I've tried to do multiple writeups on this to try and struggle with how to present my feelings on this while seeming sincere; it's easy to make something impersonal, to try and have that boundary between me as the writer and you as the reader. After all, it already exists; by you reading it through a screen, the words here can't be felt by your hands. You can't change them by yourself. They exist in a different plane, needing technology to observe and interact with it. But to make something that surpasses that boundary and allows you to see my heart, ripped from its cage and displayed for the world requires detail and care, but it also requires a deep understanding of what exactly one is writing. I understand Crymachina as it feels as its heart has been displayed as a gourmet meal, with all the dressings that surround it, but I am not sure how I as a writer am able to deliver this care to you effectively.
But that feels appropiate for Fuyuki Hasashi and FuRyu's newest work; a work that thirsts for and deeply requires for you to see the extent of its love and hate. How it desires deeply for unconditional love yet despises the world it has been brought into, one that detests that love in the macro scale and works towards destroying and minimizing it in the grind to become larger than life. To scam and kill in the literal and figurative in how one gets ahead of others in modern society, and Crymachina understands this and disparages it in a molotov cocktail thrown towards them. Crymachina is both that, but also a tour de fource of love, with how each part of the cast contains love inside them and sprouts in different manners, but never truly considers one irredeemable for harboring that love; because to love is to be human, and to be human is to love, and to love is to exist for it.
Even more impressive is the lengths that Crymachina goes to to be an anti-humanist yet progressive piece of art, as what it truly hates is the humanist ideal represented by contemporary society. Why do we disparage and discriminate against others? We may be carnivores and utilize natural resources to survive in the current age, yet discrimination and to see other intelligent beings as lesser because of a biased criteria is in itself an act against true humanity. Where we are born, who we love, what we eat and what we believe in does not matter to our value as humans, and Crymachina truly despises those who participate in that culture, representing them as hideous horrors. To take some words from the producer's interview with NISa, to claim that people are precious because they're human is willfully ignorant; it is the degree of human they are that matter.
Beyond that, Crymachina's all-female cast comes at its benefit when its story and cast are unmistakeably queer not just in the clear representation of lesbian love, but also in how it compares with modern society's discrimination of it. Mikoto and Ami's relationship are the most clear on this with their unmistakeable codependency, but Mikoto's fear of truly defining it because of its stigma: she'd like to be "cool". Ami, in contrast, being head over heels, desperately wishes to be unashamedly married and in love with Mikoto, and constantly fights against a society that doesn't allow her to be legally married. That is her goal as a Real Human after all: to be a proper family. And that sort of dialogue feels reflective of Japan's current struggle to legalize gay marriage, where Crymachina represents this with two great leads, and yells at the world to accept them.
Leben and Enoa are also a more interesting angle of it in the sci-fi sense in contrast to Mikoto and Ami's unsubtle contemporary dialogue; while Mikoto and Ami are unmistakeably considered to be humans, their label seems more shaky in terms of Leben and Enoa; Leben being a "human" with no past and a hatred for it, while Enoa being a machine with love for humans. This dynamic does continue to evolve in ways I'd not expand on because of spoilers, but their romantic relationship is the peak of Crymachina's representation of love and humanity, becoming representations of Crymachina's entire thesis statement: to be human doesn't matter without love. By experiencing love, by struggling to love, do you become a true human.
And in that framework of love does Crymachina shine. I adored Crymachina's story. I love its environmental design, taking Crystar's similar aesthetic with its coloring and transfixing that on larger scaled sci-fi arquitecture. Its music by Sakuzyo (who I found out while playing made one of my favorite albums!) is also a great accompanying piece, with the boss themes sung by Enoa's voice actress being the standouts. Everything about Crymachina is a true labour of love, and for that, I embrace it through my screen, appreciating it and loving it wholeheartedly.
"Please continue to share your life with us."
But that feels appropiate for Fuyuki Hasashi and FuRyu's newest work; a work that thirsts for and deeply requires for you to see the extent of its love and hate. How it desires deeply for unconditional love yet despises the world it has been brought into, one that detests that love in the macro scale and works towards destroying and minimizing it in the grind to become larger than life. To scam and kill in the literal and figurative in how one gets ahead of others in modern society, and Crymachina understands this and disparages it in a molotov cocktail thrown towards them. Crymachina is both that, but also a tour de fource of love, with how each part of the cast contains love inside them and sprouts in different manners, but never truly considers one irredeemable for harboring that love; because to love is to be human, and to be human is to love, and to love is to exist for it.
Even more impressive is the lengths that Crymachina goes to to be an anti-humanist yet progressive piece of art, as what it truly hates is the humanist ideal represented by contemporary society. Why do we disparage and discriminate against others? We may be carnivores and utilize natural resources to survive in the current age, yet discrimination and to see other intelligent beings as lesser because of a biased criteria is in itself an act against true humanity. Where we are born, who we love, what we eat and what we believe in does not matter to our value as humans, and Crymachina truly despises those who participate in that culture, representing them as hideous horrors. To take some words from the producer's interview with NISa, to claim that people are precious because they're human is willfully ignorant; it is the degree of human they are that matter.
Beyond that, Crymachina's all-female cast comes at its benefit when its story and cast are unmistakeably queer not just in the clear representation of lesbian love, but also in how it compares with modern society's discrimination of it. Mikoto and Ami's relationship are the most clear on this with their unmistakeable codependency, but Mikoto's fear of truly defining it because of its stigma: she'd like to be "cool". Ami, in contrast, being head over heels, desperately wishes to be unashamedly married and in love with Mikoto, and constantly fights against a society that doesn't allow her to be legally married. That is her goal as a Real Human after all: to be a proper family. And that sort of dialogue feels reflective of Japan's current struggle to legalize gay marriage, where Crymachina represents this with two great leads, and yells at the world to accept them.
Leben and Enoa are also a more interesting angle of it in the sci-fi sense in contrast to Mikoto and Ami's unsubtle contemporary dialogue; while Mikoto and Ami are unmistakeably considered to be humans, their label seems more shaky in terms of Leben and Enoa; Leben being a "human" with no past and a hatred for it, while Enoa being a machine with love for humans. This dynamic does continue to evolve in ways I'd not expand on because of spoilers, but their romantic relationship is the peak of Crymachina's representation of love and humanity, becoming representations of Crymachina's entire thesis statement: to be human doesn't matter without love. By experiencing love, by struggling to love, do you become a true human.
And in that framework of love does Crymachina shine. I adored Crymachina's story. I love its environmental design, taking Crystar's similar aesthetic with its coloring and transfixing that on larger scaled sci-fi arquitecture. Its music by Sakuzyo (who I found out while playing made one of my favorite albums!) is also a great accompanying piece, with the boss themes sung by Enoa's voice actress being the standouts. Everything about Crymachina is a true labour of love, and for that, I embrace it through my screen, appreciating it and loving it wholeheartedly.
"Please continue to share your life with us."