2010! This one needs a little bit of a preamble.
So, the way I write these is I have a Word document and I write and revise as I go. And then at the end there's a total revision to make sure it fits together right. This only applies to stuff that's more than a couple paragraphs, though. Sometimes there's just not much to say. I ended up having about 1300 words worth of stuff to say about this one, so it might still be very messy. I've tried to break it up into little sections, so maybe that helps.
Most of it is me writing a close reading of a nonbinary character and arguing maybe too defensively that she is 1) nonbinary, 2) great, and 3) depicted well. So if you're up for that! And if not, I totally understand!
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2010: Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (PlayStation 2)
>! Played to completion: Yes.
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(I played with the Japanese voices. I feel like I should mention that because it determines which disc you use to play and that makes it feel important.)
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The First Bit
>! This is the first Sakura Wars game I’ve played! And it ended up being not just one of my favorite games, but one of the most meaningful I’ve played as well. I really loved this.
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This game takes place in a world where absurd things happen just as a matter of course. For example, at one point the NYPD fires on a bunch of birds because they’ve gone evil (the birds, that is; the NYPD is always evil). One of your friends keeps a horse in her apartment (but she’s stopped riding it around the city because she wants to be normal). Another one of your friends tries to gentrify Harlem, but you convince her that’s wrong and then she drives a motorcycle into a demon lord. You and all your friends are in a theatre troupe/mobile suit team called the New York Combat Revue. I love it.
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Subaru Kujou
>! In this next part, we’re going to get into some pretty close reading, so I should state that I am responding to an English translation of a Japanese game. There may be and probably are some differences in how things are discussed or labeled. From where I’m coming from, I would consider the English translation and the Japanese original two distinct texts. So, consider this to be about the English translation only. Just felt like I should say where I’m coming from. Anyway.
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This game ended up having a character that was pretty important to me, so I would like to zoom in and talk about her at length. Her name is Subaru Kujou. The first time you meet Subaru, she explains that gender is irrelevant to her. She is androgynous in her gender presentation.
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Based on this and a lot of other stuff in the game, which we’re about to get into, I would say that Subaru is nonbinary. She is never called nonbinary, but that doesn’t matter much to me. Maybe unfairly, I was surprised at how well-written she is, and how she is treated by the narrative. Her gender noncomformity is only made the butt of jokes once or twice, and in pretty harmless ways. She’s smart, practical to a fault, and very serious. She’s cold at first, but she warms up over time. Subaru resembles a person.
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Subaru’s Episode
>! The game is divided into episodes, and each major character gets their own spotlight episode where they face some dilemma and overcome it, becoming a better person in the process. I was (again, maybe unfairly) very nervous that they would mess up all this great gender stuff they’re doing in Subaru’s episode. But they don’t! I think there’s one important scene that could be read uncharitably, but that’s it.
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Subaru’s episode is not about her gender. It’s about her inability to trust people, her unwillingness to change, and learning to accept her own weaknesses. I would like to give them credit for that alone.
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At one point in her episode, she dresses more feminine to “make everyone think [she’s] a woman”, for purposes of deception.
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Sidebar: More Gender
>! They also do some fun stuff with gender in this episode that barely has anything to do with Subaru. At one point, for plot reasons, the male protagonist has to dress up as a woman. From the start, this is a positive experience for him. You are immediately given a choice to admire how cute you are. All of your friends think you make a great girl. Even the audience at the theatre loves your female persona “Peppermint”.
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Some hijinks do ensue because of your character dressing as a woman, but they revolve around mistaken identity, not because ‘man in dress’.
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Back to Subaru
>! Anyway, now for the part where they maybe messed up with Subaru. I don’t think so, but I wouldn’t blame anyone for treating this a little more cynically than I do. At the end of the episode, everyone gathers together for an afterparty (after their stage show, naturally). Subaru shows up in the feminine dress she was wearing earlier, instead of her usual androgynous look. She dances with the protagonist and declares that this is her “revolution”.
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So, here is my read of this, you might feel differently: Subaru has opened up as a person, and she has dressed how she wants for this occasion (she remarks that this is a party and people should dress their best) and expressed herself like she never had before. This is, I think, the “revolution” that has occurred. She has become comfortable with different gender expressions because she is more confident as a person but has not essentially changed. I feel like this reading is strongly supported by the rest of the text.
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The Rest of The Text
>! Later in the game, Subaru asks you to help her prepare for a new role in a romance play. She plays the boyfriend and asks your in-game stand-in to play the girlfriend, wig and dress and all (you become Peppermint again). You wander midtown and have some little adventures where you get to pretend to be a couple. This whole thing is revealed to be a lie, of course. There’s no play, no new role. Subaru just wanted to see what it would be like to be a couple.
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I had to see Subaru’s part of this story through, so at the point where it seemed like you made your final choice of partner (a Christmas Eve date), I chose Subaru. After this, you start getting scenes that take into account your relationship. Throughout this romance, gender is almost never even a topic of discussion, and when it is, it’s about the protagonist reaffirming her gender. During one of the last scenes, Subaru tells the protagonist that she would like to be with him “as a person, as neither man nor woman”. The protagonist feels the same way.
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Subaru’s gender is something she is, but it’s only part of what her story is about. I really enjoyed her path as a character. The idea of growing and moving from ambiguity that stems from being uncomfortable as a person, to playful, deliberate gender expression, rings true to me.
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I could write about Subaru for a long time. I’m nonbinary, and she ended up being very special to me. She’s complicated, she’s capable, she’s vulnerable, and the narrative does not treat her gender like a joke or an abnormality. She’s my favorite nonbinary character.
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Oh, and I know this game has an anime and maybe other extra-curriculars, so if any of that ruins what I just said above, I would kindly like to ask that you not tell me about it.
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Wrapping Up
>! Anyway, zooming back out, I want to talk about one more thing: the giant robot fights! Don‘t forget that they’re here too. At the end of each chapter, there’s some pressing danger that requires the team to mobilize. This serves as the dramatic climax of the chapter. The battles work in a way I would describe as “kind of how I remember Valkyria Chronicles working”.
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The game is only lightly an rpg, but your friends’ stats are determined by how motivated they are, which is a result of dialogue choices (and other dialogue things) that you have made. It’s a neat way to tie the social mechanics, which are the focus of the game, into the handful of big robot fights there are. And while the fights aren’t so tactically demanding, they are still a nice little challenge sometimes.
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And I guess that’s it. I really had a lot to say about this one. This is exactly the sort of game that I hoped I would find doing this project. This one will really stay with me, for many reasons.