In a funny coincidence, the next visual novel I decided to read was ATRI -My Dear Moments-. I chose it completely randomly, and only later the same day found out on anilist that it will also have an anime adaptation airing this season. I’m looking forward to watching it now after completing the vn, since I enjoyed reading it a lot! There were many things that stood out for me in this vn, and I really liked how it managed to weave these different themes into one story. The following text won’t have any major spoilers for the story, although I will talk about some ideas I had while reading it, so if you are planning to read it or watch the anime adaptation and want to go into it blind, proceed with caution!
Since it is a story about robots and humanoids, one of the obvious themes that is explored is the question of whether robots have a soul and emotions. We do get to see both situations, of having an emotionless robot, and having a robot with feelings, or at least one who can emulate emotions as perfectly as they can. Even though logically we understand that it’s just a very well programmed AI, and the “emotions” they show is just patterns they learned from other humans… I still preferred the robot who showed feelings, and tried to learn about them, from others, and also by themselves. You can also argue that humans do the same thing though, we interact with the world and other people, and watch others interact with each other, and watch their actions and reactions, and learn from them. There isn’t much of a difference between an AI and a human learning about emotions, since we learn by the same processes.
The big difference you could think of though is that humans have consciousness – if you leave a robot without a master and no order to fulfill, it will not have any purpose to even move or take any actions. Humans, on the other hand, will sooner or later feel that pang welling up inside to do something and take action, to explore, to create, to pursue their dreams, whatever it may be, wherever it may come from. But the AI created in this world is as close to human as you can probably get – it can feel happiness, sadness, and even love, and I completely understand the people of this world for getting so attached to the robot at all.
Another theme that I liked seeing explored is Natsuki’s journey into The Academy and later his return to his hometown. For most of the time we see Natsuki struggling to not only answer other people why he quit the Academy and decided to return, but also come to terms himself of why he did that. Since Natsuki is a really smart guy, he is prone to a lot of the pitfalls that such people also have – he did not make any friends in the Academy because he thought he is better than them; he never asked for help; he made fun of the teachers. All of this came around to bite him in the back though, as he started struggling in the later years of The Academy.
We see him do a lot of mental gymnastics, giving excuses, and rationalising everything to make his reasons sound sensible, even though they evidently sound wrong. In reality, Natsuki is really hung up on the past and struggles to escape it, but it is through helping others, and accepting help from them, that he learns to move on and finally look forward towards the future. I really liked how realistic this change in Natsuki’s behavior was portrayed, as he slowly transformed from someone who tried to shoulder the weight of the world by himself and escape his faults, to becoming honest with his own feelings and wanting to cooperate with others.
Memory also plays a huge role in the story, and a lot of what drives Natsuki, Atri, and the others to research old documents and visit old places is the fact that both of them cannot remember a lot of what happened long ago, before Natsuki entered the Academy, and what kind of relationship they had, and therefore should have now. It’s not only the old documents that are important though, since Atri keeps a diary of sorts as well, which also becomes important in recording and later recalling memories that were made together.
I was always fascinated about the topic of memories and how it influences so many things in our lives, especially how we feel about things. The visual novel also gives us quite tragic glimpses of how time affects our memory, how we start to forget what is important to us. We see how a relationship can get completely destroyed by just one person not remembering things that they both shared, that were important to both of them. It is a sad fact of life that there will eventually come a time when our memories start deteriorating, and even though we are still physically alive, we are robbed of the ability to really live, because we will immediately forget what we were just doing. But while we are able to, we should really try our best to just enjoy the moment and create as many pleasant memories as we can, so that by the time we do approach the inevitable time, we can at least go out with a smile and no regrets left in our hearts.
Moving on from the more serious topics, I also really loved the humor in this novel. To be honest, in most visual novels the comedy only gets a slight corner smile and a slightly stronger than usual exhale through the nose from me, but this one made me laugh out loud at least a dozen of times. The jokes can get really unpredictable but they land so well, and even the predictable ones still give me a chuckle just because of how well they are constructed, not to mention the great voice acting helps emphasise the delivery and make them work just that much better.
Atri’s character design is also really memorable and just adorable, although I can’t say the same for the other characters, sadly they do feel generic and even the art quality sometimes feel a bit lacking, but the CGs do make up for it. The music is fitting and it’s definitely something I can listen to outside of the vn for fun, the piano parts give me the feeling of a world submerged underwater by themselves.
ATRI -My Dear Moments- is a tearjerker visual novel that will make you reconsider many things and perhaps even help you answer some questions that have been bugging you in life, not only the more complicated philosophical ones, like “what makes emotions ‘real’”, but also personal ones, like how to finally face your flaws, move on from your past, and face the future. It is definitely a recommended read from me, especially if you enjoy plots about AI and robots, post apocalyptic settings, coming-of-age dramas, and stories that make you cry. It took me about 16 hours to read (listening to all voice lines to the end), and I would score it about 8/10. If you have also read this vn or plan to watch the anime, I’m interested in your thoughts about the story as well!