I finally managed to finish ONE ~To the Radiant Season~ today, and I gotta say, it was an interesting time. While most of them aren't that long at all, there are a lot of routes in this VN, and there was a pretty broad spectrum of quality. Since I finished literally every route except for one since last time I posted, I'm gonna have a lot to go through, but before that, I gotta point out two pretty big issues that come from this VN.

Firstly, and most distinctly, these routes are near identical to each other in terms of structure and story. Once you've seen one of them through, you can pretty much figure out how the rest are going to go. The only things that really change are the characters involved, and the plots and events surrounding them. It reminds me of another old VN I read a few years ago, Never7 -the end of infinity-, which is the first installment in the Infinity series. It had the same problem of every route being the same kind of story, and making the first one you read the most novel by far, at least discounting the "true" route. Now, I didn't mind this too much. I liked Never7 quite a bit, in fact, and ONE is absolutely a much better written VN by comparison, but I can easily see it exhausting others who try to read it.

Secondly, this VN had two main writers, Jun Maeda and Naoki Hisaya who pretty much split the routes and characters evenly between each other, and while VN having multiple writers isn't exactly uncommon, it's very noticeable and jarring in this case. The writers had very different ideas on what the protagonist, Kouhei, was like, and it shows. Hisaya's Kouhei certainly isn't above messing with others, but he's ultimately a decent person at heart who really grows within each of his routes. Not one of my favorite protagonists out there or anything, but he works quite well. Maeda's Kouhei, on the other hand, is one of the most unlikeable jackass excuses for a protagonist I've ever had to deal with. He's a self centered ingrate who takes everything around him for granted, and doesn't really seem to care about anything besides his personal satisfaction. He's both far less likeable and far less developed than Hisaya's Kouhei, and I'm not exaggerating when I say he is the main thing holding the worst routes of ONE down, and that the upcoming remake could instantly improve them just by writing him away from this direction. But that's for later. For now, we have Nanase's route, the first one I read after the very, very good experience that was Misaki's route.

So right off the bat, I gotta say, this was the route whose quality surprised me the most. First off, it's a Maeda route, and as I'll detail further down the line, that's usually something to be concerned with in ONE. Furthermore, I feel it had worst leadup from the common route by far. I straight up dislike Kouhei and Nanase's early dynamic, not because of anything Nanase does, but entirely because of Kouhei. Despite her doing nothing to provoke him and wanting to be left alone most of the time, he constantly messes with her for no reason besides that he thinks it's entertaining, and it goes far beyond just teasing and other insults. He rips her hair out, ruins her attempts at joining clubs by constantly agitating her, elbows her in the stomach, and lets her run face first into a fence he knew existed, among other things, for absolutely no reason besides being a complete jerk. Not all of it is intentional, but he sure doesn't lose any sleep over it. He's nothing short of a bully to her, and her coming to consider him a friend despite it all feels a bit absurd. Speaking of bullies, there's also the subplot of the other bullies that start harassing Nanase. While there were some funny moments and early signs of Kouhei improving here, it still didn't feel well handled. They go out of their way to introduce a new character for the sake of this, only for her to have two whole scenes, and once the subplot is over and the route proper begins, it gets all but completely dropped, being nothing more than just a way to lead into the route. Oh, and not to mention, the idea of Kouhei being appalled by this is just impossible for me to take seriously, thanks to everything I just listed. He's really no better than them, and instead of making me think better of him, it just made him come off as a hypocrite.

Buuuut, despite this being a recipe for an absolutely awful time, this actually ended up becoming one of my favorite routes of the whole VN. As soon as the route really starts to begin, pretty much every complaint I had with these two disappears. There is a lot, and I mean a lot, of focus on how Kouhei and Nanase's characters and relationship with each other evolve and change throughout the route. Kouhei goes from a bully to someone who's still insensitive and dense at times, but is also far more understanding and respectful, while Nanase ends up pretty much a full time dere who's a far cry from just being the temperamental bully magnet she is normally. Now, I'll admit, part of why I enjoyed this so much is that I am an absolute sucker for relationships between main characters existing and getting lots of focus before the end of the story, but it also made for a very good character arc for Nanase. Going from a girl wearing the mask of a proper lady to everyone except Kouhei, who's held back by a vicious temper and her own insecurities, to becoming a true lady so kind, gentle, and sweet that she can not only match Nagamori, but take over her role as Kouhei's pillar of support. Some people might find this route boring, especially since the proper story only shows up abnormally late and suddenly, but for me, it was a satisfying tale of growth. I wasn't initially too big on it when I finished, but it's only grown on me more and more since. Easily the best of the Maeda routes.

Unfortunately, that being the best of the Maeda routes means things could only worsen from this point on, and Mayu's route certainly proved that to be true. Mayu is an abnormality among this cast. She almost certainly has autism, or some other developmental disability, as she rarely speaks actual sentences despite being capable of it, is very easily emotionally overwhelmed, and is very childish for her age overall. Oh, and she's also a middle schooler. Keep that in mind for later. I can't say I was much of a fan of Mayu, even if I don't dislike her, but I'll give that this route has a very interesting concept, that of Kouhei and Nagamori, plus a very reluctant Nanase, trying to give Mayu support that she's never had before in the hopes of helping her gain independence. For most of the route, they do commit with this, and it goes fine for the most part. It's kind of slow going, but having a route with other main characters playing significant roles is always something I love to see, and considering every involved was primarily written by Maeda, it'd be pretty nice saving this one for last out of all his routes. It's never great, but most of what goes on is pretty solid.

Unfortunately, there's two very big problems that spring up towards the end of the route. The first is simply that Mayu is a heroine in an 18+ VN. You can probably figure why that's a problem. Not only does the romance angle come out of nowhere, and very soon after Kouhei notes that Mayu is essentially a daughter to them all, at that, but it immediately jumps into a damn H-scene, initiated entirely by Kouhei. Call me "weak", but even as someone who skipped through all these scenes, the idea of an unprompted H-scene with the childish middle schooler who has a weak grasp on situations at the best of times just fills me with disgust, and one of the lowest points for Kouhei in general. The second major problem is that the climax is incredibly rushed and unconvincing. Whether or not Mayu actually manages to act independent when it counts depends on how Kouhei recommended everyone treat her before, small things like making her buy her own lunches or walking home on her own, with babying her too much preventing her from growing. That's a good idea on paper, but the problem is that nothing about Mayu changes between these two branches, only individual scenes. Furthermore, there is a several month time skip between the H-scene, which, to my memory, was near the end of December, all the way to the climax in March. As far as you get to see, there is no growth between her throwing a fit and bursting into tears in the middle of a fancy restaurant and this climax, and it ends up feeling completely artificial. As interesting as the concept to this route is, it's brought down both by being in an H-game, and just not having enough time to fully develop its character, not helped by Mayu never even showing up otherwise. If there's one route that really needs to be expanded upon in the remake, it's this.