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Karifean's Blog of Visual Novels

Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo Review

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Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo (lit. Wheel Country, Sunflower Girl) is a visual novel developed by AKABEi SOFT2, the same company that would go on to make G-senjou no Maou later on. It is a novel often praised for its good writing and character development; and on that I'm inclined to agree.



Overview

In the world of Sharin no Kuni, criminals are not locked up in prisons or executed. Instead, they are given certain 'obligations' they need to uphold in order to rehabilitate. These obligations can range from simple taboos to having some of your most basic rights revoked. The person in charge of overseeing the rehabilitation of such criminals is called a "Special High Class Individual".

The story follows Morita Kenichi on his road to becoming a Special High Class Individual. He's built up the strength and knowledge worthy of such a trusted profession and only the final exam remains; it takes place in Kenichi's very own hometown. While his task seems very simple at first it quickly gets more complicated and his progress is monitored by his mentor, Houzuki Masaomi, a ruthless and brutal Special High Class Individual as evident after only five minutes of play time.

Over the course of his task Kenichi meets a few former friends and acquaintances and soon enough is forced to face a past he'd rather forget about.



Kenichi is a really great protagonist.

Structure

The structure of Sharin no Kuni is as follows:



The main plot is always the same and unless you trigger a bad end, you will go through it all the same. However there are some side scenes (mostly H Scenes) in Sachi's and Touka's arc that require you to enter their routes; as in have Kenichi start a romantic relationship with them. And where the plotlines ultimately diverge is just after Chapter 5, where you get one of five different epilogues depending on your choices throughout the game.

One the one hand this means that there's basically nothing to miss and you can just go through the visual novel without worrying much about picking correct choices. On the other hand if you're a completionist and want to get all the endings, you'll have to play through very large portions of the game multiple times. The Skip function makes this very manageable, however, so it's not a big deal.

Characters



From left to right: Isono, Natsumi, Sachi, Touka

The cast of characters in this visual novel is outstanding. Kenichi is one of the best main protagonists of any visual novel I've read, all the heroines are likeable, the supporting characters are all relevant and add to the story, and the main antagonist is one you just love to hate.

All the main heroines suffer from some sort of 'obligation' and from the beginning it's interesting to find out how and why those came about to be in the first place. In most chapters one of the heroines takes the spotlight, but that hardly means everything else becomes relevant. The girl in question gets a lot of great character development, but so does Kenichi, and to a lesser extent some of the supporting cast like Isono as well. And while the main focus is on one girl the visual novel doesn't forget about the existence of the others and does a good job incorporating them into the story as well.

Sharin no Kuni excels at making its great cast feel interconnected and tied to the plot as well. In my eyes a good story mainly lives and dies with its characters, and Sharin no Kuni nailed this part well.



The smile that says "I've seen through you completely and know how to manipulate you to my liking".

Story

Of course while characters are the heart and soul of a good story, if you're not gonna do anything with a good cast it's all for naught. Rest assured, Sharin no Kuni does not fail in this regard.

The setting is immediatly intruiging and makes you want to know more about it, and within its first few hours Sharin no Kuni manages to establish the formula by which the rest of the visual novel is laid out. The plot has more than enough twists to keep things engaging even when the pacing - which is generally really good - occasionally slows down. Bits and pieces of Kenichi's past are shown at the beginning of every chapter and when you can finally form the whole picture it feels great.

The tone of the story swings between lighthearted and serious, not too surprisingly. The comedy lightens up the story first before the drama and suspense then go on to make it really engaging and memorable. The bad ends are all very dark (with just one exception) and really make you feel like you failed hard.

About H Scenes, yes this visual novel has them. With just one slight exception - a scene at the start of Chapter 2 - they are however exclusive to Sachi's and Touka's respective arcs as well as the regular epilogues, so it's not too much of a problem.



There were also quite a few heartwarming and -wrenching scenes.

Soundtrack

Honestly for the most part I found Sharin no Kuni's soundtrack to be rather unmemorable. While nothing felt out of place, the OST, for the most part, wasn't too special and when I went through Sound Mode after finishing the game I skipped right over most of the tracks.

There are however some notable exceptions. Especially the main menu track, the opening song, the ending song and three particular supplementing tracks - "watch out", "To the other side of a glass picture" and "Blue worry" - stood out above the rest. Out of those, the ending song and "watch out" are my personal favorites.

Summary



Overall, Sharin no Kuni is a great visual novel. It manages to handle its plot and cast and synergy of the two with such skill that it's not something you'll soon forget about. The concept of the 'obligations' is interesting and even though the system is shown mostly in a negative light it can make you think.

It's overall a rather similar story to G-senjou no Maou, at the very least the many similarities are easily noticeable. If you liked G-senjou no Maou, I very much encourage you to give this novel a try, it might have what you look for in a good story. Conversely, if you have read and liked Sharin no Kuni, I can wholeheartedly recommend G-senjou no Maou as well.

With its great story, superb characters and an atmosphere that consistently fits the flow of the plot, I give Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo an overall

9 / 10

What's not to like?




Chiru... chiru...

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