Yume Miru Kusuri

Yume Miru Kusuri is a Japanese visual novel with dark themes that western players may like.

I played all the routes in English long time ago, and then replayed the Nekoko route in 2021.

After for years fruitlessly searching a pirated copy of the game Yume Miru Kusuri, I went and actually bought the damn game from a completely Japanese site. It was so straightforward that I could see myself buying more of these… At first I thought I’d buy a physical version on Amazon along with my next manga shipment, but then I remembered my PC doesn’t have an optical drive. I have two in my old PC, but the new one doesn’t even have a slot I could move them to. I suspect the time of discs is coming to an end even in Japan. Eventually. Although I guess the anime industry still lives of blu-ray sales, and probably comiket releases only come out digital some time after the event?

So I spent the whole day playing the game. I played an English translation many years ago and liked it a lot. Probably a lot of the enjoyment came from it being one of the first VNs I ever played, and probably one of the easiest titles for a western audience.

I realized all the heroines have their own comical style which is used for the humor. Aeka is boke, Nekoko is denpa, Mizuki is sadist, Aya (the imouto) is childish, and baito senpai is gay. Kouhei (the MC) is deadpan and whatever the interaction with the previous characters’ requires. It seems like a very sensible way to write — maybe only genius comedy like Gintama can pull off doing any joke with any character. The comedic side of each character is of course very connected to their dramatic side — some pairings work better than others.

Having some more thoughts about writing while playing the game, but it’s getting a bit late, so I think I’ll go for a short walk and then play a little bit more. Inb4 sunrise, like happens to Kouhei when senpai introduces him to eroge.

Playing more Yume Miru Kusuri. The never-ending torrent of Japanese, and I guess also porn, tires my mind quite a bit more quickly than most activities.

Playing Yume Miru Kusuri for the whole day. Finished Nekoko’s route. It was great. I don’t remember what was my impression last time, but I guess good since I wanted to replay this game in the first place. I should probably play more VNs, this might be the perfect practice for my current level of Japanese. But not just that, I don’t remember last time I was so immersed in something. That combination of story, visuals, music and voice acting is something more than anime, manga, or films can deliver. Especially the length of the story is something the other formats don’t come close. A manga might run for a very long time, but then it usually is very sprawling with content, whereas a VN like this does with only a few main characters, drawing heavily into the MCs thoughts and such. Actually this may have been the first time I appreciated length of a VN route, usually it’s a bit too much for me. I guess this is one of the shorter VNs as well, so I might take that one back next time I play a longer one.

And a final note: I was reminded how I dislike the bad endings in VNs, thinking that in real life all endings are good in some way, and it’s a bad “lesson” that there are these “wrong choices” that ruin everything. I get it that there are reasons to include them in VNs, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I think in this route one of the bad endings was even more wrong in that (unless I’m mistaken) the choice (talking to a drug dealer) did not affect anything Nekoko saw or heard, but the story diverged at her response. So from her perspective Kouhei did everything exactly the same, yet she chose a different path that was drastically worse than the good ending. Of course you could argue there was something between the lines that betrayed Kouhei’s level of commitment, but in my opinion it was just bad writing, a mistake.

(Some analysis I did to learn about the craft of writing)

I decided to return to Yume Miru Kusuri. I skipped through the Nekoko route again, taking notes of the various scenes. With a one bullet point per scene, and my usual two column writing, had to go to the second A4 sheet (~5 columns). I suspect any lead writer for a VN route at some point has a document something like this. I’m trying to get a sense of “pacing”, or how much material is needed to prepare for some particular scene. For example the first sex scene occurs in the 3rd column, but without having gone through taking these notes I’m not sure I would have been able to enumerate exactly what developments with Nekoko took place before that and why was each necessary. Certainly, looking at the final document, I don’t think there are any unnecessary scenes. One think I’m unsure about is whether the imouto scenes were part of this route or separate. If first, then perhaps I would have expected the writers to connect them a bit more.

Reading the notes now, the first thing I realize is that it probably wouldn’t be as good story if you took out the parts without Nekoko. About half of the time is spent in Kouhei’s thoughts, many of them only partially relating to Nekoko. For example his sleepiness from running the streets all night, his confusion causing a serious row with the imouto, and his attitude towards things happening in the school that no longer concern him. Also I love how the gag character Tsubaki becomes a serious source of advice later on.

I noticed none of the heroines meet each other in this game.

I think the route does well “show don’t tell” about the drugs: How they manipulate energy levels, change personality (a bit too exaggarated, but good choice for the medium), cost money to the point of losing it all, cause desperation when running out of reserves or not having money to buy more, cause detachment/dissociation when not high, cause desire for stronger drugs when effects wane (the gateway theory), cause you to spout out non-sensical things (Kouhei when high for the first time), and finally, just completely take over your life.

Now I realize no real life drug might do quite all of the above and to such extent so quickly, but it was the right thing to point out all those things, and in the end I didn’t get the feeling the writers demonized drugs, but just pointed out the dangers. For example I was surprised by the development where after the duo is caught, Kouhei suggests they go use the drugs “one last time”, and it’s even the stronger variant. They do so and have great time, finding closure. That doesn’t seem like an anti-drug message to me. Rather the story is about the characters’ troubles, for which the drugs are but a vehicle and plot device. Exactly as it should be, I think. One reason they probably had to that was to bring Nekoko back and not only have Hiroko.

I think this analysis was a good exercise. I sometimes get ideas for exercises like this but decide not to do them because they seem like too much work and I’m afraid I’ll waste time. Of course then I’ll just waste the time in some other more mundane way.