Full spoilers ahead for both YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story (Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi/Totono) and Summer Pockets.
I recently played two VNs, that on the surface level, seemingly have almost nothing in common. First we have Totono, which is a bizarre meta experience that explores what it means to play a visual novel and make choices that influence lives of heroines. Then, we have Summer Pockets, which is a more generally wholesome Key experience that explores the importance of summer vacation and how you choose to spend your youth. After finishing Summer Pockets, I began connecting the dots between these two different VNs, and exploring the feminist themes and messages shared by them.
Early on in Totono, you can allow (and must to progress the game) Aoi to patch the game so that you can be propelled towards getting a good ending. She states that, by doing this, you can no longer be cucked. Much, much later, we discover in more explicit terms that this means that Miyuki can never enter a relationship with anyone other than you, and even if she did, she wouldn’t be truly happy.
The crux of this culminates in your final choice of the game, that you must lock into permanently. Aoi or Miyuki? Who do you choose? By choosing Miyuki, you are giving into the future that you had chosen very early on in the game, therefore disallowing the option of her finding happiness any other way. It’s you and Miyuki forever now, baby. Of course she is pressuring you into choosing this option now, she’s experienced the future without happiness so many times at this point. She feels like she’s earned it. And maybe she has, maybe your actions up til now made her feel like she had no other choice.
Choosing Aoi, however, allows you to free Miyuki from this curse. You cannot be with Miyuki, but Miyuki is now free to choose her own future without the pressure of needing to make you love her. After all, if you play any more VNs after Totono, you’ll find Aoi again, and again, and again. She’s everywhere. She’s the embodiment of VN heroine.
If you can’t tell by the way I’m talking about it, I chose Aoi. Not only was I irritated being forced into an unskippable H scene where Miyuki never acknowledged the thought that maybe I wasn’t a guy, or maybe I didn’t have a penis, I also wanted to let Miyuki be free to make her own choices. I’ve found that several women have chosen Aoi as well. Now, I’m not judging you for choosing Miyuki, if you did. I think allowing her the choice was important.
Onto Summer Pockets. I expected the VN to be similar to most VNs, where the heroine’s happiness tends to be truly tied to loving the protagonist. However, while playing through various heroine routes, I never felt like their character seemed to be missing the love of the protagonist. They seemed to be perfectly happy in their own right, to various degrees (at least, when they appeared in other routes.)
At the very end of the game, in the Pocket route, Umi/Nanami shows Shiroha her potential futures. While only a short moment in this long game, this was one of the most important scenes of the entire game for me. I immediately noticed that Umi was showing Shiroha potential futures from the different endings that Hairi had experienced, clearly showcasing that Shiroha was happy in every one. She had friends. She had people that cared about her. Shiroha was happy, regardless of whether she fell in love with Hairi.
While it’s bittersweet that Shiroha can be happy without the existence of Umi in the future, I do feel like this was the point she was making. Umi was making the ultimate sacrifice for her mother. She was allowing her mother to make her own choices, to pursue her own happiness.
And so, the themes of allowing these women to make their own choices in the pursuit of happiness prevailed in both Totono and Summer Pockets. Two different curses that result in very similar outcomes. Miyuki’s patch-curse to force her to end up with you, whether you reciprocate or not. Shiroha’s premonition-curse that guilts her into avoiding others. They tie in together in a very lovely way, and I wanted to showcase that a bit here.
I went into Summer Pockets having basically no experience with Key. Previously, I’d seen the anime for Clannad, Angel Beats!, Charlotte, played Planetarian, and read a good chunk of the Angel Beats common route. I did have a general idea of what made a Key game a Key game, but hadn’t properly experienced it myself. So, for all intents and purposes, this was truly my first Key game.
I’ve read a variety of VNs, from 20 minute long EVNs to 50+ hour JVNs, from murder mystery to nakige to moege, so you can say I’ve been around. I’ve always found myself particularly interested in the “mysterious island” setting; it never gets old for me. Going into Summer Pockets, I didn’t really know what was waiting for me, aside from my general idea of what a Key game was.
So, with all that aside, here we go. Full spoilers ahead!
It’s time for an ADVENTURE!
Right off the bat, I was charmed by the opening narration with the immediate choice of who Hairi metaphorically was. I thought it was a one-off choice, but soon learned that everyone would be referring to it. Who was this mysterious old lady that was going around gossipping to everyone? I remember scrolling back to see if he had actually said it out loud, and convinced myself that she had heard his thoughts somehow. After completing the game, it’s possible she did, but I’m not sure. I’ll file that in my ‘headcanon’ folder.
Soon after, I met The Boys. I wasn’t particularly into Ryouichi immediately, but he grew on me the next scene I saw him in. Tenzen was basically love at first sight. I remember from Charlotte (which overall I think is pretty bad but had good moments) that there was a male side character that was probably a similar character, maybe more of a mixture of Ryouichi and Tenzen together than anything else. That being said, I love when VN protag’s male friends are more than just a throwaway character, when they have their own goals and aspirations, when they exist to do more than just Help Protag Get Girl. Tenzen and Ryouichi’s motivations throughout the game always felt natural, and the friendship between the three never felt artificial.
Summary of my whole experience with Summer Pockets
Misc
The table tennis minigame charmed me immediately, especially once I noticed that Hairi’s special skills were based on your first choice in the game. I never got sick of collecting titles for table tennis, as it meant I got to spend more time with Tenzen. I can’t wait for Reflection Blue and table tennis doubles!
I’ve only spent a little time playing Islamon, and while I do think it’s cute and a little fun, collecting all the Islamon and going through the battles without a “skip to next day” button is starting to grate on me.
I love Hairi as a protagonist, I never found him bland or uninteresting. What I will say, however, is that the jokes sexualizing Umi fell very flat with me. Once I obtained Umi’s panties in Islamon, I was a little creeped out, which turned into disgust upon Hairi having a dream where he was “going at it” with her. That’s your daughter (I know he doesn’t know that at that point in time, but the writer knows it), don’t be gross Hairi.
Onto the heroines. The order I played was Shiroha -> Ao -> Kamome -> Mugi so I will talk about them in this order.
Shiroha
I never got the impression that this VN had a main heroine, though in retrospect, it was more obvious. I tend to dislike main heroines in VNs, but I must say that I quite like Shiroha. Her route itself (pre-Alka) was nothing special overall, good but not great. However, it was fun as hell to play through. When I say that I didn’t think her route was special, I moreso mean the actual ‘plot’ involved in it. What I enjoyed in particular was the slow, natural-feeling development of her relationship with Hairi, and how everyone in The Gang came together to help prevent Shiroha from dying. I also liked learning more about Ryouichi in this route, and how he came to accept Hairi’s feelings for Shiroha in a way that felt real.
The underwater battle with Kobato in this route was a golden moment. I really hope Hairi is voiced during this in Reflection Blue. My favorite part of this route was at the very end, when Hairi yells on the boat that he loves Shiroha, and they proceed to have a dramatic parting of ways with their feelings for each other acknowledged only to be cut short by the boat turning around.
Adorable bean
As for the true routes, seeing Shiroha naturally (I keep saying this word) fall into the role of mother for Umi would have probably annoyed me in any other VN, but in this, it just felt right.
Though I will say that I expected something along these lines, due to a friend asking me beforehand if I wanted to be a mother and how I felt about children in general. So maybe it didn’t hit me as hard as it would have otherwise.
Ao
Ahhhhh, Ao. I was ready to move straight into her route after Shiroha’s due to the lack of Mugi & Kamome appearing in Shiroha’s route at all, so I wanted to go onto the heroine I already knew a little bit. When looking at this game initially, I thought Ao had the prettiest design, probably because it looked the most different from the other heroines. I read a lot of reviews before that said Ao was best girl, her route was best by far, so my expectations were higher.
What is probably an emotional moment for many did not quite hit me the same way.
Unfortunately, I think due to my expectations being so high, something here didn’t click with me. I enjoyed this route the most during the butterfly-hunting segments. The lore in this route is absolutely phenomenal. Everything else… Meh. I didn’t have much to say during the “sad parts” because I just wasn’t particularly hooked. Oh, I would be remiss to mention as well that seeing Hairi go faceless greatly irritated. It took me out of the moment on more than one occasion, especially since this isn’t an eroge, and Hairi usually has a face.
Kamome
My girl! Upon meeting her in the game, I was enamored. GOTH WAIFU! GOTH WAIFU! I struggled choosing between doing her or Mugi third, as I could already tell I would love Kamome’s route and it is my natural instinct to save best for last. I went with her anyway due to my friend insisting that Mugi’s route felt good as a finale, and I agree.
Kamome’s route was filled with twists and turns, and I loved all of them. I don’t really know what I can say here, but as someone who has always loved to read, the twist of their adventure being based on a book was awesome and meaningful to me. I loved meeting her mother and convincing her to let Hairi assist in making the adventure a reality, and the wholesome bit at the end with all the kids coming on the adventure with him.
Also, thanks to Alka/Pocket, #kamomelives go team
Mugi
Mugyu~ Mugi, as a heroine, is okay. I liked her a lot at first, but I personally never really felt like her chemistry with Hairi was anything special. What was special was the dynamic between Hairi, Shizuku, and Mugi. I assume Key would never actually do this, and this might feel controversial tbh, but it almost felt like a poly relationship. At times, it also felt like Shizuku and Hairi were Mugi’s parents.
My girlfriend, her girlfriend, and me (not pictured)
The reveal of Mugi’s photo was an incredible moment. The intensity that Hairi felt when he saw it, and immediately knew that he needed to hide it. Man, what a good way to do a plot reveal. Hairi getting spirited away into the lighthouse with Tsumugi-chan and their whole conversation… I can’t really put into words how much I loved this segment other than saying it was a golden 10/10 scene for me.
Alka/Pocket
I already touched a bit on this previously, so I’ll only say a little bit here. I loved everyone coming together to make Umi’s summer special. I appreciate that Nanami was left open for interpretation, and I appreciate everyone’s own personal interpretations here, but my personal idea and the explanation that feels right for me personally is that Nanami, like Mugi, is some kind of spirit that Umi was able to project herself back into.
Wholesome mom Shiroha
One of the most important and key (lol) parts of this route to me were when Umi was showing baby Shiroha her future memories, and showing all the different possibilities from each route. It felt so good to finally see the idea that a heroine of a VN can be happy even if she doesn’t end up with the protagonist. Too often in VNs, it feels like a woman’s happiness is tied to being with the right man. I know that Shiroha can be happy even without being with Hairi, and I am personally so grateful to Key for showcasing this.
Bishounen-P 