It's not hard to see why people often call this a love-it-or-hate-it game, but I personally fall more in the love-it-and-hate-it camp.
God, where to even start. This is by far the most conflicted I have ever felt about any piece of fiction. Subarashiki Hibi, or SubaHibi for short, is an undeniably weird, beautiful, insane, unique, ambitious, fucked up, and, for some people at least, powerful narrative experience, albeit one that is bloated with overindulgent shock value, severe pacing issues, redundant dialogue, pointless fanservice, vastly inconsistent writing quality, moments of embarrassingly bad taste and just an overall tactless and heavy-handed treatment of sensitive issues like bullying, sexual violence and suicide.
And yet, in spite of SubaHibi’s large number of drawn-out, mind-numbing, nauseating low points, there is still a certain layer to SubaHibi that resonated strongly enough with me to push me through this near 60-hour mammoth. But before I can get to the positives, I first need to elaborate on my criticisms with it, because that's the first thing anyone needs to hear before deciding whether to plunge down this particular rabbit hole or not.
Firstly, I don't think my harsh criticisms of SubaHibi can be the swept under the rug on the grounds of this being just some sort of pulpy throwaway visual novel, as it very clearly begs to be taken seriously as an ambitious work of art, and hence I will judge it accordingly. Maybe some hardcore VN readers will praise SubaHibi for blending trashy eroge material with serious artistic ambitions, but to a first-time eroge reader like me with no particular interest in the medium, those two aspects of the game were in frequent conflict each other, leading to an oftentimes dissonant experience.
Look, I knew full well that this game was going to feature some depraved shit down the line, and I certainly don’t have anything against artistic works exploring difficult topics per se. But it is hard for me to buy into the excuse that the excessive amount of cruel/shocking/vulgar material here all exists in service of a greater artistic goal—and yes, there is a limit to how much of that content a story can sustain, even if the end goal is to make the positive moments seem more powerful in contrast. SubaHibi features multiple scenes of severe sexual abuse and excessive bullying that are depicted in excruciating length and detail, oftentimes with very flimsy to non-existent narrative justification, being neither crucial to the plot nor offering any new insights into the game's themes or characters. The game doesn't even try to hide that many of these scenes only exist for the sole purpose of generating cheap thrills—be it to shock unsuspecting readers or to pander to people who bought it primarily on the promise of an eroge with fucked up sexual content. Why else would there be a scene recollection feature where you can only revisit the hentai scenes, and why the hell does that include the fucked up rape scenes?
To illustrate my point further, let me compare SCA-Ji's SubaHibi to an acclaimed Japanese pop cultural icon of similar emotional weight and thematic ambition, Hideaki Anno's anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion (which evidently played a huge role in influencing SubaHibi, although never explicitly referenced). Beneath surface appearances, and to oversimplify a bit, both of these works share a similar premise, using grand, insane, convoluted narratives with downright apocalyptic stakes (real or imagined) to tell deeply personal and introspective stories about the difficulty of connecting with others and the pain of living in an existentially uncertain universe. However, both are also about finding the courage to persevere despite how hard everything can get, emphasizing the importance of reaching out to others and revealing a firm belief in the possibility of a better future. The difference between these works, for me at least, is one of authenticity. While Evangelion succeeds very powerfully in making me feel like the immense pain it depicts is coming from a real place, one shared by the author and specifically woven into his work as both a form of self-reflection and a sincere desire to reach out to others, SubaHibi very often feels like it is fetishizing trauma more than anything, using it as a narrative tool to either shock you into submission or make you horny depending on how fucked up your tastes are.
To mention a few more specific things, here are three content warnings you should be aware of. Firstly, this game features a nauseatingly homophobic depiction of a gay side character, invoking the absolute worst stereotypes of gay men as sexual predators that come to mind (whereas, incidentally, the lesbian hentai scenes are portrayed in an excessively romantic fashion, clearly because male audiences can jack off to this). Secondly, SubaHibi is creepily obsessed with the idea of fucking your sister. Or rather sisters. Both the younger and the older. Imouto and onee-san. (While a certain relationship is technically not of biological nature, it is unambiguously implied to be sisterly in spirit). Which leads to my third point, the game features a downright pedophilic incest scene somewhat late in the game, completely ruining a central relationship and probably making you want to throw up inside. Your only options are to skip through the scene in question as fast as possible or simply quit the game entirely, but I suspect by that point most readers will choose the former option after having already invested so many hours into the story and wanting to know how everything plays out.
Anyway, at this point I'm kinda tired of letting this game frustrate me any further, so let's move on to some positives points. That said, I would be surprised if what I have written so far has not already convinced you that there is no way in hell you will ever spend any time or money on this game, which, to be honest, is probably for the better. Nonetheless, as someone who has already followed the rabbit hole to the end to see where it leads, I feel obliged to report both the good and the bad.
I will start with two points that don't require elaboration but should be mentioned regardless: firstly, the soundtrack is quite fantastic. The more sentimental pieces and piano ballads in particular are absolutely spectacular and sublimely evocative, but many of the more casual or unsettling background tracks are also very strong. Another plus is the art: character sprites and backgrounds are of generally high quality, with some of CGs being quite stunning in fact. The flagship CG with (part-time) protagonist Yuki framed against the towering sky is an all-time favourite.
The narrative structure of this game is as brilliant and ambitious as it is ridiculous and convoluted—in a good way—featuring a captivating sense of mystery, masterful foreshadowing and a perspective-shifting style of storytelling that takes Rashomon to its logical extreme. Unfortunately, the characterization and character development ranges from fascinating to idiotic: the heavyweights in the cast are mostly great, but many supporting characters can generally be filed under one-dimensional, empty-headed, wholly dehumanized stereotypes.
Either way, one of the best aspects about this cursed visual novel is the way it draws so much inspiration from a myriad of external sources, both Western and Japanese, including poetry, literature, philosophy and otaku culture. Importantly, this game's heavy reliance on intertextuality does not rely on mere empty name-dropping (although it certainly does some of that too), as SCA-Ji manages to seamlessly incorporate a whole wealth of material into SubaHibi's narrative and themes, on both micro and macroscopic scales, in a way that is synergetic and genuinely impressive. This may sound contradictory to my earlier, unfavourable comparison to Evangelion, but here I'm talking about the experience at large, not just the depraved shit. Obviously the whole rape torturefest aspect of SubaHibi only occupies a minority of the overall reading time, otherwise I would have never gotten through it. For example, one of the most fundamental influences, and cited many times throughout the novel, is something entirely unexpected: Wittgenstein’s Tractatus-Logico Philosophicus. In fact, the Tractatus forms the entire basis of SubaHibi’s core philosophy, which I must say I found quite powerful and resonant, though more for its poetic rather than intellectual merit. A quote from A. C. Grayling's Very Brief Introduction to Wittgenstein I think hits the nail on the head and equally applies to SubaHibi's philosophical ambitions as well:
"The vividness of Wittgenstein's metaphors, the unexpected examples and turns of thought, generate the sense that something profound is being expressed in his writings. Wittgenstein is in some ways a poet. Once one has sifted his texts and has ceased to be dazzled by the brilliance of metaphor and the poetical quality, once finds much less argument, and very much less definiteness in the crucial conceptions, than is expected in and demanded from philosophical inquiry. This is disappointing. But perhaps the value of Wittgenstein's work lies as much in its poetry, and therefore in its suggestiveness, as in its substance."
Dedicated fans of SubaHibi sometimes characterize it as a 2deep4u philosophical treatise, but for me at the heart of it all lies a simple but life-affirming message about the ability of two isolated souls to reach out to one another in a meaningful way, which is rendered particularly powerful because of this game's hyper-obsession with themes of death, solipsism and the limits of one's own cognitive world. On a meta level this conviction regarding the possibility of meaningful interpersonal bridges is also extended to the author and the reader (as well as art and audience in general), but I think I'll let you explore the rest for yourself. Let me just say that I do think the manner in which it approaches this topic does have a kernel of profundity, though more on an intangible level that is hard to articulate (which I could say ties into the game's exploration of the limits of language, but may as well just be attributed to my insufficient writing skills).
Anyway, in conclusion: while this game will often make the reader feel miserable and disgusted and has absolutely no shame in putting its characters through tremendous, largely pointless cruelty, I wouldn't go so far as to say it has no love for its characters or the player. SubaHibi simply takes the idea of emotional range to its extreme, for better or worse. (Truthfully, oftentimes for worse.) It goes through extraordinary lengths to end on a resolutely positive and uplifting final note, but unless you have an alarmingly high tolerance for excessive depravity and cruelty, you are unlikely to emerge from this experience without feeling seriously conflicted about it. Ultimately, I think the most revealing praise I can give is that, despite its enormous length and plethora of shortcomings and low points, SubaHibi was still worth it in the end. I will miss it and I will cherish it, as much as I will curse it.
God, where to even start. This is by far the most conflicted I have ever felt about any piece of fiction. Subarashiki Hibi, or SubaHibi for short, is an undeniably weird, beautiful, insane, unique, ambitious, fucked up, and, for some people at least, powerful narrative experience, albeit one that is bloated with overindulgent shock value, severe pacing issues, redundant dialogue, pointless fanservice, vastly inconsistent writing quality, moments of embarrassingly bad taste and just an overall tactless and heavy-handed treatment of sensitive issues like bullying, sexual violence and suicide.
And yet, in spite of SubaHibi’s large number of drawn-out, mind-numbing, nauseating low points, there is still a certain layer to SubaHibi that resonated strongly enough with me to push me through this near 60-hour mammoth. But before I can get to the positives, I first need to elaborate on my criticisms with it, because that's the first thing anyone needs to hear before deciding whether to plunge down this particular rabbit hole or not.
Firstly, I don't think my harsh criticisms of SubaHibi can be the swept under the rug on the grounds of this being just some sort of pulpy throwaway visual novel, as it very clearly begs to be taken seriously as an ambitious work of art, and hence I will judge it accordingly. Maybe some hardcore VN readers will praise SubaHibi for blending trashy eroge material with serious artistic ambitions, but to a first-time eroge reader like me with no particular interest in the medium, those two aspects of the game were in frequent conflict each other, leading to an oftentimes dissonant experience.
Look, I knew full well that this game was going to feature some depraved shit down the line, and I certainly don’t have anything against artistic works exploring difficult topics per se. But it is hard for me to buy into the excuse that the excessive amount of cruel/shocking/vulgar material here all exists in service of a greater artistic goal—and yes, there is a limit to how much of that content a story can sustain, even if the end goal is to make the positive moments seem more powerful in contrast. SubaHibi features multiple scenes of severe sexual abuse and excessive bullying that are depicted in excruciating length and detail, oftentimes with very flimsy to non-existent narrative justification, being neither crucial to the plot nor offering any new insights into the game's themes or characters. The game doesn't even try to hide that many of these scenes only exist for the sole purpose of generating cheap thrills—be it to shock unsuspecting readers or to pander to people who bought it primarily on the promise of an eroge with fucked up sexual content. Why else would there be a scene recollection feature where you can only revisit the hentai scenes, and why the hell does that include the fucked up rape scenes?
To illustrate my point further, let me compare SCA-Ji's SubaHibi to an acclaimed Japanese pop cultural icon of similar emotional weight and thematic ambition, Hideaki Anno's anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion (which evidently played a huge role in influencing SubaHibi, although never explicitly referenced). Beneath surface appearances, and to oversimplify a bit, both of these works share a similar premise, using grand, insane, convoluted narratives with downright apocalyptic stakes (real or imagined) to tell deeply personal and introspective stories about the difficulty of connecting with others and the pain of living in an existentially uncertain universe. However, both are also about finding the courage to persevere despite how hard everything can get, emphasizing the importance of reaching out to others and revealing a firm belief in the possibility of a better future. The difference between these works, for me at least, is one of authenticity. While Evangelion succeeds very powerfully in making me feel like the immense pain it depicts is coming from a real place, one shared by the author and specifically woven into his work as both a form of self-reflection and a sincere desire to reach out to others, SubaHibi very often feels like it is fetishizing trauma more than anything, using it as a narrative tool to either shock you into submission or make you horny depending on how fucked up your tastes are.
To mention a few more specific things, here are three content warnings you should be aware of. Firstly, this game features a nauseatingly homophobic depiction of a gay side character, invoking the absolute worst stereotypes of gay men as sexual predators that come to mind (whereas, incidentally, the lesbian hentai scenes are portrayed in an excessively romantic fashion, clearly because male audiences can jack off to this). Secondly, SubaHibi is creepily obsessed with the idea of fucking your sister. Or rather sisters. Both the younger and the older. Imouto and onee-san. (While a certain relationship is technically not of biological nature, it is unambiguously implied to be sisterly in spirit). Which leads to my third point, the game features a downright pedophilic incest scene somewhat late in the game, completely ruining a central relationship and probably making you want to throw up inside. Your only options are to skip through the scene in question as fast as possible or simply quit the game entirely, but I suspect by that point most readers will choose the former option after having already invested so many hours into the story and wanting to know how everything plays out.
Anyway, at this point I'm kinda tired of letting this game frustrate me any further, so let's move on to some positives points. That said, I would be surprised if what I have written so far has not already convinced you that there is no way in hell you will ever spend any time or money on this game, which, to be honest, is probably for the better. Nonetheless, as someone who has already followed the rabbit hole to the end to see where it leads, I feel obliged to report both the good and the bad.
I will start with two points that don't require elaboration but should be mentioned regardless: firstly, the soundtrack is quite fantastic. The more sentimental pieces and piano ballads in particular are absolutely spectacular and sublimely evocative, but many of the more casual or unsettling background tracks are also very strong. Another plus is the art: character sprites and backgrounds are of generally high quality, with some of CGs being quite stunning in fact. The flagship CG with (part-time) protagonist Yuki framed against the towering sky is an all-time favourite.
The narrative structure of this game is as brilliant and ambitious as it is ridiculous and convoluted—in a good way—featuring a captivating sense of mystery, masterful foreshadowing and a perspective-shifting style of storytelling that takes Rashomon to its logical extreme. Unfortunately, the characterization and character development ranges from fascinating to idiotic: the heavyweights in the cast are mostly great, but many supporting characters can generally be filed under one-dimensional, empty-headed, wholly dehumanized stereotypes.
Either way, one of the best aspects about this cursed visual novel is the way it draws so much inspiration from a myriad of external sources, both Western and Japanese, including poetry, literature, philosophy and otaku culture. Importantly, this game's heavy reliance on intertextuality does not rely on mere empty name-dropping (although it certainly does some of that too), as SCA-Ji manages to seamlessly incorporate a whole wealth of material into SubaHibi's narrative and themes, on both micro and macroscopic scales, in a way that is synergetic and genuinely impressive. This may sound contradictory to my earlier, unfavourable comparison to Evangelion, but here I'm talking about the experience at large, not just the depraved shit. Obviously the whole rape torturefest aspect of SubaHibi only occupies a minority of the overall reading time, otherwise I would have never gotten through it. For example, one of the most fundamental influences, and cited many times throughout the novel, is something entirely unexpected: Wittgenstein’s Tractatus-Logico Philosophicus. In fact, the Tractatus forms the entire basis of SubaHibi’s core philosophy, which I must say I found quite powerful and resonant, though more for its poetic rather than intellectual merit. A quote from A. C. Grayling's Very Brief Introduction to Wittgenstein I think hits the nail on the head and equally applies to SubaHibi's philosophical ambitions as well:
"The vividness of Wittgenstein's metaphors, the unexpected examples and turns of thought, generate the sense that something profound is being expressed in his writings. Wittgenstein is in some ways a poet. Once one has sifted his texts and has ceased to be dazzled by the brilliance of metaphor and the poetical quality, once finds much less argument, and very much less definiteness in the crucial conceptions, than is expected in and demanded from philosophical inquiry. This is disappointing. But perhaps the value of Wittgenstein's work lies as much in its poetry, and therefore in its suggestiveness, as in its substance."
Dedicated fans of SubaHibi sometimes characterize it as a 2deep4u philosophical treatise, but for me at the heart of it all lies a simple but life-affirming message about the ability of two isolated souls to reach out to one another in a meaningful way, which is rendered particularly powerful because of this game's hyper-obsession with themes of death, solipsism and the limits of one's own cognitive world. On a meta level this conviction regarding the possibility of meaningful interpersonal bridges is also extended to the author and the reader (as well as art and audience in general), but I think I'll let you explore the rest for yourself. Let me just say that I do think the manner in which it approaches this topic does have a kernel of profundity, though more on an intangible level that is hard to articulate (which I could say ties into the game's exploration of the limits of language, but may as well just be attributed to my insufficient writing skills).
Anyway, in conclusion: while this game will often make the reader feel miserable and disgusted and has absolutely no shame in putting its characters through tremendous, largely pointless cruelty, I wouldn't go so far as to say it has no love for its characters or the player. SubaHibi simply takes the idea of emotional range to its extreme, for better or worse. (Truthfully, oftentimes for worse.) It goes through extraordinary lengths to end on a resolutely positive and uplifting final note, but unless you have an alarmingly high tolerance for excessive depravity and cruelty, you are unlikely to emerge from this experience without feeling seriously conflicted about it. Ultimately, I think the most revealing praise I can give is that, despite its enormous length and plethora of shortcomings and low points, SubaHibi was still worth it in the end. I will miss it and I will cherish it, as much as I will curse it.
undertale
2 years ago