Karifean's Blog of Visual Novels

I still have no clue what that sentence is supposed to mean.

So, Touka's arc. For the most part it had a similar feel as Sachi's arc, although I think it was somewhat longer.

Oone Touka is the daughter of Oone Kyouko and has been imposed with the obligation of fulfilling all of her parent's orders. For the most part this is stuff like "do one hour of exercise in the morning" or "study for three hours". Should she ever disobey, she will be sent off to a concentration camp. I'm not even kidding. Who the hell designed this system?

Anyways Touka's arc mainly focuses on the relationship between Touka and Kyouko and explores the reason for the obligation as well as various other things related to their family situation. Such as that Touka and Kyouko are living together on their own, as in there is no father around. It also has more occurrences of Houzuki being a manipulative villain. But I'm getting ahead of myself. If you wish to know what happens...

Plot Synopsis

Before we even get started with Touka there's another flashback to Kenichi's youth as Higuchi Ken. His sister has apparently been training him to become a reliable person and tries to make him get over his tendency to get scared easily. Although one day she leaves for university and Ken once again feels left alone - and they haven't met again since. He mentions that he's lucky to have met Natsumi, Sachi and Isono soon thereafter.

Then we get back to the present. Kenichi moves in with the Oone family and starts supervising Touka. It turns out soon enough that their family situation is complicated to say the least. It seems Kyouko went through a tough divorce or something and hasn't spoken to Touka about her father, ever. Touka on the other hand has only fond memories of living together with her father. One other important fact is that Touka's main hobby/interest is cooking, but her mother refuses to ever let her into the kitchen as Touka got a burn on her arm in an accident long ago, something Kyouko blames herself for and hasn't gotten over yet. Touka remembers her father as being a good cook.

So naturally what happens? Touka's father calls home. Touka is the one to pick up and talks with him for a short while before Kyouko comes in and angrily takes the phone away, ordering her to never again answer the phone. Things don't stop there however, as soon enough a letter arrives from "Oone Kouki". Putting the pieces together, both Touka and Kyouko demand Kenichi - who has the letter in his hand - that he give it to them. I gave it to Kyouko which seems to have been the right choice as Kyouko could have simply ordered Touka to give her the letter anyways.

Kyouko reads the letter, sighs, and...

You can imagine that Touka doesn't exactly react in any favorable fashion. The following day, she runs away from home, ignorant of the fact that rehabilitees cannot get past the checkpoint near the town's exit. Kyouko is very worried about her daughter and Kenichi goes to look for them.

And I'm not even kidding here; after being stopped at the checkpoint Touka turned back around and started running before the guards could take her in - and they start chasing her and shooting at her with guns. What the hell is up with this system.

[size=1]And this is the system that furthered society so much, huh.

Kenichi finds Touka, confirms that she had no real plan when running away and returns back home with her. We almost get a nice tearful reunion scene, but then Kyouko starts acting weird.

Houzuki really is a manipulative asshole, isn't he?

From this point on Touka is prevented from so much as leaving her room and her entire day is filled with orders to the last detail. Touka accepts it because she blames her running away for her mother's change of heart. But then another problem arises: it's about time for Kyouko's evaluation.

You see the obligation of following your parent's orders is not given to anyone. To prevent abuse the parents have to undergo a special training, one apparently severe enough to cause many a casualty. However one can be absolved from this training if the child so wishes. Of course Touka doesn't want her mother to go to that kind of training. But then they go to Houzuki to tell him as such, and...

Tip: When you see this face, run.

With a bit of manipulating Houzuki gets Touka to not absolve her mother of said training. Kenichi stays back to talk to Houzuki a bit and confirms that Houzuki basically thinks that Kyouko will die during the training. Touka tries desperately to keep herself convinced that she made the right decision.

At this point Kenichi recovers the letter from Touka's father that Kyouko had ripped up, kindly put back together by Isono (Uzuki Sepia's real name). Turns out it contains slander of Kyouko and Touka and it seems Kouki was quite an abusive guy. Also, Kenichi gets a copy of the Oone family register and notices that Kyouko is not actually Touka's real mother. Suddenly Touka gets apologetic and begs Kenichi to bring Kyouko back. He skillfully manages to get it done and this time gets Kyouko to tell the whole story of the family situation.

Oone Kouki, Touka's father, is Kyouko's brother and Touka's mother is a different person entirely. It was her original parents that brought that obligation upon her, but due to an occurrence of domestic violence of an unspecified degree their parental rights were called into question and Touka was made to live with Kyouko. Kyouko herself had had the same obligation as Touka in her youth and due to a personal trauma still hadn't lifted Touka's obligation. But now she sends in the form for the obligation's release and Touka and Kyouko make up. The end.

...not. Something I've learned about Sharin no Kuni is that it doesn't just end things on a good note that easily. For some time the obligation release form goes unanswered and it turns out that Touka's real parents want her to come back live with them. They swear they've reformed, taking therapy and all, and seem to be doing quite well for themselves. But they leave the final decision up to Touka, they don't just force her back.

Houzuki gives her three days to decide who she wants to live with, carefully instigating things so that she will have doubts about her decision. Naturally Touka wants to live with Kyouko but she does indeed come to doubt that quick decision as it seems as if her idealized father really has returned.

Kyouko herself is rather silent on the matter, while she does want Touka to live with her their financial state being too poor to have Touka attend anything like a culinary school (which she really would like to do) and Kyouko still being incapable of letting Touka into the kitchen due to her trauma.

Touka is incapable of deciding but eventually Kyouko steps forward and orders her to live with her real parents. The final day for deciding also happens to be Kyouko's birthday so just this once she lets Touka cook in the kitchen, who makes a nice birthday meal for her mother. At this meal Kenichi gets a bit strange - it seems he needs his occasional smoke to keep calm and composed, and right now he starts losing it - and he splendidly puts together the clues and arrives at the conclusion that Touka's burn was no accident at all, rather Kyouko had done it on purpose.

Kyouko goes mad and lashes out at the meal Touka had prepared. Yes, Kyouko had burned Touka purposefully in a fit of envy on Touka's situation compared to her own past situation, but nonetheless that event had traumatized her.

But Touka is surprisingly calm at Kyouko's outburst. She does not resent or blame Kyouko at all, rather she still tries hard to make her mother enjoy the food she had prepared for her (which said mother is currently throwing around the room).

I'm getting Rosa/Maria flashbacks here.

Touka says that she decided that while she will become her original parents' legal child again in accordance with Kyouko's order, she still wants to live with Kyouko. She still loves her foster mother very much and even Kyouko can't stay upset when she says that; and so the route ends on that note.

Kenichi talks to Houzuki one last time and it turns out Houzuki just fabricated the whole real parents thing and Touka's real parents never actually called her.

...just kidding. Even Houzuki doesn't have the free time to mess with his student that much.



So yeah, Touka's arc. Complicated family situations. Heartwarming scenes. Dramatic scenes. Overall it was pretty okay, but it doesn't stand out to me much. It had some good comedy thrown in and the plot was compelling enough but again, nothing special.

If anything, I liked the way the story handled the whole issue with Touka's father. It was well-played, I never really knew what to think of him, up until the very end.

Yeah, I don't have too much else to say on this arc. Next up is Natsumi's arc after all, one I'm very much looking forward to.