Spoilers for 16bit Sensation: One other Layer
When addressing fiction by means of the lens of feminist criticism, the thought of feminine characters’ company is a subject that steadily comes up. Company normally refers to somebody’s capacity to behave freely and with management over themself; a fictional character’s company, then, is their capacity to behave and exert management over the story that they’re in. Clearly, fictional ladies are fictional, and they don’t have precise company over their choices and actions as a result of no matter they do is dictated by the true people writing them. Dialogue of character company, then, is a dialogue of authorial decisions, and finally a dialogue of illustration: how has this creator constructed their heroines? Has this creator made a story world through which feminine characters have an effect on their setting? And has this creator constructed their story in such a method that it seems like the feminine protagonist is genuinely driving it ahead together with her choices and actions, all knowledgeable by who she is as an autonomous individual… or is the story occurring round her or to her with none of her enter?
2023’s 16bit Sensation: One other Layer is a helpful case examine on this dialogue as a result of it manages to be an instance of each. At first and center of its story, the feminine protagonist drives the plot ahead together with her decisions, actions, and persona—finally altering the very cloth of the universe together with her choices and creating issues that the narrative hinges on. Nevertheless, by the present’s closing arc, her company as a personality is drastically lowered: she reacts somewhat than acts, has no influence on nor private stakes in how the climax resolves itself, and is outdated as hero of her personal story by a male facet character. It’s a irritating flip for the sequence to take, although it does helpfully reveal what “feminine characters driving the story” appears to be like like—and doesn’t appear to be—by offering the viewers with this inner distinction.
16bit Sensation follows Konoha, an aspiring recreation illustrator who loves classic visible novels and laments that she’s missed the golden age of the bishoujo recreation. She will get an opportunity to expertise this heyday firsthand when a mysterious copy of Doukyuusei sends her again in time to 1992. Although different characters warn her to not meddle prior to now, the will to be a part of this area of interest of popular culture historical past is simply too nice, and throughout the sequence Konoha jumps backwards and forwards between the present day and the Nineteen Nineties, visiting and serving to with tasks for the sport studio Alcohol Smooth. There are additionally aliens. I’ll get again to that in a second.
So, what about Konoha’s narrative company at this early stage? Admittedly, the plot kicks off with one thing occurring to her. That is the case for a lot of protagonists, whether or not that’s inheriting a mysterious home, operating right into a stranger who will change their life, or getting isekai’ed. A great story finds the steadiness between throwing its protagonist within the deep finish and letting their choices drive what occurs subsequent. For some latest examples: the protagonist of A Situation Known as Love kicks off the plot by providing her umbrella to a heartbroken stranger, however the results of this alternative she makes is sudden to her; in the meantime, the lead in Villainess Degree 99 will get sucked into an otome recreation and right into a state of affairs past her management, however she asserts what company she has and decides to stage up so she will attempt to shield herself—a choice that sends the plot veering in a brand new course.
To be clear, company just isn’t a matter of bodily power or perhaps a character’s competence; “robust feminine character” doesn’t imply a stereotypically badass fictional girl, however one who receives robust character writing, imbued with complexity and motivations that trigger the story to occur the best way it does. As we’ve mentioned with varied sequence throughout the years, a protagonist for whom every little thing is straight away simple makes for a low-effort energy fantasy… however they’re usually not very dynamic characters, and the shortage of stakes and pressure of their tales usually imply that they’re not very satisfying to observe. Likewise, a heroine who’s so completely caught up within the tide of the plot that they’re utterly disempowered and don’t have any influence in any way, is dissatisfying to observe and regarding from a feminist evaluation perspective. Character company is necessary regardless of the protagonist’s gender—nonetheless, in a social context through which ladies are nonetheless marginalized and denied company in actual life, the company of fictional feminine characters is very necessary to unpack.
At first, 16bit Sensation largely strikes this steadiness. Konoha doesn’t make the preliminary resolution to return in time. Nevertheless, Konoha makes lively choices as soon as she will get her bearings, every of those pushed by the motivations and passions established about her within the early episodes. She chooses to assist Alcohol Smooth with their 1992 deadline, and fights for the chance to take action. As soon as rocketed again to 2023, she actively tries to discover a option to get again to the previous, determining how the time journey system works and pursuing her newfound aim of working with Alcohol Smooth. Whereas there are new issues for her to bounce off and react to in every arc, Konoha chooses to go the place she finally ends up, and finally her making choices and wanting issues is what drives the story ahead. If Konoha had given up and stayed in 2023, there can be no story. She’s motivated and is doing stuff that makes the narrative occur.
She even drives the occasions that generate the climax of the story. When Alcohol Smooth is confronted with chapter following its managers’ dangerous monetary choices, Konoha steps up with a proposal that can save them: develop a recreation so good it’ll save the corporate. She pulls on all her information of the 2020s recreation panorama and all her love for the classic VNs that will revolutionize the sphere, however haven’t been invented but. Konoha leads the venture, she manages to tug her zany plan off, and it looks as if she’s saved the day together with her distinctive mix of abilities, pursuits, and choices.
However when she’s zapped again to the current day, she’s confronted with a horrifying twist. It seems that Konoha’s recreation was too good, and its meteoric success modified the trajectory of the trade perpetually. She emerges into an unfamiliar, alternate model of 2023 through which her valuable Akihabara is now not the nerd paradise she loves a lot. Following Alcohol Smooth’s success, they moved abroad to proceed their careers, and lots of recreation studios adopted swimsuit, that means that the heartland of bishoujo video games is California somewhat than Japan, and any notion of moe or cute woman tradition has been imported again by means of an Americanized lens. This darkish new timeline is demonstrated, hilariously, when Konoha sees the poster ladies of the Destiny sequence rendered uncannily in American comedian guide artwork type. In the meantime, Akihabara has not been in a position to retain its standing as a beloved tech district and all of the landmarks Konoha is aware of and loves are being redeveloped into fashionable residences.
First off, that is very humorous (Evil American Saber is a meta joke made to attraction to me particularly). Nevertheless it’s additionally nice storytelling, as a result of this accursed darkish timeline is the direct results of Konoha’s actions. If you wish to get all Historic Greek about it, you may even name it the results of her hubris. Regardless of understanding that she needs to be cautious to not meddle with historical past, our time-traveling heroine received cocky, and her folly created a actuality straight out of her personal nightmares. She has prompted the popular culture she loves a lot to fade from existence. Her actions have inadvertently stripped the persona from the city she idealized. Her motivations and actions have pushed us to this plot level and to this world state, and now she should discover a option to make issues proper. So, what’s she going to do?
Effectively… regardless of this wonderful set-up for the third act climax of the present, the reply is “not a lot.” Konoha’s choices, pushed by her motivations and character traits, lead the story so far, however for the climax itself she takes a stunning backseat. Konoha turns into very relively within the closing arc of the present, pinballing round because the occasions of the climax largely occur to her. It’s her (male) Alcohol Smooth co-worker Mamorou—now considerably older than Konoha due to the timeskip—who instructs her on what to do, offers her with the means, and finally ends up rescuing her a number of occasions.
16bit Sensation’s finale goes off the rails in a number of methods. Konoha’s comparatively simple quest to design an even higher recreation to ship again into the previous is shortly derailed when (deep breath) she will get kidnapped and brought to a facility the place the nation’s most good recreation devs have been positioned in Matrix-style pods and uploaded into some type of metaverse, the place they’re toiling away 24/7 making video games. Konoha wakes up in a plugsuit and spends the following couple of episodes going “What? I don’t perceive!” because the villain—a newly-introduced evil American businessman—monologues at her about how that is the way forward for the video games trade.
Mamorou, in the meantime, efficiently hacks into the ability and heroically rescues Konoha, portrayed as cool and competent whereas Konoha will get dragged round behind him. And to cap every little thing off, aliens descend from the sky on the final minute to save lots of the day, usefully and fairly actually demonstrating what a deus ex machina is.
Konoha needing to be rescued isn’t essentially the issue right here—even a reliable protagonist ought to need assistance at times, to show that they’re not completely infallible, and to reveal the ability of their relationships with different characters. Nevertheless, the execution of this arc weakens Konoha’s character writing considerably. She reacts to every little thing that will get thrown at her and largely stands round crying till somebody (first Mamorou, then the aliens) involves drive her to maneuver. She will get lowered to a damsel in a field whereas Mamorou is proven making lively choices and utilizing his distinctive abilities. The plot strikes as a result of he strikes it (once more, earlier than it’s all interrupted by the aliens) and Konoha is pulled alongside by the tide, not making any of the lively decisions that propelled her in earlier arcs. Mamorou being a middle-aged man and Konoha being 19 provides the (maybe unintentional, however insulting nonetheless) impact of constructing her look dithery and infantile, a scared teenage woman needing to be saved by a grown man.
The aliens, I’d add, are additionally not one thing Konoha even is aware of about or has context for. The episode devoted to assembly them is from Mamorou’s perspective—Konoha actually sleeps by means of the entire journey. Whereas the space-folks wax lyrical about how a lot they love Konoha and the way necessary she is to the universe, this devotion is one-sided and Konoha has no connection to them in any way. Thus, as with many of the climactic arc, she spends this entire interplay confused and, once more, reactive. The UFO descends and conveniently solves the characters’ issues, beaming away Konoha’s final probability to influence the finale together with her choices.
Konoha’s actions create the dilemma on the crux of the climax, however she finally performs no half in the way it’s resolved. Resulting from its rapid-fire pacing, the ultimate episode additionally skims over the event of the brand new, even higher, timeline-altering recreation—i.e., the half the place we’d have seen her truly act and make choices and do the issues she’s good at. Due to the detour to the evil American metaverse recreation dev plotline (that includes aliens), little time is devoted to truly displaying how Konoha solves the issue she prompted, and it seems like a gap within the narrative.
The protagonist finally ends up feeling like a passenger in her personal story. That is irritating writing by itself, but it surely’s amplified by the truth that a male facet character will get to step up and drive the plot together with his actions whereas she watches and gasps. Mamorou has persistently been an necessary facet character, so his rise to prominence isn’t completely out of left discipline. Nevertheless, the bait-and-switch through which he successfully takes over as protagonist whereas Konoha is rendered helpless and immobile is extremely disappointing. Even in addition to the sexist implications of damselling Konoha and valorizing her male counterpart (although let’s not low cost these!), it’s contradictory writing that goes towards the sooner elements of the sequence.
Konoha begins 16bit Sensation as a strongly-defined character: the viewers will get a right away sense of her persona, her passions, and what she needs in life. Whereas she stumbles into her time journey journey at first, the narrative provides her alternatives to take again management of what’s occurring to her and at many factors she drives the story ahead together with her personal choices, every of those pivotal moments knowledgeable by the traits and motivations that the early episodes established. In a satisfying case of protagonist hubris, she even causes the dilemma on the coronary heart of the sequence’ climax.
However on the subject of resolving that dilemma, the narrative veers out of the blue in all instructions: introducing extra ideas than it has time to flesh out and wrap up, drastically decreasing Konoha’s autonomy and casting Mamorou because the extra proactive character, and waving away all duty and character company by having every little thing solved by the sudden introduction of a UFO. Konoha drives the story for many of the sequence, in stark distinction to the finale the place she is just there.
On this method, 16bit Sensation is (sadly) a helpful case examine for what we speak about once we speak about character autonomy, lively versus reactive characters, and the way a story suffers when the company of its feminine protagonists will get lowered. Whereas the entire present is arguably fairly foolish, the finale is an unsatisfying, bonkers mess of aliens and alternate timelines that loses sight of the story’s core: Konoha and her ardour for bishoujo video games. When it ceases to heart its personal heroine, and stops permitting her to drive the narrative, 16bit Sensation loses the thread of its personal story and finally misses a variety of its feminist and broader storytelling potential.
