “blurred” and uncertain in the water and “stained orange by the setting sun”? The miniature garden is Phoenix Wonderland; the coral is Emu, Rui, and Tsukasa; and that coral is stained orange by its desperation to keep rereading the final chapter instead of closing the book for now and putting it away to revisit in the future. Coral, while a beautiful living organism, is also completely static.

Static like stone statues which, at least by my interpretation, is what the rest of WxS turns into at the end of the 3DMV. The three of them (and Kaito) are paralyzed with the fear of the suffering an ending would bring. Only Nene is alive and human to be the one to show the group the benefits it can bring as well.

There are a lot of aspects of this song and Nene’s entire personality that lead me to believe that she will be the one to bring about change in WxS. First, she most often “has the braincell,” so to speak. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she performs this song with Kaito, the most mature of the WxS vocaloids, either. During April Fool’s 2023, she was put into the Solid Heart class. One might think that troupe leader Tsukasa should be the Solid Heart, and that shy Nene should be the Cautious Heart, but they (accurately) sorted it the other way.

Nene is a very strong-willed person. In other stories, it might be seen as a negative that Nene is always the most hesitant one to get into shenanigans, or that she would even dare to be the one to suggest a WxS split in the first place. What an ungrateful wet blanket Nene is, willing to throw away her friends for the sake of her own selfish dream. But in this story, staying at Phoenix Wonderland isn’t really what will make Rui or Tsukasa happy, and even Emu may have to graduate to focusing on the entire company instead of just one stage someday.

Nene’s friends brought her out of the darkness and into the light of day, and she is so grateful for that. She knows how amazing they are, which is how she knows that they can make more friends and continue to do even more amazing things in the future if they can bear to leave their high school part-time jobs behind and enter the real world, just like her.

So, Nene’s role is to be Wonderlands x Showtime’s guiding light. She’ll tell Rui what sort of ending she’s wishing for, and then console him when he can’t repress his tears. She’ll be the one to hold Emu’s hand while they take that next step into tomorrow. Her three best friends helped her to grow from the loner who operated a robot from the theme park bushes, and she’ll help them step out of that theme park and be who they truly want to be.

There is one other thing I wanted to mention, though...

Tsukasa.

As I mentioned previously, while all three of Rui, Emu, and Tsukasa are in denial, Tsukasa is the most actively in opposition to an ending. He’s also the troupe leader, and the sole creator of the Wonderland Sekai. If someone is going to actively try to stop Nene from suggesting separation, it’s definitely going to at least start with him. But as Nene has already stated in The Miniature Garden’s Coral, despite any opposition that makes her question whether or not she should proceed, she already plans to continue singing her beliefs about a bittersweet yet timely goodbye.

And, their conflict is something that’s basically been foreshadowed from the beginning too, right? Nene has always roasted Tsukasa, giving a counterpoint to his blindingly bright worldview. In upcoming chapters, however, I believe that may start to transform from simple fun banter into a genuine conflict with clear sides drawn...

And THAT’S why ColoPale gave them Childish War.

Nenekasa nation get ready, ‘cause I don’t think this is the last Nene and Tsukasa fight we’re going to see.

[shiteating]

i finished the limbus event ages ago but forgot to post my thoughts (still gotta grind in the upcoming weeks) but what a tour de force of an event. i quite liked it. the chickens rolling 11-13 on one coin was pretty annoying so anyone reading this who hasn't started: bring your high rollers. at any rate, i like that it gave limelight to characters that haven't had much so far— it feels as if they combed through the script of the cantos released so far and listed sinners in order of not necessarily who said the least, rather who hasn't really had a chance to show off their personality as much. i do quite understand and feel it— "gives spotlight to characters who needed it" is quite cliché praise that conveys nothing, at the end of the day. but it's true.

spoilers under the cut, for like everything potentially, but especially the event of course. (also may include my grievances with the fandom so if youre not about negativity...well if you follow me here youre probably ok but just a warning out of courtesy)

I LOVED HOW IT GAVE FOCUS TO CERTAIN SINNERS!!!! especially meursault, yi sang and hong lu!! donQ was funny!! gregor was cringefail moe!! more of ryoshu is NEVER a bad thing!! (ryoshu pussy destroyer, apropos of nothing) i think even though sinclair had his introductory canto already with arguably the best sinner to story+dungeon integration and immersion so far, its nice to see him not suffering and just being some guy. i did say "they gave the characters who didn't do much more spotlight" rather than "didn't say much" because in the grand scheme of things, sinclair didn't do that much in canto 1 and 2, and 3 was an interesting facet of him but nonetheless we hunger for these sinners in any situation funny or tragic.

but also because i have a huge issue with "XYZ doesn't talk much" sort of justification for mischaracterization. this concerns mostly yi sang and meursault. now, to preface things, usually i am not the kind of person who likes to heckle people and demand they meet prerequisities before consuming a work (well it depends, for me personally i like going in production order when it comes to games and anime but this is different+if someone came up to me demanding stuff my response would be "no way" out of spite a lot of the time. though i try to respect the work by honoring its othee branches IVE GONE OFF ON A TANGENT SORRY), but yi sang and meursault in particular are about the most straightforward original book to limbus character translations there are probably. i think i mentioned it on main before, but the solution to "i don't know how this character is" is probably to look back on the source material. i suspect it is due to the short length of their respective sources, even yi sang who seems to take after his poetry as well and not just the wings, does not come up to even 50 pages all together probably. (i have not read all his poetry but i've read crow eye's view right after this event because i was further spurned to do so, i read the wings last week) the stranger is about 100 pages. it makes sense, when you have a longer source like for example crime and punishment, you have more room to do more topsy turvy aversions like mixing sonya and rodya's convictions together and switching stuff around ever so slightly... also the genderbending but that's obvious. prosthetics racism aside, they played with sinclair a bit still, but all in all it's following most of demian's beats quite closely, down to demian magically making kromer go away in an act of demian ex machina (though on screen as opposed to off in the book, though the mystique is arguably not lost because the fucker is floating like some kind of ghost or guardian spirit. not saying he is any of this but yknow). P.S. i think if they somehow work eva into limbus i might lose my mind that was such an insane part of the book

however even before this event, in the three cantos we have available, i feel that yi sang and meursault have been adequately characterized. i read the stranger in high school so my memory on it is fuzzy, and as aforementioned i read the wings last week, and they are represented quite faithfully! not to mention meursault wasn't even scarce in canto 3! i understand that they're a little dry as characters, maybe that is seemingly boring to some people but i don't think it is an excuse. there's no REAL need to read the books and that's not my point here at all, but still, i think what we have in the game even pre-event paints a quite clear picture as it is. i'm trying my best not to sound like i'm looking down on anyone, i say this all the time but before limbussy i had only been reading non-fiction books for years because i lost my spark for fiction. i'm happy it revived it. so i'm not gonna come from the angle of "read books or die" cuz that's not me. i'm saying this because i have intense anxiety but i will repeat again that while i speak strongly and perhaps even harshly, i do not think any less of most people. though maybe i cannot hide my annoyance at fandom types much even if i am trying. <-im just a guy

though i will spill the beans on myself and admit that i feel that you miss out on so much when not reading at least some of the books. sure, some of them follow quite closely, but there'a so much fun in comparing and contrasting. seeing the subversions and aversions, and what they chose to keep as is. I LOVE IT!!! i want you guys to know this joy. and i love that my reading block is going away. btw i am reading stuff in canto order. 👍

my comments on donQ in laconic because no one wants to hear it (will oblige if you ask but it is groanworthy so i will use my discretion regardless) (also clarifying again cuz i have anxiety but i do not ever think donQ being silly is bad. she is perfect. i have 0 complaints. it is more about fandom treatment):

and then there was hong lu.

this one's a real stinker. hong lu isn't topping much of my lists but i think he is a charming and nuanced character who is unfortunately probably the most flanderized sinner next to heathcliff and donQ (THE CROWD BOOS AT THE NOTION OF DONQ BEING FLANDERIZED). as with many people, i don't know if a day may come that i will read dream of the red chamber in whole— i may attempt it of course, but the length is undeniably daunting. i don't know much about it, only that hong lu himself is not a character in it, but more like some kind of metaphysical mishmash of different elements in the novel (even his name is derived from the title itself). it is not difficult to surmise that the odds are stacked against him. i don't think this section will be too long, but i feel that not only is the nuance in his character in limbus easily disregarded, but it is being superceded entirely by this phantom of what the fandom has thrust onto him. i am not anti-fun, nor am i "you're enjoying it wrong grrr" (this is a lie i kind of am sometimes but i am self aware of it)

but even just judging from the material in limbus alone i do not see where people got the "hong lu is a frivolous shallow whore" thing outside of idk, him being a handsome somewhat kind of sort of gender non-conforming male character and acting (strong emphasis on acting) a little ditzy and being showy. he's quite sheltered, i do not deny that he says ignorant things because of his upbringing, but the event did lay it on thick in one scene that he also enjoys messing with people a bit. but i think it will still be taken super literally regardless. he is a character with hidden depths, so far not much of it is revealed, but he shows moments of great emotional intelligence at times (like in canto 3 when he told a different sort of half truth to saude about effie being "fine"... i mean it's uh. not a lie) and the guy can definitely read the room if he so chooses to do so. the moment in the event where he got a little cagey and perhaps even introspective when faust used him as an example to explain distortion was another moment of depth uncovered: i think it will be a slow process overall. which is great. there are some characters that we will continue to learn more and more about incrementally throughout the run of the game (however long that will be, but i will be there no matter what) rather than getting a seemingly complete baseline right away. (because really, everyone has hidden depths still, it's just that sinners in the position not unlike hong lu's just have MORE hidden i suspect donQ is the same— /shot

but yeah. i had a lot to think about because of the event. but i love the direction it went with showing the sinners' individuality off and who they chose to show more of. i could not be happier with it. i feel like very few mobage are able to do this balancing act of fleshing out characters outside of story. i think fgo also does it well (CROWD STARTS THROWING ROCKS AT ME)

P.S. i do not assert that my interpretation of the characters is 100% correct and infallible EVER— everyone sees things differently. however what is objectively incorrect is stuff that just ignores canon outright and on a consistent basis. at that point idk if we are reading the same text.