Swan Song

Moments don't make a work

Swan Song is a conflicting read. It’s a work I really wanted to enjoy, and it’s not impossible for me to see why so many others herald it as high quality. Anyone familiar with the author, Setoguchi, would know that this kind of story is exactly his wheelhouse. An isolated society which has to exist in what is essentially an apocalyptic scenario which allows for all manners of psychological development to take place. The situation is written with extreme care and detail, allowing the reader to become immersed in their situation and understand their struggle. However, despite how well written it is, and how much it should theoretically play to his strengths, I can’t help but feel like Setoguchi missed the mark when it comes to the greater picture of Swan Song.

First and foremost, the atmosphere. I consider atmosphere to be the number one thing which can pull a reader into a fictional world. Atmosphere can primarily be cultivated through sound, not necessarily music, but the core strength of visual novels is that they have visual aides and text to work in tandem, complimenting audiovisual immersion with the detail of a book to create something truly great. On first impression, Swan Song does a great job at this, the prologue perfectly captures the essence of a winter storm and the initial disaster is done in a way which fully sinks you into despair. Unfortunately, this ends up being the atmospheric peak of the story, and I think for a work like this, which focuses so much on the gradual development of the cast through this helpless situation, it would’ve been better to have the characters bask in it for a little longer. It would give them significantly more to react to, leading to more natural character development and psychological analysis as they have to navigate their way through this desolate world.

Although maybe it’s for the best that that didn’t end up happening because Swan Song blatantly plays favorites when it comes to the cast. For the most part you only see things through Tsukasa and Takuma’s perspectives. While I don’t think that the story needs to go through every character, they end up feeling like very isolated experiences rather than allowing you to witness various developments across the group. Sure you do get to see little tidbits of the other characters, but as you delve deeper into the story their appearances gradually lessen making them feel almost redundant after the fact. It doesn’t help that I didn’t care much for Tsukasa’s perspective either, and felt as though he doesn’t change much at all throughout the course of the story. While he does spend a lot of time reflecting on his past, his actions and personality don’t develop much as a result leaving him as a bit of a boring vessel.

On the other hand, Takuma feels like Setoguchi’s favorite character. He undergoes the most significant shift in character throughout the course of the story, but while I get the point of what he’s supposed to represent, I can’t help but feel like it would work better if the rest of the cast had the same treatment. He ends up feeling more cartoonish than anything, and while his shift is gradual it doesn’t excuse some of the more ridiculous and contradictory elements later on. While you could chalk this up to his shift, he never comes across as someone who’s that far gone, leaving the reader to have to look past these moments rather than have them reach their full impact. It’s even more unfortunate because you’re given more than enough information and context as to why everything happens, but it he ends up feeling somewhat uninteresting because he lacks a proper foil, who is supposed to be Tsukasa.

Tsukasa doesn’t undergo as significant of a shift in character due to his circumstance which diminishes Takuma’s. Because Takuma’s personality shift is so drastic but everyone else’s is so minimal it creates this awkward middle ground where it’s difficult to take him seriously because he’s the only one fully reacting to his circumstances. Excuse the rudimentary comparison, but it’s as if in Lord of Flies you only had the development of Jack without the proactivity of Ralph and Piggy, and their gradual loss of control of the rest of the boys, to contextualize it. Framing is often more important than the message itself, it’s the evidence which demonstrates to the reader that what you’re saying has weight. Swan Song has the tools to achieve this but ends up leaving them hanging. The atmosphere in the prologue is fantastic at fully immersing the reader into this desolate world but it never quite manages to return. Having such a large cast of characters seems like a gimme to showcase the various methods people will use to navigate this desolate world, but instead almost all the time ends up being eaten by Takuma. Anyone can write a seemingly profound blanket statement about society, but without evidence it will end up feeling shallow regardless of how well the message itself is written.

I say this because despite it all, Swan Song is still incredibly well written. Setoguchi is more than willing to go into detail about any given scene and the way he writes is perfect for capturing the state of a community. This extends to the characters as well, while I didn’t personally care much for Tsukasa this doesn’t mean I don’t find his final monologue in the normal end to be beautiful and heartfelt. The commentary provided on the various avenues of faith, including but not necessarily religion, which people will turn to is poignant but feel underdeveloped because the characters don’t act as sufficient vessels to explore these ideas. With a cast this big the natural assumption is that you could utilize each of them to represent a different avenue to make it through their situation, but because so much of the runtime is ate up by Takuma it leaves very little for the characters to latch onto. Instead it feels as though the remaining members of the cast, most notably Hibari and Shin, only end up rehashing Tsukasa’s method of escapism rather than doing something unique. Everything comes back to the fundamental lack of balance across the core characters, if you’re going to make a work analyzing an isolated, and for all intents and purposes doomed, society than you need to properly utilize the full society, not just a few main characters.

Swan Song is something which is very easy to appreciate moment to moment which is the source of my confliction. Because how can something that can be so well written and so capable of capturing the intricacies of an isolated society fail to measure up to itself? Swan Song is almost like Lord of the Flies, in that it’s almost better to appreciate it outside of itself. By that I mean that most children end up only scanning Lord of the Flies for the themes and symbolism rather than the actual work itself. I’ve described the characters as vessels, because in both works this is more or less how they end up feeling. Vessels to prove a point rather than people who are fully fleshed out. The problem is that Swan Song finds some of these points more interesting than others, ironically diminishing them by failing to recognize that a foil is necessary to demonstrate its significance. Swan Song’s inconsistency unfortunately leads me to place it in the category of something which is best appreciated for its potential and moments rather than as a complete work.