VN Talk: Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly - Part 5: Karasuba

Most otome games end up having a love interest I don't particularly care for, and Karasuba is Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly's. Though Hikage can be a sexist jerk, he's the kind of jerk I can deal with. Karasuba's actually twisted and I can't see myself ever replaying his route as I was pretty grossed out while reading it. If non-consent is your fantasy, you may not mind, but the fact that Beniyuri said "no" (while she's obviously in emotional distress) and he went ahead anyway is not something I'm down with.

Probably the only saving grace with Karasuba is that he's complicated. I don't think it makes up for him having a rotten personality, but we can understand how that rotten personality emerged.

Karasuba is a year younger than Beniyuri and was bullied as a kid since his family name is "Himeno" and "hime" is the word for "princess." Being a small, non-athletic kid, he was called "princess" as a put-down. (Even Yamato, in one of his less sympathetic moments, did it.) Beniyuri stood up for Karasuba and brought him into her group of friends, which earned her place as his childhood crush.

When the summer camp accident happened, Karasuba was safe, but freaked out over how helpless he was and how he couldn't do anything to save his friends, so when he grew up, he decided to change himself.

Teenage Karasuba projects an air of cocky confidence. However, he's also incredibly distrusting of people, believing that it makes things easier should they ever betray him. Both in the real world and in the manor world, he is incredibly unsubtle in the way he hits on Beniyuri. It's impossible for her not to realize he's flirting with her, and in the manor world it even crosses over into sexual harassment. (Thankfully the worst incidents are either in optional episodes or his manor ending so they're skippable.)

However, despite his lack of propriety, Karasuba does have one good thing going for him, and it's that he's really good at reading people. He's not always nice in the way he uses it, but when they find the summer camp photo that restores the memories for everyone except Beniyuri, Karasuba is the one who takes a moment to comfort Kagiha, recognizing that there's no easy way to bring up to Beniyuri that Kagiha died back then.

Because of this, Karasuba is also the one to reveal that Hikage is the master, because he knew that there was someone Monshiro liked as a kid, even though Hikage professed to have never liked anyone.

However, his insight into people is used less sympathetically in the real world. Karasuba is right when he confronts Beniyuri about the fact she still hasn't gotten over Kagiha. And he's completely correct in that she's so trapped in the past that she only sees him as the little kid he used to be rather than the person he is now. When he rips her for not knowing anything about his years in middle school because she never thought to ask, it's completely understandable. He doesn't like who he was, and he's gone to great lengths to change himself, but she refuses to acknowledge any of it.

What causes him to lose this sympathy is that he also refuses to let her move on at her own pace. Rather than cutting his losses and moving on himself, Karasuba is hellbent on dragging her (and to a lesser degree Yamato) into getting over the past.

From a plot perspective, Karasuba is a necessary instigator. He gets the ball rolling as he's the one who drags Beniyuri and Yamato out to the lake in their ill-fated attempt to say farewell to Kagiha (only for the bus to get in an accident and the three of them to end up in comas as well). And he's also the one who figures out that Monshiro is the real Kazuya. Major plot beats happen because of his involvement, and yet he's the character who's least interested in going back at all.

At one point in the story, depending on how much Beniyuri wants to remember the past, she has the opportunity to sit down with Karasuba and he asks her to forget along with him. On first playthrough she automatically realizes from the conversation that she does want to remember, sending her back on the main route, but after seeing enough of his optional episodes, it's possible for her to choose to forget.

This gives Karasuba essentially what he wants, though it's not clear how any of this happens. It's kind of like the Kagiha Ending, only we don't see a dream vs. reality dichotomy. Is this all a joint hallucination? But the two of them live day in day out in the group hideout, only there's no one else around and no explanation for how this dream world exists, since I think Hikage would want to keep his game going.

All we know is that Beniyuri seems to have forgotten how their situation had come about (convenient), but she also recognizes that there's a part of her that still isn't ready to move into a relationship with Karasuba even though he pushes for it. Specifically it's like there's a shard in her heart, which is a phrase used in the main path to refer to her memory of losing her friends. Despite the fact she even tells Karasuba "no" in regards to a kiss, he does it anyway, and quickly escalates from there.

This is the only ending that results in implied sex and it's not entirely clear how consensual it is. Aside from that, it's pretty nihilistic, with no future for either of them. They wouldn't be returning to life, but it doesn't look like they'll be passing on either.

His Aki Ending is better, mostly because I find real world Karasuba more tolerable. (He's definitely a guy who needs societal restraints.)

Like Yamato's Takuya ending, this follows the main path with Kagiha's sacrifice and the living characters returning to the waking world, and in this one, she agrees to ditch school with Karasuba, much to his surprise (since he thought she'd turn him down as always). While ditching, they sit down and have a proper talk about their feelings and their past, and Karasuba agrees to wait for her to catch up with him instead of forcing her forward, which would have been a way better move if he'd done it earlier.

Though I wanted to feel good about that ending, I couldn't really because then I'd flash back to all the incredibly awful things he did in the rest of the game and his id is just out of control.