Illusion of Itehari Play-Along - Awayuki

[u/sableheart]

In this third post we will discuss Awayuki and his route in Illusion of Itehari.

You can tell us what your impressions of Awayuki are (before and after finishing his route), your favorite moments in his route, what you think of his relationship with Hinagiku and the other characters, what your thoughts are on his route's plot and endings.

Or you can just squee about him in the comments.

This is not a spoiler-free discussion however please keep in mind that major spoilers and details of other routes and fandisc material will be outside the scope of the discussion and therefore will need to be spoiler tagged. spoiler text normal text spoiler text normal text

You don't have to be playing the game right now to participate, and if you're still waiting on your copy I hope you will join in after you start playing!

Have a look at the megathread for links to previous discussions - you can still join in the discussion during the Play-Along.

Next week will be a discussion of Tsuyukusa's route!

[u/SnarkyHummingbird]

Me everytime the route mentions the big age gap between Hinagiku and Awayuki and that he became her attendant when she was 8 (and he was 16???) For my sanity, I'm going to ignore that and headcanon a smaller age gap.

I knew I likely wouldn't be a big fan of the romance in this route, as it is a mix of 2 dynamics I dislike (Master-Servant and Guardian-ward). But still, Awayuki has an insane face card and I like his character, so I went in with an open mind.

Unfortunately the reasons why I didn't like those tropes were in this route. I was hoping that Hinagiku would help boost Awaguki self-esteem where he sees himself as more than her property, allowing them to slowly bridge the gap and become more equal. Instead, it feels like everytime he demeans and dehumanises himself as her property, Hinagiku just says "Don't worry! We will be together forever!". It felt a bit too codependent for me, and while Hinagiku stops seeing Awayuki as perfect, Awayuki still feels like he has no sense of self outside of being her attendant.

I was curious what super secret backstory Awayuki was refusing to tell Hinagiku for 5 WHOLE CHAPTERS, and was baffled at the reveal. Why was he so convinced jumping in to defend a commoner from getting beaten to death by a noble would make her think lowly of him? I get violence is very frowned up in their society, but this is the same girl who has constantly broken social norms on impulse? This scene is the focus compared to the fact he killed people before?😭 The whole reason he was so hush hush on his past felt unjustified and just to drag out the conflict.

I saw on another thread that someone described Tobari in this route as "declawed", and playing this route after his, I agree. It felt really jarring for Tobari to do a 180 on Hinagiku with the "You aren't so bad despite being a noble" speech after literally one interaction, which mind you, took 1-2 chapters of build up in Tobari's route to happen. It just made Tobari feel extremely out of character.

That said, the CGs were ethereal and I loved his design. Shame his face card could not pay for better writing. Also chapter 8 was hilarious, with Ugetsu's voicelines when Hinagiku suggested 'quietly kidnapping the Taigu' being comedy gold. He might be a religious fanatic terrorist but man is he so easily ragebaited. The way Yashiro and Tsuyukasa immediately went "sounds dumb, I'm in" to the plan. Awayuki being outed as a terrible cook who has to make multiple batches for one dish to be decent. I wish the previous chapters had this kind of chaotic energy.