dataesr/scientific-paragraphs-categorization huggingface dataset:
What Azuma concedes in the commonality of visual novel games with MUTUAL IMAGES ‖ ISSUE 3 ‖ AUTUMN 2017 anime/manga is that they both are passive and share the same visual aesthetics  (Azuma 2009). As products of written prose, Azuma argues that visual novels, as fiction which is supported by what he calls the character database, an ensemble of items which are employed in the design of characters. Characters created in this way do not represent reality, but rather fiction. In other words, the mechanism by which reality is represented does not reflect actual reality anymore, but rather reflects reality as represented by fiction, in this case anime/manga-based character fiction, in what is a departure from the naturalism, representing nature as it works in reality  (Azuma 2007). To this end, Zoltan  Kacsuk (2016)  further argued that, in order to properly understand and consume works which employ this database, a literacy in the items that compose this database, the understanding of its invoked codes is necessary  (Kacsuk 2016, 277).
But, it's necessary to ask, what composes this database which has been referenced above? Azuma (2009)  has argued that postmodern otaku (fan) culture is structured like a database, a great unordered ensemble of items which connect to fan culture as a whole. Fans feel attachment to characters rather than overarching narratives. More precisely, Azuma argues that fans feel attachment at the level of the elements present in the characters themselves, rather than characters in their distinctive unicity. These elements can be visual (hairstyles, glasses, clothes etc. ), related to the demeanour of character (tsundere, kuudere, yandere, deredere, etc. ), 1  but are in no way limited to certain categories. 2 As long as the element is employed in the creation of a character and obtains enough success to be iterated, anything can become an item within the character database.
The character database contains all these elements, each of which is capable of engendering a specific kind of attachment within the audience, the phenomenon known as moe. Moe is a feeling of enthusiasm that is felt towards imaginary characters, and has been observed since the 70s  (Sasakibara 2004, 27, 28) , with the current word MUTUAL IMAGES ‖ ISSUE 3 ‖ AUTUMN 2017 taking form over internet boards by conflating the meaning for two homophone moe words (sprout, 萌え and burn, 燃え) and using it to describe the euphoric response to fictional characters  (Galbraith 2009b, np). He elaborates the concept further in his discussion of the phenomenon: Moe is affect in response to fantasy forms that emerged from informationconsumer culture in Japan in the late stages of capitalism. Otaku scholar Okada Toshio states that moe is most strongly felt among 'third-generation otaku,' or Japanese born in the 1980s who watched Neon Genesis Evangelion in middle school and grew up amid a wealth of anime, manga, games and character merchandise following the seminal anime series.
Database elements thus become a fixed point from which imagination can iterate and develop the character. Just like the animator uses settei as a reference to draw characters in a certain situation, visual novel players can employ bust shots as the foundation to place the character into the situation described by the text, connecting the dots between the initial set of database elements and the situation described in the prose text. The first-person narrative, by inviting identification with the visual novel's main character, is arguably conductive to the development of attachment towards the other characters as the protagonist (and the player with him) and the game's romanceable heroines interact and develop bonds and relationships. These fictional relationships, which in the end become physically and emotionally intimate can be stretched over games with up to thirty-fifty hours of gameplay, making visual novel games particularly conductive to long play sessions, making it particularly conductive to be played in the aforementioned state of 'pure sanctuary', a space identified with one's room, which is to be filled with media and merchandise of a soothing nature, all to preserve one's identity from society  (Okada 2008, 87-88).
Furthermore, the genre has its historical roots in the home computer market and amateur circles dedicated to computer programming  (Picard 2013, np) , placing visual novels in a particular intermediate layer between mainstream consumption and production, as the industry is not subjected to the lengthy creative and supervision processes of mainstream media conglomerates such as Kōdansha or Shueisha. Galbraith's (2011)   although the absence of any overarching narratives moving the characters and their design via database elements echoes the claim that character takes precedence over the wider narrative  (Azuma 2009) , and the latter was no longer the target of engagement between fans subscribing to the character database and the media products they consumed. A good example is the development of To Heart's (1997), the final game in the Visual Novel Series by software house Leaf.
These four games can be considered the first visual novels, not only for the name, but above all, for the fact that the game's ten romanceable heroines were outlined and designed basing themselves on the data-set (database) of moe elements before development of any narrative could begin; the narrative exists because scenario writer Takahashi wanted to illustrate the characters  (Tinami 2000: np). Further reiterating the start of a shift to consumption of moe elements over narrative, the game's multiple storylines were crafted around the various heroines after their key traits and themes had been designed, setting the model for later visual novel titles' focus on characters and not on narrative, or, in the case of more articulated narrative games, to present the game's narrative through database elements within the character themselves.
However, this does not explain why visual novel games with articulated narratives like Dies Irae ~ Acta es Fabula (Light 2007), the Muv Luv series  (âge 2003, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)  or this paper own's case study, Sokō Akki Muramasa, have been released to great success. These titles combine database elements-constituted characters with highly developed settings and narratives, with the game's database elements-constituted characters exerting an influence on the depiction of the setting and vice-versa. For instance, the first game in the list I've provided, Dies Irae ~ Acta es Fabula, develops a setting in which the story's main antagonists, the Longinus Dreizehn Orden, a cabal of sorcerers dating back from world war two occult Nazi societies, can act and function (see figure  3 ).
Even though every character in the order is a database-element constituted character, both males and females, and everybody is characterised and act as their database elements mandate, they still advance an articulated story, with their head Mercurius offering comment on the nature of narrative to the player and how human beings develop attachment to stories. Within Muv Luv, database-constituted characters are instead subjected to recontextualisation through multiple parallel universes, and through them, themes like what constitutes Japanese identity is and the relationship between the United States and Japan are explored. Finally, within Sokō Akki Muramasa we have a series of representations of Japanese identity within a narrative that is advanced through database-constituted characters and the affection the player develops towards the characters.
It is thus more likely that the claim advanced by Nozawa Shunsuke: The take-away point of this database theory is that people are affectively attracted not necessarily or not always by narrative "world" as such but by character elements that are organized at the database level, what Azuma calls "grand nonnarrative. " That is, characters live on beyond specific narratives as an ensemble of elements and a site of affective engagement. This affective dimension is often described as moe, characterological empathy (see Galbraith 2009 for more extended discussion). On the other hand, the database view does not make narratives disappear totally. Quite the contrary: it generates a special relation of dependence to narrative. The potential pattern of combining different elements to create new characters requires new narrative imagination and narrative eventfulness (see  Ōtsuka 2010).
Decontextualized databases always afford narrative recontextualization, and decontextualization and recontextualization always form a feedback mechanism. Nothing is forever decontextualized, and no single context exists that is selfsufficient without others. It is character non-inconsistency that mediates between these processes. (Nozawa 2013, np)  Nozawa's description of characters as an ensemble of elements is apt, but, as with other descriptions of database consumption and the engagement it engenders, referring to both database elements and moe means employing terms whose meaning varies considerably depending on the context they are used in. Before a more in-depth discussion of video games which rely on the character database as the bedrock through which they provide the narrative to the player can take place, it is necessary to approach how to better define the process of engagement which is referred to as moe and how it work with what  Azuma (2007; 2009)  defined as the character database.
The problem of Moe and the database Moe has been referred to as a euphoric reaction to fantasy characters  (Galbraith 2009: np). Pop culture critic Okada Toshio commented that moe is not only the act of euphoric response itself, but also the meta-awareness that comes from observing oneself in such a state  (Okada 2008, 100-101). Beyond euphoric reactions, Studio Gainax's director Kazuya Tsurumaki's view of moe as the act of filling one's missing information by oneself  (Kōdansha 2003, np)  is also interesting, as it provides a perspective into an often overlooked aspect of character fruition: the fact that the character is made one's own personalised experience. Psychologist Tamaki Saitō has commented that moe characters are an object of desire which is possessed through the act of fictionalisation  (Saitō 2007 , section 8, para 1).
While  Azuma (2009)  commented that feeling moe is to take apart each character's database elements and turn them into an item filed into a database (Azuma 2009, chapter 2 section 5 para. 3), there is a lack of focus on the inherent interactive value of having to fill the blanks, and this none more evident within visual novels, where the player has to constantly fill missing information starting from the character image present on the screen, which are then integrated by the player in the actions provided by the prose text. MUTUAL IMAGES ‖ ISSUE 3 ‖ AUTUMN 2017 This process of filling the blanks turns character consumption into the player's own personalised experience, and can, in a sense, be considered a part of the game's interactive experience. But to discuss that, it is first necessary to approach the database itself.
Azuma (2007; 2009)  uses the term 'database consumption', to describe how character elements are consumed within Japan's postmodern society, basing himself on the Lyotardian (1979) premises of the postmodern condition, which sees the 'Grand Narratives' of the past (Idealism, Enlightenment, Marxism and so on) as having disappeared and with them, the ideological justifications for social order. However, the description of database Azuma provides is 'not simply the kind of computer program or web site for storing and retrieving information that humans are finding increasingly difficult to live without, but rather a model or a metaphor for a worldview, a grand nonnarrative that lacks the structure and ideologies (grand narratives) that used to characterize modern societies" (Azuma 2009, translator's introduction).
Azuma views (2007; 2009)  the shared, communal element of otaku culture indeed acts like a database, to which content consumers and producers alike can draw on to produce media products which sustain themselves on this ensemble of shared meanings. However, the use of the term database as a metaphor is problematic. The term with references to its employment in software and thus a very precise meaning has the potential for either misuse or leaving out certain facets of its meaning. Interestingly, software scholar Lev Manovich, with a similar Lyotardian premise, came to the conclusion that a database, as a cultural form, is an unordered representation of the world as a list of items  (Manovich 2007 , section 2 para. 1). He contrasts it with narrative, which is a trajectory of items regulated by cause-and-effect  (Manovich 2007 , section 2 para.
2). He then turns his attention towards video games, database given a narrative form: video games, although representative of new media and assembled as databases, are experienced like narrative, with the player attempting to uncover the algorithm lying behind the creation of the game's settings, characters and events;  (Manovich 2007 , section 2 para. 3) The idea of the database as an unordered representation of the world is extremely interesting, especially in light of the description given by  Azuma (2009)  of the database MUTUAL IMAGES ‖ ISSUE 3 ‖ AUTUMN 2017 as an aggregate of settings (settei) 3  (Azuma 2009, section x para y) which seems to fit into Manovich's statement. Each settei is in turn a link towards otaku culture as a whole, in what is a repurpose of Ōtsuka Eiji (2010) framework of narrative consumption, which see each media in a franchise as a window into an overarching grand narrative which includes "the era in which the main characters live, the place, the relations between countries, their history, their manners of living, the personal histories of the respective characters, the nature of their interpersonal relations etc.
" To Azuma, instead, each element in the database of otaku culture is a link towards culture as whole, which is a chaotic ensemble of elements whose meanings are shared amongst the fan base. If we also take into account Kazuya Tsurumaki's  (Kōdansha 2003)  definition of moe, we can argue that the database is indeed unordered, as the elements are initially unordered as part of the character database. After a series of database elements has been selected to construct the character, connections between the various points are drawn as part of character fruition. This echoes digital art scholar Christiane Paul: Database aesthetics suggest the possibilities of tracing process--individual, cultural, communicative-in its various forms. The understanding of a database as the underlying principle and structure of any new media object delineates a broad field that includes anything from a network such as the Internet (as one gigantic database) to a particular data set.
(see figure  4 ). These images have been defined as gohōbi-e, reward images by Miyamoto Naoki  (Miyamoto et al 2013: 24) , but are also known as event CGs. The gallery can be seen as a sort of inventory of collectible items, which the player collects as part of their journey. More interesting is the employment of characters, especially in light of the constant re-articulation and emphatic engagement they engender. Database-constituted characters can be, as outlined above, seen as strings of database elements. They provide content and are placed within a narrative, usually resulting in a character with a more or less defined identity which react to the decisions of the player. This places them within the category of agents. MUTUAL IMAGES ‖ ISSUE 3 ‖ AUTUMN 2017 As they read the prose text, player also is at work in drawing the connections between one database element and another.
Arguably, the possibility of drawing the connections between various database elements can constitute a facet of interaction which should place database elements within the category of objects, making the analysis of characters within visual novels a double-layered endeavour, taking them into account both as representations and as elements belonging to the game's simulation. The game world is multi-cursal, which defines the game's perception as a multi-ended narrative. 4 These aspects, together with the influence of the moe database on the narrative, will be discussed within the analysis of this paper's case study, Sokō Akki Muramasa.
"  (Ōtsuka 2010, 107). Interestingly, the majority of the game world is of the extra-ludic variety  (Aarseth 2012, 4). The game world is evoked through text descriptions, image background and the characters' database elements. The game world becomes ludic when the player is presented with a choice of where to steer the storyline. In that case the world becomes an arena where gameplay takes place. Based on the previous statement that database elements provide an interactive dimension as part of character fruition, one could argue that any screen which has a database-constituted character on the screen can become a ludic space, but the claim would need additional examination. Database items are also difficult to categorise, because, while their belonging to the objects dimensions is easily demonstrated because they are, by all intents and purposes, "static, usable objects"  (Aarseth 2012, 5)  which contribute to the overall experience of the game, they are a constitutive part of the game's characters, and thus can also be argued to belong to the game's 'agents' dimension.
However, the game presents the characters that have to die within the chapter as being confined to that chapter for two consecutive instances, enough to reinforce the perception that they are confined to the game's episodic nature, thus encouraging the player to stir the game's story towards a certain character, which at the beginning of the game is either GHQ-aligned woman Ōtori Kanae or young justice fanatic Ichijō Akane (see figure  5 ). The progress in establishing this relation is marked through a comparative affectivity meter (see figure  6 ) which can be viewed at any time in the game's pause menu, and grows in accord with the player's action, until chapter three, in which Kageaki is forced to strike down someone he loves by the Muramasa's curse. MUTUAL IMAGES ‖ ISSUE 3 ‖ AUTUMN 2017 The target of this curse will eventually be the heroine whose score in the affectivity meter is the highest, with great potential for emotional impact on the player, as this removal of a character from the game is done on two levels: that of objects (database elements) with the relative interaction engendered in the feeling of empathic engagement and that of actors (with the removal of the character from the game world).
The coming of the true end is interesting because, before the player can bring the characters he killed back to life by embarking on a new story path and thus "infusing them with new blood"  (Azuma 2007) , he has to shoulder the experience of choosing a path which results in the loss of a character, either through death of the heroine or death of the main character. This makes character death once again meaningful, as getting to the true end, where both Ichijō and Kanae survive, will still deny intimacy between the two heroines and Kageaki and, with him, the player. Negating the possibility of intimacy between the player and the characters, whose survival is tied to the player making the choice of not pursuing him, thereby crystallising each character in the game's narrative and thus making them dependent on their host narrative universe brings the wider narrative into importance once more, as the game's narrative is reinforced not only through each character's design and individual database elements, but also by the narrative itself, which is, once again worthy of examination and consideration.
From database, representation As stated above, the game's narrative is articulated both through character and through the game's world, which is even more evident when one takes into account the choices offered to the player. The game's narrative universe represents Japan as a lawless territory where the strong prey on the weak, where endless brutality reigns in a continuous cycle of vengeance. MUTUAL IMAGES ‖ ISSUE 3 ‖ AUTUMN 2017 Large portions of the narrative are spent detailing the effect of Kageaki's curse on the world, ranging from the killing of innocent people to restore the balance of good and evil to which the Muramasa armour must abide to how the political entities within the world of Sokō Akki Muramasa act. The stream of information, and the oblique references to the state of Japan after the Second World War, with its state of poverty and devastation, cannot be merely overlooked in favour of what revolves around database element-constituted characters.
The importance that the background narrative plays in the overall experience of the game is such that database elements need to express the game's host narrative into the character, in order to maintain a narrative experience which is coherent with the tone of the narration. Beyond the game's narrative tone, the division along cultural lines between Japan and the rest of the world, along with the structuring of characters along character database lines references meanings which go beyond the database itself and onto longstanding cultural myths shared within Japan and Japanese perceptions of western countries, leading to a mix of moe elements and references to wider cultural myths about Japan and the west. This operation is undertaken in both the design of the tsurugi armours and the characters.
The combination of moe elements and cultural references arguably runs contrary to Azuma's main assumption that grand narratives of any kind are no longer relevant. In fact, the grand narrative, both as envisioned by Azuma and Ōtsuka, are extremely relevant within Sokō Akki Muramasa, and play a pivotal role in the construction of the main focus of the player's attention, the character's themselves. The three young friends around which the first chapter of the game focuses, all reference pre-war  Shōwa-era (1926 Shōwa-era ( -1945) )  Japan in the design of their clothes, which are still employed on the basis of the Azuman character database. Characters belonging to the GHQ are assembled via crossed references to moe elements linkable to foreign characters such as blonde hair, wide jaws, beards, moustaches and a mixture of early twentieth century European uniforms.
In fact, the usage of the term Yamato to fictionalise the Japanese populace is the iteration of an 'imagined community'  (Anderson 2006)   The harsh occupation by western forces, and the subsequent subaltern relationship between Yamato (Japan) and the United Federation (English-speaking West) is stated by MUTUAL IMAGES ‖ ISSUE 3 ‖ AUTUMN 2017 one of the game's heroines, Ōtori Kanae, as being necessary, as the alternative (siding with Russia), would be much worse. This detail is not vital for the comprehension and fruition of Kanae Ōtori as a character, but still interacts and is intertwined with her constitutive database elements, especially the one known as 'Ojōsama' (daughter of nobility). Narratives by themselves are not part of characters' constitutive database elements, however, when the narratives are articulated through database elements, as it happens within Sokō Akki Muramasa, that narrative is attached to that particular database element and becomes integral part of the character's identity, and thus referencing the background narrative becomes necessary to maintain character consistency which is the absolute condition for character-based media (see  Nozawa 2013, np).