Review of FLOWERS -Le volume sur automne-
| Subject | FLOWERS -Le volume sur automne- Flowers -Le Volume sur Automne- Download Edition |
| By | Helpfulness: 6 Vote: 9alonesome on 2020-10-13 |
| Review | This was a title that I read episodically as it was released, and as such, it had been years since I read Ete when I picked up Automne. However, it only took a few scant minutes of reading to be immediately reminded of absolutely everything that made me fall in love with this series. Long story short, it's good. It's really, really, possibly-the-best-longform-yuri-work-in-the-subgenre good. My god, it's so freaking good aaaaaaAAAAAAA~~ However, this is a work where the appeal is somewhat subtle and not at all self-evident. With its modest, unassuming premise and mundane, grounded setting, it is completely lacking in any of the conventional allure this medium has to offer - there are no grandiose storylines or emotional thrill rides or earthshattering plot twists to be found here. Rather, this is a work that humbly rests the entirety of its appeal in its compellingly nuanced characterization, in its phenomenal attention to life, in its utter lack of reliance on comedy or melodrama, in its understated yet beautiful literary prowess. If you Indeed, based on just how great Automne was, I even constantly found myself questioning my much more lukewarm previous assessment of Printemps. The wispy wallflower Shirahane whose believable but thoroughly uncharismatic interiority we inhabited in Printemps manages to shine so radiantly in this volume as a supporting character - enough to make me want to revisit the first volume again and see if there was much more to her character that I perhaps overlooked. Either way, I think how great of a character she has managed to become is a real testament to the phenomenal character development in this series, being so naturalistic and believable that it even has me second-guessing the issues I identified in previous entries. All of my issues with Shirahane as a protagonist and point-of-view narrator are entirely absent with Ete and Automne however. Yaegaki and especially Yatsushiro absolutely steal the show with every scene they appear in, and being able to inhabit the latter's interiority throughout Automne was an absolute treat. I can't even think of anything on the "great protagonist" checklist that doesn't apply to her; on a surface level, she's just so ridiculously charismatic and witty, with an extremely strong and unique inner voice that comes across wonderfully through the first-person narration - how amazing is it to be able to actually read a story from the perspective of the so cool senpai that all your underclassmen kyaa~ and swoon over!? From a more substantive perspective, she's simply just a great character, with loads of phenomenal characterization and some truly great development. I especially love how she's so contradictory; being equal parts self-effacing yet braggadocious, equal parts calculating yet impulsive, equal parts bold and decisive yet sentimental and cowardly, all in the same complex, nuanced, but internally consistent way that a real person is. Coupled with her extremely introspective, sharply self-aware edge, it makes her conflicted thoughts and actions an absolute delight to consider and unpack. On top of that, her queer identity is navigated in such a thoughtful and sensitive manner and adds an entirely additional dimension to her character. There is such a compelling foregrounding of her gender performativity that feels so authentic and informed by lived experience (pay especially close attention to her use of pronouns and when they change!) Coupled with her seemingly trivial yet eminently believable anxieties about expressing her femininity in "conventional" ways, about the tension between her sexual identity and religiosity, you end up with not just one of the best protagonists, but also one of the best representations of queerness I've seen in this medium. She's so cool~ She's so dreamy~ But she's also so vulnerably human and sympathetic and profoundly relatable. I was an absolute fool to think that Ete might've been the pinnacle of this series, carried how great of a character Yaegaki is, since she certainly has very worthy company indeed. On top of its superb characterization, Flowers also shines brightly in many other literary aspects. I know full well just how much of a cop-out it is to merely say that "the prose is great", but it really, truly is. Besides the carefully considered narration that oozes with the protagonist's interiority, Automne also just skillfully makes full use of more "ambitious" literary devices several levels beyond your typical VN fare; the framing device of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the numerous allegories it draws with its own characters, the carefully placed use of flashbacks and deliberate withholding of information for climactic impact, the numerous literary motifs that the writing never forgets about and dutifully capitalizes on such as "the Tinman's missing heart", "the desire for stagnation", "Good Samaritans", and the iconic "praying to god" pattern of the last line of each game, the writing is simply, truly very accomplished and helps to elevate the work as a whole. In terms of translation, I had some profoundly effusive praise for the translation of Ete, but my feelings on this entry are slightly more mixed. The highs in both games are every bit as brilliant, with phenomenally naturalistic narration and some poignantly beautiful individual lines, but the lows in Automne are a bit more damning, with noticeably more lines I felt were questionable, and a non-negligible number of glaring inaccuracies. As a whole though, the TL is still extremely above-average in quality, but certainly not beyond reproach and considerably more uneven than the masterwork of Ete's translation. Two other rather esoteric points about the storytelling I especially loved and appreciated, and I think are especially emblematic of the type of work this is. Firstly is the extremely unique and compelling way in which Flowers engages with familial background. Each of the series' protagonists has had a fraught familial history prior to the events of the story, and it is made extremely clear that their lived experiences with their family has considerably shaped their worldviews. However, the way in which Flowers develops this background is one I found so unique and true to life. Rather than a big exposition dump during a crucial moment where we learn all of the excruciating details of the protagonist's entire tragic backstory, Flowers slowly trickles out its exposition as the errant, introspective thoughts we're all familiar with having. The fleeting reflection of "hmmm, that's just what my father would have done" during a moment of indiscretion, or casually thinking "ahhh, that reminds me of my mother" upon observing an idiosyncratic mannerism, it's perhaps the thing that I found most compelling and true-to-life in this entire series based upon its grounded realism. There was this one line that went along the lines of something like "ahhh, so I really did love her, [my mother] all along, after all this time..." that just gave me chills with how well-placed and believable it was. Secondly, more than almost any other work of fiction, I found myself so captivated and in accord with Flower's understanding of human nature, its unique sekaikan. Its views are certainly not as sterile and noncommittal as most low-stakes stories tend to be, where nobody ever acts unselfishly in any way - its characters very often lash out in spite of themselves, and profoundly hurt each other, and unflinchingly act in selfish and cowardly and duplicitous ways. But, at the same time, Flowers is emphatically not cynical with its view on human nature. It is still eminently empathetic and idealistic, yet in a very considered, mature, world-aware sort of way. It recognizes that people may well be base and self-interested and be moved to hurt each other, but that their humanity is still fundamentally good, and it truly, genuinely has faith that such radiance will still ultimately shine through in the end. It's a view of human nature that I find very compelling and resonant, and one I don't see reflected often enough in fiction. I suppose I should spend a few words talking about the actual story... though I hope it's very clear by now that the "plot" is probably one of the least important elements of what makes this game great. The storytelling in Automne mirrors that of the earlier volumes, being just as intimate and introspective as its predecessors, but also in my opinion notably elevated in this entry. Rather than the pattern of transformative first encounters and coming of age that the first two entries foreground, I'm a much bigger fan of the fraught pre-existing relationships and tense emotional navigation that forms the core of the narrative and conflict in Automne. The story it tells is absolutely just as self-contained and independently satisfying as Ete, with my one slight concern being that it seems to perhaps be a bit derelict as the penultimate volume in setting up the grander narrative. It'll have to be seen with Hiver whether the story can really manages to cohere itself, answer the many remaining outlying questions, and unite this series into something that's truly greater than the sum of its parts. As an independent entry however, I have absolutely no complaints and Automne passes with absolutely flying, Rainbow Magic colours. Originally posted on Reddit WAYR. |
| 6 points |