"No choice" here. I'm a glutton for punishment so I guess I'll put up another post before bed. I don't wanna derail that other thread so I'll put it here. Number 293 from the post this was originally extracted deleted theirs, probably having seen my amendments. I like where this is going so... here goes =3
First of all, I have a Japanese friend I confirmed this with them about the website saying there was no other purpose or meaning to the game beyond simply being exploratory. He could have meant specifically the game play, but its wording seems to strongly imply there is no backstory. Do any of you know about Ben Yahtzee? If you play 1213 with commentary he explains how he came up with all these complex ideas and symbolism. At the end though he openly admits it was all really bullshit and the imagery actually didn't even emerge in his own head till after he had actually examined the game himself. A game HE made. I think this is also the case of Yume Nikki (and a lot of games). In a way it's our own story. Sometimes our vision is unrealized by even ourselves until the product is done.
So... of my opinions regarding the rapist theories that are floating around...
Let's start with Kyukyu-kun. I can easily understand how someone can attach sexual connotations to him. When I think about all the other weird and totally ambiguous things in this game though I just can't see the relation. For everything that someone attaches a weird rape theory to there are like ten other things that serve zero purpose. Kyukyu-kun is really no more or less ambiguous, save for he's animated and stroking the railing on a staircase.
What is interesting though is that DEATH is a theme. A very OBVIOUS theme. We may have not known if it was Madotsuki the themes referred to, but she did die at the end, so that's certainly logical. Blood spatters, dead bodies, there are suggestions of falling in several locations. These do tie directly into the ending.
This brings me to the next point... the spaceship. Does the man therein serve a purpose? No. Not really. It falls though, it crashes into the planet... sound like anyone we know? If Madotsuki's suicide is a cannon ending, and if the author indeed wanted to foreshadow, this is foreshadowing. You have a spaceship crashing into a bleak desolate world, and what is on this world? A dark place full of broken train cars and a crying beast, probably something no one would love.
The witch dream? If you decide to fall you end up tumbling out of your bed and wake up on the floor.
Ghosts are everywhere, including one of Madotsuki.
Blood spills out of the container in the mall area.
How about where you get the stoplight? It's a guy in a road, dead, this may not indicate a car accident at all, but that Madotsuki's body landed in the road. There are images of mangled bodies and limbs every where. Maybe upon impact she was hit by a car?
I can't think of anything else in particular because I haven't played in a while, but death and falling are definitely some of the most obvious theme's.
Silence and loneliness are also very serious and obvious themes. Most worlds loop in on themselves, meaning you'll wander for hours if you don't know how to search them properly. They're also very barren.
There aren't so much symbols of sex as there is of mere grotesqueness. Blood spewing out of wounds, broken limb's, sad faces are everywhere.
Even Uboa can be interpreted as a mangled face. Furthermore, uboa is a ghost in a room. Another mere indicator of death.
I honestly just don't see the rape. I see mangled and broken everywhere though.
As for having no choice, it's true, we're slaves. There is such a thing as fate and this world and they're called the laws of nature. For the same reason the earth revolves around the sun, we make decisions because of chemical information. Why do you drink water? Cause something in your head engaged you to do so. A synapses went off in your head. That's not a decision, that's a reaction to a cause. You can't have choice when you are discussing cause and effect. Cause and effect are by their very definition without choice. This isn't mainstream thinking but that doesn't make it wrong, and it's a growing opinion I'll have you know, as we discover more about neurology this becomes more clear...
Hence my opinion that the rape theories detract from the importance of Madotsuki's condition. The saddest part about this game is you don't HAVE to have a traumatic past in order to meet a tragic end. What is NOT traumatic to you is absolutely and horrendously debilitating to another, simply because of how their brain perceives the situation and how that mindset grows with continued stimulation.
However... there's a cure, and it's called education. The more information a person has available to them the more likely they are to act on alternative options and seek routes. The last thing the brain usually wants to do is die, like another poster argued against me, we ARE built to survive, however, the brain is also built to protect itself from pain, it's called fight or flight and it applies even to ones own emotions, and sometimes it concludes that death is a reasonable response. This may probably be cause of the ideas we create about death growing up. We often tell ourselves that people who are dead aren't suffering anymore... so if you're wondering where the idea of suicide is obtained, it might be that.
Madotsuki needed someone to love her... I don't think she was raped, I don't think she was confused, I think she was lonely and simply believed she would remain alone and that was painful. I regret throwing her over that railing when all she needed was someone to support her.
That... is the message of the Yume Nikki KIKIYAMA gave to us, whether it was intended or not. Reach out, acknowledge people do need help, and help them until they can help themselves.
How's that?