What to expect and not to expect in Subahibi

So the one of the biggest titles in VNs, subahibi is coming out in a few weeks and it seems like the vast majority of people in the sub do not know anything about it. Since I just finished it a day ago, I'm going to share with you what you should expect, what you shouldn't expect, recommended order of routes/chapters, and etc. There will not be any spoilers so don't worry about reading this. Shout outs to u/mendokusai-chan, u/aldarionar_, sacredgeo, and u/moogy0 on the IRC channel for telling me a lot of the stuff in here.

(I will probably add more stuff to here as I think of more stuff to put down. But regardless, this covers a lot of the important stuff in the VN that people should know beforehand. Feel free to suggest stuff to add.)

*edit - there is a troll going around spoiling the plot, so be warned about reading the comments below. He is also sending PMs to people about the plot (he sent it to me twice) so be careful about opening your PM.

Some tidbits about the VN itself

This VN has an average of 86 and median of 90 on EGS, basically making it a kamige amoung kamiges. There really isn't anything like this VN that is translated currently. MLA is often said to be the best VN people has read but I personally said number of times that I consider it the worst kamige. I am not saying that MLA or any other translated kamiges are bad, but VNs like subahibi are in a different level and I'm sure many of you will understand what I mean once you finish subahibi. The thing that makes subahibi unique is that it one of the few denpa VNs out there. I won't say any more than that, but I wish there was more of this at the level that subahibi is at.

Required/Recommended reading before reading subahibi

The only thing that I would say is required would be Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. This play is mentioned numerous times and some parts would be confusing if you didn't know anything about the play. It's short so you can knock it off in 3-5 hours. If you don't want to read it, then there are numerous uploads of the play on youtube that you can watch. It doesn't matter if you read/watch it in French or English since the VN uses the Japanese translated version of the play.

Some other titles that are recommended are The black swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman, and Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein. These books are not really required to enjoy the VN as the concepts that SCA-JI uses are told in clear language that is very easy to understand. But if you would like to get a deeper understanding of the VN, I recommend reading through these at some point. Here is also a list of the references the VN has that tlwiki has compiled.

Recommended Reading Order

Here is the link to tlwiki that lists the chapters. As you can see, the VN essentially has 8 chapters. However, some of the chapters have alternate endings and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU DO NOT ADVANCE TO THE NEXT CHAPTER UNTIL YOU READ ALL THE ENDINGS TO THE CURRENT CHAPTER! I would recommend you read the VN in the following order.

Down the Rabbit-Hole I zakuro route (the other 2 routes are optional IMO) -> Down the Rabbit-Hole II -> It's My Own Invention true route -> It's My Own Invention Kimika route -> Looking-Glass Insects Kimika route -> Looking-Glass Insects true route -> Jabberwocky I -> Which Dreamed It -> Jabberwocky II -> Wonderful everyday ending -> 向日葵の坂道/Road of sunflowers ending -> Tsui no Sora II ending.

The 3 endings are NOT supposed to represent good/true/bad endings. Rather they are just different endings that are neither better or worse that the others. MAKE SURE TO READ TSUI NO SORA II ENDING!! I cannot stress this enough, don't stop at the first ending because the story is not over until you read ALL OF IT!!

What not to expect in subahibi

• Cute girls doing cute things - if that's the only thing you want (and there is nothing wrong with it if you do) then just read Down the Rabbit Hole I and DO NOT go any further. You will regret it.

• A standard VN structure - Usually in VNs, the mc meets heroines/heroes and they have a grand old time. Don't expect that here.

• Don't try to look up every reference in the VN - Seriously, you will never finish the VN that way

• Being able to read this in one sit down session - This VN is longer than MLA and will require to really think about the events happening in the screen. Don't rush through it and think about what's going on in the VN

• A single MC you can identify with - The VN has 5 different MCs so expect the point of view to shift more than a few times within the VN.

What to expect in Subahibi

• Lots of disturbing material - This is not for the faint of heart. If you think the chomp scene in a certain VN was disturbing, well it's gonna be a lot worse and lot more of it in subahibi. I recommend some eye-bleech like moege/charage or that moe anime you've been putting off to read/watch during 2 of the chapters (you will know when you get there). I personally read a nakige, but I'm weird. On the flip side, there are about 2000 votes on EGS for this VN, so many people didn't have much problem with it.

• Carefully read what some of the characters say but don't get bogged down on one particular line - There are many moments where the characters say something very profound. It's not edgy or pretentious so you don't have to worry about that. It's in a very simple prose and it's easy to understand for the most part. However, there are some lines where you will be completely lost as to what they just said. This happened a few times to me and the best thing is to just think about it for a few minutes but move on. It may or may not make sense by the end of the VN but don't get stuck in one part and not move on.

• Expect the Inventions chapters to feel very long - This chapter alone has about third of the script devoted to it. It's longer than some VNs so expect it to read for a long time. It doesn't drag or get boring but it did feel like I wasn't progressing much at all when I was reading through it.

I'm really happy that a kamige like subahibi is being translated for all of you to enjoy and I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. The sad thing is though, it seems like this will be the last kamige to be translated for a long time but something is better than nothing. I have no idea what the quality of the translation is but I haven't heard anything bad so that's a good sign at least. If wav and herkz does manage to transfer over the sense of wonder I had when I read through subahibi, then it would be a huge feat they pulled off and maybe I can even grant herkz permission to shitpost as much as he wants for a day. No guarantee if the other mods will agree though.