My Inspirations for Lost Boy's Solace
So, this has been something I've been wanting to do since I started my analysis of Re:Kinder's inspirations, and well, I have my own inspirations that coincide with mine, and I wanted to give at least six. So, without further ado, let's get started.
1: Next To Normal (Musical) - Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt
I've talked about this show before, and I've used songs from it in my musical character analysis series, so I won't linger for too long. Like Re:Kinder, this is a show about mental health and struggling to deal with it, both as the person with the illness and the people who surround you. This show is messy and honest. It's very good, but also very hard to sit through. It's also my number one favorite musical of all time. The plot of this show revolves around Diana Goodman and her family, which consists of her husband, Dan, her daughter, Natalie, and her son, Gabe, as they navigate her bipolar disorder and her delusions. I relate this show to Re:Kinder, namely due to the struggles Diana faces, and how Yuuichi's Mom's struggles are similar. The major difference is that Diana gets help while Akari can't, and that help still isn't enough for Diana. It shows the reality that even with the services we have today, it's still a flawed system that sometimes focuses more on stability rather than happiness, despite that only being one part of what the client needs. Next to Normal has a Proshot available on BroadwayHD. I also have access to the musical if any of you are interested. I highly recommend it. The London Cast Album that came out last year is one of the best cast recordings I've ever listened to. The Broadway Cast Album is good, too, but it has a lot of baggage, and I can't recommend it because of that baggage. If you can't see the show, listen to the London recording; most of the show is on there.
2: Waitress (Musical and Film) - Adrienne Shelley (Film) and Jessie Nelson & Sara Bareilles (Musical)
If you want a raw matriarchal show, I can't recommend Waitress enough. Both the film and the musical are very good, and I can't recommend either enough. Waitress is a story about a woman named Jenna trying to regain control of her life after a series of decisions landed her in an abusive relationship with a man who's never loved her at all. The musical and the movie both showcase how hard it is to break free from a cycle of abuse. While also showing the little joys that make life worth living. Both are great. Both are messy. And I can't recommend it enough. Both are what inspire me to try and write women as complete characters, and the abusive relationship in Waitress is very reflective of what Yuuichi's Mom deals with, even though Yuuichi's Dad is not as bad as Earl (Jenna's husband), although the bar is in hell, and Earl is sitting very comfortably on that bar, Yuuichi's Dad is honestly not far from said bar, with his self-awareness being the only reason he's a slim better than Earl.
3: Good Will Hunting (Movie) - Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Gus Van Sant
Good Will Hunting is in my top five movies of all time. This movie is just as messy, but also really healing for me. With excellent performances by Robin Williams (one of my favorite roles he's ever done) and Matt Damon, and a great ensemble cast of Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgard. This movie is about healing, surviving everything life gives you, and using it to make something of yourself, especially when you have the talents of our main character, Will Hunting, who is a very smart and educated young man, and an excellent mathematician despite not being able to go to college. Will Hunting, however, lived in a very abusive home, and while he hides it very well, it's still affecting him to this day. This is the movie where the "It's not your fault" scene comes from. And that scene is just one of many scenes that really show just how hard it is to heal and make the right decisions for yourself, even if it's outside your comfort zone. While the "it's not your fault" scene is highly praised for good reason, I have to give special shout-out to Robin Williams ' monologue that he gives to Will after their first meeting. The scene that has him say, "I doubt you ever dared to love anyone that much." That scene really has his character, Sean, really call out Will's defence mechanisms and how even though he's intelligent, he doesn't have any wisdom. That he uses his intelligence as a flex, but doesn't do anything with it. That everything he knows is from a book, instead of it being real experience. It's a great scene, and I am not selling how good it is. But I really have to give love to Minnie Driver's scene where she is telling Will that she knows he's not perfect, but she wants to try a real relationship with him, even knowing he's afraid of something real. And one of my personal favorite scenes is "Best part of my day" scene with Ben Affleck, where he gets through to Will that he is wasting his talent and he should be using it to make himself a better life, even if it means separating from his best friend. There are so many great scenes in this film, and I love it to death. This film really shows what it's like to heal from a traumatic childhood and how you can use that experience to be a kind person in this world, even if you're jaded and cynical. And I think this film really works as a companion piece to Re:Kinder
4: Silent Hill Series (Video Games) - Various
Oh, Silent Hill... One of my favorite horror video games of all time. Okay, so I can't really go into which specific Silent Hill game is an inspiration for my story and how I think it fits Re:Kinder because, honestly, it's more so the vibes of the games, and the themes of some of them. For example, Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill f are games that talk about the struggles of growing up as a girl, but both do it differently. Silent Hill 3 is more subtle, while also having implications for the main character being used as a vessel, while Silent Hill f is more overt with its message about women growing up in a society or world that looks down on them. But then there are other series like 2, Homecoming, Downpour, and Short Message, which are more about grief, depression, and regret. Even the ones like the first Silent Hill are about what someone will do to protect the one they love, and all the hardship they're willing to face just to keep that person safe. And then there is Silent Hill 4, which really speaks about confinement and isolation and how that can affect someone. Honestly, I am surprised that Parun didn't list Silent Hill as an inspiration, since Silent Hill acts as an entity of its own, creating monsters based on the personal demons of the protagonists (except for 1, 4, and, honestly, Downpour, because that game didn't really think about the monster design at all). And in Re:Kinder, the Priestesses we fight seem very reflective of Yuuichi and his own personal demons... Plus, with how Shunsuke seems to comment on the town in the game, it just gives Silent Hill vibes.
5: The Strange Men Series (Video Games) - Uri
Okay. Time for me to recommend an RPGMaker Horror game series that really pulled me back into the genre. We have this series (and Omori, I thought about putting that down, because there are a lot of thematic threads between the two, but I decided against it because it didn't really inspire me) to thank for me ever finding Re:Kinder in the first place. While I haven't replayed it in a hot minute, the feelings this series gives me are all too similar to the feeling Re:Kinder gives me. Each game tells a different story with a different protagonist and a different style of horror. If you've heard of any of these games, it was The Crooked Man, since that came out around the era where big-name YouTubers were playing RPGMaker horror games, but the other games are just as good and worth your time. The Crooked Man and the Hanged Man are probably the closest in tone to Re:Kinder when it's serious, while The Sand Man has more of a surreal, dreamlike atmosphere that matches Re:Kinders setting, and The Boogie Man is probably the game that really has the more B-Movie style that matches Re:Kinder when it's silly, but also has moments of introspection that go in line with the series really well...
6: Monster (2023) (Movie) - Hirokazu Kore-eda & Yuji Sakamoto
So... I consider this movie to be one of the most important movies of the 21st century, and to explain why would be to spoil the twist of this movie. Monster is a coming-of-age, psychological drama mystery thriller, with the psychological drama mystery thriller part coming in the first two parts of the film, and the coming-of-age part coming in the last part of the film. This movie goes over a timeline of events from three different perspectives: the Mom, Saori Miguno, the teacher, Michitoshi Hori, and the son, Minato Miguno. This film showcases how we as people perceive others as monsters based on incomplete or flawed information, and the story kinda acts as one big puzzle. We're given one story, then it's followed by another story, and these two stories contradict each other heavily, but then we get to the final POV, and everything makes sense. I genuinely want to say more, but you need to watch this film. This film is best experienced knowing as little as possible. I will be making a post of each of these inspirations and analyzing them, likely starting with Monster. To give you an incentive to watch this film, this is where the queer aspects of my inspiration come into play, and that's really all I can say. Even that might be too much. I will say, once you watch this film, look up what the director said about the ending, because your first interpretation of the ending may or may not be incorrect. In that regard, the director underestimated how many people would interpret it in a certain way despite his real intentions... Man, I really want to talk about this film in relation to Re:Kinder because I genuinely think if Parun was still alive, this movie would've been an inspiration for one of his works... This is basically the closest we'll ever get to Parun's works getting a movie, and to describe it another way, it's basically like seeing an alternate version of Shunsuke and Yuuichi... and I'll leave it at that...
So, yeah, if you ever need to kill time, or if any of you want to see what makes my mind tick, watch these films and play these games. They get a glowing recommendation from me, and I especially recommend Next to Normal, Good Will Hunting, and Monster. If nothing else, watch those, because they really did help me through a rough time, and I can't praise them enough.