Spoilers etc:
Theme: I'm conflicted, in that while this is about literal expansion of the regions, it's also more-so a "humanized" tale refactoring expansion as a relationship tale, but then the relationship is able to be legally impacted, but then we do see the parts about the aftermath. It's a tale about expansion, but expansion is only present as a conceit in an extended metaphor that I thin would have carried over better if the boundaries between the characters as characters and the characters as regions was more firmly defined.
Story: There's a sort of inability to commit to the premise of the work, which is rough when dealing with a work about an extended metaphor. I felt like this conceit was present in many ways throughout the work, which had me not as connected as I could have been, because I kept seeing what were moments of self-indulgence (and while I think it'd be hard to find a conceit that isn't self indulgent when telling a story, that doesn't mean it's helping make the conceit consistent).
In the initial propaganda advert, Helsinki provides some characterization to the exposition, albeit in the way that a politician speaking to their constituents does (artificial, not in a way people speak to people), but then the second instance of the map screen is primarily just pure exposition, Helsinki not functioning as a character in that scene. Sipoo isn't even really emotionally present, just regurgitating facts when the second map screen arises. In that function, Sipoo just becomes like a teleprompter, and we're trying to put some emotionality to the elements at hand.
The characterization of Helsinki falls flat for me. She's never able to be fully a character nor fully a region. She says things that are inconsistent with her character (someone posh saying balancussy?). If the house is a means to recognize the affluence of a region (and yet, the characters also travel through said regions to distinct locations within, so then what does the house become then? An abandoned metaphor?), why don't we get invited over to Helsinki's house instead of those dates? She's very Cruella DeVille and other similar disney villains, but without their extensive flair, existing more of a caricature.
The dates themselves aren't quite fully implemented. The voice of the work paints Helsinki as a flat character, a one dimensional villain and sure, those exist, but politicians try to pretend otherwise in their pleas ( at least, they're supposed to not have the mask off). The economy scene was just an extended Lucille Bluth.Arrested Development sort of moment, the movie theatre scene felt more like you advertising your taste in media, the non-sequitur joke date screen undercut the mood of the piece-- for something fought in law and for a relationship, it made light of the situation. I love jokes, but they should work to the tone of the piece, not pull the tone away to rubberband back. The third date didn't even have an outcome, but had Dom propose Sipoo's plan on behalf of Sipoo? I suppose the conceit was that this was already determined as part of the private talks, but then that doesn't really carry over to what happens when people go through these things.
We have commentary on voting, in that a "region" didn't vote for the prime minister-- what does that entail, in this narrative? Is it like the State's electoral votes? Did none of the constituents within vote for that person? The throw-away joke at the "expense" of the prime minister is too close to the material of the work, exploring political events where the political is perhaps the most personal it can get (... the Hetalia mode, of which I don't think really tends to go to actual locations, but exists in more of a metaspace? At least, Denmark Vs the World does which functions in a similar conceit). In a similar vein, what does it mean for a region to have children? Splitting themselves into more sub-regions? I feel like in most political spaces, stuff tends to get absorbed by others, not splinter off if they want to endure.
At times, the prose felt utilitarian to explain the mundanity, but that mundanity was introduced for elements that didn't quite always follow through.
I wonder if some of the characterization could have been restored if the exposition for the map scenes weren't done from Helsinki's primary PoV (like some sort of political advert), but in the guise of Finland, talking about her children (because that's how Finland is broken up, no?) It would have allowed for that judgment of Helsinki, as opposed to Helsinki coming off as explicitly disingenuous.
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Story asides: There's a lot of local references that I naturally didn't catch, and that makes sense. I'm not local. The only part where that didn't work with me were as noted before, in that it couldn't decide to be in a more metaphoric space or a more physical space.
Is the Vanta panda joke a commentary on the region? We barely interact with Vanta throughout the work. What it is trying to say with that absurdist joke?
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Presentation: I think you really stood out here, with your pictures of actual places that were affected by this development. I liked your gag for the nicknaming, but when given a world of open input, I hoped for like a profanity check (albeit that may be hard across multiple languages), given I named Dom Dickhead after playing around with it given the "bullying" re: using the default nickname.
I did like the presentation of the map screens, and the use of transitions, although the font you used made Sipoo look liked SIP(two number zeros). Skinny O's become 0's.
The legalese text was too large, imo. One's eyes naturally slip off that, which means that you have to travel too far to go back to the words that your brain resists (or maybe it's just cuz I'm too close to legalese in my day job that it pains me to see more off work hours).
I don't like that I can't click to advance the text, even if the default text speed is pretty fast.
I thought it was funny you had US calendar dating format.
The first two
Creativity: Doing a Hetalia-esque rendition of one's local politics is bold, and there were some good uses of animation in your engine to reflect the mood.
I enjoyed your "where are they now" documentary sequence.
Overall thoughts: The idea is fun and interesting, but I think the execution was too muddied for me to be in love. It had too many elements, many conflicting, and a lot of nods to what felt like filmography moments without them necessarily translating into the same contexts.
I wanted to care more for the characters, but they felt flat, because half the time they were explicitly the regions as mouthpieces for politicians, as opposed to characters with agendas, and even then some of the motivation (even if true to real life) was so passive. Metaphor can translate real events into something more, like seeing a flashback to a clandestine meeting between Helsinki and Sipoo instead of just getting another history lesson dump.
By being both a documentary and a sorta rom-com, it wasn't quite perfectly either in ways that pulled against both genres.
I still appreciate the novel attempt, and the curious lesson on Finland politics. An interesting gaze into Purkka's creative PoV.