WARNING!!
This page contains spoilers for Subarashiki Hibi!!!!
This is a page to collect various theories on who, or what, Ayana Otonashi is, as well as share my own, extremely mentally-ill, takes on them. Obviously, this page is going to have hella spoilers for that. Seriously, stop reading now if you don't want to get spoiled. SubaHibi is a story best experienced as blindly as possible. I am going to put a bunch of text below to push down the theories so you don't get spoiled.
"Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.
Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.
Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Carcosa.
Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa."
- Cassilda's Song in "The King in Yellow," Act i, Scene 2.
Pre-Requisite Knowledge
What should I know to understand these theoies?
Subarashiki Hibi, obviously.
Off the top of my head, you should also have a basic understanding of:
The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Lovecraft's works, especially the characters Yog-Sothoth and Nyarlathotep, as well as the short stories "The Crawling Chaos", "Nyarlathotep", "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", "Fungi from Yuggoth", and "The Dreams in the Witch-House".
Norse mythology, more specifically in regards to Ragnarok.
Christian mythology, mainly The Book of Relevation and the concept of original sin.
Schizophrenia, (Complex-)Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ((C-)PTSD), Dissociative identity disorder (DID), as well as current theories on how and why these disorders form. (Note: any sources talking about "Satanic Ritual Abuse" or anything similar are not to be trusted, especially in regards to DID, as they are inherently rooted in the Satanic Panic, and aren't really worth reading within this context.
Original Tsui no Sora
Plato's Cave allegory
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott
The concept of Primal Chaos, especially in regards to mythology and religion
Jungian archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa
Dharma in both Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as the Dharmachakra
Karl Popper's three worlds
Note that many of these are applicable to SubaHibi itself, but I'm still putting them here because I think they're important to understanding Ayana's character specifically.
Theory: Ayana is schizophrenic
Everything in SubaHibi is her delusion.
This is a better writeup and explanation of the main points than I could ever hope to make. CW for discussion of sexual assault. Mayucchi does a fabulous job of summarizing and explaining this theory, and it's comprehensive without being incomprehensible.
That said, and the following paragraphs are not a dig at people who believe this theory: I know objectively why this is the most popular theory, and why people seem to cling onto it so hard. Ayana being insane would explain so much about the plot, and it would be convenient to have it just be her inner world(s). However, I refuse to give this theory more space on my page than I have to, considering that this theory is inherently rooted in a severe misunderstanding of what schizophrenia actually is, and is also a complete cop-out.
Given what SCA-DI managed to actually get right with regards to DID, especially with regards to the inner worlds and cofronting, as well as the delusions and such, I find it hard to believe that he would actually go with this answer. Obviously, it's a work of fiction, and fiction doesn't get every aspect of every mental illness right, nor can it, but again, the DID-related parts were relatively well thought out and clearly researched. It seems odd to me that, if Ayana were schizophrenic, her own symptoms wouldn't be as well-researched.
Let's talk about schizophrenia symptoms, first of all. The main symptoms, as defined by the DSM-V, are:
delusions
hallucinations
disorganized speech (e.g., frequent derailment or incoherence)
grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior
negative symptoms (i.e., diminished emotional expression or avolition).
For now, given that we only see a small bit directly from Ayana's eyes, let's ignore delusions and hallucinations, since with the information given in SubaHibi, we can't confirm or cross them out. Let's focus on the other three symptoms here.
Many people would argue that Ayana has disorganized speech, and to an extent, I agree. However, I would argue that with regards to a schizophrenia diagnoses, her speech isn't actually disorganized. On multiple playthroughs, not only are her non-sequitors actually entirely connected to whatever is going on in game with regards to whoever we're looking through the eyes of. One could argue that her repeating words and phrases falls under disorganized speech, but that mostly seems to be more for dramatic effect than as a mental illness thing.
She straight-up doesn't show any grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, so let's skip over that.
Negative symptoms, however, she does seem to have, like a flat affect and diminished emotional expressions. I don't think I need to elaborate further on that, so that's a yes mark.
So, that's one symptom out of five that we can actually confirm, and for schizophrenia, you need at least two for a professional diagnosis. Given how much foreshadowing there was for the DID reveal, don't you think SCA-DI would have provided more evidence for Ayana being schizophrenic than a hospital bed, a throwaway line by another character, and her being relatively flat emotionally?
(Also, again, it reads like those old creepypasta theories that are like "oooohhh everyone is SECRETLY DEAAAAAD!!!11" or like the Rugrats Theory, and I just cannot get behind that.)
Theory: Ayana is a supernatural being of some kind
Self-Explanatory
Throughout the game, Ayana shows a bunch of strange behaviors, such as:
disappearing and appearing suddenly
knowing things she shouldn't know
being able to tell what the protags are thinking
knowing there's a huge tragedy about to unfold and trying to stop it
being able to show the protags things she shouldn't know about (like her headbumping Yuki, or her showing Takuji the sky in the water tank area)
calling humans interesting
She also makes several references to various religions. These could all be attributed to her being a supernatural being, like an angel, or a devil, or a god, or a psychic, an extra-dimensional being, an alien, or an avatar of Yog-Sototh.
In my opinion, this is probably the most well-supported theory textually, but... honestly, it's a little boring and only marginally better than the schizophrenia theory.
Theory: Ayana is a completely normal human girl
She's just a little bit of a chuunibyou!
Throughout the game, Ayana shows a bunch of strange behaviors, such as:
disappearing and appearing suddenly
knowing things she shouldn't know
being able to tell what the protags are thinking
knowing there's a huge tragedy about to unfold and trying to stop it
calling humans interesting
She also makes several references to various religions. These could all be attributed to her being a supernatural being, like an angel, or a devil, or a god, or a psychic, or an avatar of Yog-Sototh.
But... hear me out... what if she's just really perceptive and a weird girl? Maybe she walks super quietly and ends up sneaking up on people, maybe she's just really good at reading people and can tell Mamiya Tomosane has DID, maybe she overheard the kids talking about Zakuro and wanted to check in on her. Miu greets her at the end of End Sky II and tells her she's going to be late for graduation, when it wasn't clear if anyone other than the protags could see her, so clearly she is coporeal at least some of the time. Granted, her being a little weird doesn't explain everything she does and says, but given that none of the prtagonists are that reliable anyways, most of her moments could be attributed to her just being a weird girl. She does also say "I am Otonashi Ayana. In this setting, I am human."
This isn't particularly well-supported by the text, but it is the funniest conclusion to draw, I think, so I'm putting it here anyways.
Theory: Ayana is a hallucination
Also Self-Explanatory
... I'm not copying and pasting the above bullet points again. This is a theory some people have, and while there is some evidence to support it, it doesn't explain why the protagonists who aren't part of Mamiya Tomosane's body can see her, especially with The End Sky II.
Theory: Ayana is a foil of Mamiya Tomosane's mom
This started as a joke, I swear.
I hate this, because I jokingly said "man wouldn't it be fucked up if Takuji's mom and Ayana were actually meant to be foils of each other" and then I started looking into it and I don't think anyone has actually brought it up, so here we are. Some key takeaways:
Ayana and Kotomi have nearly swapped hair colors and eye colors. This is more obvious in Ayana's "lucid eyes" sprites, as seen in the background of this. The exact colors aren't the same, but they're just similar enough that it made me stop and think for a moment.
Kotomi dresses in mostly black, Ayana in mostly white.
Despite her being "dead", Takuji is still very much afraid of his mom, and understandably so. And the only other female character he's actively afraid of, instead of unnerved by, is Ayana.
And another thing: when visiting the Web Bot Project, Yuki comments that she thought the White Lotus Association was more associated with Buddhism than with Christianity, and is surprised that there's some excerpts from the bible in there. The white lotus is a common symbol in Buddhism, that tends to be associated with spiritual enlightenment, according to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. I am not Buddhist, so I don't have too much knowledge on it beyond that. In the credits video for Blessed Life/Cursed Life, we see Ayana depicted as something similar to a Christian angel, with a body that appears to be similar to the Dharmachakra, which seems to be a common symbol in many religions, including Jainism and Hinduism, but especially Buddhism. In Buddhism specifically, it's associated with the Buddha's teachings (Dharma). By giving his first sermon, the Buddha set the wheel in motion, signifying a radical and universal change.
I just thought it was neat lol.
Theory: Ayana is a Malkavian
VTMB is a fun game
Knows shit she shouldn't/has no way to know
Rambles
Yep, that's a Malkavian vampire. Uh, the only issue is that she's constantly out in the sun. Maybe she's a ghoul???? Or a thin blood?????
Theory: Ayana stays silly
hehe
:3
Theory: Ayana Otonashi is Ayana Otonashi
She says it herself.
The Only 100% Confirmed Theory!
Theory: Ayana Otonashi is Magical Girl Riruru
???
The Only 100% Deconfirmed Theory!