Yeah, I know. I’m late. Like, beyond late. About as late as Haruko was for Misuzu. Oh well, I’m here now.
Before I went anywhere near this topic I had to sit for a couple of days. And I have to say, even after waiting so long, I was still very disturbed by AIR. Its ending made me… very uncomfortable.
At first I was just angry. Like, really pissed off. All of the AIR route up through Aozora was amazing. I could totally see several flaws in it as I was reading through, but I understood what Maeda was trying to do, and I appreciated it greatly. But that ending was just… I don’t know, the first word that comes to me is stupid.
Of course, as usual reading all of Kaza’s interpretations help greatly. At least I’m sort of able to comprehend what physically might have been happening, even if the meaning is still kinda lost on me. Now, I haven’t read all the posts, because I’m tired right now, but.
Honestly, the part that pissed me off the most was that Yukito never came back. Like, its totally my own fault too. I set myself up, completely convinced from the moment that he disappeared that he was coming back. It was the most anticipated moment for me; I was dying to hear his voice. Like, it was obvious to me that Sora was Yukito from the beginning, but Sora just never had the same great qualities as Yukito, especially when we progressively heard less and less from Sora himself as we neared the end.
Not only that, but no one really cared about Sora, which really made me feel like no one cared about my presence, which is really weird for a VN. I lost almost all personally relation and involvement with the story.
Second thing that pissed me off: Misuzu died, stayed dead… and everyone just got over it. (I know it had been a while before the next scene with Haruko, but still). For once, I was begging for some Key magic and instead all I got was a middle finger and some unexplained shit about the sky and infinity. Yeah, OK, so maybe the curse was broken, but then why was no one happy about it? The goal of the whole story was reached, and all everyone was talking about was moving on.
And how was the goal even reached in the first place? This one is really killing me. Like, first, Yukito seemingly did nothing. Like, yeah, he got to stay with Misuzu for forever (sorta?) or whatever, but SORA DIDNT DO ANYTHING. This goes back to how pissed I am about Yukito not coming back. Like, I kept expecting Sora to be there for some reason; to do something. But in the end it seemed like he was only there so we could see the end of the story.
And then what did Misuzu or Haruko even do? Are you telling me that to break this 1000 year curse, all Haruko had to do was stop being selfish and start showing her niece/daughter that she loved her; and all Misuzu had to do was STAY AWAKE FOR 3 DAYS STRAIGHT. Ok, yes, I understand. All she had to do was make a happy memory. But it just kinda seems preposterous to me that for 1000 years no one had ever been able to make the girl happy.
OK, breather time. Sorry for all my rambling. I really did throughly enjoy the route up until the end. I just didnt like the ending. Which (as many of us here know, whether it be with this or with other works), not liking the ending can really screw with your opinion of the story as a whole. I just wasnt satisfied.
And if any of you were wondering, yes it did make me lightly tear up a couple times, like when Giniro/Aozora were playing. Very different kind of feels from Key’s other games, though. I may not have even cried at all if it werent for the brilliant music.