Karifean's Blog of Visual Novels

Having just gotten done reading Chapter 2 of Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo, I'll give my thoughts on it. It focuses on Sachi, the "energetic type" as Kenichi likes to put it, and it seems the next chapters will subsequently feature the other girls as written above.

Sorry I barely have any screenshots for this chapter.

Now Sharin no Kuni is one long plot instead of a branching story so there will be more spoiler problems than usual. I will try to keep my impressions on the route as a whole as spoiler-free as possible, but if you're fine with spoilers or you've already read it and wish to refresh your memory I'll also give a bit of a plot synopsis in spoiler tags.

Chapter 2 Plot Synopsis (also has Chapter 1 Spoilers)

At the end of Chapter 1 Kenichi nicely confirms what probably everyone already thought at that point: that the "Higuchi Ken" the other students remember is in fact no one other than Morita Kenichi himself. Though due to his change in physical appearance and way of thinking and acting, nobody recognizes him. We get a few flashbacks to Kenichi's youth and it seems his sister was a bit sexually abusive, at least once she found out that they were not directly related. You see their father Higuchi Saburou was a rather harem-type person and mothers came and went again and again. However, Kenichi and Ririko, his sister, do not have a problem with that.

After a bit of reminiscing, Kenichi gets the order as written above and promptly moves in with Sachi, again, to supervise her. Sachi has the Obligation of Restricted Time which forces her to take pills to shut down from 7 PM to 7 AM. To make matters even better the shutdown induced by the pills is not and does not replace sleep yet causes nightmares. Looking at Sachi though you wouldn't notice as she's quite energetic and laid back.

Sachi lives together with Mana, an adorable little foreign girl she took in about four years prior and they've been 'sisters' ever since. Mana is devoted to Sachi and works a bit on the side to get money to be able to treat Sachi to presents. More on that later.

By the way, Sachi loves Kenichi. She confesses back in Chapter 1, though I rejected her and kept doing so throughout Chapter 2 on the relevant choices.

Anyways. The first thing that happens is that Uzuki Sepia comes in and talks about some rumor about a treasure being left in some cave in the mountains. Kenichi doesn't pay it much heed at first, but it turns out the treasure is supposedly left by Higuchi Saburou, Kenichi's father.

Saying that hurts, doesn't it, Kenichi?

In a nutshell Saburou started a rebellion and the village went along with it. Kenichi (Ken back then) ran away in the middle which is why Sachi and Uzuki are disappointed in him and call him a traitor. They do quite idealize Saburou, though.

So it doesn't take long until they decide to go spelunking and explore the cave hoping to find the treasure. I'll cut this short. A lot of stuff happens in the cave, most importantly Kenichi saves Sachi's life and they do find the treasure - which turns out to be a diamond and a memory stick Saburou left for Ken. Kenichi collects it under the pretense of being a dog of the state, everyone else still remaining ignorant of his true identity.

But a bit of a disaster strikes; Houzuki as a representative of the state made a deal with royals from Mana's home country and she is to be selled to them. To prevent this from happening, Sachi and Kenichi cash in the diamond, but it turns out the royals raised their offer which is now out of reach. Sachi is frustrated and vows to do anything to keep Mana, which prompts Kenichi to make her an offer: if she paints him a good painting, he will pay her the money she needs.

Now I need to backpedal a bit. First off, Kenichi is actually rich. Secondly, Sachi has a bit of history with painting. She was so good as a child that people accused her of copying well-known pictures and she never got any recognition for her talent. She developed quite a trauma about it. Mana eventually got to know about her history and is (rightfully) convinced that Sachi would actually really love to be a painter and the presents Mana buys for Sachi are mostly painting tools. Sachi's trauma runs deep though and she cannot bring herself to paint anymore.

Back to the current situation. Kenichi believes that with getting Sachi to paint she will once again understand the worth of time and become a functional member of society, and thus can be relieved from her obligation. And now that she has the motivation it seems things may work out well. Although I have to add that Kenichi makes clear that he will not save Mana on his own, Sachi has to give her all on making a painting and then he will buy that painting. Kenichi does not kid around, he seriously would not. The hard time limit for getting the money is ten days.

Unfortunately things do not quite work out as planned. Although Sachi tries to get back into painting it is still incredibly difficult for her. She feels pressured and cracks under the pressure several times. You have the option of going easy on her here but I didn't and it seems I made the right call. Kenichi even goes as far as to shorten her time even further, turning her 12-hour-day into an 8-hour-day when she tries to trick him into buying a little sketch.

Mana also does her best to try to get Sachi to paint but to no avail. It's not until Mana deliberately leaves her home that Sachi finally gets a grip on herself, but by then the deadline is approaching fast. Sachi pushes herself to her utmost limits trying to get a good painting done. In the end Kenichi offers to buy her finished painting, but... both Sachi and Mana object as Sachi made a bad mistake. And so the arc ends with Mana being taken away to her homeland and Sachi having regained an idea of the worth of time and her motivation to be a painter. Roll credits. After the credit roll it turns out that Houzuki was the one who instigated the whole selling Mana deal to get this exact outcome.

Kenichi is less than pleased when he finds out about Houzuki's involvement.

I honestly didn't expect the arc to end like that. It really felt like there would be a super-good ending where Mana stays, but no such luck. Sachi did rehabilitate quite nicely, at least.



The arc was quite good. The relationship between Mana and Sachi was heartwarming and they made good use of that for drama's sake. The cave scene dragged on a bit but it did establish that Kenichi wanted to overcome his Ken-style of leaving his friends behind. And although he is VERY harsh at times I do approve of the way he handled the issues in this arc. I don't mean to say the ends justify the means (because they really, really don't) but rather that his means were actually well-chosen to deal with the situation at hand. He's being a pretty damn sympathetic guy honestly. It does seem like he won't turn out to be a clichéd galge protagonist. Looking forward to seeing him tackle Natsumi's obligation later on.

Sachi's attitude can get really frustrating but it's all the more satisfying when she finally gets over it. Mana is a real angel and I hope she will appear in some future scenes as well. For now, Sachi's chapter is laid to rest. On to Oone Touka's chapter.