Waifu Wednesday: Chiru Kondo

You know sometimes you see a character and immediately know you’re going to be into them? Yeah, that was me and Chiru, one of the two new main heroines from Gal*Gun 2.

My immediately positive reaction to her was before I even knew what sort of person she was through playing the game, though I had my suspicions. There was just something about her that was striking and pleasing to me… and I was delighted to discover once actually getting to know her that she was exactly my kind of girl.

So it is, then, that she is the subject of this week’s Waifu Wednesday!

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As we’ll explore further when we look at the game’s narrative in a little more detail, we’re kind of dropped into Gal*Gun 2’s world without much exposition. We, the protagonist, already exist in this world, and we have pre-established, pre-existing relationships with a number of characters, one of whom is Chiru.

Chiru is introduced as the player-protagonist’s next-door neighbour, living in the adjacent building. Despite Chiru quickly being established as something of a shut-in, we learn that the pair have that delightful sort of teen movie relationship where one can bang on the other’s window at any hour of the day and strike up some sort of conversation — though it’s usually our hero who initiates these interactions.

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Chiru obviously holds the player-protagonist in at least some regard, as she refers to him as “Nii-sama”, conferring him the status of both “older brother” and “someone held in a certain amount of reverence” with a single honorific. The power of language! That said, Chiru isn’t the sort of girl who just makes puppy-dog eyes at our hero and hangs on his every word; on the contrary, at times she has some quite harsh words for him when he deserves them. She never quite tips over into full-on tsundere territory, but there are definite hints of acid there now and then to keep things exciting.

It’s also obvious, however, that Chiru is attracted to the protagonist and has been for some time. Despite her shut-in status, our hero is someone she will open up to and be completely truthful with — with some surprising revelations later in the game that I’ll leave for you to discover — as well as someone with whom she is happy to display certain physical aspects of affection and trust.

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An example early in the game comes when Chiru describes the bandages she perpetually has on her leg — they’re not actually from an injury, though she uses them to make her grandparents (with whom she lives) believe that she’s still not fit to go to school. She proudly displays her shapely legs and bare feet to the protagonist (and the player)  by hopping up onto her windowsill and giving us a good eyeful — quiet acknowledgement of the popularity of foot and leg fetishism in modern Japanese popular media and fanart. And in a subsequent scene, she complains of a lengthy gaming session having made her “stiff” (quiet, you) and wastes no time in rushing over to the protagonist’s room when he offers her a massage. (“With no naughty stuff, Nii-sama,” obviously… closely followed by her getting extremely flustered by the whole thing, running away and closing her curtains for the rest of the evening, leading us to draw our own conclusions as to what she is subsequently getting up to.)

Chiru has her own full story to follow, complete with two endings, but a lot of her appeal comes from the incidental interactions you can have with her. For example, just chatting with her outside of the main story allows you to hear her thoughts on a variety of topics, ranging from whether premium-grade chocolates are really worth the additional price to how much she prefers retro games over modern multiplayer-centric titles. Methinks in the latter case she is very much channeling the attitudes of Inti Creates as a developer, which is absolutely fine in my book.

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As you might expect given the above, Chiru is a bit of a nerd. Look through your window at what she’s up to without talking to her and you’ll see her doing all sorts of solitary activities such as reading, playing handheld games or getting a little too into the arcade machine that seems to be installed next to her bed. Later in the game, this actually becomes relevant to gameplay, as finding parts through completing various missions lets you enlist Chiru to improve your equipment and power it up in various ways. In one memorable scene, she uses parts from a broken controller to fix up your angelic Demon Sweeper device and improve its suction even further. Ahem.

Part of what drew me to Chiru in the first place was how she is designed and presented. Her scruffy hair tied up in twintails, her fringe falling over her face, her low-effort but somehow kinda sexy combo of tracksuit jacket and short skirt (and yes, as the massage scene reveals, she wears shimapan) — and, of course, those legs. Add to that the delightfully husky voice I discovered once I started getting to know her in the game and you have someone that was seemingly designed to cater to my specific tastes… the only thing that might have improved her slightly in that regard is that she’s not a redhead, but with how hair colour tends to reflect personality in anime-inspired media, that probably wouldn’t have fit her character quite right.

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In short, I’m well and truly enamoured with Chiru, which is exactly the sort of thing you want to be feeling towards at least one member of the cast in a game such as Gal*Gun. Your mileage may, of course, vary on Who Is Best Girl in a game with such an enormous variety of waifu candidates — but for me, I’m pretty sure Chiru’s always going to have a special place in my heart.

Any artists out there, get cracking on some fan-art, please. I need more Chiru in my life!


More about Gal*Gun 2

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8 thoughts on “Waifu Wednesday: Chiru Kondo”

  1. I ended up with Chiru’s A ending first because she was just such a delightful character. I’ve warmed up to Nanako a lot more as I’ve done her’s as well, and all I have left is the secret ending that I’m work towards. It’s so tough to figure out which of the two is my preferred in this game. Inti really knows how to make some appealing ladies, as even Risu, Kurona, and a large part of the side cast are just so wonderful.

    1. Chiru A was my first too. Couldn’t resist. Working on Nanako A next, then will do the Bs, then the Doki-Doki ending. It’s a great cast all round and I’m having a lot of fun hanging out with the side girls too. Midori the gamer girl is a lot of fun, and she has Tetris hair clips, which is adorable.

      1. Yea, Midori is pretty good, and I also liked her and her hair clips. Maoko from year 1 is also a gamer girl. She’s the “Trash Game Connoisseur” and it was pretty fun to listen to her lines. Especially when she says something along the lines of “other people think the games I play are trash, but I think they are just fun”. I really appreciated that one.

        I’m slowly working my way through rendezvousing with all the side girls to see their personalities and stuff as well, especially since there’s a bunch I might recognize in a stage, but I know nothing about them other than their weak point. I also only ever did True Love Route in GGDP for Yuko, the ghost girl (who is adorable), so I feel like this helps make up a bit for that.

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