I Am Now Playing P3 Portable

Kazui's untold shame in Cat

AKA "the time I wanted to analyse the cop car scene and ended up analysing the entire song"

'Shame' is something Kazui knows all too well. It follows his every move, dictates his every thought, possesses him stronger than any other emotion, and Cat does a perfect job of conveying this, having Kazui call his deceit "tacky" and calling his attempts to be open "greedy", but I think Cat shows his shame best in what he doesn't explicity say, rather than what he does.

Take one of the first scenes in the song, for example. Specifically the scene of him sitting in the police car with Hinako. Here, he looks over to Hinako while singing "I just wanted to touch, to caress. I just wanted to be touched". I am personally of the belief that Kazui is a gay man who tried to force himself to like women by lying his way through his relationship with Hinako in order to fit into the expectations of his family and peers. But here Kazui is, seemingly expressing genuine sexual desire towards Hinako, which would go against my theory, right? Honestly, I'm not convinced by what he says here.

The prisoners videos are their true feelings, they can't intentionally lie in them, but they can however remember a time they lied, or if they try to lie to themselves in their thoughts, their song will reflect that. Kazui's lies are, as he himself describes, "two-way", he lies to others and he lies to himself— because he, more than anyone, wants his lies to be the truth. Looking at his second voice drama, Es tells him that they believe he cheated on Hinako, and that they find him acting on his sexual urges like that "stupid" and "disgusting", but regardless, they still opted to forgive him. What Es says here isn't exclusive to Es, and is often how men who do similar things are perceived by society. A man may act openly sexual, and he may be seen as perverted or disgusting for it, but ultimately there's usually little consequence for this behaviour— it's brushed off as "men being men" and often encouraged further by the other men in their lives, even if other people will look down on them for it. In other words, Kazui is attempting to frame to himself that what he's doing (going after a woman he isn't romantically interested in) is done out of sexual desire, both in the past and currently, because doing so is more 'acceptable' than his true, genuine, shameful desires. As he says in the next scene, "So it's wrong? Oh, shove that! Innocent, isn't that right?", he knows that both us and society at large will forgive him for what he's done if it's from a place of uncontrolled heterosexual desires, rather than what's really going on.

His shame becomes more clear once you see the intention behind what he's saying, rather than what he's actually saying. However, I think what he doesn't say here is even more revealing. "I just wanted to touch, to caress. I just wanted to be touched"— following what he's saying here, the next line the audience is expecting is "I wanted to be caressed" and yet instead, he quickly moves on and changes the scene entirely. We're left hanging as he gives us no time to process the way he completely skipped over the next natural line, and I'd imagine that's also how it felt to Kazui. "I just wanted to be touched" is coming way too close to the truth for him, and his shame and fear physically stops him from completing his sentence, instead forcing him to race to the next scene before he admits too much— before he admits something he himself desperately wants to deny. This is the first clear sign in the song of Kazui's true desires starting to peak out before immediately being shoved down.

Moving on to the scene that follows, we have Kazui continuing to verbally lie to himself with "So it’s wrong? Oh shove that! Innocent, isn’t that right? Maybe, perhaps… or… could it come true… like, it’s for the sake of true love, who wouldn’t lie for that?" As said previously, Kazui is desperate to convince himself both that what he's doing isn't wrong so he doesn't have to deal with the shame of being a manipulative person, and that he can eventually fall in line with the way the world tells him he has to be. He's not doing anything wrong and he will surely fall in love with her with time— so there's no need for him to think too hard about the reality of the situation.

The framing of this scene backs this idea up even more. We see Kazui and Hinako walking side by side before he turns towards her, but the way this is shown is by focusing on their feet. Looking down at the ground, especially while with someone, can have many meanings. When done intentionally, it can be a way of showing respect to another, but when done subconsciously it's more often than not a sign that someone is anxious or ashamed, especially in fiction. I'd imagine that Kazui's physical self isn't actively looking at his feet in this scene, as he's learned how to make his body language line up with his persona more than his reality, but internally he's only capable of avoiding really looking at himself and only looking downwards. He doesn't want to internally admit to himself the truth that he's hiding, even though he's very aware of it, and he can't bring himself to really face himself or the reality of his actions— once again, shame is physically blocking him from doing so. This is shown further in the next scene, with him giving Hinako flowers, and then a ring. Notably, this scene focuses on his hands and Hinako, however Kazui as a whole is out of view. He focuses on his actions, his pretty lies, and the positive reactions of the people near him caused by those actions, but Kazui himself is shut out of this, both his true desires and overwhelming shame are kept out of the picture.

Skipping over to the scene after the chorus, we have Kazui confessing his love to someone most likely his childhood friend/the bartender from Half. Kazui starts this scene by announcing "Phew, oh wow I’m drunk" however looking at the glass itself, it's easy to see that Kazui is lying here. The drink has been drank out of, though not by much, and knowing that Kazui is someone who drinks somewhat regularly, it's extremely hard to believe he's that much of a lightweight. Rather, it's much more likely that he's giving himself a convienient excuse for what he says next: "Hey, so what if I said I liked-liked you, what would you do?" Kazui is extremely dependent on the opinions of others, especially those important to him, as well as the feeling of being safe, so by laying out this lie before his confession, he can hopefully lessen the consequences for trying to tell someone his truth. If we focus less on what he says here and more on how he says it, we can hear how extreme his anxiety in this scene is. His voice starts out strong, however quickly begins shaking, and by the end of the sentence his voice is almost inaudible, as if he can barely get the words out. Even with an excuse laid out in advance, Kazui can hardly bring himself to say a single sentence— he is absolutely terrified.

This scene also uses the same tactics the car scene and the proposal scene use, having Kazui sing before cutting himself off and having him move to the next part of the song, and never fully framing Kazui. "I just wanted to ask, so it's out in the open. I just got a little greedy". Unlike the car scene, there's no noticible pattern to what he's saying so we can predict what he wants to actually say, however we can still hear the music itself flow as if there should be more to what Kazui says, only for us to be left with nothing. He isn't lying to himself to justify his actions, and panicking when he gets a little too honest for his liking, but rather he's being intentionally vague about his feelings and what is happening. We don't know much about this night, we're given him confessing and that's about all, but we can infer by Kazui immediately insulting himself, immediately going back to hiding and lying in the next scene, and by him telling Es in his voice drama that he's tried opening up to others in the past only to be unable to truly be himself around them, that whatever happened after he confessed wasn't good. We also later see the same glass he's drinking be knocked off the table. It doesn't appear to be knocked off with much force, it wasn't violently pushed or thrown, however the glass itself doesn't seem too close to the edge for it to be accidentally pushed off either. Whatever truly happened is anyone's guess, but one thing is clear— the memory of this night is one that causes Kazui much shame and pain. This is further supported by the framing of the scene, again having Kazui focus on his actions rather than him as a whole, and when he isn't acting, the camera is far away from him, hiding his expression and distancing himself from the memory and the viewers. He doesn't want to focus on that night, he doesn't want to look at that version of himself and he doesn't want to feel the extreme shame that radiates from it all.

Finally, we approach the end of the song. After 39 long years of Kazui shoving down his every emotion, lying to himself and others until he can't take it anymore, he tells Hinako the truth. The first thing to leave his mouth? "To be carassed by you, that would be perfection". At long last, he finishes his sentence from the beginning. The audience by now has long since moved on from the car scene, having been overwhelmed with the rest of the song and expecting his first explanation for his actions to forever go unfinished, but for Kazui? This entire time, it hasn't left his mind. He hasn't been able to move on or forget about it as we would have, it's been constantly hidden and shoved down in his mind, yet never truly being able to be snuffed out for good. And what is this terrible, shameful, disgusting desire he's been rejected for and drowned in self-loathing his entire life for? The desire to be carassed. Sexually, we can interpret this as a want to be a submissive partner, as this desire is originally paired with his lie of wanting to dominate Hinako sexually. Emotionally, however, it's a desire to be treated gently. To have his entire self be seen and not be punished for it, but loved for it. To be seen as and treated as fragile, and have this fragility be a positive, not a negative. For his entire life, he has despised himself so strongly for the shameful wish to be weak and loved. Unfortunately for both Hinako and Kazui, once he can finally get this sentence out, he's unable to stop it all from pouring out, his truths completely overwhelming the both of them.

The audience has seen this same scene before in Half, although it has a completely different feel to it, and comparing the two really highlights the shame Kazui currently feels about this day. Originally, we're shown a very calm discussion, with Hinako and Kazui seemingly reaching an understanding about everything, with only a slight hint at any real conflict happening afterwards, showing a single image of Hinako acting in a very animated way as if arguing. In Cat, however, we're shown Kazui acting in a frightening and almost erratic way to begin with, ending with him looking at her with monsterous eyes and varociously tearing apart a dove with his teeth. In Kazui's first voice drama, he mostly maintains his calm, stable persona, and Half reflects this by being a very slow, sombre song and video, as the songs themselves are taken fron the thoughts the character has at the end of the interrogation. His second voice drama shows Kazui pouring his heart out, unable to stop forcing out his self-hate once he starts, and this scene in Cat is clearly reflects that. Obviously Kazui didn't actually animalistically eat a live bird, as hot as that would be, but Kazui's spat out guilt and shame from his voice drama has completely dyed this memory. No longer can he see it as a day where he sadly confessed his secrets to Hinako, it's now become the day he disgustingly destroyed everything dear to her with almost malicious intent. His true self has always been one that's caused him so much pain and shame, and now that he's let it come to the surface, he's unable to do anything other than villainize himself further.

Looking at where Kazui is now at the start of trial 3, it's likely his next video will show this even further, his self-loathing reaching a peak like never before, unable to be hidden away. It's hard to imagine what it could be like when comparing it to the extreme shame we already see here, but it's clear that this guilt and disgust he feels towards himself is so deeply ingrained in him that he's extremely unlikely to reach a point in which he can be freed of it as of now. If Cat is a video of Kazui desperately trying to hide these feelings until it all explodes at the end, I can't help but be excited yet somewhat scared of what's in-store for us with a Kazui who's given up on trying to cover it all up. Regardless of what comes next, I can't wait for it all to be revealed, our life-long liar finally completely removing his mask.

Unfortunately you will talk like a tumblr user for your entire life. Sorry.

reposts a relatable dahut

i get that for most people tragedy is just always gonna feel Bad to read and that informs a lot of bury your gays discourse but we must not forget that a lot of people sincerely enjoy writing and reading tragedy and queer audiences still deserve to have good tragedies written by and for them imo

i was rewatching tmgs animatics and then i fucking found one that led me on an adventure like

wow this animatic is so good!

hey, i found their pixiv and they posted the art to the animatic and other fanart, god, they're so good, they could be a pro manga artist--

oh wait oh my god their page has advertisements they DID manage to do it, i wonder what this series is--!

super kinky omegaverse yaoi

LMAOOOOO~ good for them lol

and then, because i'm way too curious now, who's the artist/what animatic?

...

((...and is the yaoi good? 👀 lmao))

ERROR!UNKNOWN has sent you a Kickstarter link...

Open it?

Hi, my dearest rotterlings! ❤️ I'm excited to announce that our Kickstarter Prelaunch Page for Killer Chat! Expanded Edition is up :D Follow it to get notified when we launch! Our Kickstarter's official launch date is:

4th of June, 2025!

And we've got a bunch of rewards prepared for you! From a game key to making your own random server event and dressing up the serial losers, I can't wait to share it with you all :)

Help us spread the rot!

As exciting as it is, getting funded is far from a guarantee, so I'll need your help to make the Kickstarter succeed Reposting it and talking about our Kickstarter helps a lot ^^ I've made a special role, @kickstarter squad! that you can grab in my Discord's ⁠Channels & Roles to get notified when we push out our promo :D

If you're a game dev or a journalist and would like to help out, cross-promote, etc, I'd love to hear it!! Feel free to DM me :)

And finally, as promised...

Uh oh, new demo?! That's right! I'll be giving out a beta build of our new demo to my apotheotic rotterlings soon on Kofi and Patreon c: (And by that I mean... in a couple of hours.) The apotheotics will get to playtest the new features and the expanded Day 1 of the server! Please note that we're still working on killing some pesky bugs, so any bug reports would be greatly appreciated ❤️

Thank you again and I can't wait to get this show on the road!

FEB 8TH!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLAN 🥳🎉🎉

Ace Attorney Deaths: They say the defendant bludgeoned the victim with a convenient flat object. The circumstances themselves aren't impossible. But the information about the motive is coming from a parrot on the witness stand. Danganronpa Deaths: I thought we were all friends here but it seems SOMEONE couldn't resist killing someone and then dramatically revealing the body in some crazy, dramatic fashion. No thanks to whoever probably tampered with the crime scene to make it more interesting. Zero Escape Deaths: It's all normal murder. The weird part is that the victim came back to life as a clone, or everyone's killing each other, or there's cross-timeline transportation and the destruction of humanity involved. AI The Somnium Files Deaths: Who is the killer, and why would they keep doing THAT to the corpses? And can people stop dying for five minutes, we're only one route in and I don't know what's going on! Buried Stars Deaths: The murders are all kinda normal but we're a small cast and we're not solving this ourselves. Time to call in the big guns... the toxic Twitter feed. Process of Elimination/Tantei Bokumetsu Deaths: You take your eyes off this group for five minutes and they've somehow Rube Goldberged each other into the cruelest and most unusual way a person can possibly die, all without anyone noticing. Gnosia Deaths: The two options are "vanished into thin air" and "chucked in the freezer", and the second one's democratically sanctioned. But there's a secret third option, which is "thrown out the airlock for misgendering someone", and a secret fourth which is "slime". Your Turn to Die Deaths: It's not the murders that are cruel, it's the player's participation in the murders. Ghost Trick Phantom Detective Deaths: The first step of trying to keep someone from dying is watching them die and going, "THAT'S how you died?!" before rolling up your sleeves and fixing the situation. Paranormasight Deaths: In any other game, deducing how someone drowned in the middle of a field while bone dry would be the subject of a huge Ace Attorney style courtroom segment. In this game it's just "probably this one specific curse stone", and the hard part is finding out what criteria they fulfilled on a technicality to activate it.

God I can’t get over how Scarecrow was legitimately thinking about throwing a frozen turkey in the fucking dryer to thaw it out.

I also can’t get over how Shu was the ONLY reason Crow didn’t do it. MC didn’t even try that hard to stop his ass. That whole scene was so fucking stupid, I am literally in love this dumbass found family SO BAD-

normally it's frustrating when mystery games hand you answers on a silver plate but in ace attorney, the witnesses' tendencies to conveniently say far more than what they were asked for is so hilarious that it becomes its own reward. ace attorney witnesses will be asked what time they saw the murder and they'll say it was 10:40 and they know it was exactly that time because that's the exact minute they open the can of Fancy Feast to feed their elderly russian blue cat, father of 12 kittens and phoenix will be like umm actually i spoke to your cat and here's a written affidavit from him that there was a recall on Fancy Feast and also he's never been to russia nor known the touch of a woman. you're going to jail buddy