/t/ - Theories

Gonna list off some of the most important points of the theory that might differ from other theories.

Madotsuki is a child, I'd personally say 7 or 8 years old. She is living with her parents, who are well aware that she has problems with anxiety, but don't realize the extent to which her fears are going.
-Madotsuki generally appears very small, not just in her dream world, but in her own home in the real world. Particularly on her porch, everything is much larger than her; she's only about half as tall as the broom outside her door, she doesn't appear nearly tall enough to reach the top of her bookshelf, and let's not forget, she needs a step ladder to get over the balcony railing. She is a tiny, tiny little person, and I don't think this is what the Midget effect is talking about.
-Some of the effects seem unrealistic, in the way that an unexperienced child would probably see them. Particularly with the Knife Effect, this shows about the same level of understand of violence as a child would know: That knives are dangerous things that make blood come out. Killing things doesn't leave them maimed or dead, they just fade away, as though Madotsuki doesn't know what's *supposed* to happen when you stab something.
-Some other minor, more speculative things, in that her general outfit and hairstyle looks kind of immature, primarily in that it's baggy and unattractive. The way that she seems to be covering up as much of her skin as possible may contribute to the rape theories, but I think it could apply to some other kind of paranoid fear of her own, like that she needs to keep warm to keep from catching a cold, something like that.

Now for the meanings of the Effects.

-Monster Effects: A good third of the effects relate to monsters, which is where her childish anxiety plays in. Though she's at an age where the reality of death is becoming more apparent and she's desperately trying to understand what causes it, she's not entirely sure what's real and what isn't, and her fear of monsters is still bad enough for her to worry about their existence, making them appear in her dream as effects. (I'd say this applies to Yuki-onna, Nopperabou, Medamaude, Triangle Kerchief, Witch, Demon, and possibly even Cat effects. The red eyes makes me think of some version of Bakeneko that I saw in a game.)

-Health related effects; many of the effects can be seen as health related concerns Mado has; the Fat effect is obvious; The towel effect is her recovering from a cold; the Hat and Scarf effect goes with her wanting to stay warm and keep from getting a cold; the Umbrella effect is for similar reasons, and also seems to imply her own thought that it'll rain whenever she takes it out; Stoplight is for her own fear of getting hit by cars, or that she just wants everything to stop what its doing because she finds it to be unsafe; Severed Head would relate to one classic disturbing fun facts that children learn, that people's heads continue to be alive for extended periods of times after coming off; the Bicycle effect could quite likely be relating to health as well. Finally, the knife effect could vaguely relate to these, in that she's observing how dangerous they can be, but I'd also believe that she's taking out some amount of anger, relating to the next kind of effects.

-People. These effects relate to more specific aspects of Madotsuki's life, but are all generally things that a young girl would experience living in an urban environment, and particularly how she interacts with people. We have the hair effects, which are her reflection on her lack of fashion appeal, as she considers trying some other hair styles. (I think two of them also coincide with two other girls in the game; The blonde effect for Poniko, and the Long Hair effect for Monoe.) The poop hair effect is her rejecting fashion, that she just thinks caring about her hair is stupid; there's much more important things to be worrying about. Then there's the Midget effect, which is her feeling insignificant in the world due to being a child. (AGAIN. SHE'S A YOUNG TYKE.)

Naturally, this still leaves a few effects that weren't mentioned, namely Buyo-Buyo, Neon, Frog, and Lantern; I just can't come up with any significance they might have.

Finally, I'll run down some of the events and locations in the game as they could relate to a little girl with an anxiety disorder.

-Toriningen are girls that bully her, all much more stylish than her, taller than her, better proportioned, and wearing creepy, cartoonish grins as they laugh at her.
-Numbers world is her fear of school; loud bells chiming, halls that twist and are easy to get lost in, mathematical equations everywhere, and lots of people laughing at her, as well as Toriningen representing school bullies.
-Road in the woods with dead body; Mado's fear of "People can get hit by cars and die if they're not careful!"
-Snow world is a fear of getting lost in the snow and possibly freezing to death; the presence of a Yuki-Onna drives this home the most.
-Mars-San is a fear of alienation and loneliness, maybe even homelessness, that she'll end up like him, alone in a dark place, and crying.
-Sky Garden is a precursor to her suicide; she goes high up, and contemplates jumping from the cliff. Note that this is also how she gets to the realm of the dead and finds the ghost effect.
-Just note the general theme of things going wrong in her dreams. Poniko's room turns into a nightmare, Monoko mutates into a horrible monster, Masada's ship crashes, FACE, Falling during the witch even; there's an incredibly prevalent theme that goes with the mindset similar to someone with an anxiety disorder, of "Anything that could possibly go wrong *will* go wrong."

All in all, the main point I'm trying to make with the theory is that there isn't any kind of big event that made Mado take the turn of hiding in her room. She wasn't involved in a car accident, she didn't have Seccom Masada as a piano teacher, she wasn't even raped. The center of it all is an anxiety disorder, that makes her an introverted, scared little girl, and causes the horrible turn of events that we see in the game, as well as her severely disturbed subconscious.

Anyways. Share yer' thoughts, criticize it, or w/e.

Not everything has to relate directly to anxiety disorder, I think. Mado can ride bike because it's the fastest mode of transport in her real life. Also maybe some of the anthromorphic stuff like lantern may be just because little children tend to imagine every object in the world to be the same as they, that is, sentient. I believed normal cars were the children of trucks and buses. Mado may at least in her dreams believe she can turn into a lamp or frog. Or that lamps and frogs can think and feel like she does. Frog can also stand for turning one's back to human society. It is actually useful, but no one could live in a city like that. It's also found in a forest.
Neon could be about alienation from one's self. At least it makes Mado's body look alien.

Btw your theory is good.

>>1629

I much prefer my theory that Numbers World is a fear of hospitals. It's probably a bunch of other similar places to hospitals - cold, clinical places that try to be friendly but come off as almost industrial and frightening.

The numbers help make it look impersonal.

If you read my trans theory thread(I think on Page 3) You'll see a fair amount of support for it being a hospital.

I saw your post, and I have to admit, a hospital sounds more probable than a school. I always kind of left out the part about the beds, but that would make sense for them to represent hospital beds. I also really like the idea of the Stabbing Room representing surgery or flowing blood, that's creepy on a level I totally didn't see coming. >_>

Though, while my theory about it being a school has far more holes in it, I'm still not entirely sold on it being a hospital either, at least not in the ways you've mentioned. A lot of the things that you connect to being sexual organs and so on just seem too Freudian in nature. Like, if he wanted it to connotate a transgender conflict, I think there's much more direct images/shapes that he could have used rather than things like "Two circles = Testicles" or "Rod shaped object=Penis." I think the point of Numbers world is more of a fear of people in general, with how the walls are lined with smiling faces, rather than the entire body, because really the only imagery I see depicting any other parts of the body are the hands and arms on the walls and the legs that the NPCs have. The blue thing in the Stabbing Room… I'm not really sure. But I'm still more inclined to see it as a face than phalloplasty surgery. If it had more of a body-shape to it, then I'd go for it, but it just seems *really* vague to say that it looks like a torso with breasts and a semi-penis.

Reconsidering my theory about the world, I'm thinking that maybe it really is just a fear about being in places with lots of people in general? Again, the world is very loud, the walls are oddly shaped and covered in faces that are looking at her in goofy ways, denoting crowds of people. You've also got the few NPCs that are walking around periodically with parts of faces on their "bodies", and of course, one extremely crowded room with eyes darting back and forth, which could represent a room that's absolutely stuffed with people. (Reminds me of a video I saw of a Japanese subway, where they literally had to push people into the doors to fit them all inside.) This could connect to claustrophobia, particularly with crowds. The Toriningen takes Mado to all sorts of closed off spaces, but when she takes her to the one in Numbers world? The one with faces looking at her? There's the letter A on the floor, that of course, turns into "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" if you step on it, more commonly used to denote the sound of screaming. Most importantly, Mado feels like people are out to get her, as though they all feel malice towards her. So the presence of the Toriningen, girls who want to ignore/get back at Mado, seems to reinforce this; note that they appear alongside the guillotine, a device used for public execution.

I also didn't discuss my theory about FACE here, but the fact that you get to him by entering a door that looks like a door to your room made me think that it's a really intense kind of denial, that she knows that hiding in her room is bad for her, but the conflict of knowing that she has to leave and face the real world is just so frightening to her that she wakes up. Connecting with this idea, this could very easily also serve as an explanation for the beds lying around, returning to the whole theme of sleep that the game has.