Sousaku Kanojo no Ren'ai Koushiki In-Depth Analysis (Spoilers) – The Suffering Artist and Depictions of Creatives In Fiction

Sunday, September 13, 2026

Idealisation And Ego

Sousaku Kanojo is fascinating for how it steps on every rake in the shed of rakes which is depicting creatives in fiction. It is such a prime example of the issues inherent in dealing with this topic that I cannot help but want to pick it apart in more detail. So here we are, a long form look at the game where I can showcase the many dangers awaiting developers when they stray into these waters. In doing this I hope to understand why this kind of story ends up being so hard to get right.

This is not to say Sousaku Kanojo is a bad game since, as I covered in my review here, it has some strong characters and great emotional moments. However, there is a constant feeling of this being a title pulled in two directions, its love for creatives and the need for romance. It makes no attempt to hide which half it actual cares about. Spoilers will be constant and unfiltered so you have been warned. Now let’s unveil this plague of geniuses and see what ails them.

Toxic Love- Narrative Analysis

-Common Route-

The problems with the game’s fixation on creatives are strangely absent in the common route with its focus being on the struggles undergone by the cast to continue their craft. Many of my praises for the game overall were aimed at this section and its long length cements it within the memory. Yet in hindsight the overuse of major character events in the common route should have been a clue to the eventual weakness of the heroine routes. The use of Kiriha’s conflict with her parents so early on was an odd choice give how central its resolution is to her character arc. It is revisited during her route, but the impact has been lost since this is the second time it has been used and the player is familiar with the emotions involved. Saving this conflict for her route would have made more sense since it would have been a perfect compliment to the routes overall ideas rather than relying on the contrived problems. Yumemi has a similar issue in the use of her conflict with Yuina being spent really early rather than being slowly built towards a climax in her route. Once again the game has to lean on a contrivance to create conflict in her route rather than using the perfectly good source it has pre-emptively utilised when it could have been saved. Both of these sections are well put together and compliment the core emotional direction of the common route and its wide character spread. Yet if they where relocated to their respective routes it could have provided a more concise experience while lending believable narrative beats to a wider spread of the game.

-Kiriha Route-

Of all the routes living in Aisa’s shadow, Kiriha’s route is one of the only ones to mostly come out unscathed from the many issues which plague the others. Part of this is the way the romance is handled with Kiriha’s being pulled in two directions, one by her future career prospects and another by her feelings for Toshiki. It is fun to see her struggle with these emotions just as Toshiki is also doing and this leads to a suitably dramatic confession between a pair of characters who cannot be honest with their own feelings. Unfortunately since the narrative has already used the conflict with Kiriha’s parents it is left with only one way to escalate the stakes which is to have their relationship being discovered and this is a little too predictable an event. This also extends to Toshiki getting attacked by the rabid fan since it is signalled too well for it to have the punch the game wanted it to have. Toshiki gets over being stabbed really quickly and the game spends no time dealing with the effects and recovery from being stabbed so he just gets over it off screen in a disappointing manner. Instead the focus is on Kiriha’s lost voice which, given how much her life is centred around it, is appropriate, but the whole situation feels a little contrived (although nowhere near as much as some elements in other routes). Having Toshiki write a story so person to him and Kiriha that it gets through to her and breaks the trauma is a cute way to end things and fits the nature of the pair’s relationship.

-Erena Route-

This route suffers from the problem of the common route taking all the major conflicts in a different way to the others. Rather than choosing a weaker plot point for its arc, it instead repeats the arc about Toshiki’s feelings of inferiority towards COLORLESS just passed through the lens of their new romance. As a result there is a strong sense of deja-vu throughout this route since the pair’s relationship adds just enough for story to feel different but still feels like something the player has already witness. In addition, it runs afoul of another recurring issue of Sousaku Kanojo, the player barely gets to see any of the writers’ actual work. What this means is that they are constantly told by the cast how amazing COLORLESS’ and Toshiki’s work is but are never shown so it all comes across as very hollow. There is nothing to back up these compliments, like a fighter telling you how powerful they are without showing anything, so Toshiki’s feelings of inferiority feel misplaced from the player’s perspective and it is difficult to empathise with his struggles against them. However, the vastly different views of Erena and Toshiki’s about what is important creates some great emotional moments where they are just talking passed each other with no common ground. Seeing the pair slowly try and reconcile these difference is a nice climax to their messy relationship while putting a bow on their feelings.

-Yumemi Route-

Yumemi has by far the most messy route with a wide range of issues. Initially all seems fine, her struggles with her feelings for Toshiki and the way she wildly bounces around between the methods she uses to hide them are amusing to watch. It make the moment the pair become a couple a point of meaningful catharsis for the player since her internal conflict was so apparent. Then she just forgets how to draw, not forgets how to draw well, just forgets how to draw full stop. Somehow she has become completely incapable of drawing even on a technical level which is just the most ridiculously forced conflict in the entire game. Even a person suffering from a creative block can still produce something regardless of whether it is good or not, but just forgetting is absurd especially when she gets it all back later even faster. This is a plot contrivance plain and simple, one so obvious it is difficult to suspend your disbelief.

Yet it gets worse when Toshiki’s obsession with creatives rears its ugly head and results in the pairs continued relationship being predicated on Yumemi remaining a creative since this is the version of her he is in love with. Despite the game’s efforts to frame this as a positive, since it allows Yumemi to get her drawing skills back, it is clearly a toxic relationship which could collapse at any moment. The question should be put to Toshiki if he is real in love with Yumemi or just the idea of her as a creator with the latter being an unhealthy way to build a romance. A small tangent, but why did the game bring up the fact she dyes her hair blonde? It creates this weird issue with her sister who appears to have naturally blonde hair since she is shown to have it even from a young age in flashbacks. This means the pair have different natural hair colours so they might have different parents yet this is never brought up again nor explained even with a dismissive comment. It feels like this was meant to be a plot point in an earlier version of the script but it did not make the cut so this weird fact is just left hanging there without resolution.

-Aisa Route-

Now we reach the main heroine and the person who casts a long shadow over the entire of Sousaku Kanojo. It is a route characterised by good ideas which end up botched in execution. First among these is Aisa’s illness, it is a magical nonsense illness, we are never given any specifics about it other than it is killing her and it otherwise does not effect her life unless the plot demands it or she is off screen. This immediately set the tone of contrivance which stays with the story until its end since the illness is clearly a plot device rather than something grounded in any form of reality. If it were not such a central element to her character it could be brushed aside, but under the condition it is constantly shoved in the player’s face to try and buy sympathy. This attempt is undermined even more by the existence of a treatment for her condition which she refuses to undergo for no reason other than because the plot demands it. Why even bring it up if you have no intent to use it as a get out clause? All this achieves is undermining any idea of tragedy and presents the characters as utterly stupid while lacking any form of self preservation.

Yet there is still some power to this tragedy and a clear spectre of death hangs over Aisa and Toshiki’s remaining time together. The struggles of their love and the determination to be together despite this promise of doom provide an emotional weight to their actions and it has the player rooting for them. It is also the route with the most broad character resolutions with all the heroines getting their time to wrap up their feelings and even the secondary cast gets their moments to shine. As the end approaches Aisa’s gradual collapse heightens the tragedy and pushes the narrative towards a natural climax as the pair rush to complete the story they are writing together. However, the ending is so short and abrupt as to completely take the player out of the experience since it lacks the necessary sense of resolution and is extremely unclear at times. It is almost as if the developers lost interest the moment Aisa died and wanted to get the whole thing over with as fast as possible.

Then there is the way her survival is framed as the ‘bad’ ending among the route epilogues. Throughout this section it constantly pushes the idea that her death in the main game was the best outcome possible. However, it does not make a convincing argument when this surviving version of Aisa, completed the game they were writing, survived the operation and then found a new reason to create again. If anything it seems like this is a completely perfect ending yet the player can feel the game's constant dismissal of this fact. This is because the game puts the ideal of the suffering artist on a pedestal and Aisa’s death is the ultimate sacrifice for her art and it is lessened by her survival. I should not have to point out how absolutely absurd this notion is, but I will do so anyway later on in this article since it plays into the game’s overall fixation of creatives. In many ways Toshiki is the developer’s stand in during this route and it does not create a pretty picture of them.

Suffering As Virtue – Stray Thoughts

-The Lie of Genius-

At every turn the idea of geniuses is presented to the player and these people are placed at a level unattainable by mere mortals with abilities which just magically produce wonders. This is a fairly standard narrative pushed by media and society with countless examples of it to be found throughout our culture. However, it is a complete farce. Point to any so called genius and you will find that they had to work long and hard to achieve what they did. This ‘magical’ power they have is merely the result of an intense human endeavour built upon the knowledge and skills of those who came before. Certainly some people have a natural talent or spark for certain areas which make this easier for them, yet they too much put in the effort in order to achieve anything. Should they just lounge around then they will not have the world handed to them on a platter, just like everyone else.

It is this truth which Sousaku Kanojo struggles to balance with its fascination with the myth of genius. All the heroines to one extent or another fit into the game’s interest in the genius. Aisa and Erena pull best selling stories out of the aether with little to no effort and Yumemi creates professional level artwork without much in the way of training. It is with Kiriha where the game somewhat acknowledge the effort which goes into her craft and the cut-throat world of the VA industry. This is also why it makes an effort to segregate her from the other heroines as much as possible to avoid comparisons between them. The narrative uses Toshiki as the everyman stand in and makes it a point to constantly highlight how inferior he is to the geniuses, in particular COLORLESS, to the point it often comes across as funny since he seems so desperate to compare himself to others just to feel this inferiority. When the geniuses demonstrate their skills it is done with an almost magical reverence where it pushes aside any thought about the practical nature of the work being done and instead wraps it in mysticism. Overall, it is just feels strange and disconnected with reality in a story meant to be set in our present day world.

-Creatives Writing About Creatives-

As I mentioned in my review Sousaku Kanojo suffers from the standard set of problems which appear when creatives create stories about creators. These being a general self congratulatory tone and putting their craft on a pedestal. In particular the value of the creative is tied up with the idea of the game or book or artwork touching the hearts of many people and presenting this as something of inherently great worth. Part of this is just an inevitability born from how the need for drama in a narrative pushes it to make sweeping statements and attribute value so it can have stakes and make the cast appear to be striving towards a worthwhile goal. This is mostly the case for Sousaku Kanojo’s failings on this front, it is caught between the developer’s own need for self value and the story’s need to be engaging.

However, let us interrogate the notion accidentally put forward by this game and see what we can extract from it. The assign of importance to the number of people who feel something for a cultural product is not without real world comparisons. Throughout history there have been countless such works which has shaped the cultural context of their times and even ours for certain extremely special titles. As such it is easy to see the line of logic a creative which might them to feeling their craft possesses a major role in the shaping of the world. Yet how many works have been created over the course of our life times? Far more than any one person will ever experience and the majority of them will be forgotten if they are even remembered in the first place. These form the majority of creative endeavours and do not have an impact. It is into this camp which the works of Sousaku Kanojo fit so the question must be asked if they have worth despite the fact they will be washed away. Of course the answer is yes, but what Sousaku Kanojo does not understand is that it a less grand value and not something to be put on a pedestal. Instead it is a broader enrichment of the lives of those the works touch in combination with the rest of its medium rather than in isolation or competition. The real world is a complex painting made of different strokes which come together to form the value of this endeavour.

-The Main Heroine And The Suffering Artist-

Having a main heroine is a common feature in visual novels and especially so in more plot focused ones. Many end up with a similar problem of them overshadowing the rest of the cast as is found in Sousaku Kanojo, but few end up with quite the same level of messy execution when trying to capitalise on it. This stems from the game’s fixation on framing Aisa through the idealised lens of the suffering artist. In a similar vein to its interest in geniuses, it puts forwards this idea of those who suffer for their craft as being able to produce uniquely powerful works. However, when thought about in any depth or when bringing in real world examples it starts to crumble given the people involved would have much rather not have suffered and were capable of producing excellent art even if they were not in constant misery.

Aisa is not a real person so can be contorted into the form of a suffering artist without much effort due to the illness she has been given by the developers. In this light it is understandable for someone to strive to leave something of meaning behind in the face of their own death. Yet as mentioned earlier, it constantly undermines this seemly cut and dry outline first through the existence of a possible cure and secondly through an epilogue where she survives. Why do either of these exist? Both actively weaken the premise of her as a suffering artist by pointing out how her continued suffering is at her own hands or through placing her death on a twisted pedestal. If they had merely made her death an inevitability and a final note with any epilogue being focused on those who were left behind then this would have been a fairly clean narrative. In both case of undermining the clean story they push the suffering artist ideal by having her choose the suffering to give her art meaning and being an empty vessel without the suffering to drive her. There is also a flippant attitude towards those who are either want her to survive or are happy that she lived. It is treated as if they do not understand the value of what Aisa is doing and her role as a suffering artist rather than the people in her life who actually care about her well-being. Ultimately by pushing this suffering artist angle they miss the very human story of Aisa’s suffering and the potential for a meaningful impact to be left on the player.

Conclusion

Despite what I have said over the course of this analysis, my opinion of Sousaku Kanojo is fairly neutral as shown in my review of it. Realistically not many people outside of myself are going to understand the nuances of the game’s presentation of creatives and instead just view it as a fairly normal romance visual novel. I have been withholding a small piece of information which is the reason I am so interested in the issues with Sousaku Kanojo, it won multiple awards as the best visual novel in 2021(Moe Award Grand Prize and Getchu’s award). The reason for this may well be the way it frames the creation of a visual novel as a special act and the many things I have criticised might well be viewed in a better light if this is want the player wants to hear from it. What is also interesting is this was the same year as Lupercalia of the Silent Accord’s release, another title about creatives (this time actors) I have reviewed and it got third place in the Getchu’s award. This game could not have a more different view about geniuses and what it means to love your craft. It too suffers from the challenge of trying to create an engaging story about creatives without coming across as self congratulatory to varying degrees of success. Both have their many flaws, yet in the end it is the one closer to standard form of visual novel structure which ends up having the broader appeal. Does this make one better than the other? I’ll leave that for you to judge.