50 shades of Toshima: a Togainu no Chi review

In this post I am writing the full Togainu no Chi plot, as depicted in the VN, in chronological order and telling a little about my thoughts on the game and my gaming experience. If you’re only interested in a specific character’s route, there are walkthroughs in the blog =)

I see many people on the internet saying that TnC’s storyline is all over the place and I was under the same impression after watching the anime. There were TOO many flaws in the narrative, it left a ton of questions unanswered, the animation itself was of very low quality and of course, that disastrous ending with super sayajin style fights (one Goku is enough guys :P). Anyway, I was reading the manga when the anime came out and was really into it, so I thought that maybe the anime didn’t do any justice to the original plot and decided to play the VN. 

Bottom line: If you, like me, thought the plot had potential but the anime was a let down, I recommend playing the game (or reading this review, if you don’t have the patience :D) because the anime really does the original VN no justice. Well, Let’s get started then!

Plot summary, in chronological order. Spoilers ahead:

Togainu no Chi is set in a post-apocalyptic Japan, ruined by war. As the country’s economy continued to flourish, Japan began a radical remitalirization process at the eminence of a World War III. The government, set on educating it’s citizens in the ways of war from early childhood, separated children from their families to guarantee that the nation’s youngsters would receive proper military education. Some of these children were sent to orphanages that worked as a cover up for research facilities, where the kids would play the role of guinea pigs in military experiments that envisioned the creation of the ultimate human weapon. 

“Project Nicole” was the name given to “the ultimate human weapon project” by ENED, the organization behind it. Only a few of ENED’s elite researchers were aware of what they were actually researching (most of them thought they were seeking a cure for childhood diseases). Among the scientists working for ENED, there were Emma, Motomi and Arbitro. Emma was the only one who was in direct contact and fully aware of what “Project Nicole” was at that time. Motomi, unaware of the truth behind Project Nicole, enlisted his son as a research subject (ENED’s scientists could choose between sending their kids away to the military or to enroll them in ENED’s experimental tests) but he would soon find out that ENED’s facilities were no playground, when one night he caught Arbitro abusing one of the children. Disgusted by it, Motomi denounced him to the authorities, which got Arbitro kicked out of ENED and completely disgraced.

After many failed trials, ENED was finally able to develop the Nicole virus, which enhanced it’s carrier physical capability beyond measure. The successful subject was Nano, the “Nicole Premier”. Nano was sent to the battlefield where he gave displays of just how strong the virus running through his blood was, among his war prowesses a humiliating defeat inflicted on Shiki.

Besides having exceedingly good physical skills, the Nicole Premier should be completely devoid of all emotion and sense of self, so that nothing would interfere in it’s battlefield performance. In an unexpected turn of events, Nano fell for Emma, and went berserk when he heard from other researchers that she was only interested in him because of the Nicole virus. That day, Nano escaped ENED’s facilities, leaving a trail of death and destruction behind: among his victim’s, Motomi’s son. 

The war was over before anyone could have ever expected, many of the children who were raised solely for combat never had the chance to actually fight and were left with no family and no purpose: a “lost generation”. The government tried to combine the orphan children with randomly designated families, but this only resulted in many cases of domestic violence and minors running away from home. ENED was tore apart and the kids who were deemed as experimental failures had their memories erased and were sent to foster families like all the rest.

Japan, completely crushed after the third division (the WWIII), was divided in two areas under two different leaderships: the CFC and the Nikkouren. Between those two extremes, in the old capital, a drug cartel named Vischio rose to power and now organizes a “kill or get killed” tournament called Igura. With civil war looming on the horizon, it is in this tense atmosphere that your gameplay will begin.

You begin the game as Akira, the leading man (aka the ass that everybody wants to tap). Akira was a child of the “lost generation”, he ran away from his foster home and now fully grown, earns his living by taking part in Bl@ster tournaments (a legal, regulated street fight). He is aloof and has a blasé attitude towards life (his nickname in Bl@ster is lost, which pretty much summarizes him). Fighting is the only thing that he seems to enjoy and he is very good at it, being a bl@aster regional champion. Akira was one of ENED’s guinea kids considered as a failed experiment, but after further inspection of his file Emma discovers that Akira’s blood has the anti-nicole virus, capable of neutralize the Nicole virus effects.

Emma now works for the CFC, which is interested in retrieving the successful “Nicole Project” subjects and using them for it’s advantage in the eminent civil war. The CFC is aware that the drug called line, being commercialized by Vischio in Igura, is connected to Nano.  They orchestrate a plan to allure Nano and capture him and Akira: Emma falsely accuses Akira of murder and offers him the chance to clean his name by entering Igura, with the pretext that the CFC wishes to bring down Vischio by using him to defeat Il Re. However, Emma has her own agenda: she bears great guilt for what happened and wishes to kill Nano then taker her own life.

The Il Re behind Igura is in fact Shiki. Being the good sport he is, Shiki never got over losing to Nano. He made pursuing and crushing Nano his life goal, but was never able to do so. Nano in return, leaves behind small vials of his blood for Shiki to find whenever the black cloaked man goes after him, and that’s what Line is: Nano’s diluted blood. Why would Nano do that? Seems like after being used his entire life because of the virus in his blood, Nano basically wants people to go fuck themselves: “Want my blood? Here, take it, now go die :D” In a sense, he is acting like the mass destruction weapon he was always meant to be.

The Vischio portion of the story is kinda loose in the VN too, but this is what I got from it: Shiki, frustrated by not being able to defeat Nano, teams up with Arbitro, who as a former ENED researcher was aware of the power in Nano’s blood (and because NO ONE ELSE would ever think of hiring him). The reason behind this unlikely partnership is that Shiki wants Nano’s blood distributed so he can fight those who are highly compatible with the Nicole virus:  a "can’t kill you, so I’ll kill someone who’s similar to you to prove myself capable" line of thought, I guess. Arbitro then comes up with the idea of a life or death game so ferocious that will surely drive people into using Line to enhance their strength. 

Igura’s rules are simple: there are dog tags that work as poker cards, if you get a good hand you can challenge Il Re and if you defeat him you take his place as Vischio’s drug lord. To gather all the needed tags you have to engage in battles with other participants, killing and whatever else you have in mind is allowed, as long as there are witnesses and no use of fire weapons. To ensure the rules are being followed and to clean the streets of the corpses, there are the executioners, Gunji and Kiriwar. Only they just make a bigger mess and couldn’t care less about the rules

Akira sets off to Igura, and upon arriving there he finds out that his childhood friend, Keisuke, followed him. Keisuke comes from the same “orphanage” as Akira and has nurtured a platonic love towards our leading man his entire life. Upon hearing about Akira joining Igura, he follows him, unable to just stand still (DAWN). Akira isn’t aware of Keisuke’s love towards him, because as you’re about to find out as you play the game, he is not the smartest cookie in the jar. No, really, he takes ages to put two and two together, specially when it comes to other peoples feelings, since he is completely oblivious to even his own. Anyway, Akira gets pissed that Keisuke risked his life by following him, but too late, now he is sticking around.

Shortly after Keisuke joins you, Rin makes his appearance. He is drawn towards Akira for unknown reasons, but I’m spoiling the mystery right now :D Cute little Rin used to be the leader of a famous Bl@ster group called Pesca Corsica, among his team members was Kazuo, Rin’s beloved. Some of the members of Pesca Corsica got involved in illegal activities, and a price was put on the gang’s head. Shiki, who worked as a mercenary at that time, was hired to kill Pesca Corsica. He found out  where the group’s hideout was thanks to Rin, his half-brother who idolized him, and unknowingly shared the information. Rin was spared, but revolted by what happened joined Igura to kill Shiki. The reason why Rin feels so attracted to Akira is that his appearance reminds him of Kazuo.

Rin notices that Keisuke doesn’t have a dog tag on him, and therefore is not an Igura participant. He takes you to Arbitro’s castle, where people go to enroll at Igura, but Keisuke passes on it. After that he takes you to one of Igura’s neutral zones, a bar where people can take drugs and chill out lol There you meet Motomi. After his son’s death and his wife’s subsequential suicide, Motomi began to investigate ENED and found out the truth behind Project Nicole. Now he works as an information broker at Igura and like pretty much everyone, is seeking Nano to kill him. He wants to avenge his family’s death and impede the CFC to acquire control over the Nicole virus.

After you leave the neutral zone, Keisuke states that he wants to join Igura to help Akira, who isn’t pleased by his decision. The next day, both of them head to Arbitro’s castle where Keisuke becomes an official participant and you get to see a cat fight between uncle Motomi and Vischio’s ferocious queen diva, MEOW. After leaving the castle, you get assaulted by someone who wants to steal your tags. That someone is Takeru, a young man who comes from a broken home and joined Igura in hopes of providing for his little sister, even though he knows he has little chance of winning. He recognizes Akira from Bl@ster and resents his aloof, snobbish attitude. After easily stealing Keisuke, Takeru tries a raid against Akira, but is defeated and runs. Keisuke realizes that just by joining Igura, he won’t be able to help Akira to succeed.

The plot turning point is when Akira kills a line addict during a battle for tags. His opponent ingests his blood and dies as a result of the clash between Nano’s Nicole virus and Akira’s anti-nicole. It’s the first time Akira actually killed someone and when he arrives at the neutral zone, Keisuke congratulates him on his victory. Akira wanted to hear from his friend what a terrible thing he had done, he could see that Keisuke was as horrified by what happened as he was, but instead of voicing his thoughts Keisuke praised him. Frustrated, Akira lashes out on Keisuke who runs away. Thinking of what a burden he was, Keisuke resorts to Line in hopes of being noticed and helpful to Akira. Things go completely out of hand when Keisuke ingests the drug, because despite being discarded as a failed experiment by ENED, Keisuke was highly compatible with the Nicole virus: the shy and submissive Keisuke goes completely berserk and is filled with bloodlust.

This is basically the end of the main route of the game and what happens next depends on the decisions you make and which character route you are playing. Since I already spoiled all the game’s secrets by now and already reviewed all the main routes in other posts, I won’t be getting into anymore details about the latter portion of the game here. Hope this helped clearing some doubts that those who only watched the anime had =)

My take on the gaming experience and on the game itself:

First of all, thanks to the team that translated Togainu no Chi, otherwise I would have never played it LOL The translation’s quality is great and translating anything from Japanese is always a challenge because of the subtleties of the language, so thank you  =) And you did it all for free, you’re amazing!

I liked Togainu no Chi. I had never played a Visual Novel before so I didn’t know what to expect from it, but it was a really interesting experience. I love reading and to me it was like reading a book with the plus of being able to interact with it and change the course of events. That being said, I thought you would get more chances to interact LOL The game could provide more opportunities for you to interfere with the plot. The plot can get pretty confusing at times too, just like in the anime and some of the characters (like Nano) make NO SENSE. Also, it gets tiring to see some scenes over and over, because there are some events that regardless of the path you take repeat themselves.

I believe that one of TnC’s strong points is the atmosphere of the game. Togainu no Chi tells the story of an arid country filled with arid people: the game was able to really convey this feeling of emotional and material scarcity through the story, the art and the OST. The entire VN gives off a dark, overbearing, gloomy vibe and both the BG music and the themes songs really suit the ambiance. I particularly liked “Still”, even though Itou Kanako’s voice annoys me :P

Even though the VN is set in a post-apocalyptic Japan, it discusses globally relatable problems, such as financial issues, family struggles, fear of rejection, drug abuse, etc., making it easy to engage in the plot. Throughout the entire game you get to experience the character’s struggles through their point of view, which makes it easier for you to care about them too.

I’m talking about the 50 shades in the title now. No, I’m not trying to compare Togainu no Chi to 50 shades of grey: I never read the book, so even if I wanted to, that would be impossible. The reason why I borrowed the book’s title is to allure the game’s S&M sexual content.

When I told a friend of mine who had already played TnC that I was going to give it a try, she told me “50 shades of grey has nothing against it”, another friend of mine said that it was “a game for sick people”. SHe was the one that introduced me to the game, so I asked her if she was sick, and she corrected herself by saying that “The VN is sick, not the player” 

I don’t believe that reading 50 shades of grey, playing VN’s and etc makes you "sick” or mean you are sick. There is a difference between fantasizing of rough sex and actually wanting to be whipped. While on the subject of violent sexual fantasies and japanese pop culture, just open a best seller manga and check it yourself: from shoujo manga like fushigi yugi to yaoi such as Junjo Romantika, you will find something of the sort. Doesn’t mean all the people who bought those mangas want to really be abused or abuse someone. HOWEVER, these works of fiction must be approached as such: works of fiction. We must take in these stories with critical judgment so we won’t romanticize things that are NOT meant to be romanticized, such as rape or drug abuse. 

At last, it’s easy to understand why Togainu no Chi became so popular: it is filled with pretty boys, sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. The novel isn’t perfect thought: there are still some aspects of the plot that are very loose and some endings that do not add up, coming across as a stretch (My favorite route of all was Keisuke’s, even though his happy ending felt really off lol)

If you got curious about the game after reading the manga or watching the anime, wants to play a VN with an engaging story, isn’t looking for a sappy romance (nothing against sappy, I love sappy, but you won’t find it here lol) and are into the dystopia genre, I recommend TnC :)