I feel a bit bad about this I don't know if it was intentional but I found a lot of the early parts of this novel to be darkly comedic. Like a toxic yuri vn jam entry about "problematic" media is kinda funny. But it turned suitably gut wrenching by the end.
I have friends with whom I can be fairly open about the fucked up things I like but I also have close friends who I'm terrified of finding out. So that hit close to home.
Also getting flashbanged by Spop as someone who used to be active in that fandom was wild.
thank you for playing!
and, no — that's absolutely a normal reaction to have to the earlier parts LOL... i def got a few cackles out of the game from other people but i guess it makes the later stuff all the more upsetting ;_;
the flashbanging was 100% intentional on my part. there's a nasu interview i think about where he says (about Mawaru Penguindrum and its subject matter):
When I learned that Ikuhara-san himself strongly felt “There’s no point if we don’t do it before the memory fades. The scars have to remain as scars,” I had to concede defeat twice over.
so that's why i kept the direct references in versus using substitutes (like i normally would.)