Curate, connect, and discover
idk what did I just read but it’s cool, the more u think
‘bout it the more fucked up Sumeru is. I like it!
sumeru has straight up cyberpunk plotline tho, just coquettishly covered up in light fantasy veil. And not just because it has actual visors with internet access, but because Akasha system works like current search engines, but taken to the extreme.
like it’s no secret that google collects your data and censors and manipulates the search results based on that, but here they said “what if google had direct access to your brain tho?? and didn’t just sell collected info to advertisers, but also without your knowledge used your brainpower during sleep to fucking mine bitcoin? bc like what could you do to stop it, when the society demands you to use it?”
Akademiya is a very straightforward stand in for corporations - monopolistic force that de facto holds all the power in the country and ignores\manipulates the nominal leader (Kusanali). Ppl want to get into Akademiya bc that where all the power is cultivated, but from the researchers we meet we can see that it’s a cesspool of intrigues, with grueling demands where ppl have to abandon the themes they actually want to study bc they don’t get the funding, and often forced into military research bc of that. One woman literally ran away to the desert and paid the bandits to keep her locked in a cage bc thats better than Akademiya career fucking her over. But if you try to get away with research that is deemed a secret, they will send police enforcers to drag you back
the theme of broken and eaten dreams is also surprisingly coherent and poignant so far. We have many quests emphasizing how ppl had to gave up on their dreams and settle for career they didn’t want bc they needed to survive, and then in the Archon quests we learn that the adults don’t dream, bc their dreams are literally stolen and used by the Akademiya. They legit said that the broken dreams are not a coincidence of growing up, the system uses them as a fuel to keep up the matrix and tells you it’s your fault you couldn’t reach them
like damn, can’t wait to start telling my snob friends I saw a better cyberpunk plotline in an anime gacha than in cyberpunk2077