Katawa Shoujo - Cripple Fucking

Now I realize this isn't particularly recent news, but in the off chance you live under a rock and haven't heard of this yet, I would like to tell you about a little doujin game in the works called Katawa Shoujo.

In a nutshell; it's a porn game with cripples.

Ok, I'm sorry, that was rude of me. Let me try that again;

It's a porn game with 'differently abled' people. i.e. cripples.

To be honest, I am in two minds about this. The hippie in me thinks this can be a poignant and challenging experience, allowing the player to interact and emphatise with characters and situations that the player themself had never experienced before.

If that is the case, it could be quite an eye opener for some, and may yet fulfill my lifetime dream of seeing porn elevated to the status of art. My more cynical side however, thinks this may turn out to be a game about fucking chicks and then ejaculating over their deformed body parts and getting off over it.

STORY
Set in the fictional Yamaku High School for disabled children, you play some dude named Hisao Nakai, a kid suffering from a serious heart defect. From there, he meets new friends and gets to fuck a bunch of hot cripples. I don't know...in my opinion, if you have a weak heart, the last thing you'd want to do is to get into a heart pounding situation, like say, hot, passionate sex.

CHARACTERS

Hisao Nakai
The new kid in school. Seems to be a fairly typical visual novel protagonist except for the fact he's got a heart condition.

Fear his anime blandness

Emi Ibarazaki
The typical overtly cheerful genki girl that infests like every anime, manga and hentai in none existence. Amputated from knee down following a horrible accident, she seems to be taking a page from that amputee sprinter guy who wanted to qualify for the Olympics, and has joined the track team. Unlike some of the other characters, she generally views her condition as a blessing.

"Waaaa, sugoi! Kawaii!!" Ugh, shut the fuck up.

Hanako Ikezawa
The quiet, reclusive girl. Lost her father to a house fire, which also permanently disfigured her. Best friends with Lilly, the refined girl.

You got nothin' on Dr. Blight, girl.

Lilly Satou
Impeccably classy and refined. Lilly is best friends with Hanako, and in contrast to her reclusive companion, is caring, responsible and friendly. Also, she's blind.

God I hate this, I'm filled to the brim with captions to use, but I don't know if they cross the line or not.

Rin Tezuka
The pretentious, quasi philosopher of the cast. Suffered from a severe birth defect that left her with tiny stumps for arms.

Is it just me, or does she look deadset like a red headed Fuuka from Persona 3?

Shizune Hakamichi
Strong willed and forceful, she generally has more balls then anyone else in the room, men included. A born leader, she does however have a little trouble communicating, being deaf and mute and all.

According to the game info, a close friend of hers acts as an interpreter for Shizune. That should make for interesting sex scenes.

OPINION
Well now that's out of the way, let's explore Hippie-Me's opinion more thoroughly. Disabled people are a woeful minority in all forms of media. When they do appear, it's generally in two forms; where they and their disability is the subject of the piece, or where they are the wheelchair-bound politically correct poster girl.

In that sense, it may seem that Katawa Shoujo is much the same; the premise in a nutshell is a hentai game with disabled people. However, I think it is the hentai portion of the game that may actually allow this game to transcend other works featuring disabilities.

By allowing the player to engage in sex with these characters; they become a symbol of lust, desire and maybe even love. Most of us see disabled people in a sympathetic light, and in doing so, consciously or otherwise, we place them at a lower status then ourselves. One thing I've noticed is our propensity to mutter, "poor thing," or something along those lines. Which from what I've been told by some friends who are disabled, is utterly insulting and condescending.

With Katawa Shoujo however, whilst these characters are disabled, they are nevertheless desirable. I believe this levels the playing field, in that they are no longer seen as helpless, childlike and deserving of sympathy. Instead, these girls are seen as women who the player would like to establish a romantic relationship with, and this allows the game to both acknowledge their disabilities whilst not letting it define them.

If the game successfully manages this, I think it would be a wonderful achievement of storytelling. Furthermore, it will help to humanise a group of people who too often are left in the shadows of mainstream media. And for what it's worth, any game that manages to do that, is a wonderful thing.

Well, that was Hippie-Me talking. Personally, I hope Hippie-Me is right, but then again, Hippie-Me also smokes weed and masturbates to whale-songs.

Cynical-Me however, thinks the games nothing more then a lame attempt at appealing to some fucked up fetish. Personally, I've never really fantasized about banging a hot chick while her 20cm long stumps-for-arms flail about in the throes of ecstasy, but you never know, someone out there might find that hot.

Note:
Pictures and general information taken from http://www.katawa-shoujo.com/index.php

Note 2:
Just in case I came off as too negative (as I often do), I would like to clarify that as a whole, I am impressed by the premise of this game and really do hope it will live up to Hippie-Me's expectations.