You don’t see such fanmade VN styled dating sims these days. Not to mention see the idea survive for more than a decade. If you’ve been around the fandom, the wave has already hit you and you know what we are going to talk about. However, if you aren’t that active, it’s our duty to refresh your mind about a recent visual novel that has been making waves for some time. So, let’s get you up to speed with this dating sim made by fans for fans. I would also like to welcome Ephemeral Dreamer, who joins us for an arc exploration for the same.

Kawata Shoujo, literally translates to Crippled/Broken Girls, started in 2000 in Comiket 61, when RAITA conceptualized a dating sim with five disabled girls as an omake for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind doujin called Schuppen Harnische. In 2007, an old fan translated the omake page and posted on 4chan /a/ which caused an avalanche of discussion. A ragtag team assembled afterwards to make this game a reality. Many changes in staff ensued and the script was revised too many times to count; however 4Leaf Studio continued on with new people and finally it was made available to play on 4th January, 2012.

The main plot of the game follows our main character Hisao as he suffers from a heart disease called arrhythmia. This disease puts Hisao in the hospital for a few months, until he’s well enough to start school again. However, rather than returning to his old one, his parents decide to send him to a special school for students with various types of disabilities and proper health care needed by such students. Once Hisao arrives at this strange school (Yamaku High School), you join him as he meets the unique cast of characters. Starting right off with Shizune, who’s deaf and her translator Misha; Hanako, a girl with burns on her body; Lilly who is blind; Rin who has no arms due to a birth defect; and finally Emi, a girl with no legs who uses prosthetic to get around.

Hanako Ikezawa A wallflower is always needed, and Hanako is one. She’s the character who’ll always fidget when you talk to her (except with Lilly, since they’re practically like sisters), not to mention those ninja power of hers when it comes to disappearing quietly. This introvert personality is not without reason. She has lots of burn scars that cover half of her body, including the right side of her face. That does not make her ugly, though unfortunately Hanako doesn’t think that way. Her smile is adorable enough to melt anyy man’s heart.

Jrow: My initial impression of Hanako was that she was shyer than the shyest. A mistake I made on my way to Emi’s route was not being so tactful with her in the library. You have to approach her very slowly without sudden movements so as to not frighten her. The bit of time Hisao plays chess with her, I liked seeing her becoming slightly more comfortable with talking to him. With Hanako, I kind of felt shades of Sawako from Kimi ni Todoke when I interacted with her. Though the situation isn’t the same, I imagine Kazehaya probably was this much in his head as Hisao was when trying to figure out Hanako. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Hisao and how powerless he felt to help Hanako in her route. She was like a time bomb, and one little incident would’ve made things explode, just as it did during a moment in Act 3. Her turnaround in Act 4 was surprising, and I thought for sure that maybe Lilly might’ve talked to her about how Hisao was feeling. The wall between she and Hisao was up for a very long time, but the key moment where it breaks was rewarding. I am actually quite impressed by the animated scene that was put together for her. And at a key moment late in Act 2 was the most adorable thing out of all I’ve seen in the game to this point.

Anaaga: Hanako is like the exact mirror of me. Actually, I was much much worse than Hanako. Was. Let’s just say that I was mentally weak in lots of aspects to the point of endangering my life once. Anyhow, I like Hanako because of how similar I and Hanako are. Or were. I can relate with Hanako in lots of aspects, including all the steps of trying to get her into the bed with the protag-kun. If you want to know how my life was, just play Hanako’s route in this game, but replace Hisao with my best friend and TAKE OUT the sex scene which was hot IMO. While trying to woo Hanako, I can’t help but thinking “Ah, so that’s how I was,” throughout the game. Honestly, Hanako and I are similar personality-wise to the point it scares me, but I can’t help but being happy with the fact that finally I can relate to an animated character. I ended up enjoying Hanako’s character development a lot too. It was definitely worth it trying so hard just for her. Know that feeling of satisfaction when you just made a shy person smile? Well that’s how I felt every time Hanako smiled at me. That, and the fact that how pretty Hanako is, especially her smile. GOSH HER SMILE IS JUST SO ADORABLEEEEEEEE. AND THAT FEELING OF SATISFACTION. Man, Hanako is the love of my life in Katawa Shoujo. All of the girls are entertaining in their own ways, but none of them is as remarkable as Hanako for me.

Lilly Satou

Lilly is the half Scottish, tall, polite, motherly figure out of the girls who have routes. Also, she has the biggest bust size. But that’s not really important (to me anyways, guys might have a different opinion). Anyways, Lilly is Hanako’s only friend since she’s extremely kind and caring and the two get along rather well. …Did I mention that she’s blind? Well, she is and to put it in more sensitive terms, she has had vision impairment since birth. Though that doesn’t really stop her since she deals with her vision problems with grace and dignity. She also has an older sister named Akira who is living in Japan (albeit somewhere in a far city) with her while the rest of her family lives in Scotland. Before she came to the school that she met Hisao in, she went to a wealthy all girl’s school, thus why her manners are perfect. Lilly really gives off the whole ojou-sama vibe, but manages to avoid the ignorant and bitchier side of that stereotype. Thankfully.

Karakuri: God, Lilly was a breath of fresh air. Do you know how nice it is to deal with a kind, caring character in an R-18 and NOT have them turn into an asshole rapist somewhere in the route? IT IS VERY, VERY NICE. LOL Maybe I should play eroge instead of otome games more often. *cough* Anyways, yeah. Lilly was incredibly easy to deal with. Plus she was pretty damn clever on working out ways around her blindness. I had no idea that there were such things as Braille typewriters. Those sound extremely useful. I liked how she was genuinely worried for Hisao’s condition and she complimented his social awkwardness by filling in things to say when he was floundering about. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an awkward protagonist before. Back to Lilly, I had to laugh at the route a bit since she says they should take things slowly and one step at a time AFTER they screw twice (and the first time isn’t even 20 minutes after they both decide to go out). Also, the girl is totally a secret alcoholic. Though that restaurant scene was cute, so I’ll just add that in as one of her perks. I guess it also gives Lilly an unpredictable side (…which was also displayed in the second H-scene, but I’m not going to talk about that) …The problem between her and Shizune was never really explained (maybe it was covered in Shizune’s route?), but I’m glad they kind of sorted it out near the end. I liked her sister Akira as well since she was a great contrast to Lilly and really helped bring out the good parts to her. The ending drama with her going overseas was pretty cliche, but I’m glad Lilly and Hisao worked it out. At first I was wondering what would happen with the route without all of that extra drama, but after thinking about it, I think it brings the whole route together nicely. Overall, it was predictable, but Lilly had a really sweet route (without being cavity inducing) and she was actually a pretty balanced character. To some, she has been the epitome of sweetness and loveliness.

Shizune Hakamichi

Shizune is a deaf, ambitious girl who is a manipulative, competitive natural born leader. She is the student council president, and along with her best friend and interpreter, Shiina Mikado (known as Misha), she has been working hard for the school with just the two of them in the student council. A very forceful girl, nothing will stop her from getting what she wants.

Ephemeral Dreamer: Well, the reason why I liked Shizune is because we are pretty much the same in terms of personality! Except for the competitive streak. Plus I can most certainly relate with her as well, since I’m also deaf myself. Let’s not forget that there’s another girl in her route, the hyperactive interpreter, Misha! It was so fun to watch both Shizune and Misha work in tandem in their student council work and also in attempting to recruit Hisao into the student council. Another perk is that there is a hint of subtle yuri in her route, which I approve of very much, especially since it contributes to Shizune’s story. Overall, I loved Shizune’s story because it was really nice to see the communication and interaction between Shizune, Misha, Hisao, and various other supporting characters, and I could easily identify with her. ^_^

Anaaga: My first impression of Misha (Shiina Mikado) was that she has one hell of an unbearable loud mouth that’s too oblivious when it comes to feel the tension in the room. She has lots of pink drills, and she laughs every five seconds. She was just too much for me. Though, that oblivious personality grew on me and I started to like her for being so cheerful all the time. Something felt amiss in Shizune’s route when I didn’t see Misha laughing after few dialogues. I even ended up liking her laugh! So yeah, imagine how shocked I was when I found out more about Misha’s backstory. Well, not really shocked since I’m used to that kind of revelation, but still, wow. From then on I started to see her in a different light. And this is kind of embarrassing, but I found Misha to be admirable then because she was able to do something that I haven’t been able to, even until now (what is this, Katawa Shoujo turned into a confession post for me). Having the same experience with Misha, I know how hard it is to be able to get on track after having that kind of experience. Now some people who know about Misha might think of me being silly for saying something like that, but it is hard for some people, especially for those who keep everything inside like Misha. Kudos to her for being able solves her problem. Truth is I’m kind of jealous of Misha now. I haven’t talked with a certain someone for four years already, and I’m not planning to. I’m not like Misha, I don’t have the guts to accept everything that happened and not be vengeful about it. I’m too bitter for that. Man, Misha is awesome. I wouldn’t finish Shizune’s route if it weren’t for her. Ha Ha Ha~!

Rin Tezuka

She will fascinate you from the moment you chance upon her in the game, eating curry-rise with her foot. Yeah, you read that write. She has no arms due to a birth defect and further surgery. She wears a boy’s uniform for ease of use and is too philosophical at the chagrin of others. I’ve seen people dub her as the ‘weirdo’ of the bunch because she’s hard to figure out but just because of that I instantly liked her. She is a budding artist and her musings are quite interesting even when some of it doesn’t make any sense at all. If you are looking for something out of the ordinary, Rin Tezuka is your girl.

Kyokai: It all started with a joke really, when we decided to do a collaboration post for KS and exchanged emails about who will ‘do’ which girl. Jokes aside, I was unanimously ‘assigned’ Rin because she was the hard/weird one and according to anaaga, I would get along just fine. Lo and behold, I actually did. I guess, it’s a thing with me liking dysfunctional girls like one Ryougi Shiki. Not being understood by most is not new for me and even when I grew out of that phase and became very social, that level of understanding never left me. So, whenever I find a girl in a corner like Hanako or a person labeled weirdo like Rin, I would make an extra effort to go talk to them. Personal taste or not, Katawa Shoujo has something for everyone and if twitterfolks are to be believed, every player finds their true-pair on their first try. So, salutations to my fellow-Rin-lovers.

And Rin’s route would remain to be my favourite and greater than all arcs because she is the most eloquent one. I don’t know why her route is supposed to be hard but is it because of more choices? You do see her going through a lot; not to mention, for some reason Hisao’s a total emotional wreck in this arc as well so it does seem like managing two ticking time bombs and you have to take care of everything before they go BOOM. However, the end result was quite rewarding and even the h-scenes seemed classy rather than hentai-ish penetration show (which I vehemently dislike in most dating sims). Hats off to the writer of Rin’s arc because even if the rest of writing was okay, I really liked the word-spin on Rin. She will keep you guessing and thinking throughout the time you’ll interact with her. Don’t think too much though, she’s a misunderstood girl so just respect her the way she is and she’ll open up to you, entrancing you with her skill and loveliness.

Emi Ibarazaki

Emi is a a very short girl with twin tails and a huge smile on her face all the time. You could also say she is probably the signature “moe” girl of this game. Besides being a cute looking girl, Emi has one major hobby in her life and that is running track. She is really super competitive at this sport even after she lost her legs in a accident, which did not slow her down at all. In fact she manages to overlook her disability and stays completely positive with her amazing-happy-go-lucky attitude.

Foshizzel: What is there not to love about Emi? Wow, she has a really infectious smile that just floods your mind with hearts and anything cute. But in real life, I share a few things in common with Emi. Well a few as I don’t giggle as much as her and I have never ran the track, or do I have twin-tails.! However we both use devices to move, which help us get around everyday. For myself I use a motorized wheelchair, while Emi uses prosthetic legs, but the strongest part of Emi and myself would be our happy-go-lucky attitude towards our disability. Sure, life gets tough and stuff happens, but I learned you can’t feel sorry for yourself; instead you just have to go with the flow. So, that part of Emi was the most appealing for me and I will continue to search for my real Emi. I know she is out there..somewhere…until then, stay positive like good old Emi.

Jrow: Fosh, I wish you luck in finding your very own Emi. Not only will you find a cheerful woman, you’ll find one that’ll let you try anal. Just remember to not be so boring during it. :/ When Hisao met Emi, I gravitated to her right away and hoped I would land in her route. She was cute, upbeat and maybe the easiest girl to like. Sexually, she was pretty open and forward about having a good time. She did use her “feminine wiles” though to mask the fact that she was suffering from bad nightmares of the day that she got in a car accident with her father. For such a girl that seems so outgoing, she was very guarded and feared closeness with Hisao during Act 3 due to her PTSD. I felt the same way as he, where I really wanted Emi to just open up, but I think he came in a little too heavy with the feelings and the persistent approach he took wasn’t helping any more.

This is the first time I’ve played a visual novel. I’ve been intrigued ever since watching Steins;Gate, but they don’t make many VNs compatible for OS X. I was really impressed with how the game handled Hisao’s character, specifically in Act 1 as he accustoms himself to Yamaku High. He’s not insensitive towards the others, but he finds himself having troubles adapting to his surroundings and initially having a pessimistic attitude about the whole thing rather than immediately accepting this new life. The hidden hurdle that makes itself apparent by the end of a girl’s route is his own acceptance of the life he now lives due to his condition. Before you conquer the girl, you must conquer yourself.

All of the girls are beautiful in their own way (I’ll give benefit of the doubt to Rin since I haven’t played her arc. She just seems weird to me). The experiences with the girls I played through all felt unique, whether Emi was much quicker to romance or if Hisao/Hanako took a long time getting close to each other. Emi and Lilly’s personalities were very likable and they might be two of the more popular choices in the game since they’re so nice towards Hisao. The writing engaged me in the emotions of Hisao and {insert girl here}, though I didn’t really have to think twice about which choices to make to get where I wanted to head. I wanted Emi, she was easy enough to get. Same for the others.

The cinematics in the game are alright, but as I mentioned with Hanako, I really like the composition of her sequence. Backgrounds aren’t really much to report on since they’re just filtered photos of a real school, but a lot of the extra art with the girls can be quite charming, especially anything with Hanako smiling or one shot of when Lilly expresses her feelings. I did turn the music off sometimes cause it got repetitive, but felt the atmosphere was empty without them after a while so I just left them on low volume; there’s some good pieces in the game.

As a visual novel alone, this was pretty standard. As a doujin visual novel, this was excellent. The music was okay, the art for the sprites was pretty good (some of the extra art like on the menu was absolutely adorable), and the CGs were excellent. The game was pretty short and as a result, there weren’t as many in game choices as I’m accustomed to. This made it pretty easy to get on the girl of your choice’s route (though it was pretty easy in the first place). However, the shortness of the game was made perfectly okay with a pretty good game script. Nothing felt rushed and yet, you could really tell that Hisao grew as a person. I have to say that I was impressed by the fully animated scenes that came after act 1. It’s more then most normal VNs have.

I can’t really say much due to the fact that I’ve only played two of the girl’s routes, but from what I played, there wasn’t really anything original there story wise. Sure, the whole disabilities thing was something I haven’t played before, but other than that, the stories (and characters) were pretty unoriginal. However, despite that, the routes I did were fun to play (there’s a reason why you find the same character archetypes in pretty much every visual novel ever). The girls were like able. Kenji was hilarious. Overall, Hisao bored me, but I’d say he was pretty realistic. He’s not my favourite eroge protagonist, but at least I cared a little bit about his character (though I admit to speed reading through most of his monologues).

Overall, this was a great game for someone new to visual novels. The options for the routes were easy enough to figure out and the story text wasn’t long or drawn out. When I first heard that there was an eroge about girls with disabilities, I thought it was the sickest thing I had ever heard of. I gave it a chance though and it turns out that it was way deeper than that (even more so after reading Fosh and Ephemeral Dreamer’s colab post about it). So yeah, I now think positively about this game and suggest that people give it a try themselves because there’s a lot of great things about it.

This game was quite interesting for me though at first I was a lot like Kara, thinking, wow… this game just sounds horrible. Though, reading about it on Twitter and lots of blogs made try the game out for myself and the story was quite touching. You could tell the people behind the game really did their homework on the various girls and their disabilities. Overall they have done an impressive job focusing on each of the characters personalities versus the various problems the characters have to deal with everyday.

Gameplay was straight forward for me just point and click, even though I only managed to actually play five hours of the actual game. The game had a reasonable flow to it almost like they were guiding you along for the first half of the game. I do know a few out there that played the game, wanting to skip certain arcs like Emi’s just get straight to the characters they fell for which is perfectly fine. I will say the music was fantastic. During the actual in game cut scenes the background music sets the mood quite well. Even during the comical bits, Kenji had some great music. Speaking of Kenji…that guy, wow he had some of the best lines and seriously he was hilarious! Whoever did his story deserves a high five for awesome.

Anyways, Katawa Shoujo was a strange trip with some of the best characters that appealed to a wide range of people. While we all have our personal favorites and some characters we can’t stand, but I think everyone can say they were touched on a personal level towards certain characters. I really had the most in common with Emi, her story was the most touching towards my own life but you can read more on my tag team post with Ephemeral Dreamer. So should you play this game? I say yes! Go for it! Even if you only dedicate a few hours here and there, you just might discover the heart behind Katawa Shoujo.

The first visual novel I played was RenAi Blogger created by an aniblogger Hinano. Although it was very short and not up to par with most visual novels, I still had a pretty good time playing it. This had been the only visual novel I’ve ever played and completed successfully until Katawa Shoujo. While I cannot truly compare the fan-made visual novel, Katawa Shoujo or RenAi Blogger to other visual novels, I do think that Katawa Shoujo is a great visual novel well worth playing if not only because of its unique premise but also because of its likable characters. It’s also quite impressive that the creators have done their research on the disabilities very well, and I had no misgivings at all. The gameplay is straightforward with some clicking and making choices here and there, but it guided me through the characters’ stories very well. The art and CGs were really nice, and I also enjoyed the music as well.

It took me about roughly about 5 hours to complete one character’s route, which is Shizune’s route of course, so I’d think that it would take about around 25 hours to complete the entire game for each character. Also it should be noted that I only encountered just one choice throughout Shizune’s route, and I’ve heard that other routes have had more choices. This is really only an estimate, plus I still haven’t completed other characters’ route due to me being too busy in real life to play it. I’d think that Shizune’s route would be the easiest to go through for new players, with Rin’s route being the most difficult so far. Either way, it’s up to you to decide which character you’d like to get to know more about, and while I hate to say this again what so many others have already said, it’s well worth your time playing this game!

Katawa Shoujo is my first VN, and I’m glad that it’s my first VN. There’s something satisfying in having something that I can relate to. Hisao is, surprisingly, likable. He’s pretty realistic for a fictional character, and his character development was well done. As a character, he actually developed, and I was surprised at that. I’ve always been under the impression that the protagonist has little development in VNs, but I guess I was wrong.

Katawa Shoujo has its pros and cons. I had fun trying to get the girls on my bed, bathtub, living room, storage room, their houses and what not. The girls are basically your usual anime girl stereotypes, but their disabilities make them somehow stand out (they’re likable too!).  And to be honest, there’s nothing special about each of the girls’ stories. It’s the kind of stories we’ve heard/read/watched before. Nevertheless, the plots for every girl is pretty interesting. Their problems are actually normal problems that I’m sure everybody has gone through, but seeing how the disabled girls solved their problems was educational for me. Plot-wise, I was satisfied with it; the same goes with the animation and the CG. Especially the animation. The animated openings for Act 2 are impressive, especially Hanako’s (Hanako is basically my favorite for everything now). I don’t like that part where Hisao was running in Rin’s opening though. Somehow his body didn’t look proportional, especially his arms. As for the gameplay, it’s the usual VN style, so there’s nothing much to say. I’m sad about the gameplay in Shizune’s route though (those who have played her route will know why).

I can’t really compare Katawa Shoujo with other VNs since this is my first VN. It was entertaining and just like Kara, I was baffled with the idea of a VN about disabled people, but I was wrong. Not only it’s educational (Hisao’s heart problem is the disability that I’m interested the most), it has emotional depth that everybody can relate to, disabled or not. This is probably the 1000th time you’ve read this sentence (or something similar to this), but I’ll say it anyway: everybody should play this game.

This VN was a surprise and even if it has the same mechanics of the conventional Galge of trying to woo the girl and yes, ‘doing’ her some way or the other. However, it’s different when the crippled/broken part is discovered because over the ‘normal girl’ status, they are either in the process or have already overstepped their heavy pasts. Hisao too has a lot to process and he behaves as per the girl he’s dealing with. I definitely look forward to seeing his playful side during Emi’s arc, just to see some more of Rin. The idea of making a VN styled on disabled girls is definitely unique and yes, it is handled well even when it has h-scenes (if you are too bothered, just disable them from menu options). The stories in themselves are interesting enough, at least of the ones I’ve played till now (Rin & Hanako).

This is not my first visual novel as I’ve played at least two of Type-Moon’s before and some of RenAi blogger. This is no way a match to the professionally done former but made by fans, this is a very good piece indeed and deserves all the hype that the fandom has dished out. The music could have been better but I do like some of the background music; like how Head Nurse and Kenji’s BGM always makes me laugh. Which reminds me, the bad end was quite hilarious and everyone should experience getting-drunk-on-the-rooftop with borderline hikikomori because you weren’t social enough.

I wish Rin’s CG animation was as long as Hanako’s but even then it was sweetly done. Support cast is not so bad and the homeroom teacher is always there to give you a pat on the back or some explanation whenever you are looking for it. Head Nurse would always be anal about your health but hey, it’s his job; so what he blushes whenever he laughs too much? That fact always make me chuckle to myself. I wish there was some extra/bonus arc unlocked after completing the game 100% (hey, rewards are good!), but overall it was still good. The per-arc length isn’t too long and hopefully other arcs are interesting like Rin as well, so you should definitely give this a play. Take our word for it. Look at how much time we spend in playing and then writing this post.

• Main links: Website | Staff | Blog
• Download: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux x86 | Soundtrack
• Other interesting takes on the game:
• Fosh and Eph’s collab post
• Anya Fennec
• Krizzlybear
• TWWK (Charles) from Beneath the Tangles
• Shinde Iie
• Kotaku
• Kuroshinko
• Yaranakya
• Midnight Equinox
• Anime Vision
• Nabe!
• Alright, that’s it! Now, tell us how your experience has been with this VN and if you are interested in playing now.