I thought that while I was reading it too.

One thing that stood out to me is how he paints his walls with something that's comforting to him, but shocking and weird to everyone else. Normal people see it and think "how can he stand to be surrounded by this? Is he insane?" But it's the only way he can make his surroundings palatable.

Though I suppose this works as an allegory for a lot of subcultures or abnormal worldviews.

>I'm pretty certain the people who made Saya no Uta didn't have this sort of thing in mind when they wrote it. They were probably just trying to write an interesting, unique story with elements of romance and horror in it.

They didn't really write it, they took it straight out of a Tezuka story (Phoenix: Resurrection - A young man dies, is resurrected as a cyborg, after which he starts seeing humans as 3DPD and falls in love with a primitive female factory robot).

Tezuka's story was like most of his manga of the time very idealistic and Buddhist, so the relationship was explored on a much more general (and later in the manga, spiritual) level with less emphasis on the personal feelings of the characters. Saya scrapped many of these elements and had a more modern approach aiming for the Otaku culture with a self-centered emphasis on the main character and his personal escapism of the "real world", so the waifu allegories could very likely be intentional.

>>3115
Is that right? I didn't know. I know Tezuka's work is really influential though, so it's no surprise.

Wow, I remember reading Saya no Uta and just thinking "Hey, I like this, it's sort of similar to Silent Hill 2" and that's all. Didn't really see any of the parallels to my future situation. It just makes a lot more sense to me, now. Sort of want to reread it.

Interesting idea, there. As with most allegories, it can't be exactly what you want it to be about - There are variables, but that's fine, too. Everyone's experiences are different, etc. I see it as being more towards about having unconventional ideals/beliefs in general, but my memory of the whole thing is really fuzzy, and I just want to give it a broad definition because of that.

I'd love it if more VN's/books/anime dealt with the waifu problem and related issues.