#that one scene from omori

[tabis-picnic-corner]

“You won't leave me? Right, Agoti?”

I tried and I failed miserably don't @ me for this.

[clegfly]

“Of course you have an Other Brother,” he says, waving off her denial as he opens some nearby cabinets. “Who else would I be if I wasn’t?”

Small WIP sketch of the Other Brother from IDKSomethingClever99’s fic “Mari in the Pink Palace”!!! OMORI and Coraline are my two biggest interests ever so this fic was like winning the lottery for me. Not to mention how good it is… please go read it ragh

[undistortedworld]

the increasing acceptance that i will probably never be financially stable enough to have money to save for another tattoo is making me increasingly tempted to just do my own stick and pokes again hmmmm

[stardustdiiving]

Last night I stayed up until 3am to do the masquerade of the guilty archon quest and evidently the part I felt most compelled to live tweet was the Furina Being Sad And Tormented Montage

[goshenite-fanboy]

[biocrafthero]

Okay im back. This game is so good for my mental health honestly /srs

[beevean]

I fear no man. But that thing...

... it scares me.

Currently replaying OMORI because I'm a masochist with my best friends @beevean and @the-crow-binary providing emotional support lmfao. Even despite how soul-crushingly boring it is, I think we're still having some sort of fun with this clusterfuck of a game

Highlights (and the misc. problems we've managed to spot) so far include:

I already knew that this game's length was detrimental to it during my first solo playthrough, but this playthrough is helping me put into perspective just how bloated OMORI is, even when it comes to an aspect like dialogue. For example, a single conversation between Space Boyfriend and the main cast took us approximately 5 minutes to get through, and it's not like the writing is gripping enough to make us give a shit about the characters or anything they're saying

Speaking of the dialogue, you can just see how hard it tries to be witty and Quirky™ the way Earthbound and indie RPGs like Undertale were. Needless to say, it fails horribly, and the end result of that was me having to fast-track some conversations because they were unfunny and weren't relevant at all

I got unintentionally (!) stuck in White Space for 15-20 minutes because I couldn't find the map the game needed me to find to let me open the door. Beev came to hate the repetitive 8-bit BGM the area had by the time I finally found the map lol. game_design.exe

Headspace's music is so ear-gratingly abysmal oh my god. I can only call it "dollar-store Kirby music" because that's the most appropriate description that comes to mind and I'm pretty sure Lost at a Sleepover gave Beev severe PTSD. Of course, the music of Faraway Town isn't any better: the "track" that plays in the first fight with Aubrey is less music than it is the result of an .exe file being put through an audio player. Sonic Chronicles might have some serious competition in the "worst video game soundtrack" category asdfghjkl

The plot of the Faraway Town segments is so cookie-cutter that it genuinely hurts to sit through. Character writing (or the lack thereof) aside, Sunny and Kel spend half a day loitering around the town and asking Aubrey's cronies where she is even though Kel could've easily gotten that information from Mikhael had he just indulged the latter's delusions of grandeur a little bit

Sunny's fights against his fears are boring. You just need to wait until a particular turn when the game grants you a special skill you use to end the fight immediately. What was the point of designing these hallucinatory monsters if the player doesn't get to fight them at any point during the main route?

Aubrey (ostensibly) swinging at a nail bat at Sunny is not treated with the same degree of realism as Sunny slashing her with a knife. Additionally, Aubrey rides away on her scooter just fine even though she's supposed to be bleeding

Mari's picnic baskets are inexplicably scattered all across the town and fulfill the exact same function as they do in Headspace. So much for realism!

I won two of the fights against Aubrey's goons even though I was trying to lose. gameplay.exe

Sunny is even more unpleasant of a character than I remember. He doesn't even respond to Basil - who is supposedly his best friend - when the latter talks to him and barges into the church despite Kel's advice to wait until the sermon ends

Kel generally seems to treat Sunny like an actual baby, spelling out incredibly obvious things to the latter (e.g. that Sunny shouldn't be carrying a knife or walking in the road because it's dangerous) and making all of Sunny's decisions for him, to the point of not allowing Sunny to return into his own house until nighttime under the pretense of "there's so much to do! it's a brand new day!"

Finally, the "fight" against Sunny's fear of spiders at the end comes completely out of nowhere since nothing triggered said fear during Sunny's adventures outside

Peak game, everyone.

And it's going to get way worse down the line!

[ask-bad-end-sunny]

So...can...can I just say that...this scene was totally Omori overcoming Sunny in that moment?

In the game, I always thought it was the same way, or that Sunny was just having a really hard time distinguishing dreams from reality...but, here, you can see the reflection in the blade, how his eye changes to one that's more dull...how, in his thoughts he's NOT wanting to hurt Aubrey like this

Idk maybe it's just me, but that's what I'm seeing going on here...

- 💛

[pineappleciders]

i think one of the greatest representations in omori is that for so many mentally ill people, your mind is your greatest enemy. for so many people myself included, self-sabotage and the urge to not want to get better is something that holds people back so much. for sunny, the entire game is him running and running away from the truth and fighting himself and his own mind. and after losing omori boss fight by omori who will not succumb, instead of repeating the cycle, he stands and plays the violin. he plays just how mari always wanted him to. he plays the real duet, and all of the scenes during final duet are all REAL memories. and not once after that does he succumb back into headspace, it's all reality. i think he's one of the most mentally strong willed characters in realistic fiction, and is also an amazing representation of mental illness.

[imbecominggayer]

Writing Advice: Too Many Characters

A common advice when writing stories is "don't write too many characters". But, like with everything creative and good, there is no definitive answer to how many characters should be in a book!

So I will be discussing numerous variables in storytelling which impacts how many characters you should have and what makes something in a book "pointless".

Themes! Themes! Themes! (Omori Spoilers, Not Too Much)

The most important question that a writer has to ask themself is "what is this scene/book/media trying to do?". If your story is based on the relationships we have with others and the impact they can have on our psyche then having a close-knitted community of people will drive the message of intimate connection better then just having more people in there. If your story is focused primarily on introspection, looking inward, individuality, and other spiritual activities then the protagonist is more likely to spend longer durations of the media by themselves.

An example of these to forces is the popular game of Omori.

(SPOILERS ABOUT OMORI<3)

Omori is a game that focuses on acceptance first and foremost. Self-acceptance to be more specific. Due to the fact that the game is a piece of introspection both for Sunny and for the player, the most important moments in the game such as the "reveal" sequence of pictures and Black Space are ones that are done on your own.

However, the game also prioritizes the relationships Sunny has between his friends as this serves as motivation for the final duet. The final duet was an act of bonding as Mari and Sunny just wanted to spend time together, doing something they liked.

The introspection moments are pushed towards the end of the game because it's only when Sunny has that support and belief in his friends, can he rise above his doubt and shame and fear.

2. What Is The Purpose Of This Character?

All characters need to have a purpose in the narrative. Both within the context of the world and in the context of the book.

Within the context of the world, they need a goal that is going to impact the protagonist either positively or negatively.

Within the context of the book, what is this character giving to the audience that wouldn't otherwise be there?

Pro tip: All the characters you have need to have more then one purpose! Characters that give exposition can't JUST give exposition.

If you have a love interest that can be cut out without taking away a vital part of the story either from a thematic(theme) standpoint or a narrative(plot) standpoint, just replace them with an object and move it along!

If you have an ally character that only shows up twice and can be changed into "I went down to the store to buy these items", give that "ally" tag to someone more story relevant"!

3. Priorites?

Ask yourself this: "Do I have the book length to dedicate time to this person?"

If the answer is no, follow my next steps. If the answer is yes, here is how to make them better.

When I say "prioritize", I mean you need to figure out what type of character this character is. Are they a main character? A side character? Cannon fodder? A symbol? WHAT ARE THEY?

Also, can you give these character responsibilities to someone else? This simultaneously gives those characters deeper complexity and eliminates more characters

Example: Love Interest, after being trapped by the villain, uses their intelligence in order to provide information about the villain to the hero. (Love Interest + Ally + Informant)

Example: Friend is revealed to be a double agent on the side of the Villain. However, it's revealed that Friend was secretly a triple agent who is finally redeemed from their original believed betrayal. They're back to being an ally. (Friend + Betrayer + Ally + Enemy)

[clegfly]

Thought I had today that I decided to doodle. Oh em gee I wonder what musical cleg’s been obsessing over for the last like month

[dreamer1084]

Natsuyuu Anime S7EP8 VS Manga Vol22 Ch.87

Anime removed the line "What's your emergency..." and changed the tone of the dialogue to be more straightforward (there are a lot of dialogue changes in anime that just change the tone, so I won't repeat it)

Pseudo Natsume's facial expressions were different.

Pseudo Natsume's dialogue was simplified.

Anime added a scene on the first night that Nishimura was startled when he saw pseudo Natsume jumping from the second floor.

In manga, Natsume was simply passing by with some books, but in anime, he had obviously just finished using the washroom.

Anime included conversations among Natsume, Tanuma, Nishimura and Kitamoto who were worried about their test.

In anime, Nishimura was already sleep deprived at this time.

Added the background sound of Natsume and Tanuma talking and laughing, and Natsume had noticed something wrong with Nishimura.

Nishimura even bought snacks for pseudo Natsume.

A few more days of pseudo Natsume's visit, and Nishimura had lunch with friends.

Sasada, who only lived in the OP before, finally appeared in anime. (And the day was 20th May)

At this point in manga, Nishimura's lack of sleep made Natsume notice that something was wrong. Anime extended the test mentioned before and here Natsume was even more concerned about Nishimura's lack of sleep.

Nishimura in anime was obviously waiting for pseudo Natsume to visit during his studies, and he immediately ran to the window excitedly when he heard him.

What pseudo Natsume humed in manga should be a pure nasal song, and anime had lyrics. According to the director Omori-san, this song is "星めぐりの歌 (Lyrics: Kenji Miyazawa)". It was one of the songs when Omori-san asked Midorikawa-sensei what her impressions of this scene were. The BGM of anime was also adapted from this song.

In anime, Kitamoto was worried that Nishimura was studying too much, and Natsume said that he would go find out.

Deleted Nishimura's inner thought "You have become gentler, Natsume"

Converted some of Nishimura's internal dialogue into spoken dialogue, and added the action of pseudo Natsume unilaterally starting to walk.

Manga just depicted Nishimura looking at the moon and listening to pseudo Natsume's nasal voice. Anime added a lot of original scenes during their "walk" (the smell of the night, Nishimura saying that he was a little afraid of getting lost when going out at night, moon viewing in the park, flower viewing road)

In manga, pseudo Natsume had been leading Nishimura up to the second floor. In anime, as soon as they entered the house, pseudo Natsume disappeared. He led Nishimura by humming.

Deleted Nishimura's frightened shouting "T-the doll is moving...!?"

Anime added "after inserting that finger" in Nishimura's dialogue, so Natsume immediately knew that it was "the finger"

Anime deleted Nishimura suddenly remembering that he had never seen Natsume's left hand at night.

There were also subtle changes in Natsume's tone and sentence formation in anime.

Anime added how Natsume spied on Nishimura.

[centrally-unplanned]

Do you know anything about Arthur C Clarke's reception in Japan and in Japanese pop culture? I just finished reading Childhood's End because I've seen it referenced in Xenogears, Gurren Lagann and Planet With, which isn't objectively a lot but more than the zero times I've seen it in American pop Scifi. Makes me curious how big he was over there.

Oh yeah, he was quite big in Japan! Essentially "all" the classic Sci Fi was, and Clarke was one of the biggest. Childhood's End specifically was one of Yukio Mishima's favourite books, for example. All of his works were pretty widely translated soon after release (Childhood's End was definitely available in Japan in the 1960's, that I know), and were very popular with both the SF crowd and the literary scene. In general, he was the right blend of "hard" sci fi with fantastical/spiritual elements that was very much in vogue at the time. And in the early history of Japan's animage community, those were all mushed together as one scene, only moving to more separate tracks in the 1980's. I remember in one of the essays I translated over the years, literary critic Nozomi Omori (in 1997) makes one of those "classic works like" comments and Clarke/Childhood's End is his go-to to illustrate the point. I think you can argue it is in the top 5 most famous works in this era.

A bunch of the specific references you are seeing are the unique lineage of some ~80's anime works like Space Runaway Ideon: Be Invoked. Yoshiyuki Tomino (gundam creator), who directed the film, was a big Clarke fan, 2001 most specifically I think, and the film has several direct nods to him. There are other works that draw from this well, Ideon is just the biggest, and the one that was the most direct inspiration for Evangelion as Anno was a big fan. From there you can see the references go out - Gurran Laagan is a Gainax work, Planet With's creator Satoshi Mizukami was a huge Gainax fan (particularly FLCL, shout out!), etc - as you get later the references become second-order like that, less people reading the classics but the ideas are in the water. Though I don't want to overstate that direct link - Xenogears lead creator Tetsuya Takahashi is just a direct fan of Clarke as well, and explicitly pulled from such works for the project (you can see a bunch in works by Square in the 90's)

Though a personal note, you will if you google around find people saying Evangelion was "referencing" Childhood's End with Instrumentality? Best I know that isn't true, instrumentality itself as a word is a nod to Instrumentality of Mankind by Cordwainer Smith, and Anno is on record saying it is a shallow reference, he just thought the word sounded cool. Anno was not a classic SF fan, he is one of those "second order" guys where he is picking up the stuff movies like Ideon are putting out, but isn't interested in their classic origins.

[sheep-sorbet]

while that is a pretty funny idea, it doesn't make sense to me still, because what sunny wants is what omori wants: to relive the past, forget the bad things that happened, to stop hurting and have fun with his friends forever. not everything omori does aligns with things that are ultimately good for sunny, as we see later on, but they are rooted in what omori thinks is sunny's best interest. so there's no reason not to play make-believe about this specific thing. (this is also based on the idea that the two are truly separate people which is up to interpretation)

that one i could believe, although i also don't think it's necessarily more likely than him not having a crush on her to begin with. but if we are operating under the assumption that he does, then this would check out as a potential reason why it doesn't go anywhere since his relationships with everyone else are stagnant as well.

that one definitely doesn't hold water to me, but i explained why above so i won't really rehash that. i just think it goes directly against other things we see in the game.

thanks @seven-oh-four and sorry for not being able to reply directly. curse of sideblog lol

okay i keep seeing it so i gotta ask something

Why does everyone in the omori fandom act like sunny definitively had a crush on aubrey? im not against the ship, it's cute, but it's left pretty intentionally ambiguous imo?

like, okay, the evidence people have is....headspace aubrey seemingly having a crush omori, and that one flashback scene where basil asks sunny if he has a crush on aubrey and he blushes. but my takeaway from that was very much just that basil was teasing sunny. most kids would blush/be embarrassed after being asked a question like that, whether it was true or not. BUT more importantly...

omori never reciprocates headspace aubrey's crush. he never even responds or shows any interest at all. and i don't think one can soundly argue that it's omori/sunny not letting himself have nice things, because the entire point of headspace is so he can have everything he wants, at least that was the initial point.

he wants mari to be alive, so she is. when headspace basil tries to bring up mari's death, he vanishes. up until things start to go wrong in headspace, every bit of trouble is nothing more than childish make-believe, problems that exist so sunny can fix them with his friends. wish fulfillment.

so, if he definitely had a crush on aubrey....wouldn't they already be dating in headspace? wouldn't aubrey's affection and love for him come up more often?

if anything, i think it's more likely that aubrey had a crush on sunny, and he picked up on that, but never felt comfortable enough to engage with it or reciprocate. we already know that the parts of his friends' personalities that bother him are still present in headspace, even if they are minimized to create idealized versions of them in his head. so it seems likely to me that headspace aubrey having a crush on omori is being treated the same way that headspace kel being annoying is treated. it happens, but he moves on from it.

he might like the attention headspace aubrey having a crush on him gives him, the same way he might like headspace kel being annoying or dumb makes him look in comparison. but ultimately, if he wanted something to come of it, it probably would have happened, and maybe even broken down as the story progressed.

that's just my thought process, anyways. again, no hate to the ship, its super cute. but i don't think it was necessarily meant to be canon, just a possibility at best. maybe there's yet more of this game i haven't seen that fuels that fire? i made sure to get every ending, but man, this game is so jam-packed with stuff.

[hero-deserves-to-be-happy]

What Hero's Attempts to Comfort Sunny on the Night of "Two Days Left" Tell Us About His Character

Hi Hero Enthusiasts, let's talk about one of the only times Hero talks about himself and his grief in the entire course of the game...

It is easy to see this as just usual, selfless Hero being in-tune to others' emotions and trying his best to help any way he can. On the surface, Hero appears to be well-adjusted and at a sense of peace with what happened. When he reassures Sunny that Mari "would always want [them] to be happy even if it was without her" thereby encouraging him that it's okay to move forward and find healing, the player of the game believes him. Arguably, even Sunny believes him to a certain degree, but the real question here is: does Hero believe himself?

Let's Discuss Under the Cut...

(Warnings: OMORI spoilers. Heavy themes including death, grief, depression, and guilt).

It really says a lot about Hero that this scene is one of the only moments he talks about himself and his grief in the entire course of OMORI though it makes sense in the context. Being such an empathetic person, Hero could probably fairly easily pick up on the fact that Sunny was thinking about Mari in the piano room in the middle of the night, so, of course, he would start talking about her in attempt to comfort him.

However, it does beg the question: is it deeper than that? Is Hero so quick to put this together because that's what he, himself, was doing in the piano room in the middle of night? If Hero was there to grieve Mari, it would make sense that he so easily jumped to the idea that Sunny was there to grieve her as well, but he immediately stops everything and pushes aside his own grief and his own feelings to try to comfort Sunny.

On that point, it is clear from the context that Hero is only sharing what he thinks will be helpful or comforting. He says "It has been hard for me too" to show empathy, to try to tell Sunny that it's okay that he still misses Mari and that he isn't alone in missing her. He expresses his own complicated feelings surrounding how (he believes) she died, but he ultimately reassures Sunny that Mari would want them all to be happy even in a world without her thereby encouraging him to find healing and to move forward.

There is a painful irony in hearing this from Hero knowing that after losing Mari, he curled in on himself and spiraled into a deep depression that was all-consuming and that the survivor's guilt almost destroyed him. He just shut down and stopped living until eventually, he threw himself in his school and extracurricular activities, always striving to stay too busy to fall apart. Even his choice to pursue a degree in medicine will require years of school with long hours of study and clinicals, then residency, and eventually work itself. As a doctor, Hero can really just hide in his busyness, and that's really all he seems to want anymore.

Though Hero would be the first to wholeheartedly insist to Sunny that Mari would want them to learn to be happy again and that they can find healing and move forward, the truth is that for Hero himself time stopped when Mari died. Life stopped. All of his dreams for the future died with her, and given his survivor's guilt, he honestly thinks that's what he deserves, regardless of what Mari would have wanted for him (but that's a topic for another discussion). For now, to summarize, there is something so lost and listless about Hero in the Real World after Mari's death. He doesn't really know what he wants out of a life without Mari besides not hurting anyone and staying so busy that he just doesn't feel anything anymore.

But despite his best efforts to remain completely numb to it all, that grief and that pain inside of him doesn't go away, and no matter how hard he may try to push it aside, it's still there. He has just locked it away, brushing it under the rug or slamming it behind the door--whatever it takes to be able to function and not drown in it again, because (as the end this scene itself ultimately showcases), Hero is still overwhelmed by it all.

This is reason enough that he doesn't talk about it and doesn't want to talk about it, but arguably another, possibly even bigger reason is that Hero is terrified of being a burden on others. When looking at this situation from the outside, one would think that Hero would have a lot of support and understanding given that so many of his loved ones are also grieving Mari. Everyone grieves differently but there can be a powerful comfort in surrounding oneself with people who also experienced the same loss and who also knew and loved that person. This moment with Sunny could have been an opportunity for Hero and him to really empathize with each other over having lost someone they both loved (albeit in different ways), but Hero would never ever, ever even dream of talking about his grief with Sunny or with Basil, Aubrey, and Kel for that matter. He sees himself as their "Big Brother" and because of that, he feels he constantly has to push aside anything he may be feeling or may want for himself to take care of them. And there is an added problem here that he doesn't feel he has done a very good job of that.

He blames himself not only for Mari's death, but for Kel, Basil, Aubrey, and Sunny's pain as well. Their friend group is fractured--the day's events at the lake have proven that, and in a way, Hero feels like this is his fault. If he hadn't been so depressed and broken himself, he would have been able to help his brother and his friends who have always felt like siblings to him, but he was too weak, too helpless and now they're fighting amongst themselves and miserable.

He feels he has no right to talk about his problems with them, but the truth is, he feels he has no right to talk about his problems with anyone. And this goes back to his one (1) fight with Kel (which, honestly probably deserves its own analysis post one day). Kel was terrified to see Hero spiral into such a dark place and felt like he is losing his brother. When he finally confronted him about it, however, Hero snapped--finally crumbling under the weight of everything that has gone wrong and all the pain he has been carrying around alone. It was, arguably, the one and only time in their lives that the two had ever really fought, and it (most likely) remains one of Hero's greatest regrets. He now lives in fear that his relationship with Kel is permanently and irreparably damaged--that nothing he could say or do and no amount of apologizing could ever erase that distance between them. Hero is terrified that Kel will never really open up to him again and that he'll always feel like he needs to walk around eggshells around him. He is scared that Kel must think he hates him, and he can't bear the thought that it's all his fault and no amount of apologizing will ever make it right.

The whole experience leaves Hero broken and overwhelmingly guilty (even though no one blames him Kel least of all), and while he does come out of the worst of his depression, he is still depressed. He hasn't found healing and closure. All he has really done is gotten better at hiding how miserable he is because he is terrified of ever hurting anyone in the same way he hurt his brother. Vowing to never be responsible for causing pain to his loved ones because of his problems, he buries and represses his emotions and his pain--managing to hide them from everyone but himself.

This is made all the more apparent when, as soon as Sunny leaves, Hero breaks down into tears overwhelmed by his own, repressed grief.

From this incredibly vulnerable moment (arguably Hero's most vulnerable moment in the entire game), it becomes clear to the player that all of the "well-adjustment" and acceptance Hero had been displaying up until this point is, at least to a certain extent, for show.

Hero is not okay. He just wants everyone to think he is.

[aria0fgold]

I always wondered how anyone was able to write something with more than 5k words when I'd always struggle with it but now with how this mhyk fic is going I'm like: I understand. Also I feel like my writing has improved somehow? Which I'm really REALLY happy for.