Koudai’s Way of Living
In Takuya’s flashback/dream/message from his father in Mio’s room, Koudai tells him to believe in his own way of life. This prompts Takuya to say,
As in other visions of the heavenly father, before Koudai answers, the scene ends, fading to white light. The story carries an implicit answer, for the universe of YU-NO vindicates Koudai’s view. In doing so, even outside the central incest, YU-NO consistently assumes other antihuman perspectives.
In the ADMS segment, the player discovers, at different points in different story routes, that Geo Technics, under Ayumi’s watch, allows its workers to die as part of a project to excavate Hypersense Stone from Sword Cape. In executing this operation, the company will destroy Triangle Mountain, a beloved local landmark, because of corruption involving Mayor Shimazu. The script offers a degree of sympathy to the bereaved families and depicts Toyotomi and Shimazu as guilty. But those who picket Geo Technics are depicted as ignorant, immature, foolish, dangerous rabble. They hurl eggs at Ayumi, presented as an atrocity on par with the workers who die under her watch. Another demands to “rape the shit out of” Ayumi. Others participate in the protest in complete political and social ignorance only to go with the crowd, as in the case of “Woman B” who attends only for free food.
Takuya and the authorial voice sneer at these people’s demands for justice for their loved ones killed through incompetence and corruption as “cliched words of protest.” Kanno presents Takuya as righteous for tone-policing protesters. The story fails to acknowledge that, while Toyotomi may be manipulating her, Ayumi remains responsible for the many workers who have died on her watch. As her stepson, always defensive in his lust for his mother, notes, Ayumi opposes the construction efforts. However, hesitation does not pardon a criminal negligence that she never accounts for.
Similarly, on Mio’s route, Yuuki reveals that Geo Technics has bribed Mayor Shimazu, Koudai-esque in his misogyny and violent rage, to allow this dangerous and historically destructive excavation of Sword Cape. But Yuuki’s betrayal of interpersonal trust is treated as a larger issue than the corruption that compromises democracy and has actually killed workers.
In the same manner that Takuya dismisses the protesters out of hand, he rejects whistleblowing and free speech:
Takuya continues, “‘Anonymous correspondent’ my ass. Why should we believe in the words of a coward?” The motives of the anonymous correspondent are not a noble desire to put an end to the corruption. Rather, they are base and immoral: Yuuki reveals the corruption to manipulate Mio into rejecting Takuya in favor of himself. At all opportunities, Kanno casts doubt on those who would resist institutional authority.