Does Ohtori remind you of any institutions that exist in real life? Does its paranoid philosophy and culture remind you of, for example, a school you used to go to, or a certain type of work, or some government department? This isn't a rhetorical question, I'm just throwing possibilities out there.

Ohtori reminds me a bit of graduate school. I've never been to graduate school, but I have friends who do, and most of them are miserable. Graduate school in the humanities is also a poor career choice and involves doing a lot of rather pointless things for a hierarchy, being competitive with each other, etc. instead of doing something worthwhile (and questioning why you're doing it). I don't think there's a "rose bride" figure, but the atmosphere--of paranoia, envy, suspicion, angst and so on--seems similar to Ohtori.

Last edited by minervana (11-11-2009 04:17:43 PM)