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Feb 14

Sano Kojima | Character Study

This one didn't come out as I originally planned, as I'm mostly focusing on things I think are peculiar about Sano that most might not notice. Y'know, the hidden (maybe not-so-hidden) details that get overlooked because of the writing 'skill'?

There are references to Dollmaker, which, if you all so please, you can play the old demo here.

(Keep in mind that this is a long post, but not as long as my last study, and there are minor spoilers for Dollmaker !)

"A Doll can be naked and never feel shy or sexualized or degraded. That's what I want."

(American Mary | 2012 )

There’s something peculiar about The Snake Pit compared to the other bars around town. It’s your run of the mill nightclub, bright and loud. Alcoholics and sexual deviants surround you, loose in their nature, and in their morals.

This place fits the MC, You, more than The Braying Mule, (where there’s people chatting together while you’re alone), and more than the Snapdragon Jazz Longue, (where there’s an expectation of manners and riches and things that you aren’t).

There are people your age, looking for what you’re looking for. A name to forget, a body to remember. A quick one-off, and more drinks than your liver can handle.

The one who stands out here isn’t you for once, it’s Sano.

He’s sitting alone at the bar, seemingly uninterested in interacting with anyone there. He doesn’t dance, doesn’t take a drink off the glass he’s stirring, and comments on your drinking habits, saying that it’s too early for liquor.

He’s not dressed up flashy, but not sticking out because he’s plain, either. He seems to be there not on his own free will, possibly convinced to come by his brother.

If asked, he mentions that he is alone most days than not, and that is something you can relate to.

He doesn’t stick around long after that, nor does he want to, giving you his number when prompted, then hastily making an exit.

This is different. No man is coercing you out of the building, no man is looking to take advantage of someone who is alone (unless you leave without Akira, then he snatches you out of the alley).

This is where you bump into Akira, someone who fits that criteria of your one-night stand. He’s cute, he’s nice, he’s flirty, he’s possibly (highly likely) drunk, and you have that added bonus of knowing Sano (loosely).

If you’re on good terms with Sano, why wouldn’t Akira be on good terms with you?

This route, at its core, was a complete accident. It is the most tragic within its existence. Not only does it hurt you, but it hurts Akira, inadvertently so, as well.

I’m planning on doing another analysis for Akira, so I won’t tackle too much on that point right now, however it is something to keep in mind as this all takes place

To get back on track, we must think of setting once again.

Both Rire and Strade’s respective routes have this intimate feel to them. You are in Strade’s basement, someone else’s cherished home, and your own home, your sanctuary, with Rire.

Here, there is no security knowing there’s a place warm with someone else as a living (even as a victim) upstairs. No familiarity to be found within your books and your kitchen.

There is no sign of life. No posters or mugs, no decorations, and no clutter. The smell is clean, sterile, no scent of warm candles or food, no lingering colognes or the musk of a body.

No stains on power tools and concrete that tell a story. No warped faces in pictures and doors leading outside leading to your bedroom.

It’s steel greys and dark blues, drab, polished and empty.

A hospital room without the bright lighting, without the company of soft face nurses, without the safety of knowing you’ll be taken care of.

You were drugged, and strapped onto an exam table. No blankets given, and no pillows.

Sano treats this as nothing more than work.

Unlike Strade, who took great pleasure in getting to unravel you.

Unlike Rire, who wanted someone to toy with.

You do not get the luxury of free movement. From minute one, your bodily autonomy is stripped away.

You’re pumped full of drugs to put you to sleep, to keep you docile. Your legs and your arms are bound more often than not.

Going against his orders doesn’t lead to sadomasochistic excitement, it leads to pure punishment. A punch in the face, a knife to the arm, a monstrous creature eating you alive.

Sano is no nonsense, leading him to be cold, and brutally honest.

Rire lied to you more times than he told the truth.

Strade may not be deceptive, but he is emotional about his whole ordeal.

Sano tells you right away what he’s going to do, and that you will not survive it. He does not seem to care much whether or not you’re bothered by this harsh reality.

It comes across as hopeless, as if you’re completely disposable after the fact, as if you are not worthy of much other than for this one specific curiosity.

And, you really aren’t unless you manage to play your cards right. Even then, it is so hard to do so, despite the fact that Sano holds the record for most survival endings within BTD 1.

Throughout the game, Sano shows little to nothing about himself. There are no glimpses of the man he is outside of his ‘studies’. No deep conversations, or whispers of information, there are no beats in the torture and praises to go with it.

To you, he is nothing more than a serial killer. This he agrees with, stating himself that this is what he is, and there’s no sense to be made of it.

You were kidnapped because you were alone. You were kidnapped because you happened to stumble into the wrong room. No planning, no victim preferences, no need to learn more about who you are, but instead how you react to pain.

He is opportunistic, you are just unlucky.

However, there are things that slip to the surface. If you warm up to him, are receptive, new opportunities arise for you in the form of ‘intimacy’.

You can ask him to rub your legs after they’ve gotten sore from being strapped down. This, he complies with, though he is shocked at the offer. Here, he notes that you are sensitive as you get red in the face. He calms your nerves, letting you know that he isn’t going to force himself upon you.

And he’s right, out of all the BTD 1 (Excluding Ren) cast, the only time sexual encounters with Sano occur is due to you initiating.

Though, it’s peculiar. Touching someone’s legs (more importantly, massaging them) is seen as sexual to most people. But to him, it’s as if he’s doing something mundane, like washing his hands. Despite you being embarrassed, he isn’t. He hasn’t a need for it. At this point in time, it’s just wound aftercare, nothing more than clinicality.

He does this a lot, more often than not, actually.

The following scene after this isn’t an example of that, but rather one that shows sadism that feels.. off, compared to other times where he is cruel.

When prompted with the option to say that it’s hot when he turns the heat up, he will go out of his way to cool you off with a wet rag, allowing you to fall asleep easier.

The day after is the same scene regardless of your choices, always leading to him burning you.

But.. when he does that? Cools you off one minute, then turns around and burns you the next? It shows him taking mental notes of what makes you tick and what doesn’t. He uses the information given against you.

It shows that, even when it’s cruel, he takes things into consideration.

Like, how he takes into consideration that the burns get worse if you beg him to hurt you, and his hands make full contact with your flesh. He’ll offer cream, leading to another comforting break in his cold nature with him applying it.

These instances are rare, intimate softness that he seems almost nervous to show towards you. Or, rather than nervous, full on guilty.

He knows the imbalance between you and him is undeniably a large gap.

Not only are you a lab rat, but you’re a victim, one he was planning on killing.

Having you come to him for comfort, want it, beg for it, is going to be quite the shock.

He has done this plenty of times, though we are unsure the exact amount, but it seems like you’re the first to take the plunge leading to stockholm syndrome.

You complicate things for him, leading to these leaking gaps of humanity buried somewhere underneath the layers of curious, sadistic filth.

And this complicates things for you, too. In grievous ways I’ll touch on in a bit.

When you break free of your physical restrictions, you’re given the option to check on him as he sleeps away at his desk. When indulging in that option, he pulls you onto his lap, crossing that line from Patient and Doctor (Victim and Perpetrator). He asks if it bothers you, when he confirms it doesn’t, he calls you an ‘odd creature’. Not odd person, creature.

If you examine his face, his movements, the dialogue where you ask him “What’s wrong?” and he responds with “Nothing.”, it’s so very obvious that it’s getting harder and harder to hide the guilt he feels when presented with something like this.

The next day, it becomes even more apparent.

Moving onto the day where Sano brings up the topic of prefrontal lobotomies, if you’ve chosen all the correct dialogue options, you’re able to respond with “Maybe a bit”, to the anxiety question, and are aching to reach out and touch him.

I think MC here is going a bit crazy at this point.

You’re thrown into this place with no comfort, with this man who is regarded as ‘cold’, and ‘inhuman’, and are becoming increasingly desperate for something other than more torture, more disregard.

He jumps back and covers his mouth, watching you collapse from the medical table to the floor. Leaning down to help you has him somewhat going back on his word that he wouldn’t force himself upon you, because without his prior consideration, he’s groping your ass. Shocked that he could conjure up such a thing, he has to take a step back, talking to himself in Japanese, saying (translated): “I messed up.”

Implying he knows he’s pushing past that point of no return.

No.

He’s already there. Him flinching back, scrambling for separation, that’s his last chance to gain control over his human nature, over this situation before it’s too late.

Your actions here are detrimental to whether or not you end up surviving, whether or not Sano stops clinging to the clinicality to spare himself the emotions.

Refusing to crawl over, clinging to your own dignity, perhaps because it’s embarrassing, perhaps because you, too, know it’s wrong and shouldn’t push it, has you sleeping on the ground, proposing that you should be grateful since he hasn’t killed you yet.

The next day leads you into the default death ending for his route, in which you’re injected with a mysterious liquid, before being turned into an incubator in order to birth centipedes.

The thing we need to pay attention to is the heart color, the key gameplay feature for BTD. This is one of the few significant drops in affection within the series. Going from red (or however bright you’ve gotten it), to complete black.

Sano’s demeanor has reverted back to how it was prior to you getting close. He treats you cruelly, a way to get himself grounded in reality again. A grim reminder of what was supposed to be an unavoidable fate.

He let you get into his head; pretending as if you’re just an odd-acting experiment and nothing more is better than the alternative.

Usually, if you’re getting a survival ending, most won’t care if you consent or not, if you want to or not. Rire gives you an ultimatum, but that is dependent on how he feels about you. Strade as well, though you don’t have an option to decline.

Sano can have as high of an affection meter as you can achieve, but your fate is still up to you. You don’t know this, Sano is not good at showing this to you.

Crawling over is diving into this black area of morality. You, wanting to repay him for his mercies, is dragging him under, subtly morphing him into a being he thinks is worse than just being a serial killer.

“I don’t think you know what you’re doing.” It’s his almost frustrated expression when he says it, as if he’s cursing himself for all of this. The words themselves, wrapped in utter denial. You couldn’t do this, not on your own free will. If you could, it’s not your fault. You’re naive, delusional from blood loss, or..

You do.

You know exactly what you’re doing. You just don’t foresee its consequences.

He has the upper hand here; at any point, he could restrain you, drug you, push you off. Instead, he falls victim to the sensations, gaining control only to fuck down your throat.

And it’s wrong.

And you two have this mutual understanding of the destruction it could be causing. But for the first time in Sano’s life, it doesn’t seem like he cares.

The sex scene ends with him asking: “...Why…?”

Why? Directed to you, yes. Because, how could you be okay with something like this?

But, it’s directed towards himself, too.

Why? When he’s never done it before, wanted to before, why now?

Why you, why this, why him?

The next morning, you might as well have woken up with someone else.

In place of coldness, and detachment, is something akin to frantic obsession. Newborn and unfamiliar for you, pushed away and locked up.

Now, he has made dolls before; in the CG for this ending, we can see parts of things behind him, including Annabelle, who sits unmoving on a chair. She is someone said to have known the twins for years, since they were little, and has possibly gotten to know Sano on a deeper level than what we assume. This isn’t his first time doing such a drastic change to someone else’s body.

But, it seems like it’s a drastic change for him. ‘Loving’ someone like this, attaching himself to them. Specifically, a victim. It’s new, possibly frightening in a sense, and overwhelming. Something shifted within him, something you’re worsening.

Refusing to go along with it is only the natural choice.

Who wants to lose their limbs? Who would put themself through the pain, the lack of autonomy? Who wouldn’t beg for another option? Seek it out?

That’s the catch to someone who seems like the easier choice between the other two men within the game. Needing to lose yourself entirely.

Here, it’s a much more physical loss, instead of Strade’s collar around your neck, or the spiritual potion bottle ending with Rire.

It’s rooted in something human, in ridding away with something human. Reducing you to an object to gawk at, to play with. Molding you to fit a view of ‘perfection’.

In the death ending alternative, Sano mentions that: “I broke another one.”

Another one.

How many? Was it accidental? Was it purposeful? One-sided? Was there even an iota of guilt before, or is this new?

He doesn’t want you to hurt. If he knows one thing about this relationship, it’s that it hurts. It’ll always hurt. Your hands, your legs. Could be weapons. Always will hurt.

It’s a tragedy in its existence. You, who has escaped that agony. Him, who will always look back at you with guilt. He’s happy, the most we’ve ever seen him, actually.

But, at what cost?

Who’s to say you won’t have those days where he can’t look at you? Where you’re in Annabelle’s shoes, sitting silently amongst dozens of failures? It’s punishment to rely on someone who can’t even deem you human at times, who looks at you as an odd creature.

That’s the theme for Sano, even in other survival endings. Not one, do you get to keep holding onto who you are.

Within the second survival route excluding Akira, you’re leaning more towards masochism than anything.

Begging to be burned, begging to be cut. Admitting that maybe you like the heat. This raises his affection tenfold, and during this route you learn that he isn’t human, much like you suspected. That he’s a naga. And that most people who fall victim to him “cry, and die.”

There’s a forked dialogue option here, one that leads to the same default ending I brought attention to before (“sounds a little.. scary.”), and the other:

“Sounds a little pathetic.”

And, while he states that it’s cold of you to say that about other victims who’ve been in your circumstance, it raises his heart color anyway.

You mention that you won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing you cry, and he takes it as a challenge.

That affection meter, that significant drop, this is the second time it happens.

There’s metal against your chest, a firm hand with sadistic intent clutching it. There’s a pause, a singular thought in your head.

‘I started to panic. Maybe I don’t want this.’

And, even though you don’t express it outright. And, even though you don’t yell. He reads your face, your body language, identifying you before your brain can process everything. As if he’s figured you out, caught you up in a lie. The lie so human.

Pathetic. You had said. That your predecessors had human emotions such as fear, and human feelings such as pain.

But, when it comes down to it. No matter the amount of repression you can conjure up, it’s there.

“That’s what I thought.” He says. “I’ll give you something to be afraid of.” He bares his fangs and bites.

“You think it’s fun to fuck with me?” They’re words that sit with you and resonate. A feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach.

They’re victim blaming in nature, diverting his feelings once again.

He is so angry. He is full of hate for you. But, more importantly, if we remember the past death ending alternative, he is heartbroken. Feeling led on.

You die like the rest of them, again. Watched, a mistake upon mistake.

The sex scene alternative ends with a cleanup. With Sano stating: “Isn’t that what people do?”

The next morning, he mentions that he doesn’t normally have sex with ‘victims’, implying that by passing through that threshold, much like with ‘Sano Made You Perfect’, he can’t keep seeing you as a victim anymore.

It wouldn’t make sense to.

The second and final death down this path is accurately named: ‘Sano Thought You Were Different’.

You “die just like everyone else”.

It is fast; no fanfare, no needless dialogue.

One minute, you’re hovering over someone who was destined to be murdered by your hands. The next, you’re collapsing onto the floor, watching your own blood coat the man in front of you.

Here, there is no necessity to push the blame upon you. It is him who had thought you weren’t how you were. It is a mistake on his part. A waste of time, even.

It lacks that cruel edge the game has within its deaths. Even in Sano’s own, pain isn’t the main focus anymore.

The point I am trying to make here, with this specific route deviation, is that you two are trading places. Not physically, but morally.

For him to gain humanity, you must lose yours.

– – –

Not a lot of people know about Dollmaker, but I have gone out of my way to collect all the information I can find to simplify things. I have left a download link to the game itself at the very top of this post, if anyone might find themself curious to enjoy what little there is.

I’m including this like how I included BTD1 for YKMET Strade’s study, just to see the comparisons between two iterations.

Dollmaker is completely separated from the original BTD1, taking place when Sano and Akira are 26, which would be 7 years after BTD1.

You and Sano here are on common ground, are somewhat ‘equal’ in the beginning, with the only power imbalance being the statuses. You, being a med student. Sano, being an ambassador for interspecies medical research (think beastkin, demons, ect.)

He’s cordial, friendly towards you. He mentions that you’d make a good doctor. When things get down to it, and you’re kidnapped, he doesn’t really stop treating you as a person like how he did in BTD.

He chats with you about Oomukade, and the things decorating his room. There’s an interaction during the morning when you go searching for breakfast, where you can compliment his eye, and another thing I want to get to in a minute.

He has a purpose for you outside of the need for experimentation. A need to see you, rather than just how you react to pain.

Your point here is to see if you’re worthy enough to be a doll. Whereas in BTD, that seemed like a spur of the moment decision he turned to due to haste obsession

The downside to this is that he is more cruel, more openly sadistic towards you.

This is reflected in a dialogue option if you choose to go back to the operation room and scream at him when he straps you down.

“Just for that, I’ll make sure this hurts.”

“Anesthetic seems like a waste of time on someone like you.”

In a drastic turn of events, your eyes are gouged out from your body and replaced. A modification not found within Sano’s BTD route, nor any of his endings.

And, after this mutilative torture, lies a rape scene, which goes against Sano’s prior promise to you 7 years ago.

It seems as if the passage of time has amplified what was already there inside him, bringing along new lows we don’t get to see the complete extent of.

In other dialogue when interacting with Akira, Akira notes that it’s reckless to be letting you wander around.

In more interactions with Sano, particularly the ones after sleeping in Akira’s room, you state:

“Maybe you should take better care of your things.” This, he laughs at, although it inadvertently hurts his brother.

Sano agrees with you, and says that: “It’s a little difficult to do when my things can just walk away without me noticing.”

I wanted to touch on that a bit more. Because, as Akira stated, it is very reckless for him to do.

We have gone from you sedated and tied down, to you being able to roam free.

Here, the MC has a supernatural tie to Sano that supposedly keeps them trapped in the home, and doesn’t allow them to kill Sano.

Still, putting this amount of trust, supernatural mark or not, into someone so early on..?

It’s a similar situation with Strade in YKMET, not quite the same, but close.

It’s confidence. Sano has grown secure in himself, in the things that he does. There are no doubts, no need for contemplation.

You are treated as a person because, in order for you to live, he needs to see you as such.

Whether or not that is a good thing, I think, is up to personal interpretation. I think it’s a grey area, a mix of both.

– — –

There’s another thing I want to briefly talk about, something very important I’ve been setting aside.

Sano’s relationship with Akira, and how the two interact with each other.

I can’t go into too much detail, as I’m currently in the process of writing Akira’s own character study, and I don’t want to spoil it !

However, there’s something odd about the way Sano seems to brush off Akira and how interacting with you affects his emotions.

He trusts Akira more than anything, loves him more than anything. And yet, when it comes down to outside forces, whatever view of you Akira may have might as well be worthless.

I’ve said it so many times here, it’s possibly repetitive, but now we know for certain that Sano barely recognizes you as your own person in BTD.

Sano sees your connection to Akira as something purely sexual, nothing more. This, Sano barely needs to question because it’s none of his business. They don’t question each other's bad habits, which means Akira doesn’t feel the need to speak out about you being taken in.

The final, and honestly most heartbreaking survival ending in Boyfriend to Death 1, is where you’re forced to be a centipede’s living host.

Akira had begged for you to stay, possibly knowing the consequences of Sano and how he tends to ‘let others go’. And, because of that attachment, you have the worst fate between bodily autonomy being stolen from you, and your mind being shattered.

You’re overtaken. Akira is overjoyed. And Sano is still Sano, reveling in the feeling of utter control.

And, while Akira might not know about this revelation, Sano does. And Sano must know how bad it would make his brother feel if word got out somehow.

Sano doesn't seem to care. As long as he has gotten control over you, why should he?

#menace-reblog