Saya no Uta
Encyclopedia
is a visual novel
by Nitroplus
with horror
elements. The original plot is written by Gen Urobuchi
.
Like Nitroplus' heavily Mythos-inspired Demonbane
series, Saya no Uta's plot is somewhat Lovecraftian
. Although direct references to the Cthulhu Mythos
are minimal, the dark, eerie atmosphere is reminiscent of his works.
Many plotlines of Saya no Uta are similar to the manga Phoenix - Resurrection, specifically the life of Robita
. At one point of the dialog, the main character explicitly references these similarities.
On February 24, 2009, the complete English 1.0 translation patch was released. The patch, while requiring a copy of the original game, translates the entire script in the game, allowing the fans who may not understand the Japanese language to enjoy the story as well. As of 7/09, this patch was no longer online, as JAST USA bought the rights.
A three-issue comic book based on Saya no Uta, called Song of Saya, has been produced by IDW Publishing
. The issues were released from February though April 2011.
As of July 2011, Jast USA has officially announced that Saya no Uta will be released in English.
, causing his senses to become "warped". He perceives the world as a hellish nightmare with a black sky and buildings covered in pulsating flesh, where all the streets and building interiors are splattered with blood, giant organs and cartilage. Ordinary people appear to him as grotesque, giant grub-like monsters with a hideous stench, and even food that he used to like now tastes utterly disgusting.
As he contemplates suicide in the hospital, Fuminori meets a beautiful, human looking girl among the flesh-covered walls. She introduces herself as Saya, and is apparently looking for her father. Fuminori does not want to be separated from Saya, and asks her to live with him. She agrees.
However, just as Fuminori sees normal things as monstrously twisted abominations, ordinary observers are able to see that Saya is actually a hideous creature from another universe. She is rarely ever seen by anyone but Fuminori, and those that do see her are immediately killed and consumed by her, usually after being driven insane by her hideous appearance. Though her true form is never directly shown, it is described in text, and she is similar in appearance to the misshapen blob-like monstrosities which haunt Fuminori's world. The ultimate goal of her life is to spread her life-form into this universe by transforming the native life-form with the highest level of intelligence: the human being. She learned everything about humanity from her "father", an eccentric Bio-medical scientist named Masahiko Ōgai, the first person to interact with Saya. She finds out the motive of human reproduction is "love", and the process is carried out by females. Consequently, she considers herself as a girl, looking for "love" to prepare for the final reproduction. However, because of her grotesque appearance, she had no chance to succeed - until she met Fuminori.
After her first contact died, she stayed in the hospital to continue her study and to look for the next relationship with a human being, which unfortunately results in a horror story in that hospital. Fuminori's experience also provides her the chance to learn the skills of modifying brains and bodies of human beings.
The truth is revealed when Fuminori comes home to see Saya eating the slime-covered corpse of Ōmi, a girl he knows which appears as a yellow-green jelly
-like thing in Fuminori's eyes. The smell and texture was described by Fuminori as "herb-like scent, looks like a variety of succulent fruits". When he tries it, he actually finds the human flesh delicious due to his twisted senses.
Visual novel
A is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage...
by Nitroplus
Nitroplus
Nitroplus Co., Ltd., stylized as nitro+, is a Japanese visual novel computer software company that has developed a number of visual novels, including eroge. They have also have been collaborating with TYPE-MOON to create the light novel series Fate/zero. Their works usually have dark themes such...
with horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
elements. The original plot is written by Gen Urobuchi
Gen Urobuchi
is a Japanese writer for visual novels, light novels, and anime. He is known for his dark style and tragic plots twists. Some of his more popular works include the 2003 visual novel Saya no Uta and the 2011 anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica...
.
Like Nitroplus' heavily Mythos-inspired Demonbane
Demonbane
is a series by Nitroplus with mecha and Cthulhu Mythos elements. Beginning as an eroge for the PC, it was ported into a PlayStation 2 non-eroge remake, a sequel visual novel, a prequel novel, a television anime adaptation and a conversion to manga...
series, Saya no Uta's plot is somewhat Lovecraftian
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
. Although direct references to the Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
are minimal, the dark, eerie atmosphere is reminiscent of his works.
Many plotlines of Saya no Uta are similar to the manga Phoenix - Resurrection, specifically the life of Robita
Robita
Robita is a fictional character, a robot who appears in Osamu Tezuka's manga series Phoenix. It is also a character in the modern Astro Boy animated series.-Phoenix:...
. At one point of the dialog, the main character explicitly references these similarities.
On February 24, 2009, the complete English 1.0 translation patch was released. The patch, while requiring a copy of the original game, translates the entire script in the game, allowing the fans who may not understand the Japanese language to enjoy the story as well. As of 7/09, this patch was no longer online, as JAST USA bought the rights.
A three-issue comic book based on Saya no Uta, called Song of Saya, has been produced by IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic...
. The issues were released from February though April 2011.
As of July 2011, Jast USA has officially announced that Saya no Uta will be released in English.
Plotline
Fuminori Sakisaka is a young medical student, whose life is changed when he gets in a traffic accident which kills his parents and leaves him heavily injured. Fuminori undergoes experimental brain surgery to save his life, but the surgery has an unintended side-effect - it creates a form of agnosiaAgnosia
Agnosia is a loss of ability to recognize objects, persons, sounds, shapes, or smells while the specific sense is not defective nor is there any significant memory loss...
, causing his senses to become "warped". He perceives the world as a hellish nightmare with a black sky and buildings covered in pulsating flesh, where all the streets and building interiors are splattered with blood, giant organs and cartilage. Ordinary people appear to him as grotesque, giant grub-like monsters with a hideous stench, and even food that he used to like now tastes utterly disgusting.
As he contemplates suicide in the hospital, Fuminori meets a beautiful, human looking girl among the flesh-covered walls. She introduces herself as Saya, and is apparently looking for her father. Fuminori does not want to be separated from Saya, and asks her to live with him. She agrees.
However, just as Fuminori sees normal things as monstrously twisted abominations, ordinary observers are able to see that Saya is actually a hideous creature from another universe. She is rarely ever seen by anyone but Fuminori, and those that do see her are immediately killed and consumed by her, usually after being driven insane by her hideous appearance. Though her true form is never directly shown, it is described in text, and she is similar in appearance to the misshapen blob-like monstrosities which haunt Fuminori's world. The ultimate goal of her life is to spread her life-form into this universe by transforming the native life-form with the highest level of intelligence: the human being. She learned everything about humanity from her "father", an eccentric Bio-medical scientist named Masahiko Ōgai, the first person to interact with Saya. She finds out the motive of human reproduction is "love", and the process is carried out by females. Consequently, she considers herself as a girl, looking for "love" to prepare for the final reproduction. However, because of her grotesque appearance, she had no chance to succeed - until she met Fuminori.
After her first contact died, she stayed in the hospital to continue her study and to look for the next relationship with a human being, which unfortunately results in a horror story in that hospital. Fuminori's experience also provides her the chance to learn the skills of modifying brains and bodies of human beings.
The truth is revealed when Fuminori comes home to see Saya eating the slime-covered corpse of Ōmi, a girl he knows which appears as a yellow-green jelly
Gelatin
Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle , flavorless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar...
-like thing in Fuminori's eyes. The smell and texture was described by Fuminori as "herb-like scent, looks like a variety of succulent fruits". When he tries it, he actually finds the human flesh delicious due to his twisted senses.
Endings
There are three endings to the visual novel, depending on the choices that the player makes during the course of the game:- Ending 1
- Saya helps Fuminori return to normal, but suddenly leaves because she does not want to reveal her true form to Fuminori. Fuminori contacts the police, is charged with murder, and becomes confined in a psychiatric hospitalPsychiatric hospitalPsychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
for the rest of his life. Saya visits Fuminori once and, refusing to let Fuminori see her and hear her real voice, communicates using text messages in a cell phone passed through an opening in the door. Fuminori confesses his love and promises to comfort her at any time. Saya leaves to search for her father, whom she believes could help her "go back to where she came" (possibly alluding to the other dimension from which Saya came), and Fuminori continues to wait for her eventual return in his cell. It is implied that the two never meet each other again.
- Ending 2
- Fuminori accepts what has happened to him and decides to remain the way he is to stay with Saya. To keep what has happened a secret, Fuminori decide to kill Kōji by setting a trap for him in Masahiko Ōgai's abandoned house in the mountains. However, Kōji is saved by Dr. Ryōko Tanbo, and they discover Ōgai's log with information of Saya. Kōji returns with plans to kill Fuminori in vengeance, and Ryōko offers to help him. After getting Fuminori's location by blackmailing him with information of Saya, the duo enter to kill Fuminori, and in the ensuing struggle Kōji kills a hideously mutated Yoh while Fuminori mortally wounds Ryōko. Before dying, Ryōko, with the help of some liquid nitrogen, manages to inflict a fatal wound to Saya. Upon seeing the state of Saya's body, Fuminori loses all will to live and commits suicide. Saya uses her last strength in order to crawl to Fuminori's body while being repeatedly hit with an iron pipe by Kōji. She dies soon after being reunited with him. After everything he went through, Kōji's mind shatters: he is left with delusions and paranoia, constantly plagued by nightmares of his deceased friends and vivid hallucinations of Ryōko. He keeps a single bullet for his handgun, implying that if his nightmares become unbearable he will commit suicideSuicideSuicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
.
- Ending 3
- The events in this ending are similar to the previous one, except Kōji refuses help from Ryōko in an attempt to kill Fuminori by himself. Without Ryōko's interference, Saya and Fuminori kill Kōji together. Afterwards, it turns out that Saya has reached the last stage and ultimate goal of her life: reproduction. Saya releases a sporeSporeIn biology, a spore is a reproductive structure that is adapted for dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many bacteria, plants, algae, fungi and some protozoa. According to scientist Dr...
-like matter into the atmosphere—a mutating agent aimed at humans, created by researching the human genomeGenomeIn modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
obtained during sex with Fuminori. The agent is spread across the globe by updrafts, slowly turning the entire human population into members of Saya's species. The end of the story is seen from Ryōko's perspective, and it is implied that Fuminori, although without Saya, will see beauty in the world once again since it will be filled with her kind. This ending could be seen as the 'true' ending, due to it seeming most connected with the title.
Characters
- The protagonist of the game. A medical schoolMedical schoolA medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
student, he suffers a near-fatal traffic accident which kills his parents and leaves his perception of life permanently altered. As he wades through a "world gone berserk" of flesh and blood, he seeks the affection of the only thing he sees as normal — a mysterious girl named Saya, whom he is madly in love with. Over time due to Saya's influence, Fuminori views normal people with apathetic disdain and becomes willing to kill others without remorse with only Saya and later, Yō as exceptions. Over the course of the events, he gradually becomes a ruthless cannibal, finding human flesh delicious through his twisted senses.
- Saya is a being from another dimension who materialized in this universe for the sole purpose of reproduction. She has no memories of where she came from and is guided only by her instincts. Due to Fuminori's condition, he perceives her as a lithe young girl in a white dress, but in actuality she is some sort of amorphous, tentacled, fleshy abomination that emits a putrid stench. She preys on creatures of all sizes, from cats to human beings, typically killing them by snapping their necks or disembowelmentDisembowelmentDisembowelment is the removal of some or all of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract , usually through a horizontal incision made across the abdominal area. Disembowelment may result from an accident, but has also been used as a method of torture and execution...
through some unknown means, and then feasting on their internal organs. She is apparently capable of projecting a strong acidAcidAn acid is a substance which reacts with a base. Commonly, acids can be identified as tasting sour, reacting with metals such as calcium, and bases like sodium carbonate. Aqueous acids have a pH of less than 7, where an acid of lower pH is typically stronger, and turn blue litmus paper red...
which she uses to partially digest her food before consuming it, and, in one case, to infiltrate a house by melting the glass of a window. Her true form is never fully revealed, as she immediately kills and consumes any third-party observers. The small amount of information regarding her actual form is gleaned entirely from in-game descriptions, which themselves are rather vague and never go into detail.
- Fuminori's friend. After Fuminori's accident he has been trying to help Fuminori's life get back to normal. However, after Kōji is almost killed by Fuminori and learns the truth of Fuminori's new character, Kōji directly confronts Fuminori's actions and attempts to kill him.
- Kōji's girlfriend and Yō's best friend. After Fuminori's accident she has become worried for Yō's sake. After Fuminori blatantly rejects Yō, Ōmi investigates by going to Fuminori's house. Inside Fuminori's house, Ōmi is killed by Saya.
- A friend of Fuminori's who has a crush on him. Since his accident she has been worried and heartbroken at his sudden change of attitude towards the world. When she goes to investigate the disappearance of Ōmi, Yō is captured by Saya. Yō is subjected to an experiment by Saya and becomes genetically altered into the same type of creature as Saya after many hours of hideous transformation. Fuminori was then able to view Yō as he originally did afterwards. However, the change caused Yō unbearable pain and she begged Kōji to kill her later in the story, which he obliged.
- The physicianPhysicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
in charge of Fuminori's condition. She becomes suspicious that Fuminori has been hiding something during his routine checkups after he recovers from his injuries.
Soundtrack
Made by ZIZZ STUDIO.- "Schizophrenia"
- "Sabbath"
- "Seek"
- "Spooky Scape"
- "Song of Saya I"
- "Song of Saya II"
- "Sin"
- "Sunset"
- "Shapeshift"
- "Scare Shadow"
- "Scream"
- "Savage"
- "Silent Sorrow"
- , sung by Kanako ItōKanako Itois a female Japanese singer from Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan. She has sung many songs that have appeared in video games and anime. One of her notable songs in games is , the "bad end" ending theme to the visual novel School Days. Itō has also sung songs for a drama CD and anime adaptations of School...
- , sung by Kanako ItōKanako Itois a female Japanese singer from Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan. She has sung many songs that have appeared in video games and anime. One of her notable songs in games is , the "bad end" ending theme to the visual novel School Days. Itō has also sung songs for a drama CD and anime adaptations of School...