So I've finally hit Noriko's introduction, and it got me thinking; I actually really like how she is used to set up and then subvert expectations.
For example, personality-wise you get this very off base impression of her as a very played out boring yandere stalker type. But as you get to know her it turns out that no, actually, she's just a very weird sweetheart punk. Her obsession with Akira is weird and does get occasionally played for yandere-esque goofs like her weird ass relationship with Kirin early on, but I've always had the sense she and the game were playing that up and she probably never actually intended to hurt Kirin (I think that also might get stated plainly)
And the other Subversion, but this might have been mostly a me thing, comes with her relationship with Maya. You get a lot of very weird esoteric stuff mentioned, and without context, it seems like Noriko might actually be tied up in all the weird supernatural stuff like Maya is. Like their apparent pact to never enter eachother's half of the city. Considering all the stuff set up with the Old District early on, it's easy to start drawing lines to Noriko and the weirdness of that part of town. And then no, actually, it turns out it was just a childish agreement they made as kids that Maya just takes weirdly seriously, which actually winds up saying more about Maya than it does Noriko. Dig further, and it also seems like a lot of Maya's accusations about Noriko might be Confessions. Noriko actually winds up to be an actually normal teenager that Maya just has insane beef with due to her cocktail of insecurities and fear of Akira's memory resetting.
I think it's just interesting. The game did a really good job misleading me with her character and I'm glad it did because I like real Noriko a lot more than my assumptions about her. I also like how she cucks Kirin's class introduction. That's pretty funny as part of their overarching narrative.
