Hey hey, out of curiosity, how do you feel about Kaede's FTEs and her love hotel scene (And I guess Saim//atsu in general?)? I'm not sure if it's just me but it felt... incredibly forced, like Kodaka was intentionally setting Kaede to be the generic romantic interest for the hero™.
Alright, I’m going to put this under a read more because this is going to be me being very salty and hateful so uh y’all were warned. I have nothing nice to say from this point going forth. If you like sai//matsu, and have no interest in being critical of the things you like (or being pissed at me), do not read this. This is your only warning.
God Sai//matsu is the absolute worst. It is the ONLY Saihara ship that makes me fucking pissed off on sight, and it’s entirely for reasons you have stated and more. Sai//matsu exists because Kodaka is a sexist mother fucker who didn’t want to write Akamatsu as her own character versus a cute device for Saihara’s manpain//a waifu for the lonely otaku fuckboys playing the game. Akamatsu is the victim of the fucking worst writing I have ever seen, and it’s genuinely insulting.
For all the bad writing for Akamatsu, while you actually play as her, she’s a pretty interesting character. She’s different from the protagonists before her, in that she’s confident and a leader, with a take-charge attitude, desperately needed in this situation. Furthermore, you can see signs of her not actually handling stress well, and being a surprisingly paranoid character for someone who’s so trust-oriented. It makes her pretty complex, and believable as a protagonist.
Unfortunately, this is all a fucking ruse on Kodaka’s part. Because it all goes to shit for her right here:
This god damn scene. Now, when you first play it, you might think to yourself “ah, here’s the start of the heterosexual romance of the game.” Maybe you’re exasperated, maybe you think it has interesting potential, but the first time through it’s pretty harmless. Unfortunately, once you look back on it with the knowledge of what they do with Akamatsu, you realize just how fucking shitty it is.
In this scene you have Akamatsu reassuring Saihara with his insecurities, and she tells him she understands and feels similarly. Right now she’s scared, with Saihara she feels the confidence she needs to do what she has to do, which it turns out is trying to murder the mastermind. This as a scene works strongly if this was the start of a future romance.
Except, Akamatsu is later killed and her status as the protagonist is replaced by Saihara. Saihara is the new protagonist, and he has to reveal her as the culprit and get her killed, much as he doesn’t want to. It becomes apparent that this scene existed not to show the start of a relationship between two characters that develop throughout the game, but it existed as a moment for Saihara to become ridiculously attached to her, so when they kill her, he can develop. It (and scenes like the elevator scene after it) exist to just make Saihara get attached so he can suffer.
This scene is the start of every problem with Akamatsu’s writing and treatment from here on out. The reason Akamatsu ends up so badly written is because her characterization is sacrificed for Saihara’s. The only thing Akamatsu as a character accomplishes before she dies, is she inspires and motivates Saihara with a couple of speeches that were solely for him. She does this and dies, and this is what kickstarts Saihara’s character arc as a protagonist.
And unfortunately for Akamatsu, it doesn’t end here. Because not only did she only exist for Saihara’s pain, but even after she dies she’s not treated with any kind of respect. Once she’s dead, no one even acknowledges she (to their knowledge) killed someone. They all only ever talk about her wish. It’s as if she never did anything wrong. And the icing on the cake is the big reveal in ch6 where it turns out no! She didn’t even do the murder! Shirogane did! And in the ch6 trial, no one really acknowledges she attempted murder on someone’s life; it’s entirely about how Shirogane framed her. The game goes out of its way to paint Akamatsu, once she’s dead, as completely innocent, even though she’s not.
This serves two purposes, and they’re tied into each other. The first is to further Saihara’s manpain. Revealing that she didn’t even do it when Saihara falsely convicted her would just make him suffer. Once again she only exists for Saihara’s character development. And the other reason is so she’s perfect waifu material like Nanami. If she never did anything wrong as the game wants you to believe, then she can be your super cute gf.
And that’s exactly what her free time events and love hotel are for. Akamatsu’s free time events are the worst fucking things I have ever seen. In her events, we learn nothing about her except in event one. The ONE job of free time events is for you to learn more about the character you spend time with, and excluding free time event 1, we learn jack shit about her. Aside from the first event, which is the only good one, we basically just go on dates with her.
The duet shit that starts in the second one is super egregious. Why is this what they’re doing? Is it to further her character? No! It’s to have a scene where she holds Saihara’s hand so he gets all flustered and embarrassed about it. That is the ENTIRE reason why it exists. You learn NOTHING about her at all.
The third event would be alright if at the end it wasn’t suddenly “Oh no you made me blurt out my secret I’m all embarrassed!” which is bullshit. First of all Akamatsu in the game was pretty confident and not shy about talking about how she feels and what her dreams were, and now she’s doing this? Yeah sounds fake. No the real reason this exists is the set up for event four.
And event four is probably the worst because event four it becomes abundantly clear that they don’t even care about Saihara either in these. In event four, Akamatsu arbitrarily turns the tables on Saihara about himself! Convenient excuse so we don’t learn anything about her, huh? Also conveniently lets you force sai//matsu. But it’s really bad because you get choices TWICE where you literally choose Saihara’s answers to her questions. So it’s not even Saihara we’re instead learning about, it’s you.
This is the event that perfectly illustrates exactly what these free time events, no all of sai//matsu is for: it’s for lonely otakus to pretend a cute girl is into them. Cute girl reassures you! Cute girl asks you a bunch of questions about yourself! Cute girl holds your hands! The reason we don’t learn much of anything about her is because she’s just meant to be a cute girl for the lonely straight male players. In these free time events, not even Saihara gets to exist as himself; he is merely a vehicle for the player to be with cute girl Akamatsu.
And the final event is just the icing on the cake of this rushed romance. Because these free time events aren’t truly free time events. They’re a five scene dating sim with a cute girl, and event five is just the final moment where you truly bond and “become one.” Akamatsu has her practical confession, and it’s just…it’s terrible. These free time events are terrible.
And the love hotel? Is just more of that. Because of how the love hotel works, Saihara has to play the ideal partner for Akamatsu, which for her is conveniently a long-term relationship. Sai//matsu shippers might think it’s proof she’s really into him, but it’s not. Because just like in the free time events, Saihara isn’t himself he’s just the faceless dating sim protagonist for the lonely otakus to project on. In everything outside of the main game, Saihara’s interactions with Akamatsu crush his characterization into something blank slate and generic, and it’s for the lonely fuckboys to be able to easily project themselves on him. This love hotel just fulfills their fantasy of really dating the cute anime girl and being able to sleep with her.
So sai//matsu exists in the main game solely for Saihara’s manpain development, and in the bonus modes solely to give the lonely otaku fuckboys another waifu. Akamatsu’s characterization does not matter, as Akamatsu herself doesn’t matter, and to an extent, Saihara doesn’t even matter either. It’s just a shitty ship based in sexist nonsense and pandering. It’s bad. That’s all there is to it.
