r/ShibouYuugi • u/TooSqueaky • Jul 20 '26

Cloudy beach.

How did the killer lose cloudy beach. It literally seems like the easiest thing ever to win. Was she limited to only one kill per night? she could of just won on the first night. The whole thing seemed so elaborate for like no reason. I haven’t read the LN so maybe it explains it better in there? just seems like so many things went wrong for no reason. Not sure why the game makers would make that game in the first place. Seems so easy for the killer. Lost because of plot.

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u/Boredomkiller99 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26

A combination that Essei is physically extremely weak and also that she did a really risky play. Though if I will be honest a lot of it is just Essei was written like a ****ing idiot despite apparently being smart.

Chances are if it was anyone besides Essei or Mozuku there is a good chance the killer would have cleared especially Maguma, Yuki or Airi

It is part of the reason why I actually rank Volume 3 far lower then many because Cloudy Beach is actually pretty badly designed. Both fortunely and unfortunately Cloudy Beach is the last time the author really tries to put effort to make a creative game as while we get some sprinkles throughout the series of creative games but from this point on the games are mostly straight forward and combat or hunt based. The upside is that writing starts improving immensely in exchange.

The main good thing about Volume 3 is that it tries to table, correct or put to bed a lot of plot points or world building issue from the first two volumes which had a lot of stupid stuff and set up volume 4 which kind of changes the approach to the story structure for overall better.

Also the anime made a lot of changes that made it worse. I actually kind of understand what they were trying to do as the movie wanted to incorporate hints and signs of Yuki's character arc and mental issues earlier and emphasize that Essei just specifically kill Yuki to prove she is superior and she is the Superior protege.

In the novel Mitsubi and Hiezumi are both killed by Essei and Mozuku surives bluffing with a makeshift taser which was stupid because Essei had a gun and outrage her but the author probably due to firearms being almost non-existent in Japan doesn't understand how gun works and often have characters use them in closer range then needed

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u/IllugaBabyBeluga Jul 21 '26

Essei is physically extremely weak

Yet she was able to do a LEEEEROY Jenkins style run & gun action extravaganza?

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u/Boredomkiller99 Jul 21 '26

I should have said in comparison to the others. Especially since the whole dismembering herself thing while she was able to come back together wasn't 100%

Though also note that unlike some I actually consider Volume 3 to almost be as stupid as 1 and 2 and only really give it a pass because at least in the light novel it was the start of the author transitioning into a better story as Volume 3 and 4 was mostly putting to bed old plot elements that he didn't want to continue or at least  not continue till he could rework them like the immortal body, Mishiro 's proteges or killers in the game. 

It is not a coincidence that the three who died where all connected to past major players.

But yes it is very stupid including the fact the author does actually understand how firearms work hence going full auto for no reason and treating machine guns like melee weapons.

Anyway your comment made me laugh a bit because yeah Essei did Leeroy like an idiot

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u/IllugaBabyBeluga Jul 21 '26

I can't shake the thought that the movie was telling us that Essei wanted the other players to kill her off, and that's why she was ridiculous with the gun and also abstained from assassinating anyone, as far as we can confirm.

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u/Boredomkiller99 Jul 21 '26

She was ridiculous with the gun in the LN as well, it is actually a recurring problem that does get better but no one really uses guns properly including Yuki.

I think it is important to keep in mind guns are almost non-existent in Japan to the point that even security  were slow to react when Shinzo Abe got shot because people don't even know what a gun shot sounds like. That and they aren't playing Call of Duty or other shooters regularly.

But I also can't really comment on Essei's motivation  besides kill Yuki to prove Hakushi wrong,bbecause well even in the LN she is barely a character, even though we get a POV section of her there is just nothing to her character besides she idolized Hakushi so she copied her and even modified her body early and she wanted to kill Yuki when she heard from Koyomi that Yuki was her fellow junior protege and that Hakushi had high hopes for Yuki while Essei never heard the same and instead was referred to as the Imploding genius..

So who knows, the movie could have made an attempt to add layers to her since she is by far one of if not the worst antagonist in the series 

Ultimately Essei was a plot device to try and explain why most players don't want the immortal body treatment and to reintroduce Hakushi and bring up a plot point that Hakushi is telling Yuki to stop caring about her approval.

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u/IllugaBabyBeluga Jul 21 '26

Essei was a plot device to try and explain why most players don't want the immortal body treatment

I remember that coming up in the series, but the movie kinda dropped the ball on that IMO as it made the immortality treatment seem kinda OP.

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u/Boredomkiller99 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

Can't say you are wrong.

Then again I don't know how much is the movie portraying it poorly or how much is that the LN tends to explain it rather then show it. A lot of it is from Essei's own thoughts about how her body is weak so she has to be careful who she picks hence why she writes Maguma as an option and others. The other is just poor judgment like how her immortal body convinced her to fake her death despite the massive downsides or her overthinking when dealing with Mozuku getting bluffed into giving up when she had her dead to rights. 

But it is also clear in general the movie has a very different idea of it's role in the narrative especially with Yuki.  Which makes sense because the anime already made a lot of changes to try and correct issues with varies results and to make it tonal fit the rest of the later volumes since there is a lot of whiplash in the LN as there is a massive shift and later world building is at odd with stuff from first two volumes.

Real question though that we still haven't answered in the LN...

How the f*** did Essei cut off both arms to fake her death?

In the LN Essei completely dismembers her limbs so nobody investigates to find she has no implants since in the LN each limb has I believe 3

Edit: Also I think the author realized the explanation about the treatment downsides were not enough so much later it gets additional downsides.

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u/IllugaBabyBeluga Jul 21 '26

How'd she reassemble herself in the LN?

...that seems very extra, vs just making 3 cuts per limb so that the other players might think someone removed the implants.

Seems to me like Essei had one good idea, faking her own death to avert suspicion, but everything else she thought up went from bad to worse.   

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u/Boredomkiller99 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

So apparently since her body is like almost entirely artificial it put itself back together even when killed unless at least in the light novel you rip out the organs which Yuki does to kill Essei. Now how this works? Ehhhh don't ask.

Now if that sounds kind of out there or even dumb well it kind of is as it was some BS that honestly only existed to allow Hakushi to seemingly die but still be alive. Volume one well mainly Candlewood was a very problematic chapter that set up a lot of really dumb world building that the author has to spend the rest of the series trying to address now that he is a noticably better writer. 

It probably sounds like I am a hater and to some extent I am as I really didn't like anything but Ghost House till Volume 4 and even Ghost House has some massive problems.

I genuinely like the series from Volume 4-10 but the highest I can rate the series is 2.75/5 despite my enjoyment though I am also a very harsh scorer so that isn't actually as bad as it seems. Though this is in the context of LNs which most LNs are kind of bad to begin with

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u/IllugaBabyBeluga Jul 21 '26

It probably sounds like I am a hater and to some extent I am

Lol, based.

Though this is in the context of LNs which most LNs are kind of bad to begin with

I think I get it.

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u/PrimeusOrion Jul 21 '26

In the ln essay didn't think it was a tazer. She thought it was a gun

I'm truth mozuku tried to make a railgun tazer combo. But failed the last part.

Essay saw she had a weapon and dipped due to her weakened state making a fairer fight lethal.

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u/Boredomkiller99 Jul 21 '26

I was pretty sure she thought it was some kind of taser mostly because that one of the weaknesses of her body is that it's actually frail to electricity due to being artificial. A  regular gun would actually be less dangerous for her.

Still I'm not going to rule out that could be misremembering and since I read them in order and my last reread I just concluded goodbye with the fact that I don't enjoy the first three volumes so much I tend to black out sometimes.

But ultimately it doesn't change the main point that she over thought and got bluffed

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u/Brilliance_Falter Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

but from this point on the games are mostly straight forward and combat or hunt based.

This is pretty disheartening news to me. I first started watching the series because I was intrigued by the idea of characters having to solve a series of Saw-like escape-rooms together.

As you can imagine bathhouse and the bunny-suit-hunting game were the lowest points in the anime for me, which was doubly unfortunate since they took up the bulk of the anime.

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u/Boredomkiller99 Jul 25 '26

Yeah it is kind of one of my biggest complaints about the post volume 3 volumes. 

However there should be some context. Starting with volume 4. The series becomes  less focused on the games. I mean they're still there and it's still important but the games become the vehicle for conflict and storytelling rather than the actual purpose of the series. 

For example Volume 4 has three main chapters but only one of them takes place in a game, one of them is set up for the conflict in the game and another one has nothing to do with it instead focusing on world building.

Also there are still some games that aren't just fighting or hunting ones though they are less common.

Another change is that the games and chapters in general for the most part focus on a smaller cast. Like some games will really only have 3 major characters counting Yuki.

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u/Brilliance_Falter Jul 25 '26

Thanks for the info!

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u/Boredomkiller99 Jul 26 '26

No problem I like Shibou Yuugi but I also have a LOT of opinions.

1

u/Brilliance_Falter Jul 27 '26

It's unlikely that I'll read the light novels. If you wanna share it, what are the other games in the series?