Originally uploaded to Bilibili.tv
This event was mostly just kids playing games. To not let that be the whole story, miHoYo added something pretty interesting. It wasn't done nearly as well as miHoYo's other game Star Rail though. Basically this story is about Japan's overworking issue and how it has lead the country to one of the world's highest suicide rates. In Planarcadia, this was the setting of the world and there were many people suffering from it. The game was able to redefine it through the in-universe Path of Nihility, basically hopelessness and thus it had the main characters combat it through its opposite and also the patron deity of the planet, Aha the Elation. The way it was portrayed was expertly done. You could even feel how smothering Planarcadia's society was by going through the story. Genshin's version here is a single example of one overworked individual, Homura. They defined the situation through a "nightmare" because they have youkai called yumekui-baku who can consume nightmares to free the people suffering from their effects. The "nightmare" that Homura was suffering from is this karoshi issue because she just couldn't think her way out of it.
Anyway I was worried this event was just going to do this but it actually gave us Prune's story as well and ended up explaining it through Homura's situation thus making this filler story more like a Character Quest for Prune. Not bad. Prune is the other side of the karoshi issue. Because Japan is very competitive, kids end up competing against each other in the futile hope of getting ahead when they become adults. This adds undue stress to kids who then grow up to become jaded and depressed adults, kicking of karoshi much sooner. So in miHoYo's opinion, this is where to really start addressing the problem. Get the kids to be kids again and nurture their youthful hope. I can get behind that idea. We all need that childhood innocence again these days. Anyway not a bad conclusion to this silly event.
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