Today's character is Kirari Moroboshi!! Kirari is a passionate, energetic, and unique girl with a love of cute things and making people happy. She talks in cute ways and has an infectious happy energy. She is very tall and used to think that it conflicted with her desire to be cute, but came to love her height and
FUN FACT
kirarin!!! my cinderella girls tantou :D i simplified her outfit for time but considering how much i love kirari it's strange i haven't drawn her much. still loved drawing her however
Warning: Full Game Spoilers below. Anime only watchers beware.
Ok, so Iāve been cooking this theory for how in the goddamn theyāre gonna explain the ending with Yuri crossing time and space to Setsu for a while.
And since weāre at the halfway point now, I think Iām ready to lock this in as my answer for how theyāre gonna handle Yuri's endgame time-hoping ability AND their memories. As I do think theyāll be linked together in the anime for smoother narrative flow and cohesion. Theyāve already done this with Shigiās accident being linked to his cyberzation offer instead of just being a scam in episode 7, so I doubt this connection is something theyāll be adverse to also doing.
Now I wanna be clear, in that I donāt think theyāll explain Yuriās full past or cure their amnesia by the end, their lack of any past is part of the appeal of them. This theory of mine is just here to try and connect some dots for how they could handle this aspect.
Now in the game, the MCs ability to jump to another time on their own is to be seen in a meta-view: Us the player jumps save files for Setsu, and at the end they say weāre only here for a moment because the gameās literally about to end. We didnāt need an explanation for how this was possible as we the players already understood on a meta level why it was possible.
I bring this up because I donāt believe the animeās going to do the meta approach at all. Yuri is their own character who very much exists in the world of Gnosia. They might be a bit of a paradox and have some player shaped desires and actions, but they're still their own person.
Now letās go over the important parts for this theory of what we currently know about Yuri's situation, both the said and unsaid:
1. Amnesia
2. Said amnesia is from an alleged Gnosia attack
3. We see the looping animation play at the start of episode 1, before Yuri has the Silver Key
Now letās start with the last point because itās very much its own thing from the other two, and itās where the main brainworms of this theory stem from.
Why is this animation playing? On first viewing itās meant to make the viewer think itās the instant learning system. However, the following episodes make it very clear this is the animation that plays when Yuri loops to a new world line, so why does it play at the start of episode 1 before Yuri even has the key that lets them loop?
One explanation you can go with is that this is related to Setsu wheeling Yuri through the portal, which the key is also responsible for. This would imply that the animation is simply a short-hand for Silver Key shenanigans instead of general time hoping shenanigans.
However I donāt believe this is the case. The animation is very much evoking the idea of information being sent somewhere and nothing else with just the words and neurons. This would be our Yuri jumping into another world line. This happening while Yuri gets physically wheeled into another space and this playing because of it just does not add up with what itās trying to portray.
Letās now touch on the first 2 points.
Yuri has amnesia, but it is very much selective, that much is clear. They donāt know what ai is or even their own name, but they do know what a dolphin is at a glance. The Watsonian reason for this is obvious, but Iām here for the Doylist answer. So now why donāt we go into the reason stated in episode 1 for why they have it?
Yuri was attacked by a Gnosia and put into the medical pod. Endgame Setsu is the one to say this, so itās reasonable to assume they learned of this fact during the day 0 loops from the crew, as in episode 10 an earlier Setsu just says Yuri was attacked in general terms.
Now what would happen if a Gnosia attacked someone? Well we know exactly what happens when the Gnosia attack someone in the way they want to: Their target is cyberized and sent to the Gnos hivemind. The person's mind and memories become one with the hivemind and they lose their sense of self, or the āegoā as said in game. A body is never left behind during this process.
So why is Yuri seemingly the exception to this? Was the process interrupted? How would that even work when we see them evaporate in mere moments. Did the Gnosia who attacked them just take the standard memory loss approach and hit them in the head real hard? That would raise even more questions if true.
Now there is also the boring answer to all of this: That the story of Yuri losing their memory from a Gnosia is a lie, or just an assumption of the crew, and their memory loss is just left unanswered. And Iām only bringing it up to say itās entirely possible this can be the case and I would hate it if so. If the answer was JUST that in the end, I would feel cheated out of an actual interesting answer to why Yuri is like this. However, to use this to build off of the other strange aspects would make perfect sense. As to use this to segway into my overall theory:
Yuri didnāt lose their memory from being attacked by a Gnosia. They lost it due to jumping to another world line AFTER being attacked by a Gnosia.
So the basis of this theory hinges on the idea that Yuri just naturally has the ability to world line hop. Maybe they can only do it in moments of crisis, or just whenever they want, but Yuri having this ability before everything starts is a necessity for this whole theory to work (I know that in game this was already the case, but remember this theory is taking away the meta aspects which were the main justification for them in game. So here it needs new legs to stand on).
Raqio said there were creatures who could do it. We know they were talking about the Silver Key, as that was in their luggage about a week prior, but that doesnāt mean the keyās the only one out there who can do this. Of course Yuri wouldnāt be aware they can do this on account of the amnesia and also having a separate entity doing the time hoping for them currently.
Now, what weāve been told is that Yuri lost their memory due to being attacked by a Gnosia. However, the only dangerous ability a Gnosia has is when they send a target to Gnos. And as seen in the anime and game, once used, itās a one-and-done deal, a person doesnāt come back from literally losing their body at a single touch. But Yuri not only did so, but somehow just lost their memories from it.
And then there's the looping animation in the anime. We see the animation at the start of episode 1, before they even have the silver key. This is an incredibly suspicious decision to make as the first few seconds of a series. It suggests when we first met Yuri, they'd already looped before even waking up. Or more accurately, that theyāve already hopped world lines.
An amnesiac Yuri jumped world lines? Why? What wouldāve spurred a person with literally no memories to do anything, let alone jump time? Well, I think this was an emergency button situation. They were in a very bad spot, and out of a last gasp or instincts, jumped to either loop 0 or day 0.
Of course the bad spot Iām talking about is being taken out by a Gnosia and becoming part of the hivemind, but having enough of themselves still to jump before they no longer had the forethought to make that option. And when Yuri wakes up in their non-cyberized self in the pod, only their own sense of self and a few scant memories made the trip with them. So Yuri's amnesia isnāt simply them forgetting their past, it was literally ripped out of them during the brief period they were in the Gnos hivemind. It would also mean recovering said memories would be near impossible, as I doubt Yuri could even find the world line where this happened, let alone get Gnos to agree to give them back. Which I think is great to confirm that so every viewer knows that beyond a few details Yuri's past being gone is the point of them.
Now you may wonder when Yuri gets attacked by Gnosia with the silver key their memories are fine, but when they get attacked without it they lose them? Well we know the silver key sustains itself off information, so the key having safeguards for itself and its host to keep it safe makes sense.
Yuriās status as a time hoping creature also makes Setsuās comment of Yuri being ācalm, but a bit lonelyā in episode 4 much more sad and revealing in retrospect. Even if they canāt remember, theyāre never in any real danger with their looping power, however that means Yuri's never truly with anyone for that long with such a power. Might also explain why Yuri is never interested in remembering, because they know subconsciously there isnāt much to be happy about in their past
It could also be a secondary reason for what spurs their outburst at the end of episode 5 and crying in episode 11, theyāre so used to leaving the people they know behind. Which would make their relationship with Setsu that much more valuable to them, thatās someone who also understands just how draining such a life could be.
Overall, I really like this theory, as it explains why Yuri has amnesia while tying it into the true ending. It also makes the idea of Yuri never recovering their memories really easy to swallow.
Of course the anime could do a 180 and make it so Yuriko has the ability to send people's consciousness elsewhere and she does so so can stop looking at sad Yuri sad and yearning puppy dog eyes, but we wonāt know until the anime gets there. And until then, Iāll be sticking with what Iāve cooked up.
Out of Gnosia's primary cast, Yuriko is by far the most enigmatic. In this post, I want to both discuss why she seems so mysterious (in the game) and my take on who she actually is.
The first thirteen loops of Gnosia (game) are a tutorial, introducing you to both the game's mechanics and its characters. It's hard to understate the importance of this first impression. In the tutorial, every loop has a couple of bespoke conversations, written with intent to teach you who the characters are.
Let's focus on the last two loops, Loop 12 and 13, which introduce three characters and need to do so quite quickly (since the tutorial is almost over).
Loop 12 has Otome voice the straightforward question at the heart of her character; can a whale like her be human? And Sha-Ming is introduced first by having him not show up to the meeting, followed by a whole scene where he is introduced through his iconic...dynamic?...with Setsu.
Loop 13 establishes that Sha-Ming isn't just interested in Setsu by having him flirt with Yuriko. Then Remnan is introduced (as a shy introvert who doesn't leave much of an impression), and discussion begins. After discussion, there's a scene with Remnan fixing Otome's helmet, a chance for both of them to catch up on characterization.
And of course, during the discussions, both of them get more characterization. Not a lot, but the game teaches the player a lot about who these characters are through their meeting dialogueāboth the things they choose to say, and how they say them.
Contrast this with Yuriko. She was introduced in loop 5, telling everyone they should freeze you. After that introduction, a normal discussion begins, just with a new and clearly hostile participant. Afterwards, she pulls you aside and strips you of your plot armor. If you're new to the game, you will probably be killed or frozen before the end of the loop.
And then, Yuriko vanishes. You don't meet this mysterious antagonist again until Sha-Ming flirts with her in loop 13. In the entire tutorial, Yuriko's only conversations are the ones where she acts unreasonably antagonistic to you, and the one where she acts reasonably antagonistic to Sha-Ming (but also unnerves Kukrushka). And compared to everyone else, you barely had a chance to get to know Yuriko through her discussion dialogue.
(Except Remnan, but his whole thing is being quiet, so that fits.)
Yuriko is mysterious...but not because she acts mysterious. Most of what she says is quite straightforward, actually! Yuriko is mysterious because you know almost nothing about her, and because one of the things you know is "she somehow detected and turned off my plot armor".
Only the tutorial loops have preset casts, so in theory Yuriko should show up about as often as other characters. But in practice she doesn't, for two reasons.
First: You're likely to use the Silver Key's Event Search feature to search for Notes you can unlock. But Yuriko's Note events all have prerequisites (aside from Kukrushka, other characters have prerequisites on less than half of their Notes, and even Kukrushka is just 4/6), and all but one of Yuriko's Notes are gated behind other Yuriko notes. So for most of the game, Event Search is much more likely to give you crews that set up non-Yuriko notes than anything reliant on Yuriko's presence.
Second, Yuriko doesn't show up much in other characters' events. Almost everyone shows up in other characters' Note events; even reclusive Remnan shows up more than Yuriko! So if you don't unlock the single Yuriko note which might be unlocked, or the few non-Yuriko-Note events Yuriko shows up in, you just won't see her outside rote discussions.
The structure of both the tutorial loops and the subsequent note-hunt both limit how much you can learn about Yuriko and ensure you learn it very slowly. But once you've seen all of Yuriko's events and take some time to think about it...she's not that mysterious. It's just hard to learn things about her.
Yuriko has a couple kinds of mysterious insight. She can recognize that the player is a weird anomaly, and that Kukrushka and Stella are artificial.
(Or she just knows that already. Her Guard Duty dialogue indicates she's been living onboard the D.Q.O. for several years, which would give her plenty of opportunities to notice the Kukrushka-shaped case or Stella trying to explain she she's not a government combat maid.)
But once you've seen all the events, it's also clear how many kinds of weird Yuriko doesn't notice. She doesn't realize that SQ is a clone, or recognize her connection to Kukrushka (or Remnan). She doesn't realize Comet's slime is dangerous.
She doesn't notice that Setsu has a Silver Key (at most, she comments on them seeming to collude with the player), which suggests she might not know about the time loop at all. The closest she comes to acknowledging the time loop exists is saying that being eliminated by gnosia wouldn't let you reach Gnos because "The very reason Gnosia exist on this shipā¦[player] - it is all for your sake." Which doesn't sound like knowing about a time loop, so much as being vaguely aware of whatever a video game looks like from the inside.
Oh, and of course Yuriko has no special insight into who is what role. She can't identify a guardian angel. She can't identify gnosia, despite having cyberized people and otherwise served Gnos. She can't even identify Bugs, despite her ability to identify you as their source.
Yuriko's esoteric knowledge isn't omniscience. It's awareness of a few specific subjects, no more significant than Raqio's familiarity with the Silver Key, Remnan's mechanical skill, or Sha-Ming's experiences with intellectualization programs.
But most of what she says is related to that esoteric knowledge, because unlike other characters, she almost never speaks up when her specialty isn't relevant.
In the game, Yuriko isn't an omniscient mystical waif. She has a few supernatural insights, but beyond that she's basically another Remnan. Introverted, isolated, initially hostile. She only seems to know more than that because she either stays quiet or talks like an omniscient mystical waif.
Why does she do that? Well, she grew up in a cult; I don't think this is spelled out in-game, but it fits what we know about her backstory. She was raised by devotees of Gnos, on a seemingly secret starship, isolated from the outside galaxy. Yuriko was almost certainly traumatized by her experience on the Hoshibune (she left for a reason!), and on top of that I'm pretty sure she's neurodivergent. I might be projecting though. Every character I like seems neurodivergent to me.
Anyways, even if Yuriko was neurotypical and mentally healthy, she never had a chance to see how normal people communicate. And she lived on the D.Q.O. after that, which means her primary examples for how people off the Hoshibune talk are Stella (excessively formal and precise by the standards of neurotypical fleshbags) and Jonas (Jonas).
In short, she sounds like a melodramatic oracle because she was raised by faux oracles and then sheltered by a melodramatic space hero. Aside from that (and whatever lets her recognize you as an anomaly), she's just an ordinary young woman, like Gina or Comet or Otome.
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