I think what bothers me about this is the premise of a "school for disabled kids only", the fact that the girls are 'othered' from the get-go by this isolation, and the fact that this is probably being made to play to an exploitative fetish.
Were it any other dating sim, and one of the girls available for dating just happened to have been born with no arms, or had lost her legs in a traffic accident, I would feel a lot more comfortable. That would prove to me more that the game creators were actually being sensitive in including girls (and boys) who have physical disabilities.

While Japanese have some of the most violent cartoon porn (including rape + sadistic crippling), at the same time they have their romantic videogames and animations.

Those romantic games also include explicit (pornographic by general standards) sex, but somehow the context removes the feeling of pornography, because 96% of the time is spent in conversations, dialogue, interactions between personalities, normal life events, trust, love, and unlike any other game, all this gives a feeling of a real relationship (with respect to each other and without violence).

I could not tell anything here without playing the game, but by the description (and the fact that I see no rape scenario included) I'd say it belongs to those "relationship" games.

I've played the game, and while the concept *does* sound awful when you read about it (even the developers admit it), it's actually pulled off rather tastefully, and doesn't actually scream "fetish!". It treats the girls as people, and their handicaps are handled pretty - I dunno, delicately? Of course, the part with the porn hasn't been released yet, so who knows - but the developers mentioned that the porn would only be optional. So, for what could be summed up as a "cripple dating sim", it seems that the creators are trying pretty hard not to offend anyone. Or, uh, too many people.

The demo's available on the main site, incidentally.

And as bad as the concept sounds, so far the devs have pulled it off wonderfully.

I don't know, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
There is a pretty big fetishization of disabilities (and therefore dependency and helplessness) in anime. I can't see this being anything other than a vehicle for that.

That's a good point Magnetic Crow, I mean...if these girls were in a dating game as just additional characters who happened to be disabled that would be better.

Although I often feel like those types of inclusions can ring a little hollow, like the character "Wheels" from Burger King's Kids Club or the Disabled ghostbuster Garret Miller in the Ghostbusters Extreme cartoon.

I often felt like those characters were a little focus grouped, if you know what I mean.

But my point is, yes, it would be better if these girls were characters along side other girls who were not disabled and they weren't 'othered' as you say.

oddly enough i was wondering about this very same topic not too long ago. i hadn't heard about this particular anime, but i was thinking about how in porn, disabled people are usually in the fetish category. it's not "normalized" most of the time.

i agree with Ranah that genre makes a HUGE difference. the amount of sadistic hentai (anime porn) in the market is disturbing. the relationship focused hentai is completely different.

i've only seen one hentai comic that focused on amputees, and it sickened me. i couldn't read more than a few pages of it. by far it was the most disturbing thing i've ever seen. and as you may have guessed, i've seen a lot. *^_^*

in this particular comic the woman was completely dehumanized. i've seen comics that "turned" people into mindless slaves, but in this one... she was portrayed as not even having a mind to start with. they treated her as a pet. and i don't want to get more descriptive than that because i'm starting to feel ill again.

so that's a BAD way to include people with disabilities into sexual fantasies. creating a fictional school where disabled girls can be romanced seems like a big step towards changing ideas in a positive way. i'm not advocating segregation, but i think that when you have a group of people who have something in common, it makes that something normal. and i think that if i were disabled i would prefer to read something that focused on several disabled people instead of something that focused on several ablebodied people and had a token disability thrown in. i could be wrong though.

(btw, i'm trying very hard not to sound like an asshole because i am not disabled, and i know i have no idea what it's like. if i am being an asshole please call me on it and tell me what i said wrong. i want to learn!)

Obviously this is pandering to some kind of fetish. I like how they have each type of disability to ensure they got your fetish in there. I really, really wish I didn't see this. (It doesn't help I have been awake all night with a fever and live in Japan right now)

Doesn't most disability fetish porn involve an able-bodied male protagonist? In this case, it doesn't seem that the same theme of disabled female 'helplessness' would apply.
As a person with a congenital heart condition, it makes me happy to see such a character in a videogame. In particular, the romantic/sexual nature of the relationships seems positive, as this sort of disability usually marks people socially as unsexualized. I actually can't ever remember encountering a game/book/show/movie/etc in which congenital heart disease was represented as a subjective experience of a leading character, let alone a feature of a character possessed of sexuality.

It needs to be said that the main character himself has severe heart arrhythmia that landed him in the hospital and made it so he had to go to that school, and half the game is him coming to terms with that. I've played part of the demo and so far it's treated the subject matter respectfully, and nothing has struck me as particularly exploitative so far. You actually start to forget that the girls have any sort of disability after a while once you start interacting with them, and their personalities are far more than just their physical conditions. I'd almost argue that through the main character it actually looks at what it's like to be an other.

Does that say "A blind girl...she's a bit cliched?"

and "Thalidomide Girl...she's the most difficult one to get"?

The picture in the post is the one the game was originally based on (it's a standalone image from the end of a Japanese artist's doujin, translated by an unknown person).

The game's come a long way since then, it's almost nostalgic seeing that image now...

you all realize what the 4chan forum is? the original story reads to me as "4channer doing porn game"

take a look at the game's article in "4chan wikipedia" (NWSF, offensive) http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Katawa_Shoujo

There is an undercurrent in moé that focuses on helpless girls as objects of (sexual or non-sexual) affection. It was parodied in the manga Welcome to the NHK when one character designs an ideal moé girl for a hentai game, and piles clichés on her... she ends up being a wheelchair-bound, blind, mentally disabled robot maid. Who is a ghost.

I think that the fact of the matter is, one or two of these games will turn out to be tasteful and even subversive. This game has certainly tried to be that, from everything I've read about the devs- whether or not it succeeds is a matter of giving it a fair shot to do so. Like most of the people in these comments, I haven't played through it (I'm not a huge fan of the genre). Also, not everything that swims out of 4chan is pure evil (LOLcats anyone), and it seems pretty clear that the editors of Encyclopedia Dramatica are interested in mocking the game and its creators, much like everything else.

I'm not saying that you should play everything that seems to be involved with disability and romance to see if this is the one that finally treats the subjects like humans rather than specialized dolls, but when the game and many reviews claim that this one does, I don't know that it's the best bet to immediately assume that it can't. What I'm hearing here is that either is that there's no possibility of telling a romantic story about disabled people unless it's a) a fetish or b) we have a requisite number of "normal" people who can give the disabled people validity because they're treated in the same way.

I'm disabled and I know for some men it's a little bit of a turn on.

I've been told by male friends or flirty acquaintances that they "like" the fact that I'm ill or disabled (I don't!). Some go on to say they like how it makes me "delicate" or "precious" or and that I "need someone to look after [me]" or "protecting." I think it makes them feel manly.

Of course, other able-bodied men seem grossed out by disabled women. This is just one case in point: I remember catching the eye of a man in a cafe once. We shared glances and secret smiles over our lunches, and when I finished I rolled my wheelchair back. He hadn't noticed I was in a wheelchair and seemed absolutely shocked; he pointed me out to his mates and made being-sick noises by sticking his fingers down his throat as if it was revolting to be attracted to someone disabled.

Anyway, I hope you do more disability related posts - compared to sexism or racism or homophobia, disablism gets left on the shelf too often. My spell checker doesn't even recognise the word!

It would be interesting to see if disabled men have these kinds of experiences too.

although it would be nice if the girls weren't 'othered', the simple truth that in japan and in the united states, children with disabilities are immediately 'othered' from the moment they enter the school system (if they're even allowed into the 'mainstream' school). by entering this game into the 'other' and into the context of beautiful girls with beautiful personalities who also happen to have disabilities, this game is demythologizing the disability - allowing players with disabilities to feel included, normal, and visible, and allowing abled players to see the humanity and beauty of this supposed 'other' group.

in reference to some of the earlier comics - i'm confused as to why having a romanic game about students with disabilities is creating such a stir when there are rape and torture games on the market. is the concept of romance with a person with a disability so frightening or weird that we ourselves 'other' this game as unique, strange, and disturbing?

on a final note, i believe we should be using this as an opportunity to examine the plight of people with disabilities in the first world. why are they either fetishized or ignored? why can't they appear in movies, television, or games and not be labeled as a marketing strategy? and why, even in this forum, are they referred to as the "handicapped" (a repulsive term to some people with disabilities), and "disabled person" (putting the disability as the most important aspect of their personhood, rather than being a person with a disability)??

Also, just a note:
The design sketch was not drawn by any of the actual game developers. It was supposed to be the inspiration for the game, but it was drawn by a more well-known artist.

"and why, even in this forum, are they referred to as the “handicapped” (a repulsive term to some people with disabilities), and “disabled person” (putting the disability as the most important aspect of their personhood, rather than being a person with a disability)??"

Just a note -- while 'handicapped' is obviously unacceptable, many people in critical disability studies prefer 'disabled person' to 'person with a disability', to reaffirm that a disability is a fundamental part of the embodied experience of disabled people in the lifeworld.

This reminds me of the kegadoru ("injured idol") thing (subcultural fashion trend?) I was reading about recently. It's all about helplessness in moe land; meganekko, who can't see without their (usually huge) glasses, and so on. It's all about feeling manly and protective. (I like a little moe in my anime; it activates any, heh, "maternal instinct" I may or may not have. Supposedly, moe's usually non-sexual in attraction.) It can get creepy, but I think the fact that the male protagonist of this game is also disabled will (hopefully) make it less squicky.

4Chan, guys. Seriously.

I can't speak to the game, because I don't have time right now to play the demo, but I do find it disturbing how many people automatically assume that anything showing people with disabilities as sexual = fetish. My husband is not an object, and I'm not a pervert for having sex with him.

The "person with a disability" "disabled person" divide tends to be North American vs United Kingdom, but not always. Handicapped makes me cringe.

Ruby, I'm so sorry that some men are so shitty to you. The only things I can think of where something similar has happened to a man with a disability (for certain broad definitions of "similar") are the old Golden Girls episodes where Blanche finds a man attractive, he turns out to have a disability (blind in one case, full-time wheelchair user in the other), and has to "come to terms" with being attracted to him. He, of course, takes on the role of accepting teacher, understanding her reluctance and willing to do the extra work to get her to feel comfortable. This isn't nearly the same thing. (Don's wheelchair is a big electric monster. No one can miss it.)

"4Chan, guys. Seriously."
4chan isn't a monolithic entity, you know. It's effectively like having a couple dozen seperate communities on a single site, since each board forms a semi-unique "culture"...

I consider this game to be more subverting the disability fetish than buying into it. The devs are sort of under pressure to do that anyway because I doubt they would want to give people the satisfaction of saying "I knew it would be exploitative crap!"

Hanako, the burned girl, is the only one I'd describe as "delicate" (emotionally), though she's also skittish so being so won't make her path an easy victory. The others are more or less just portrayed as girls who have a disability they work around to live a normal life. They were doing just fine before "you" arrived and don't need "you" to save them from anything.

Simono> Anything from Encyclopedia Dramatica should be treated as suspect. They are in it for the lolz, not the facts. This game is NOT being made by 4chan, just some people that came from there.

Play the demo, then judge the matter rather than jumping to conclusions by the sketch the game was based on. (or the site where the initial idea popped up...the current team isn't affiliated with 4chan)

While the idea sounds kinda twisted, the game itself is quite mature about the subject and each of the girls you meet is defined by their personality rather than by their disability. It hits some subjects like denial, coping and working around limitations spot-on.

It's not a fetish-fest...there's nothing exploitive about it. It's about a guy with a heart condition who is sent to a school for disabled children and possibly finds love there. There's nothing distasteful about the idea that people with disabilities have a sex life too.

Once again, try the demo...it has no sex in it, nor any fan service as you know it. It focusses completely on the story and the characters. Then judge the game. In the end, what matters is how tastefully the end result was handled and so far, the game has come across as quite respecful and mature.

Am I the only handicapped person left in the world who likes the term? I'm not shut down or unserviceable, I have to work harder to do the same things. You know, like a racehorse carrying extra weight.

I've actually played the demo, it is really in the 'Romance' category. I was skeptical at first, but after playing it I can say that it is very tastefully done so far, and I don't think this can be put on the 'fetish' shelf at all, for a fetish I would think the girls would be shown as weak and helpless because of the disability, but they are shown to be just 'normal' girls that look a little different.
The game focuses on liking the characters for who they are, not what's 'wrong' with them. The sex scenes will most likely happen because of love shared by the protagonist and his chosen girl. It's a great game, and I think people should AT LEAST review the demo before stating an opinion on it. If you're worried about the game insulting anyone check it out before you start insulting the developers.

As others have pointed out, and as needs to be pointed out again...it's not a "game from 4chan". With the way the information is spreading around the net, what exactly this game is sometimes gets overlooked. It's not a cripple sex videogame from 4chan, as much of the word-of-mouth traveling the internet seems to portray it. It's a romantic visual novel with several love interests to choose between patterned after prominent Japanese VNs, with the humanization of the physically handicapped being a major theme in the work. It's not a videogame - it's a computer-based Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, with pictures and background music. The premise, while admittedly weak, is a result of the style being derivative of the major Japanese media - having special schools where a bunch of people with a special attribute go is a fairly common thing in fictional school-based stories there, probably arising from the differences in the school system in Japan. Of course, it's not unique to Japan; special schools with special accomodations for people with some special circumstance appear in American media as well, the most prominent example being Hogwarts of Harry Potter fame.

And it shouldn't matter whether the girls are handicapped or not, as long as the novel is done tastefully and shows proper respect to the subject matter. If the VN is filthy trash dedicated to the degradation of women, then that's a terrible thing regardless of whether those women happen to be handicapped. Objectification of women ought to be a bad thing even if they're perfectly healthy, and it's interesting to see and interpret people's kneejerk reactions the moment they find out about the VN's twist (and not a moment before). It's just that "cripple sex game" is an easier first reaction to have (especially considering the considerably less dignified origins of the project, three or four years ago) and makes a nice, simple one-sentence description to spread all around.

Of course, there'll be plenty of objectification of women, fetish exploitation, and every other sin under the sun...but that won't be in the game itself. Rather, when the VN is released, the fans will become quite devoted, and will "honor" their preferred characters with the usual wave of Rule 34 pics, erotic fanfiction, and who knows what else, in much the same way that the Japanese fans do for every major Japanese visual novel (even the ones without sex scenes). No doubt the Japanese fans of this work will unleash their own wave of perversion as well. However, that's not because of some impropriety in the game itself, nor is it because of the existence of sex scenes. The major factors in how much fan material gets produced is how well-written the characters are - massive amounts signify either terribly objectified "moe" characters (which the fans promptly use to fulfill their fantasies) or extremely well-done characters (which the fans get extremely attached to...and express their liking of the characters and the work in an outpouring of creative energies which is not necessarily worksafe). Short version: it's very easy to objectify the girls or cater to fetishes in this kind of thing, but the writers are making every effort to avoid that, so while a fair share of fetish porn will be produced because of this novel, it won't be part of the novel - it'll be 4chan's reaction to the novel. And that shouldn't color one's experience of the novel itself.

Man, you guys have done it now.

http://katawashoujo.blogspot.com/2009/07/contexts.html

In order to truly make a judgment on anything, the first thing you should do is make sure you know how to spell it correctly.

To "yikes".
The blind girl (Lily) is a bit cliched because her personality is the standard classy girl present in many Anime and Visual Novels. The Thalidomide girl (Rin) is the most difficult to get because she is the oddball artist type and doesn't make friends too easily.

Why do you assume it's automatically a bad thing?

Encyclopedia Dramatica is not to be taken seriously. ED is satire, albeit in the most crude and unrefined form possible.

The genesis of the game was an idea so tasteless people felt it had to be made. However, the five major female characters are not easy "Leisure Suit Larry" marks, and your character's heart condition makes it clear that sex could kill you in-game. The project has a medical technical consultant, very few artistic liberties are being taken beyond the existence of the setting itself, and the game's forum has had a mostly positive reception among the disabled who visit it.

I'd like to see Gwen actually download and play through the first act to decide for herself what she thinks of the game rather than trolling the internet for knee-jerk reactions.

To "HH":

Not quite. As a fellow Anonymous pointed out on 19 July, the artist/writer behind that image (Raita Honjou, "Raita" for short) is not affiliated with the game, and produced it long before the game entered even the earliest stages of development. The game took its inspiration from that image, not vice-versa; consequently, we shouldn't assume that any part of the image refers to a game that didn't exist at the time of its creation.

Raita's comments next to the character sketches that eventually became Lilly and Rin have nothing to do with the Katawa Shoujo game. They utterly predate it; they reflect Raita's fancy and nothing else.

What did Raita intend by those comments? We can only speculate. Perhaps the blind girl (remember, she wasn't Lilly back then) is cliched because Raita intended her to embody the stereotypical blind female character: passive, sedentary, and rather vulnerable. Perhaps she's cliched simply because Raita couldn't develop a more comprehensive idea of her character in the time it took him to produce that sketch (which originally appeared as an addendum to an unrelated publication).

Perhaps the Thalidomide girl is the most difficult to get because, in Raita's mind, her disability affects her everyday life in a more fundamental way than do the disabilities of the other characters. Raita does, after all, take the time to point out how her disability affects her eating habits and daily life -- an effort he doesn't make for the other characters.

Ultimately, we can't know why he wrote those comments, nor can we know precisely what he meant by them. We can, however, be certain that they have nothing to do with the final game, except that they perhaps served as inspirational reference material.

If Lilly, as portrayed in the game, represents the ojuo-sama cliche, that would be the result of the creators interpreting Raita's comment. Likewise with Rin and the "difficult to get" comment.

Correction:

The last sentence should start, "If Lilly, as portrayed in the game, represents the ojou-sama cliche..."

My bad.

Play the game before you comment on it. You are stereotyping everything based on what you read from others. Until you play the game yourself, you won't know what you're talking about, and will come off as a very ignorant individual.

To echo what reasonable folks here have said... formulating opinions on something you know nothing about and spent zero time investigating just makes you a fool. Do everyone a favor and spend some time with Act 1 of KS and then tell us what you think. It's not a big download and doesn't take long to install or experience.

A major part of KS is Hisao's struggle with his own disability and where it has landed him. Prior to his heart episode he was no different than any other high school boy. How does he deal with the heart condition? - the others around him that have disablilities? Ignore them? Be up-front with them about it?

I found myself relating to Hisao. He's stuck with the situation... so better make the best of things, but how? What is the "best" way to act? Getting past all those "shock" feelings when seeing someone with a disfiguring condition isn't easy for him at first.

The situations are dealt with respectfully and thoughtfully. I did quite a bit of self-reflection having played the first act a few times. If nothing else, it MAKES you think about a subject few of us have to deal with on a regular basis- and that's a good thing.
Whether sex scenes are eventually included to some degree or not, I have to applaud Four Leaf for having the guts to take on a project of this kind and turn something that was initially taken more as a joke and turning it into a thought-provoking Visual Novel far beyond what most VN productions attempt to accomplish.

Bravo!

'Other'ing the characters by putting them in the same school due to their disability seems to be seen as a bad thing on this thread, I tend to disagree. After all, it is a sad fact that a person with a disability in society is segregated for their difference and thus, creating a sub community at a young age with similar people would mean that the people within this community were not divided by physical condition.
I think I might go as for as to say that I envy Hisao's fictional situation as a person who also has a non-visible disability (mine is hyper mobility syndrome, yes it sound's kind of pathetic, but it causes my joints to dislocate, my ligaments to snap and my heart rate to soar over 300bpm) as I feel that (correct me if I'm wrong) people like him and me with disabilities that aren't visible and don't constantly have an effect are even more segregated due to the fact that they are harder for people to understand or believe in, which makes things difficult in a standard situation, thus making the scenario in the game beneficial.

For what it's worth, I wrote a review of "Act I" a couple of months ago. You can find it at http://wonderduck.mu.nu/katawa_shoujo_act_i_the_review

I was quite impressed with the game as a whole, and really liked that the girls' "disabilities" essentially disappeared for me after a few minutes of gameplay. That's just darn good writing.

Keep in mind that this game is made by English speakers, is not Japanese and there has never been a romantic game that focuses on disabled girls like this made by the Japanese even though they release like 50 romantic adventure games a month in Japan.

I have to admit that had I found this game anywhere then where I found it, I would have blanched and run away at top speed. The fact that the /a/ subforum of 4-Chan repeatedly referred to the girls as (hoo boy) Blind-tan, Deaf-tan and Armless-Tan gives me the creeps.

But I found it highly recommended on PlayThisThing.com, so I downloaded it. 10 hours of play later, I kind of became an evangelist for the game. Speaking as a gamer, a romantic, and someone with psychological disabilities, It's just. That. Well. Written.

While I can't understand lusting after "Deaf-Tan," I can easily believe someone would fall in love for and have sexual feelings for the leader of the school Student Council, an eloquent, michevious and beautiful young woman named Shizune. Who happens to be deaf.

I hope enough people play this game to appreciate the difference.

To all these people who are upset about this game, I'm wondering - what would be a more appropriate portrayal of disability in a game like this? It seems very often that there's no possible way to portray disability without offending someone, and if you don't portray disability you offend people by leaving it out.

u r are dumb!=/

Ok, I feel I have to clear something up. It seems to me that the vast majority of the people getting offended by this game are not of the disabled community and to them I say, f**k you!

The hypocrisy of this subject is just amazing. We're told that we're all equal, the same as everyone else but the second that a disabled person (I prefer the term "person") makes their way into new media be-it TV, movies, games and the like...it suddenly becomes a huge issue.

Maybe one day all people regardless of gender, age, race, religious beliefs and cultures will be united as human beings but I don't see that happening in my lifetime.

Oh, while I'm here, I would like to share a story with you. I was in town going to buy a game I wanted (CoD4 :) ) and on the way, I was being ridiculed by this guy. While pecking away at my self esteem he forgot to look before he crossed the road and got hit by a car.

He survived but now he has to eat through a tube. The very definition of Karma I think.

I think it is totally plausible for these girls to be seen as love interests. I knew this girl in middle school who was born without part of her arm, and she was super popular and dated lots of guys. It never made her less attractive to anyone!

I like how Soc Images declined to mention that the developers are working as freeware, the main site asks people to donate to disabled charities, and one of the girls in the game is, in fact, not obviously disabled (Misha). It's amazing how quick people are to jump to conclusions about 'othering' and 'fetishizing' without actually bothering to play the game and properly research what they are writing about.

Oh, and good show putting up a screencap drawn by someone completely unaffiliated with the game and calling it representative. This might just tie the time you guys took the picture of the two dolls side by side who were clearly labelled flight attendant and imposed your own gender bias onto it. Well. Done.

The full game is out now.

You have two choices:
1) Download the game (it's free), play it, and, if desired, comment intelligently about it.
2) Shut the fuck up.

 http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/jewwario/ycpt/35908-j-dub-reviews-katawa-shoujo