>>1806024
Happy 2nd, Hoshinon, though I haven't participated in this for very long. Hope the post isn't eaten.
65 -> 69. Please say nice or else.
Skip to the end for TL;DR and enjoy the music.
Suzumi. The forgotten. One of the first girls added to a Sensei's roster, only kept in “relevance” by a ritualposter on 4/bag/ alongside being one of two launch characters without an alt. Despite being one of the first, she is neglected by most due to her low quality spritework and irrelevance in the main story, even losing her part as the Arius traitor to Azusa and only receiving small cameos after. She shows up as a big part of the prologue and a cameo in the Wakamo Valentines event, and then disappears because the devs don’t know what to do with her. And yet she’s my favorite. There’s something that draws me to her.
Let’s start with her appearance. For most, her spritework is shoddy, rough, a hesitant step forward by an artist who had no experience in gacha art (though he’s far improved nowadays and I would like him to draw an alt even if that’s a low probability), yet to me it’s
SOVLFUL something that holds a nostalgic appeal to me, one associated with late nights while I curse out my chugging Windows XP box as I am forced to change locales. This is my biggest impression of Suzumi, as a visual novel heroine, and it’s a perspective that colors part of my admiration of her.
Beyond the sprite quality, her art and pose designates action, speed, and flow. The long flowing locks of wild hair behind her, the shock of red on her bowtie and ID card and her eyes, the fluttery skirt and short jacket with an ambiguous grey that represents the in-between
which also describes her being in narrative limbo too lmao. It’s not the pitch black and red of the JTF nor the stark white and blue of a regular Trinity student, and represents her status as a vigilante, not officially working for the law yet not possessing the (relative) innocence of a civilian. She doesn’t act in the interest of the political factions in Trinity, and prefers to just keep the peace. Her action-ready nature is shown further in what seems to be a Kevlar waistcoat that hugs her tightly and one hand gripping her drawn rifle. The badge of the Vigilante Crew is prominently displayed on her upper arm, the only thing besides her tie that possesses a hint of gold. That does bring to question, if the Vigilante Crew isn’t official, who made the badge design? Reisa also possesses one of the same design but with a different color. Getting back to the girl of the hour, Suzumi is not heavily armored, but she has an air of being “casually tactical”. Yet despite that she has the marks of femininity and girliness in the design. The skirt with frills, the thigh highs, and normal loafers instead of boots, and the long flowing hair and cute mole. Her single most distinctive physical feature, the wing, also mildly suggests a sidetail and looks cute and fluffy. Does she use it to block the flash part of the flashbang? Her halo is purple but radiates white from the inside and it seems to be a remnant of her Arius story. Suzumi's halo has four points like a compass, contrasting with Saori’s halo, as well as the other Arius students, but they also have a star motif that Suzumi lacks. Yet it could still represent her aim, or aimlessness, perhaps a search for a direction.
Notably, she does not have a blush sprite. I think there’s a joke about Suzumi being stone-faced both in the sprite and one of her gameplay features, that being her environment preference all featuring a :| (unless UE’d). She blushes plenty in her L2D though. The L2D is one of my favorites and why I fell in love in the first place. It feels like a payoff. More on that later.
I’d also like to know where she keeps all her flashbangs.
ALSO SHE HAS FAT FUCKING THIGHS IN HER L2D UOOOGHHHH but I wish her sprite showed that. There’s less of a chance since her artist has drawn her again multiple times but without the FAT FUCKING THIGHS.
Next, her personality. If I had to describe her in one word, it would be “duty”. All her main appearances show her doing her job properly, and doing it as well as she can. She admits that she actually dislikes vigilante work, but she does it anyway out of a sense of duty, to fill the gaps the JTF can’t cover. However, she has no doubts about what she does. She also has a bit of self-sacrificial nature to her, considering she spends her free time doing this, and in Reisa’s bond story there’s an offhand mention of her offering to cover Reisa’s shift. This is to her detriment, as she can’t seem to help herself when she sees trouble, but it's a quality both I and Sensei (literally me) admires her for. Sensei slowly breaks down her walls even through her overzealousness (played to humorous effect during her second momotalk) and her indignation due to Sensei giving her an escort mission. We see the results of this in the third momotalk where even a walk with sensei turns into a day of vigilante action, with her none the worse for wear at the end of it, even if tired and disappointed that she couldn't spend the day relaxing with Sensei. In an official comic a similar scenario repeats but Sensei drags her away from potential conflict and she enjoys her day off with him, which is CUTE.
This quality of being dutiful also extends to her desire to see Sensi. She acknowledges that he’s busy and won’t keep him but later does confirm she wants him to accompany her for a walk or a patrol occasionally.
She’s also a straightforward girl, preferring to tell the truth to stop trouble not that it helps that much. This is evidenced by her role in the ASS Club event where she proposes to Sensei that they can just call Reisa and stop her by telling the truth of Kazusa. Or her trying to talk down the gang that attacks her in the Hinata/Ui event but failing since she has no tact. She generally has no cards to hold to her chest, and doesn’t seem to have any secrets.
I like that her rifle, the Virtus MCX reflects her personality. It’s reliable, straightforward, accurate, flexible, and durable, and is generally well-liked by those who use the gun. She seems somewhat bad at communication like a lesser Sakurako but generally tries to reason before shooting. She's not entirely friendless or isolated, since both Hanae and Serina seem to know her and the JTF and Reisa definitely know her. Lorewise, she’s supposedly skilled in CQC as demonstrated in the Clumsy Sister and Magician event, taking out multiple delinquents with the butt of her rifle and presumably her flashbangs without firing a shot, so she’s certainly speedy. In fact, I believe in the Halo Festival there’s a (possibly non-canon at this point) mention that Suzumi won a footrace. This is reflected in her Enhanced Skill, which buffs evasion.
Another interesting aspect of her is that she’s a Trinity student, yet does her vigilante duties with cheap equipment. Her patrol headphones are described as “relatively common”, and her grenade in the JP localization, if I got it right, is a “custom made flashbang”, which implies she either orders it custom made or makes it herself, the latter being more likely. This is reflected in the low quality of the nade, it doesn’t even stun until you level her EX skill to 3! So she doesn’t seem the most well-off, yet she finds it in herself to pursue a theoretically expensive career out of a sense of duty. Is she spending her own money to fund her vigilante work? And yet she considers her headphones and rifle precious companions since they’ve been with her for who knows how long during her vigilante work.
But under all of those qualities, she’s still a girl and a cute one at that.
So far, I’ve only been listing her qualities, but what about personal appeal?
Flashbangs are cool, the Virtus is cool, Suzumi is cool.
To go back to an earlier point, I view Suzumi as having the trappings of a visual novel heroine. Given how narratively disconnected she feels from the rest of the world, she and her daily life seem to be another story that’s never touched upon. She could easily star in her own visual novel. A taciturn and stone-faced girl who warms up to a Sensei who slowly lowers her barriers, complete with whatever emotional twist you could think of. In fact, she reminds me of a girl called Yumemi Hoshino from Planetarian. Like her, Suzumi feels like she’s narratively isolated from everything happening outside even with her important cameos in Vol 3 and Vol F. They both stick to one duty, and it all seems quite noble to me. Yet, she also feels like a blank slate. Most characters in BA have a solid characterization, but Suzumi’s irrelevance lends her mystique and allows for a half-filled canvas that was never fully painted.
To put it simply, she’s a mystery, perhaps even an ideal. Perhaps she’s Galatea and I am Pygmalion. Her spritework is rough enough that one can project an ideal appearance. Does she have sharp or round eyes? Is she the fastest in Trinity? Does she really have FAT FUCKING THIGHS? Though in the end I know that there’s nothing truly behind the curtain because the devs just don't know what to do with her except as a filler role, a fate that befalls others like Shimiko and Kirara and perhaps even Pina.
I don't know anything about Vol 6 but her appearing at all and Sensei saying her presence at Trinity calms him has potential.
What would a date with her be like? The comic lends a clue. Would I have to keep her out of trouble to get a peaceful day? What would the confession be like? The days after would certainly be peaceful with a reliable girl by my side, one that I want to cherish and support.
She reminds me of the ideal of a hero but I don't want to force the archetype on her. She’s certainly not perfect but she tries her damnedest even if she doesn’t enjoy vigilante work, and that’s admirable to me. She’s also a cute girl and I love her adorable L2D that makes me Gosling. The purples, the blush, the romantic atmosphere, the tease of a future confession as she ends the L2D. It's a payoff straight from a VN and reminds me of my favorite ending from Yume Miru Kusuri, one that ends the VN on a high note at the top of a ferris wheel. One day the questions surrounding Suzumi might be dispelled and the mystique banished, revealing her to be traitor, normal girl, or anything else. One day her character might be more developed. One day she might get a sprite update that ups the quality. Maybe someday...
Yes, one day...
Even if that day arrives, she will remain my favorite.
Thank you for reading this verbal diarrhea.
tl;dr To echo the ritualposter on 4/bag/,
SUZUMI ALT WHEN
Here's a song for every Sensei that's checking: youtu.be/El9GSoOvcD4