Saku Saku: Love blooms under the Cherry Blossoms (Tina)
This is technically the final path you can get as it requires you to play through Anna's story first. I guess technically you could play Ann's first and then Tina's but I think they wait to save it to last for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is of course is it tells a great deal of information about the MC Yuma and about other things dealing with Soul Reapers and Tina's story itself.
Let me make something very clear here as well, this story is extremely emotional and a heck of a rollercoaster ride. It focuses heavily on subjects that some may not be able to cope with or deal with. There is a great deal of discussion dealing with death, souls, afterlife, as well as discussion dealing with Lolicons. Even with that though the story told in Tina's path is one that I can say is one of the best ones in this VN. While I liked Kanomi's route too I think Tina's is also well done and well told.
Tina as you probably have already guessed from the other blogs and from the introduction here is a Soul Reaper. It is also stated that she is the younger sister of Rina, the Soul Reaper that gave her own life to save Yuma's. Tina is young in mind and appearances though per what Anna says she is technically the same age as Yuma and Mio. She lacks commonsense and a basic understanding of the world around her. She is extremely nice and kind and a bit of an airhead.
Tina also has a familiar that keeps her company and acts as her guardian when she is away from the rest of the family. Kotoru in his hidden form is a dog like a plushie that she usually has to lay on her head. While in this form he tends to be very quiet and very still. However, when it is just Yuma, Anna, or Tina around he will speak to them when he feels that is needed.
When Tina and Rina appeared or were 'born' into this world it was Anna and her Soul Reaper half Elenora that found them and took it upon themselves to teach them the way of the world and how to become Soul Reapers. Tina's older sister Rina grew to be very capable at being a Soul Reaper while learning under Elenora, Tina on the other hand realized she didn't have what it took to be a Soul Reaper. Rina then gave her life to Yuma and with her older sister gone she relied heavily on Anna. Anna knew however that Tina would have to start to reap souls or one day her life would also expire.
Over time with Tina leaving Anna's place and instead of staying at Yuma's due to not agreeing with Anna and Elenora it was Yuma and Tina that grew close. Tina of course tells Yuma and the others she's a Love Fairy. Though Yuma knows the truth that she is in fact a soul reaper. It isn't until Yuma begins to have strong feelings for her that he is told the truth about Tina's past and how it was her older sister that not only saved Yuma but was the one that reaped the soul of his mother upon her death.
It is explained that a Soul Reaper has two jobs and a unique way to sustain their lives which is how they live as immortals. The first job is to reap the souls of the dead. When a person dies a Soul Reaper will come and take their soul and hold on to it. It is during this stage in the process that a Soul Reaper will be able to have full access to the memories of the person whose soul they have taken. These memories become a part of the Soul Reaper and the emotions, thoughts, feelings, and everything associated with that soul ingrains itself into the Soul Reaper. Regret, Hatred, Loneliness, Love, Happiness, and the like are transmitted to the Reaper.
Soul Reapers live off the memories they obtain. They are able to consume them which erases them from their memory as well. The second job a Soul Reaper is to do is to take that soul it has reaped and place it into a new body, so souls are reincarnated from one living being to another when one dies, it will later find its way into a newborn. The Soul Reapers refer to this as 'Ferrying a soul'. Anna and Yuma have at times referred to this process as the more 'angelic' side of the Soul Reapers work, though Elenora tells them that Soul Reapers are not angels.
After finding out about Tina's past and her connection to Yuma from the time he was a child, he becomes aware of the fact that Tina who has shown him a great deal of love may not be doing it for the reasons he thought. Is she showing him, love, because she really loves him, or is she showing him love because she believes that he is the incarnation of her sister. It is this thinking that pushes him to ask her directly and to confess his own feelings to her.
Upon his confession, at first, she hesitates and tells him she isn't sure how she really feels, that she hasn't really thought about it. Taking that in a way to believe that she has rejected him, he decides to take some time away. It is during this time that Kotaro who has for the most part stayed out of their affairs takes a stand with Tina. "You need to decide if you are in love with the man Yuma, or if you are in love with the thought of him being your incarnated sister...but if it's the latter...I won't help you." In his own way, Kotaro knew how she really felt but knew she most likely needed a push.
After some time Yuma and Tina begin dating and they are found out first by Yuri and her sister Hanako who catches the two kissing at school when Tina came to visit Yuma after she had rejected him. Of course, Hanako told Anna, and eventually, that leads to the rest of the Student Council knows.
Time progresses and the two become even closer and eventually, Tina and Yuma have their first sexual act followed by going all the way, (yes that means H-scenes). It is during this time that Tina begins to sleep a lot and this leads to Yuma asking Anna about it. Elenora however answers that because she isn't reaping souls she is losing her own life force. Yuma pleads with Tina to do something about it by reaping a soul. He tells her that he couldn't imagine life without her and he wants her to stay with him.
She agrees to do that, and days later Elenora picks her up and takes her to reap a soul of a young girl who is soon to pass. Tina asks to see her prior to her taking her soul and Elenora agrees. And thus the very next day Tina reaps the soul and returns home with the girl's memories become her own. It is the following day that the reality of what Tina did and what dark secrets has been hidden from Yuma and others.
Tina comes to school unannounced and finding Sou, Yuma's friend and Vice President of the Student Council, and proceeds to deliver a hard slap. After slapping him she leaves by saying that, 'you're the worst, your scum'. Afterwords Sou plays it off that he probably deserved it for something though he didn't know what. It is later that he talks about a family member passing and how he would be out of school but would rather go chasing skirts than attend the funeral.
With Yuma aware from speaking with Tina after she left the school he knew that the girl whose soul she had taken was Sou's cousin and his former 'lover'. Knowing this and seeing how he acted pissed Yuma off and they got into a verbal argument. Soon after that things sped up and eventually Yuma and Sou with the help of Tina were able to reconcile and Sou admitted that he was the worst. Soon after they confessed, she fell ill with a disease that she had for a bit. But instead of getting better, she started to get worse. After months in the hospital, Sou broke up with her. A few days later she fell into a coma and remained that way until she finally passed.
Tina was then tasked with taking the girl's soul and placing it into a new baby, which she did, and with great skill, even Elenora was impressed. However soon she would start to sleep again and longer than before. It is then that Kotaru admits he hadn't paid much attention to her condition and now he knew that she hadn't consumed any of the memories of the girl she had reaped and in doing so she had reached a point where she could no longer be saved.
A year would pass, Anna graduated and stayed close by to help Yuma who had became the next Student Council President. She also imparted some unusual words to him saying that he should go back to where it all began. Coupled with a strange feeling he made his way to the spot where he had died, been saved, and met Tina. Tina upon her death reached into another world where she was reunited with her sister Rita, it was there that they spoke of Tina's lover. With that discussion, Tina was told she would be sent back by God.
Yuma and Tina were reunited and the rest of their story is left untold but it is safe to say that the story ended on a better note than it looked like it was going to. I am not going to lie here, I honestly told myself that if they killed her off I'd have a bone to pick with the writer of this VN...of course, he brought her back so I guess I'll let this person slide.
All in all this Visual Novel was a pretty long novel and that makes it all the better. The characters are done well and their development proceeds in a nice fashion. I find that the longer a VN draws out the easier a transition there is for the characters, compared to shorter VN's where they rush you into seeing a transformation that is almost impossible that quickly. Music was done well, but honestly, I turned it off and played other music. Voice overs are all in Japanese which is fine and they do a good job so no complaints on that either.
A part of me wants to see some after stories much like Sabbat of the Witch had. Though I don't see many VN's doing that, the fact is that there are some that do. I would have liked to see how each one ended up after some time. But I guess we can leave that to the imagination as well. In the end, I highly recommend this VN to anyone and would love to see more people get interested in this VN.
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