#the100line

Cult of Takumi: I was surprised this one ended up being my most favorite. It was so funny and cute and sexy and uncomfortable but I feel like it's uncomfortable in ways that make sense to the story. Sexual assault made for multiple brutal endings and was definitely uncomfortable to see, but they were ends that fit the themes of this story about taking consent away from the characters.

******By the way! Other than Cult of Takumi being my very favorite, the order of many of these routes isn't based on which ones I liked more/less and could be switched around.

Retsnom: Retsnom was Darumi's route, and it was beautifully tragic, a bittersweet tale of Darumi finding and connecting with a monster as well a friendship with Takumi. I was only disappointed that the "keep Retsnom as a pet" subroutes didn't go anywhere, I had played the "pregnancy" subroute first so I didn't realize Retsnom pet would be short xD. Maybe in another life, Retsnom pet survive in another way. C'est la vie.

Serial battles: Admittedly, I enjoyed this one a lot for the battles themselves rather than the story. The story behind it was barely a story, but it didn't really need much. The reason they had to do these battles made sense once you know about the time leaping machine, and everything else was battle and funny jokes in-between. The horrors of crunchtime, in an enjoyable format for the player. Still one of my faves.

First Playthrough: I really enjoyed this route! It got me properly hyped for the rest of the game. Convincing characters to join the battle was a great way to get to know them and know their motives. Shouma became and stayed my favorite, her character journey is fantastic. The Second Academy joining the story later was a great writing choice, I liked it particularly because it gave me time to know the First Academy class before more characters were brought into the mix. The imposter-Moko was so disturbing and sad, and Moko is such a wonderful character that her heart and energy permeated to the group and player in what little time we got to know her, even through an imposter version of her! This was the start of Nozomi's complex relationship with Takumi and the audience and it took me a couple more routes before I could trust that she was actually one of the good guys, which made her such an interesting character. "Is she Karua? Is she not Karua?" is something the audience as well as Takumi had to ask.

The plot twists with V'exhness and Eito were great! I admittedly got spoiled to Eito's face-heel turn before I played the game, so I'm not sure if I would have been fooled by Eito or not; I tried to treat the spoiler like it could have been from another route in different circumstances, but at a certain point when Eito said something like "I'll explain everything to them! Just leave it to me!" I knew he was going to backstab them. It did not curb my enjoyment of the story, and I love his stupid soundtrack that he puts into every battle where he fights them. Eito is a hilarious and fun villain.

Box of Blessings: A hopeful route surrounding these boxes and what they could mean for the future of the army and the war! I loved this route too. Haruki (that's what I call Gaku) and Shouma some great development and moments to shine!

As well as this thoughtful moment in the museum. Showing that the Futurans were just...people.

(Gahh! So I unintentionally deleted my save data that had Box of Calamity finished, and it took me a while to find a video of this scene, just the picture alone didn't do it justice. It starts at 2:12:22. )

Mystery Route: It was a good mystery! ^^ I loved figuring things out for this mystery, the twist with Kako was sooo good! Before I played this route, I had a nightmare that I watched Shouma jump off of the school's roof, and I had to stop her/save her because she was suicidal ;_;. I told @sammylbir about that nightmare after I had it, and she reminded me of the nightmare after it was revealed that Shouma willingly jumped off the roof in this route! I love Shouma being a plot twist villain in some of these routes, mix it up Shouma! Takumi getting Shouma to expose herself gave me mixed feelings, but in a good way. It just hurts me to see my baby hurting, even if it was necessary.

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S.F.: Very fitting that this was my last route I played (other than finishing a couple of instant death routes I missed in Mystery). I enjoyed this one a lot, I love Hiruko/Takumi and the time leaping, and Hiruko's selfish decision not to save a timeline because of one hug...that was such a bizzarely awful thing for a character to do but it's so tragically beautiful. Hiruko, who strives for perfection and is great at so many things she does but lacks so much needed love and affection, touch-starved ice queen who cares about practicality and saving everyone from this timeline, couldn't bring herself to save a timeline of people she risked her own life and Takumi's to save, all over a hug that was so special to her that she didn't want to let it go. It feels so stupid because she could just hug Takumi at any point for any other reason, but she likely thinks that that would not happen in other circumstances, because she is the touch-starved ice queen, very unlikely to give or receive a hug. It's the same reason that (in Romance Route) she ordered Takumi to kiss her and they fell off the roof when Takumi tried. A part of her craves affection, but deep down she is too scared and hurt to receive it, and only in circumstances where she was pushed to it could she get herself to overcome this fear.

My favorite moment of this arc is the good ending, where Hiruko and Takumi try desperately to enter the code, risking their own lives to save the planet, and the entire class gets off of the escape pod to join them. The growth of the entire class to do this was incredible, and it made this happy ending of the game feel so earned to me.

I had trouble figuring out if this should go in my favorites or the good/okay category. Although there were several moments I enjoyed, it got some points taken out for being tedious, going on longer than I thought it should. Still, I'm not sure. It's either at the front of the good/okay category or the back of the favorites category.

Goodbye Eito: An incredibly sad short story about someone who couldn't forgive himself for his failure to atone to his class, but got to turn his life around one last time as he died a hero for a group of children in hiding. I like Eito's character a lot, usually as a comedic villain, but he works here as a tragic protagonist. Sirei can go fuck himself for sending him off with that "care package." Showing Eito's "blindness" with the scribbles blocking most of the picture was a nice touch.

Box of Calamity: If there is only one fan of BOC Shouma, it's me. I'm that fan. If there are no fans of BOC Shouma I'm dead. BOC Shouma did nothing wrong shuddup did a lot of things wrong, but I really believe she was having a delusion in thinking that the battle pet was a successor to her dog, and that she was attempting to bury him and hold a funeral before it unexpectedly came back to life and started killing people. I write more in defense of the most problematic Shouma here. My character flaw is that I would go back in time and save her and bring her to my timeline, and I would force everyone in the class to deal with that.

This route also gave us Ending 036, in which Haruki and Takumi use exorcising rituals to get rid of the G'ie, and it actually works! We seriously need more Haruki routes in Hundred Line, I'm starving!

The other Box of Calamity routes were pretty dark but well-paced with a good story. I also liked the ending where Nozomi G'ie thanks Takumi for not outing her, and the ending when it's revealed that Takumi's guilt manifested as the choking spirit all along (trans Takumi?)

Casual Route: I enjoyed most of the stories here. Takemaru's story went on a little too long imo but I loved the resolution to it. I enjoyed the milk question. I am that person that drinks the entire box of milk/juice, even turning it upside down and sometimes breaking it open/inside out just to get every last drop. I dont know why. But I would have kept that secret so Haruki could win the bet lol.

Multiple Eitos: Hilarious and dark story of Takumi getting tormented by Eito over and over. Takumi's friends cheering on Takumi's suicides to get rid of Eito made for a very bizarre positive moment. My only criticism is I wanted to know which Eito # was which character and I was disappointed that there was no real answer to that.

Slasher Route: Haruki and Darumi did nothing wrong okay they did like one little thing wrong and how the hell were they supposed to know it would lead to fucking zombies?! So they brought in weird bugs from outside, how were they supposed to know that -?!

Aaaanyway, it was a shame Darumi died early on because it would have helped Haruki to not be alone when getting found out, and I kinda dont blame her for keeping the bug thing to herself for a while, the Haruki/Tsubasa moments in this route were really cute.

Slasher brought so many cool subroutes and endings! Following Zombie Takumi was wild. Corrupted G'ie Takumi was kinda cute ngl. Nozomi and Kurara get hero moments!

Everyone being zombies and using the escape pod to go to the artificial sattelite was hilarious!

Also NOZOMI DRIVING THE BUS INTO THE WALL!!! Nozomi Shouma and Kyoshika being the three survivors is such an interesting idea and their polyship should be more popular.

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Killing Game: I have such mixed feelings about this route! I feel like I should go over the whole thing....there was a part in the beginning that was kind of slow and confusing, with everyone just grinding the battle pets outside, afraid but also events happened very slowly. The story picked back up around the time Hiruko died, though this is the beginning of one aspect of the story that bothered me.

Before her death, Hiruko talked about how fragile Darumi was right now, how she wanted to end her life with the killing game and how she wasn't really happy, how she was abused in life. Everything she said was so important...and it all went over Takumi's head!

Takumi falsely blames Darumi for "killing" Hiruko, even though it was obvious that Hiruko wasn't going to make it out of there alive and was begging someone to take her hemoanima so her powers would at least be absorbed by them and help the SDU. Takumi is a flawed character and can sometimes come to the wrong conclusion or let stubborn angry feelings get in the way (that happens to me too), and if the story acknowledged these flaws by having some other characters react to Takumi's false accusations, I'd be more understanding. But it doesn't. At most, Nozomi says that Takumi wasn't "being very nice" after Takumi said some of the most incredibly cruel statements about her!

And for some reason, Yugamu also believes Darumi is a bad person. I dont even like Yugamu, but I found it ooc for Yugamu to hate on Darumi out of nowhere. Buuut he gets a redeeming moment much later with his creation of graves for their dead friends, and respectfully removing the bombs from their bodies. I wish he redeemed himself with Darumi, but this moment with the burial of his friends was the most respect I had for him in this entire game, so I felt I needed to mention it.

The killing game layout itself was a bit confusing but I was able to enjoying it a bit after Hiruko's death, as the Sponsors were pretty interesting and it was tricky trying to figure out who they both were.

However, the alliance Takumi forms also gives me mixed feelings. It feels off to me that many of the characters, especially Moko and Nozomi, would be alright with joining an alliance that leaves Kako and Ima vulnerable as targets. So I couldn't really blame Takemaru for protecting the twins when nobody else was looking out for them (or him), even when he was threatening Eva.

Eva and Nozomi's relationship was wonderful! I felt like this was a great development for both of these characters, and some of my favorite scenes in the game. It helps that I'm a sucker for mother x daughter vibes, and this route making Nozomi a canon mommy's girl and trying to mommy the rest of the cast? Beautiful.

Tsubasa and Takumi's budding relationship was really cute! I felt like Takumi should have stepped up more in this relationship though, watching Tsubasa defend Takumi's ass and then have to pretty much beg for compliments and kisses while Takumi just stands there like a statue made me wanna cry. Tsubasa's idea of the future (the Killing Game Polycule) was cute, but it's sad that it didn't really go anywhere in canon.

What frustrates me though, is that Nozomi is left out of it. Maybe Tsubasa didn't think of Nozomi in the moment, or still had some resentment to what the sponsor said about Tsubasa being Takumi's "rebound", but I wish the fandom included Nozomi in the polycule. Her acting as an older sister to Kamyuhn doesn't mean she cant also be in the polycule. I remember someone else saying that this route enforced gender stereotypes, basically pushing Nozomi to the side and pushing the "mom" role on her with Kamyuhn and Shion, and I sadly have to agree with that.

So there's a lot with this story that bugs me but also a lot that I loved.

Romance Route: Kurara and Tsubasa's routes were adorable, and Moko's moments were as well! This one is only in Mixed because Takumi treated Kyoshika like garbage for the first half of her route, and it's never addressed! Yes, there were in-story reasons, such as Takumi still reeling from breaking up with Kurara, and not being on the same vibe as Kyoshika....however, it hurt so much to see Kyoshika giving it her all and for Takumi to be pushing her away, and in particular the moment that made me angriest was when Takumi asked Kyoshika why she didn't throw the Holy Jumonji Sword in the trash and called her something like a "hunk of junk" or "scrap metal" (I cant remember exactly but it was extremely insulting!) This was unfortunately treated like "silly couple shenanigans", and it was clear that the writers expected the audience to sympathize with Takumi and find Kyoshika too weird or annoying(?), but instead it made me wish for Moko to show up and do a repeat of this moment

The second half of this route tries to make things better, and I loved getting to hear Kyoshika's story and I wanted to love the moments of Takumi sword-training with Kyoshika and going on cute picnic dates and stuff, but it felt unbelievable for me that the HJS (Holy Jumonji Sword) would ever be able to forgive Takumi for that horrible start to their relationship. I honestly just wanted to skip past this portion of the story just because of Takumi, and only didn't because of Kyoshika.

This route presents some good character flaws for Moko, of her being more traditional/heteronormative (which hinted at in other stories, but it was more clearly presented here) and especially with her being polyphobic. I like this because it adds more to her character. I dont think she'd be homophobic, at least on purpose, but she may assume characters to be cishet unless told otherwise, and she obviously did not believe polyamory could be an option for Takumi. I think it would be interesting to see her development from that, but I cant ignore that the story itself kind of presents her as being "in the right" and Takumi as being some kind of horndog for even imagining that the characters could all be in one big relationship. It would also be nice to see Moko as a dating option, as there are hints to Moko's loneliness and compensation by being the wingman.

Coming Of Age: The first route I finished after the prologue! I enjoyed some of it, felt like some of it went on too long. Nozomi and Kurara's breakup/makeup was great and well-paced.

Reset: I dont remember much of it at all, and what I do remember is just Sirei telling everyone to make babies with Nozomi. It had the characters being told different backstories that took away their uniqueness... I would have to play/watch it again but for now it's going in this category of Mixed. It's the only one I seriously dont remember.

Vexhness: I enjoyed the stories and the Vehxness focus, but felt like there were missed opportunities. I also want to know what the commanders look like, and have trouble telling who is who. Still, it gave us more depth to Adammaque, a dark storyline with Tsubasa's failed suicide bombing, and Takumi learning what it's like to be on the other side of a forced sacrifice, and most importantly it gave us this:

Eva: I like Eva, I'm sorry Eva, but your route's ending made me put this in the bad category. I think she and Kamyuhn were better written in other routes, especially Killing Game. I heard someone say that this felt like a bad fanfic and I sadly have to agree. Eva somehow beats Vehxness after absorbing one person vs Vehxness with her cannibalizing count?? (<- I hope there's an in-universe reason for this, like Eva being secretly way more powerful). Eva has a baby with Takumi and doesn't bother looking for Kamyuhn when she goes missing??? WTF!! At least when she made tough choices in Killing Game route and died for Nozomi's sake, she knew Kamyuhn was okay and was protecting her children. In this route, it felt like the writers really didn't care about Kamyuhn other than using her as a prop and then ditched her so Takumi's family with Eva would look more "traditional." Barf.

Conspiracy: It took so much not to put Conspiracy under Mixed just because I enjoyed meeting Gotoh, but all those Instant Death endings were a tedious chore to get through, and then the actual route itself left no payoff and the most disappointing ending....Buuuut I *did* really love the piece of the story with Kurara. This was one of her best character moments and it sucked that it had to be present in *this* route.

Second Scenario: I reaaaally disliked the scenes of the characters binge drinking, sorry that was a trigger for me and I had to skip past it every time the characters went to that cafeteria. There were missed opportunities for plot, such as Kako and Ima’s breakup-makeup that got resolved too fast, and everyone being sick with a cold and then fine in a couple of days.

Nozomi’s backstory was different for seemingly no reason (I feel like I missed something here. I'm not sure how Takumi traveling back in time would result in Nozomi remembering her own backstory wrong? Was the brainwashing machine used on her in this route specifically?)

Comedy Route: There were different comedy routes but it felt like the only moments I liked were...moments, as opposed to storylines. Reading Tsubasa's diary, the kitchen rapping scene, the message from THE DARK LORD SATAN, Haruki info dumping about yuri, the explosion endings... The fishheads subroute in this was my favorite story and I admit that joke still went on too long. The rest of it was ehhh. Sirei had the worst writing in this route because he went against his own motives (making this army to "defeat the invader scum" and "fight for humanity") just so he could torture the cast for seemingly no benefit to himself (what, he just wants to punish laughter? the fuck??), and then he threw the hissiest of hissy fits when the cast didn't let him torture them. That was just frustrating. So much of this route was ehh.

Rebellion Route: Oh wait, did I say Eva Route was disrespectful to Kamyuhn? This one has the characters killing Kamyuhn out of nowhere even though their goal was supposed to be about making peace with the Futurans to live on their planet! 🤦. That was easily one of the worst endings, if I ever rate all the endings that one is either the worst or close to the worst ending. Otherwise, Kamyuhn's good subroutes in this route were okay but I liked her writing way better in Killing Game where she got to be more of a bratty kid. Even if she's a paragon of wisdom, she's still a kid. The tone of this route felt wrong and I really wanted to see more routes where the characters went against Sirei, but (Battle Pets voice) "not ...like..this!"