#caligula effect spoilers

[doctorbunny]

On one hand I'd love for most of the milgram cast to be canon lgbt (although Canon cis Muu is really funny in its own way)

But on the other, it's worth remembering the last Canon trans character Yamanaka wrote, whilst beloved also had his identity foreshadowed with non binary flag coloured shoes....

Like that's not a bad thing, but idk if any of the prisoners are on Gin Noto's level

[aokozaki]

Shoving Wicked in with the Obbligato Musicians to see how many relationships she can ruin. MU-kun would be pretty easy to bully. Just wait for him to talk up Thorn and curry favor with Wicked by saying he respects the other Mobeius Musicians too, of course.

Eventually he'll say something about the two of them being pretty similar, they're both artists who admire Thorn! And at that point all Wicked has to do is start laughing at him.

There's no subtle social manipulation required, the transparent lack of effort is in itself part of the jab.

[goldengalanthus]

i keep saying ill come back to this blog when i have something else other than original character contents but most of those are always sketches or doodles of unfortunately most of the time they are of crossovers only i and maybe one or two more people understand like this

[daily-rayless]

Our third birthday character for January 1 is Marie Mizuguchi from The Caligula Effect, the infamous Wicked of the Ostinato Musicians.

Fun fact: Marie Mizuguchi's birthday is 1/1, but her alter-ego Marie Amabuki's is 4/15. Even though Wicked's used to taking what she wants, even she doesn't get two birthdays, so we'll be celebrating her just today.

[shevi-creates]

there’s no flower in this world more beautiful than an artificial one. 🥀

commissions are open! check my pinned post for more information! please don’t use, edit, or repost without permission; thanks!

[rayless-reblogs]

Writing Patterns Tag Game

RULES: List the first line of your last 10 posted fics and see if there's a pattern!

Saw this (thank you @boobaloof!) and decided to give it a whirl.

All fics can be found on my AO3.

A Dream So Like Waking (Tales of the Abyss):

Natalia woke still dressed in a strange bed with the scent of selenias in her hair.

Welcome Home Discarded Faith (Tales of the Abyss):

It had otherwise been been a dull afternoon – gray, humid, excessively long.

And So All Yours (Tales of the Abyss):

Princess Susanne might lament the fact that neither of her sons chose to live in Fabre Manor, but she surely couldn't be surprised.

With Your Hands Your Hearts (Tales of the Abyss):

Natalia proposed to Asch on the night of his twenty-second birthday, and they announced it to Ingobert the next morning at nine-thirty, after his breakfast.

We Could Be Friends (The Caligula Effect):

Daisy never had enough time on her lunch breaks, but that day she knew she wouldn't even have time to sit and eat.

Jumping Off Cliffs (Fate/Extra):

When we cross into Alice's realm – and just now it feels more like Alice's realm than it does the SE.RA.PH's Arena – I remind myself that I have to keep hold of who I am.

The Muse of Last Songs (Transistor):

The thing is, with our hair, there wasn't anyone in my family who wasn't called Red at some point in our lives, as a casual nickname, or a love name, or whatever.

Constant As the Southern Star (Tales of the Abyss):

Natalia and her consort almost spent their wedding night in separate rooms.

Repaid With Life (Fate/Extra):

Archer regarded the enormous digital hamster ball around his Master (Tamamo disparagingly called it a fishbowl, and Nero more fancifully called it a snowglobe, but even in metaphor Archer would take durable plastic over glass any day) and gave himself a little nod.

The Muse of Songs Unfinished (Transistor):

It's risky, but it's not impossible.

Patterns?

I've heard my style described as "punchy", and I think I see it here. I tend not to ease into things with atmosphere or setting (which could work against me, in some cases) and instead lead with something declarative. I'm pretty quick to establish which character's pov we're working with.

Some of these examples vary in tone, but I think my voice is consistent. (But then, I would. That's really more for the reader to decide.)

Please go ahead and do this meme if you'd like to!

[taffy-glitch]

tbh the fact that Gin and Mu-kun are each other's parallels (and therefore that Swap Out is both of their themes) makes a lot of sense but it is kinda funny to me to interpret the lyrics based on both their characters and it's. like.

Mu-kun: Oh, if only I'd had the courage to pursue my passions at a younger age... and not succumbed to a life of mediocrity... maybe, in this other life, I can be the person I was always meant to be...

Gin: god i fucking wish i transitioned

[jailofabyss]

she’s been everybody else’s girl , maybe one day she’ll be her own

based off this bandori card bc its PEAK. i love kiriko sm man.. here are some alts if ur into that sort of thing :p

[reaperkaneki]

ok here are my Thoughts on gin noto

under cut bc it got long lol

first off, he is very strong representation. as in, i think this might be the platonic ideal of a transmasc character. which has its good points and bad.

sweet-p’s arc was rooted in some obviously transphobic jokes/points/etc but at its core, her arc felt well-intentioned and overall she was definitely portrayed as one of the most sympathetic of the musicians (who are antagonists but certainly not outright villains, which the musician route makes abundantly clear). she also is not, like, described as trans per se, mostly as a crossdresser who loves cute things and wishes she were a cute girl (so like, she’s trans) and honestly her arc is about self-image and body dysmorphia in general (weight and age and outside perception are all major factors). and that’s what sets her apart from gin, gin is very much about Gender Dysphoria And Conforming To Societal Gender Roles first and foremost.

unlike sweet-p’s writing, gin’s doesn’t have any overt flaws to point to, which is why i had to mull it over for a while to figure out what was missing, and i think it’s because it is very much aimed at a cis audience. the narrative itself is perfectly fine, it’s the meta-narrative that bothers me.

when gin confesses that irl, he was assigned female at birth and presents as female in his day-to-day life, and asks the player, does this change anything, there is a right answer and a wrong answer. the wrong answer is to tell him that you don’t care what gender he is, it doesn’t change anything at all; gin perceives this as a half-assed, dismissive response said without thinking and becomes upset and it locks you out of the rest of his character episodes. the correct answer is to tell him that you don’t know, you’re not sure. maybe it does change things between the two of you. gin feels that this is a understandable position to take, like, of course it might be a big deal, it certainly feels like a big deal to him!

and yes, to someone who hasn’t encountered a trans person before, that’s probably a reasonable response. to me, specifically, a fellow transmasc person, i think i sorta laughed at this part because, like, the only thing that would change if a coworker or friend or whatever told me that they were actually stealth trans this whole time (and that’s being generous bc gin is Not Slick lmfao the foreshadowing for him being trans is super obvious to anyone who knows) i’d be like cool! love that for you. etc etc. bc transgenderism is Normal to me.

but the game assumes You Are A Cis Person Who Isn’t Sure How To React To Trans People. the game doesn’t let you be trans. there’s not a nonbinary option, despite having a cyborg for an antagonist and, more egregiously, a canonically nonbinary character in your party. (i’d say pronouns, but that’s not quite the same in japanese.) not that i was expecting that to be possible, but it is a clear separation of gameplay and story that hinders roleplay (in an rpg where your character’s backstory is almost completely undefined)!

this is not to say that gin is poorly written. like i said, he’s like the platonic ideal of representation. he’s easy to clock specifically because his experiences ring true; he’s always, always, always overcompensating and posturing “as a man”, he’s trying to conform to his own personal image of “what men do”, “how guy friendships work”, “what guys are interested in”. when asked why he gets along with women so well, he lies and says it’s because he has an, uh, older sister! so he’s spent a lot of time around women! he dresses trendy, but not too fashionably (because that’s feminine, he’s function over form allegedly), and the cut of his clothes is soooo. well. the silhouette is masculinizing, or at least androgynous, let’s say. he even wishes he were taller.

i’m pretty sure i’ve done most of those things. this is writing that either speaks from experience or understands the prompt and has done the goddamn research.

it is, however, very, VERY cool that he actually turns out to Not Be A Man, at least in the sense he’s always wanted to be. REALLY good nonbinary arc that i wish wasn’t constrained to, like, the last two character episodes. it’s the one interesting ‘twist’, and i love that it explains a lot of things about him! when he talks about working as a woman irl and busting his ass in heels, he sounds proud, even as he admits that presenting female always made him uncomfortable. and lo and behold, his catharsis effect sports a pair of gold heels! if he was just a hypermasculine trans man, that would be super uncomfortable, as if it were some sort of transphobic indicator of his ‘true self’ being feminine. but no, it’s because he’s hiding that aspect of himself. he repressed his masculine tendencies to conform to social norms, and then inadvertently did the same to his feminine side, but both are important. he likes the heels.

i also like that he’s bi and acknowledges that his relationships never worked out bc he hadn’t figured out his shit yet. it do be like that sometimes.

unfortunately, i think he’s also kind of boring? like, besides her wanting to be a cute girl, sweet-p had other stuff going on, she had that boke/tsukkomi routine with stork, she had a genuine love for yume-kawaii (whereas while gin has many interests, a not-insignificant part of those interests is male posturing), she was even a musician! i understand that gin’s blandness is On Purpose because he dislikes rocking the boat (but he hates posers, which was a genuinely interesting reaction from him that didn’t feature as strongly in his arc as i wanted. even kiriko comments on it), but doesn’t change the fact that he ain’t weird enough! can’t even be an only sane man bc he goes along with everyone’s bs lol

anyway gin is cool and well-written as a trans character but missing a bit otherwise. i’d still definitely love to hang out and get beef bowls and boba with him :)

[materialistvampire]

Okay I made a joke post about it a while back but I have actual thoughts about the Marie Mizuguchi novel. It's sort of long and rambling and personal, so I am gonna put it under the cut because I just kinda went off.

This book was an emotional rollercoaster for me to go through, in a good way. Genuinely went from being hilarious to a gutwrenching portrayal of what living with severe C-PTSD/BPD is like and what it Does To Your Brain.

You cannot convince me Marie doesn't have something going on vis a vis Naruko. I'm sorry. Her actions do not make sense is this isn't true.

Like look there's no good reason for her plan to be, "I am going to be honest and specifically avoid lying to you and tell you I am a Musician and I haven't revealed my identity to anyone except for you." She could've easily told a different lie for the same end goal but she picked THAT ONE.

She literally CHOSE to do that. Why Did She Do That.

Literally waited until the last possible second to do it too. Literally had numerous opportunities to do so earlier but no she does this at the last moment.

Actually Insane about this tbh.

The moment where Wicked passes out because she thinks the GHC Prez has figured her out and then he's like, "No I just wanted to ask her a question about the festival" is a fascinating to me as a portrayal of a PTSD attack.

Fuck Takahiro Suou this is an anti-Takahiro Suou Blog.

She's genuinely so paranoid and I mean that as affectionately as possible. She really just portrays what the hell trauma that bad does to your brain's ability to interpret social cues and it Fucks With Me.

For the first two scenes I was laughing along with this book. It's actually hilarious. The bit of:

Literally Anyone: *Says something*

Marie: I want to fucking kill myself. I want to kill them. I want to stab my own eardrums out with a fork. I wish everyone in the world was dead.

It never gets boring for me. And then over time it goes from funny to heartbreaking so like, kudos.

There Is Something So Wrong With Her (affectionate)

μ throughout this book is very cute I love her. She's really just Trying Her Best. Failwoman.

So funny that her trauma is listed as "Sociopathy" in the game when that woman fucking BLEEDS empathy from every pour.

Literally she wants someone to understand her so badly but does not trust anyone to be able to and so sabotages every relationship she forms. Projects her trauma onto literally everyone and lashes out. Zero coping skills.

Transference levels are off the charts w/ her.

I love her so much and wish we got to see her in CE2 in more than the Bad Ending. Which this book truly recontextualizes in a fascinating way.

Get the vibe that she'd probably like the second Go-Home Club more than she did the first (insofar as she like, likes anyone/anything) but can't quite articulate why

She deserves to have a messy, codependent romance with someone I think it would do Things to her.

In conclusion: Insane About Her, tbh

[taffyglitch-art]

I have found an unexpected amount of affection for this #Girl. I just think she's neat :)

[leminhthinking]

i wanted to talk about my intepretation of Thorn or at least gather what i did talk about and put them in one place (translate if needed), but i figured writing a fic would explain things better ^w^ this one definitely didnt cover everything i wanted to say but its. hm. it does contain a large part of it....

[aokozaki]

Now a really subtle detail that helps solidify that despite the frankly depicted transphobia in the Caligula Effect, the game genuinely remains sympathetic to Sweet-P and considers her a girl is that both the original game and Overdose had image songs sung as a group cover.

idolatry for the original, and Cradle for Overdose, sung by the group "RePLiCa", consisting of all the female members of the Ostinato Musicians. And of course, Sweet-P is there.

But so's Thorn! And the implications of that are staggering.

[causalitylinked]

    Rather than express disappointment, he'll simply nod as the song subsequently ended and another one began in it's place. This time around, though, it was Daichi Miura singing a song called 'Didn't Know', which was another one Kobato didn't recognize but one that he surmised came out fairly recently. "Yeah, that's hella valid. These days, it's hard to only pick a few, especially when there's a whole lotta artists to choose from," he idly points out while continually keeping his eyes on the road. Honestly, Kobato doesn't exactly blame her for not having any specific artists she particularly liked, because following his initial discharge from the hospital, it was as if he proceeded to lose interest in many things he once enjoyed.

    Still, when next Himari asked about his taste in music, he had to stop and think about it for a little bit with brows pensively furrowed.

    "'Anyone I gravitate towards', huh? If one thing is for sure, it's definitely not Virtuadolls, aside from maybe χ... and even then, I wouldn't say she's my fav," Kobato then states. Of course, by 'Virtuadolls', he was referring to those like Aria and µ, who are vocal synthesizer softwares originating from Japan that could obediently sing anything their users inputted. According to the wider populace, however, it was rumoured that a few years back, µ's songs had been responsible for causing people all over Japan to fall into comas, which at the time, was a phenomenon known as Astral Syndrome, and it only started up again months prior when Regret surfaced into being before people began regaining their consciousness again. What Kobato didn't mention, however, was that he actually survived having Astral Syndrome and χ was someone he personally spoke to in a false, utopian world built from Marie Amabuki's Micro-Mobius, because not only did he think he wouldn't be believed, he didn't exactly like talking about it either.

    "So I guess female idols like Kurahashi Momona? But rather than the music being their greatest selling point, what draws me to them instead is more their cuteness, which is why I would follow them on Gossiper... though, music-wise, I would listen to practically whatever songs another girl wants, meaning you're right 'bout me not being picky or having a genre I'm super attached to," Kobato goes on to add, only to briefly pause when he realizes he only really has her added on WIRE. "Oh, that reminds me, Himarin... do ya have a Gossiper account?"

It was too easy to sink into the music, letting it carry her away from the limo, from Kobato, from all of what surrounded her. Art in its many forms was where she found comfort, and rarely did she find herself picky about the genre. She had preferences, but the song mattered more than the artist themselves.

Still neck-deep in the music, she kept her eyes closed but gave her head a small shake. "Oh, I think I know who you're talking about. I don't think I'm a fan of anyone in particular. I like the song more than I like the person that sang it, but there might be a chance I've liked a lot of what one person's done if their style is consistent."

For a fleeting moment, she worried that her answer might be too blase. It was basic as basic could be, and it didn't give most people insight to her tastes. It felt as if she might have short-changed him and painted herself as boring, so she was quick to deflect.

"What about you? You've never really struck me as the kind that's picky, so I'm curious if you gravitate towards anyone in particular." Yet she wouldn't dare guess and risk offending him.

[daily-rayless]

When I say I really like the Caligula characters, that includes the silent protagonists. I wish they had more dialogue options (and how about options where you can answer questions in texts?), because as I play, I do end up forming personalities around them based on their limited responses.

Lucid I've always seen as a fairly cold person, someone who could quite easily be a villain but who grows to love her team very much in spite of herself.

But Prez here (I wish she had an official name), despite her darker design, I quickly saw as a warmer, even a little goofy person. She goes into that haunted house fully knowing she's a weenie (and she does pick a party member who is equally terrified, so no one gets to be the brave one), she eats her monkfish crepe unironically, she becomes resigned to χ pushing her little white head out of her stomach in public, just giving a little sigh and calmly pushing her back in.

But despite her emotional softness, Prez learns how to be there for her team, becomes that support they need as their problems finally overwhelm them (or, to look at it more positively, they force themselves to confront their problems). Prez admits to Gin she can't make his decisions for him, refuses to be cruel to Shota, shows Sasara that sometimes someone's love is difficult to bear when it causes pain.

And when circumstances force her to consider a practical but terrible choice, she looks at her friends and she makes the choice. The wrong choice at first, but then I think it's more in character that she pulls back, reconsiders, and even though it's going to endanger her friends, decides to keep heading along the more uncertain path.

Also, seriously, look at her character design. That's a great design.

[weather-cluddy]

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO WATCHING MILGRAM (as of the end of the 2nd trial)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

INTRO

What's Milgram? Milgram is a multimedia project whose central concept revolves around the audience judging the character's crimes. All of them stand accused of murder after being brought to the mysterious prison of Milgram, but were their actions truly wrong? Only the audience, through the medium of the amnesiac guard Es, can decide that. Vote them GUILTY or INNOCENT according to your ethics or your whims over the course of three trials , and watch how their lives change in response.

You can read a list of trigger warnings here. Who's working on it? The musical and visual components are led by the vocaloid producer Deco*27 and his employees at OTOIRO, with him working on the lyrics and composing half the songs, while the other half is handled by Rockwell. Teddyloid often works in the songs' arrangement as well. Yamanaka Takuya is in charge of all writing in the MILGRAM project, except for the novels and their manga adaptation which were done by Nami Tsumi. His works tend to revolve around trauma and people's inner darkness, and are often music-related multimedia franchises such as the Caligula Effect series, Utagoe wa Mille-Feuille and Boisterous Six. (Fun fact: the last one was prompted by the thought that if he made a collab with the Takuya Yamanaka who's part of The Oral Cigarettes, maybe people would stop confusing them. It did not work.)

For more details, check the wiki's Staff page.

How do I vote? You'll need an account for either Twitter or LINE (Japanese texting app). Then go to the JUDGE page in the official website and click on the icon of a character that's not grayed out. (If they all are, then you need to wait until the new trial starts). You'll be asked to give the site permission to use your Twitter/LINE account. The website should remember your credentials afterwards. You can vote once a day every day for as long as the poll is open. The general rhythm of the project is that a song releases, then another releases next month and the next one takes two months to come out. Since each poll lasts for three months, this means that there should always be two characters available for voting, unless there are delays or you're at the very end or start of a trial.

How does this guide work? / Usage notes Due to Tumblr's restriction on the amount of links per post, this guide will have three parts.

I've organized content according to platform/format, but I also paid mind to original release date and overall importance to the plot. I've added some supplementary notes and explanations when I thought it was relevant. Sometimes the information is part of a larger theory post, but please don't take the link as endorsement of any particular theory. There will be links to the MILGRAM wiki, which is not spoiler-free. If you navigate to the character's main pages, you will immediately see images that spoil developments in the latest trial. This also applies to the official website's character pages. There will also be Youtube links. Since the suggestions can also contain spoilers, you can copypaste the link into Polsy to avoid them. You'll still get videos thumbnails when you pause or when the video ends, but from what I can see they're limited to the videos found on the uploader's channel.

TRANSLATIONS

Official Website

Character Profiles milgrammer (Click "profile" for each prisoner)

Voicelines First trial: milgrammer (Same as above) Second trial: Rochisama (Section: Voice lines)

A different set of translations can be found in the Milgram wiki. It is also the easiest way to access the audio, as old lines get retired from the official website and Wayback Machine is inconsistent in saving them. The quotes can be found in their own subpage, such as https://milgram.fandom.com/wiki/Momose_Amane/Quotes . Substitute character names accordingly, and keep in mind that Muu and Fuuta's names are spelled with two u's.

According to the writer's tweets, the prompts for the first trial's voicelines are: 1) Introduce yourself. 2) You're a murderer, aren't you? 3) Is there something you'd like to tell the guard (me)? 4) and 5) What do you think about Milgram?

And for the second trial: 1) To the awakened guard 2) Regarding the first trial's results 3) Regarding changes in the second trial 4) Comments on the first trial 5) What do you think about Milgram?

Loading Screen During the first trial, the loading icon for the website displayed the message "Sing your sins." When the second trial started, the icon was changed. Now it looks the same as the first one for a second, then morphs into "Doubt your punishment." You can see a gif of it here.

Youtube Channel

Teasers These are brief videos which feature the characters speaking sentences out of context. So far we've seen some, but not all of them pop up in the series itself. Some seem to take place in the past, so it's likely not all of them will show up. Note that these videos contain flashing lights, chaotic visuals and screaming. Translations can be found in comments. - First season teaser - Second season teaser

Voice Trailers These trailers have normal and glitchy lines. The normal parts are taken from the website voice lines, while the glitchy lines aren't featured anywhere else. Translations for the static-filled lines can be found in the comment section, and Rochisama also translated the second-trial lines in their website. - First season voice trailer - Second season voice trailer

PV Technically our first real intro to the series, but given the unstranslated onscreen text and the dodgy subtitles, it can be skipped. There's some concept art not shown elsewhere; A cleaned up version can be viewed here and here. The website features a lower shot of the same art shown in the last link.

Song trailers These feature short snippets of upcoming content: songs and one sentence per prisoner. You can skip this if you've already watched the songs and voice dramas in question; the only difference is that sometimes the translation is slightly different. - First trial - Second trial

Main Songs, Jackalope Videos and Voice Dramas In-universe, the voice dramas take place before the songs. However, up until midway through the second trial the songs were uploaded first and the albums (containing the dramas) would be released 1-2 weeks later, so it seems the intended viewing order is the other way around. The tracklist order also supports this, so I'll be using the song->voice drama order. ES and Undercover are special cases. Undercover doesn't seem to exist in-universe, with the timeline for this one being A Milgram Anybody Can Understand->ES->Website voicelines. For the sake of consistency, I still used the song->VD ordering, with A Milgram being placed afterwards due to being released later.

Lastly, some of the official English titles are different from the Japanese ones. I wrote down both the official translation, marked (EN), and a translation from Japanese marked (JP)

First trial Official song playlist

Undercover (Instrumental) Notes: Milgram's theme song and its first release. The official subtitles were changed during the second trial to reference the song titles, at the cost of being less accurate to the original Japanese: you can see the original lyrics here. The lamp that shows up at 2:11 says 御霊燈, "spirit lantern." This kind of lantern is placed at the house of the deceased for 49 days after death. It serves to both announce that the family is in mourning and a guide for the spirit of the deceased; fire being a way for ghosts to find their way from and to the afterlife is a common motif in Japanese folklore. The kanji above the scratched-out text reads "deceased." Text on the sticky notes on Mikoto's screen. ES (Text)

A Milgram Anybody Can Understand

Weakness (EN) / The Weak are Meat, Eat your Fellows (JP) (Instrumental) Notes: A theory post analysing the title and word choices used. Writhing of the Weak (Text)

Umbilical (Instrumental) Relative Zero (Text)

Bring It On (Instrumental) Notes: Onscreen text translation. Cultural context on lyrics. Braze you!! (Text)

After Pain (Instrumental) Notes: Onscreen text translation. Crying B (Text)

Throw Down (Instrumental) Notes: Onscreen text translation Moloch (Text)

This Is How to Be in Love With You (EN) / It's Love! (JP) (Instrumental) Notes: Onscreen text translation Love is Mine (Text)

half (Instrumental) Gouging In The Night (EN) / Night of Exposure (JP) (Text)

magic (Instrumental) Notes: Onscreen text translation. (Some corrections: "Happily supporting" is more like "Happiness-supporting" and "Weird Monk" would be "Mysterious Monk.") Apostle and Death (EN) / Apostle and Death and (JP) (Text) Notes: The odd extra "and" in the Japanese title is to make the title sound more repetitive. It's pronounced Shito to Shi to.

MeMe (Instrumental) Notes: The yellow sign at 1:28 reads "WARNING. This is private property! It's not a public dumpster! Don't just throw your trash wherever you like. Anyone caught fly-tipping will be reported immediately. WARNING." The tarot cards (probably) say "MIKOTO TAROT CARD" at the bottom. John Doe (Text) Notes: "Remember your murder" should be "I'll remember that, you murderer!"

Harrow (Instrumental) Notes: Summarized onscreen text translation (highlighted comment). Alternate full translation. TASK (Text) Notes: "Heh, I should be the one thanking you" / "Heh, you’ve gotten the order of expressing gratitude wrong." should be "That's not the kind of face you should be making when thanking somebody"

First trial closing video