AIR - AIR Arc Discussion

[Bonecuss]

Discussion topic for the AIR arc of, well, AIR. Considering that AIR is the final arc of the story, you may feel free to discuss the entirety of AIR without use of spoiler tags in this topic. In that sense, this is essentially the spoiler-friendly AIR topic. But please mark references to other Key series’ with [spoiler], providing adequate context in parenthesis.

This topic also hosted AIR Bookclub discussion, and was referenced in our AIR Route Podcast.

What would you rate this arc?

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[EisenKoubu]

We’ve seen all the routes, we’ve waited one-thousand summers…how does Uraha’s completely inane plan work out?

(Originally, I planned to talk about the characters here, but then I decided to split up the character-specific Key Points across the character threads, so it wouldn’t be so cluttered and extensive. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause the admins later, and please look for my opinions on the characters in their respective threads for my full opinion on them during the events of AIR. Thank you.)

I feel like AIR was the story that Maeda originally intended to write during the production of the VN. I feel it has much more heart put into it than most of the other routes, it stands on its own without requiring much knowledge from other routes, and I find it much more powerful a story than those routes to begin with. If anything, AIR has taught me two things. First, it reminds me of how much my mother means to me. She’s always been there for me, and she’s had to suffer through a lot of the same things that I did, and more. She’s someone I’ve always looked up to, and even today she serves as the perfect role model that I would want to model myself after. I think I’m pretty lucky to have been born from her womb, raised by her hands, and forged by her guidance. It’s pretty sad that a lot of people don’t have mothers or even mother figures to look up to.

Second, it’s that even after all we can do, even faith sometimes isn’t enough to make life-saving miracles happen. People have to die at some point. We do not know what fate God has in store for us, nor when it will happen. But it is a given that everyone will die at some point in their lives. So, the best thing we can do is to make sure a dying loved one does not regret living. Not only will it ease the passing of said loved one, it will change us for the better, just like how Haruko changes after Misuzu dies. Death is sorrowful, but it is also inspiring. There are good things that come from the death of a loved one. (Just look at Final Fantasy VII.) Life doesn’t end at death, whether it’s ours or someone else’s. We just have to move on with our lives knowing that they’ve passed on, and do everything we can to make sure they are not forgotten. Some people believe in an afterlife. Knowing that you will eventually see a loved one again is comforting, and part of the reason why religion exists in the first place. But I digress.

Here are some general Key Points. The other character pages (Sora, Haruko and Misuzu) will have character-specific Key Points:

The majority of AIR is shown in what looks like a cinematic widescreen format. Why do you think it looks like this?

Kano and Minagi only get a small amount of screen time in this route. Why do you think they were in the story to begin with if the focus was mainly on Misuzu and Haruko?

Sora compares the stars to a flock of birds who flew into the sky, and can’t ever come home. Going back to how other routes symbolized the stars, why does he make this claim? How could this relate to his predicament? Could this also be related to any of the other characters’ conflicts in the past routes, like Minagi or Kanna?

What is the significance of the scene with Maika and her mother? Why does Maika think that the toy dinosaur houses a god inside? Why does Sora compare himself to the dinosaur?

Something I’ve been wondering concerning memories: They’re treated as though the brain has a limited capacity for them. Sora does retain his memories of Yukito, but he can’t hold them for long. Misuzu also forgets a lot when she goes too deep into Kanna’s memories. So, how are they still able to hold on or rediscover the things that they’ve once held precious?

I also have a special Key Point that I will save for the podcast.

Finally, as this Bookclub comes to a close, I would like to thank everyone here, especially Aspirety, Bizkitdoh and everyone on the Bookclub podcasts for helping me get a good running start. This is my first Bookclub here at Kazamatsuri, and I’m glad to have been a significant part of it. Unless I’m still here by the time the CLANNAD Bookclub rolls along (which is a tad likely by this point), I won’t be able to experience something like this again for a long while. But when I come back, I plan to come back in full force. Discussion of these games has given me a purpose here at Kaza, and I hope that never changes as more games come along. CLANNAD, Tomoyo After, Planetarian, Kud Wafter, Harvest Festa, Angel Beats!, Harmonia…I plan to analyze all these stories someday. The stories that I have read and analyzed so far mean a lot to me, and I am glad to have read them with you all.

The end of infinity lies ahead…

[Pepe]

Just got the bad end! I’ll be posting the daily points here as usual:

July 16

• The player is awoken to a dazzling light and sees the sky
• A girl then approaches the player and feels her stroking his back, saying “This one didn’t fly away”
• The voice asks her “Where did you come from?” and “Where is your mother?”
• The player can’t seem to understand it until he hears the mention of “Mother” but realizes he doesn’t have one
• The girl needs to leave, and expects to say goodbye if the player doesn’t follow her
• If he chooses not to follow her, we get a bad end already
• Otherwise, the girl picks him up and puts him on her shoulder
• The opening image reveals the girl to be Misuzu, and the player to be a Crow
• Misuzu brings him to her house, with nobody else there, as always
• The crow seems to think Misuzu is a weird bird, and he is in her nest
• She brings him out and shows him her favorite sweets shop and favorite vending machine so she can sit at her favorite embankment
• Haruko comes home and rejects Misuzu’s idea of having a crow in the house. The crow proceeds to peck her face when she gets too close
• They go to bed together, Misuzu hoping the crow will be back when she wakes up

July 17

• The crow meets Misuzu after school and realizes that she isn’t a bird
• They find a man sleeping in her usual space and try to wait for him to wake up
• They go home and Misuzu is still worrying about the man, and Haruko tries to convince Misuzu to get rid of the crow, and eventually threatens to “turn him into a pigeon”
• As Misuzu goes to sleep, the crow goes out her window and tries to explore, but ends up going back home, seemingly unable to fly back to the window
• He passes by the living room and encounters Haruko, eventually pecking her eye again
• Misuzu wakes up and tries to defend him, threatening to run away if Haruko doesn’t allow him to stay
• She goes out to buy juice, and Haruko follows to reconcile and allow the crow to stay
• Misuzu decides on a name, Sora, because he was a gift from the sky (sora), but he laments the fact that he can’t even reach the sky

July 18

• They head to school, but Misuzu ends up late, so she goes for her usual strategy
• She tells Sora how she plans to ask her classmates to play during summer break, and goes off to class
• After class, she doesn’t find anyone to play with, and says she’ll have fun by herself and put it in a picture diary
• She sees the man from yesterday and resolves to talk to him, because she doesn’t want to spend vacation alone
• She goes to talk to the man and we find out it’s actually Tabu-err, Yukito!
• As what happened in common, she goes to buy him a drink, and we all know how that ends up…
• After reliving the meeting scene again, Yukito notices Sora
• Same thing through common happens again at night

July 19

• The three of them all walk to school, and Sora has a choice on what to do after Misuzu goes to school
• If you decide to go into the school, you meet Kano!
• Or you can follow Yukito and watch him do the same things as before
• They go home and night comes. Misuzu goes out with Sora while they drink, and she tells him that she is popular in school because she is cheerful with other people
• Afterwards, you can choose to explore around as Sora again, and he feels sad as he looks at the stars
• He tries to get back to Misuzu’s room and battle Haruko again, but loses and becomes drunk

July 20

• Sora wakes up in time to witness Yukito’s milk shenanigans
• They get to Takeda Store, and Yukito asks for sweets (I wonder if this changes based on what you chose in Dream?)
• Sora waits for Misuzu as she goes to school, but she doesn’t appear after the bell, and is instead found by Minagi, and she comments on how he hasn’t learned yet how to fly
• Misuzu appears and they go back home, and Sora watches Yukito’s puppet get hit by Haruko (I wonder if this is also dependent on your choice)
• They go outside, and Misuzu decides to teach Sora how to fly
• Sora flies for an instant, but falls to the grouns shortly after
• He remembers after coming home that he felt there was “another me” somewhere else
• The sloth scene plays again, but we see Misuzu’s reaction as she goes to bed, wondering why her mom got Yukito a present
• You have a choice to go out again while Misuzu is asleep, and get to hear Haruko’s point-of-view, how she is glad that Misuzu was able to befriend Yukito (and is forced to drink again)

July 21

• The next day, Sora observes Yukito getting a part time job, and can even choose to go along with Yukito.
• They help Saika return, and later that night, Yukito is acting all funny with his newly-earned cash, and Sora has the option to tear it up, because he thinks it is corrupting Yukito

July 22

• Sora witnesses Misuzu ending up crying, and she talks to him, saying she was like that since she was little
• She decides to just spend her summer break like she always has; going home alone, drinking weird juice
• After meeting with Yukito again, Sora laments that Yukito can make Misuzu smile, but he can’t; because he’s not human
• You have an option to remember the past as Sora, and he leaves Misuzu’s room again
• Sora realizes he is afraid of disappearing, and might actually disappear
• Haruko offers him booze again, but he escapes

Relief

• If you choose not to remember the past, you get the bad end
• Yukito leaves the house, and Sora lives an everyday, never-changing life with Misuzu
• Misuzu cries and laments being alone, and says she’ll go to sleep and not wake up anymore
• She is still alive and responds to Sora, but refuses to get out of bed
• One night, Misuzu starts feeling pain, and she no longer wakes up the next day

---

So far, Misuzu seems very woobie-fied here, especially now that we know how she reacts when she’s alone. It’s all quite sad, and makes the impact of the curse even more painful. She’s just an innocent girl, but she has to deal with all this… Stay strong, Misuzu ;_;

Another interesting point is that she still suffers the curse even after Yukito leaves. Hmmmm…

[EisenKoubu]

[quote=“Pepe, post:4, topic:1173”]
Another interesting point is that she still suffers the curse even after Yukito leaves.
[/quote]That’s why I made a Key Point about it in the Misuzu thread. I’ll make sure we discuss it in the podcast.

[Karifean]

Well now that was a beautiful route. Still on the fence if I prefer it over Summer, but it easily makes the Top 2.

Family’s amazin’
It has everythin’… unbeatable happiness, an’ unbeatable sufferin’.
It’s what life’s all about.

That quote stuck with me. I liked that that was what Haruko reached after all that happened. I wonder though, when does that scene with Haruko and Keisuke take place? It sounds like it’s been a while but it’s hard to tell.

I’m still a bit unsure if Sora existed during common, but I’m leaning towards he didn’t, and Air is the one route in which he does. I don’t think there’s any particular differences from common that couldn’t be explained with unreliable/incomplete narrating, which in itself makes it feel like he was there after all. (While rereading my post I went back through my old screenshots and noticed one of Misuzu lamenting not being able to get close to a small crow, which would be a weird thing to say if Sora was there, so it seems highly unlikely that Sora existed then)

On the subject of Sora though, the POV for Air was quite unique, huh. Just an observer, rarely ever intervening with what’s happening, in the form of a crow no less. Do you think the Air route strongly benefited from having a point of view like that, or do you think something else would’ve worked similarly well or even better?

I also noticed Sora’s little monologue right at the end about continuing to look for the girl who’s still up in the sky, be it Misuzu or generally ‘the girl in the sky’. Did the repeating curse truly end with Misuzu, and if so, what exactly happens differently this time that Yukito’s ancestors just couldn’t manage to do?

I loved the detail that Haruko went from being a “Woman” to a “Mother” in the text. It’s the little things, man. Before that happened I was actually a tad disappointed in the lack of names, but that made it totally worth it in my eyes.

That’s about it for now. Might post more tomorrow.

[Bowiie]

That quote stuck with me. I liked that that was what Haruko reached after all that happened.

If you wanted a tagline to neatly tie a bow on all of the routes in Air then this quote would fill that purpose perfectly in my opinion.

[quote=“Karifean, post:6, topic:1173”]
While rereading my post I went back through my old screenshots and noticed one of Misuzu lamenting not being able to get close to a small crow, which would be a weird thing to say if Sora was there, so it seems highly unlikely that Sora existed then
[/quote]I feel like it would have been extremely hard to hide Sora’s presence in the common just through the lack of narrative so I feel like he wasn’t there, and there aren’t any “AHAH” moments where everything sorta clicks if you imagine that he was there unlike a certain other VN I’m thinking of that does something similar.

[quote=“Karifean, post:6, topic:1173”]
rarely ever intervening with what’s happening
[/quote]I think that’s debatable unless you mean rarely does his attempted interventions accomplish much then I agree.

[quote=“Karifean, post:6, topic:1173”]
I loved the detail that Haruko went from being a “Woman” to a “Mother” in the text.
[/quote]It always seems like when we talk about Haruko we get lost in the discussion (see common route podcast); however, I think this would make for another really good conversation surrounding Haruko how she was always on the cusp of making that transition, and how/if she really wanted to make that change or not.

[Bonecuss]

Here’s what I’m guessing happened in the end to lift the curse:
So Misuzu got happy memories and was happy until the end, which could’ve affected the curse I think.
Yukito being able to fly in the sky is an important part of lifting the curse. Because all of the previous people trying to find the girl in the sky couldn’t fly, Yukito becoming Sora was very important, also because he still has Houjutsu. I’m guessing that him meeting Kanna in the sky by managing to fly there cured the curse, as he is the descendant of Ryuuya and Uraha, and has Houjutsu so can cure the curse with the same magics that were around in that time.
That last scene though was rather odd. Is that a ressurected Kanna on the beach? What even is the importance/need of the scene? It only confused me.

I noticed some nice parallels through the route, like when Misuzu was talking about dinosaurs, it’s the same sort of story with the winged ones.

“Yep, because dinosaurs are fascinating.”
“They have a long, long story from long ago.”
“But it’s also a sad story.”
“They’re living things that don’t exist anymore…”

Also maybe a bit of a stretch, but Misuzu constantly playing with cards when she’s lost memories is similar to Kanna constantly juggling.
Again maybe a stretch, but I think Kanna mentioned that she wanted to keep the chicken she encountered as a pet, and that’s mirrored in Misuzu’s wanting of a chick from the festival as a pet.

[Pepe]

Alright so I finally finished AIR yesterday, and since the daily points were pretty long, I just put them in a paste instead! For anyone interested, you can find it here: http://p.pomf.se/7348

Now then, what were my thoughts on this route? I thought it was quite the experience. Usually a powerful Key route would have one scene that would make me cry for a long time, and I’ll be okay from there on. AIR was different. It made me cry 5, maybe nearly 10 times. There was just so many things happening where you feel extremely happy or extremely sad, and all of those scenes were powerful. So if I could describe the writing in one word, it would definitely be that: powerful. There’s no surprise why this is the game that practically made it for Key and Jun Maeda back then.

It definitely gives us a better insight to Haruko and Misuzu. Back in the Dream route, we would only see things from Yukito’s eyes, and people tend to hide things from other people. But they aren’t so secretive when talking to an animal, and we get to learn how Misuzu and Haruko really feel. For one, we find out exactly why Haruko left on her sudden “Hot Springs trip”.

At the end of the game, we see how Haruko truly transforms from becoming just her Aunt into becoming her mother. Even the final scene, I believe, points to this so heavily. Misuzu is trying desperately to walk to Haruko, and Haruko is encouraging her, much like a mother would teach a very young child how to walk. That is one of the experiences of being a parent, and Haruko, now being able to experience it, can truly call herself Misuzu’s mother.

Now then, I think the question we are really aching to find out more than anything is… how the heck was all that able to fix the curse? I think the two key points (pun not intended) can be taken from the narration of the mother (likely Kanna’s mother) at the end of AIR, and Uraha’s description of her “plan” back in Summer. The narration of the mother (which seems to be what was the narration in the very beginning of the dream) is that she is aware that one day, the winged beings will be gone. Since the winged beings inherit memories, they carry the memories of the earth. That said, her only wish is that, when they are gone, the memories that they leave will be happy ones. Now, since we were told back in Summer route that the winged beings inherit memories, I think that can expand to include inheriting wishes as well. Kanna’s mother’s wish became her wish: that the legacy of the winged beings be ended with good memories.

Now then, how does Uraha’s plan come into this? She describes, back then, that there is no way to save her, but after some time, Kanna’s “soul” will transmigrate back into earth. See, she specifically mentions Kanna’s soul, like it was something that is separate from her body. So I think that the way we should see Kanna was, well, something of a wandering soul. And I think one common reason for why souls wander the earth is because they haven’t solved one of their regrets in life. Which ties into what I said earlier, with Kanna’s wish becoming wanting to have good memories before passing on the legacy of the winged beings.

So that’s what I think Kanna was. She wasn’t literally flying around in the sky. Rather her soul was wandering earth “in the sky” and the only memories she could see was her nightmare, until she was reincarnated. However, because of the curse, the girl who she was reincarnated into was totally doomed into having absolutely no good memories. They can’t make friends, they will hurt anybody who comes close to them, and they will die early. This actually builds up to a keypoint of mine: Do you think that Misuzu’s real mother died as a result of the curse?

Since the reincarnated forms are always doomed to have bad memories, Kanna’s soul never reaches her wish of finishing with good memories… Until Haruko comes along. She finally accepts Misuzu as her child, and gives her happy memories. That is why Misuzu was the last reincarnation of Kanna. Because she finally got good memories, allowing Kanna’s soul to “pass on” and, as she says in the end, “report to the sky her happy memories”.

This might be jumping to a lot of conclusions, and I don’t know the first thing about how shintoism or buddhism or however the mechanics of transmigration work in the world of AIR, so it’s just a theory for now. Feel free to discuss and point out any flaws you guys might see.

Despite that, this thought, in a way, gives me a new insight as to what the real “message” of AIR is. We all know that the message of AIR is all about mothers and appreciating our relationship with them, but I think another message is not being so caught up with things and learn to fight for our own happiness. Haruko eventually learned to stop being scared of losing Misuzu, and fought for her happiness to be with Misuzu. Yukito fought for his own happiness til the end because he realized that his true happiness lied in making other people happy. Minagi fought for her happiness to stop living a false life, and to move on over the loss of her sister. Kano fought for her happiness despite having a curse, and she found it in Yukito. And, finally, Misuzu. Misuzu was the strongest of them all. She was just a victim of circumstance, having to live with this unfair curse. But she fought so hard, because she wanted to be happy. Even if she was all alone, she found her happiness in mundane things, like weird juice and petting crows. Even if she was in pain, she continued fighting, for the sake of her happiness with her mother. Misuzu, you da real MVP.

We are even told at the end that “our wings should hold our own happiness”, and I think that’s a message we can all learn from.

[Bowiie]

That last scene though was rather odd.

Understatement of the year in my opinion!

[quote=“Bonecuss, post:8, topic:1173”]
Yukito becoming Sora was very important, also because he still has Houjutsu.
[/quote]Does he still have Houjustsu as Sora? I don’t remember him every using it, key word me remember it could have happened and I just forgot.

[quote=“Pepe, post:9, topic:1173”]
So if I could describe the writing in one word, it would definitely be that: powerful.
[/quote]It does feel a bit different in some ways. If you look at a game like Little Busters for me it feels more like the story softens you up with jabs and then goes for that KO punch at the end that takes you off your feet. Air pretty much dances around you for a while and then unleashes a salvo without letting up until its done. So many scenes packed so much emotional punch (yes the whole boxing analogy was for that pun) that it would leave you reeling and give you just enough time to get back to a neutral state before coming back around on you.

[quote=“Pepe, post:9, topic:1173”]
Misuzu is trying desperately to walk to Haruko, and Haruko is encouraging her, much like a mother would teach a very young child how to walk. That is one of the experiences of being a parent, and Haruko, now being able to experience it, can truly call herself Misuzu’s mother.
[/quote]There are actually several moments like this where you get to see Haruko experience being a mother to Misuzu as if she was a young child. Examples being sleeping together, bathing together, feeding her and so on. Really the only unfulfilled condition that Haruko mentions is the pain of giving birth to her, but I feel like she sets that aside and realizes that all the other experiences more than make up for that.

[Bonecuss]

Does he still have Houjustsu as Sora? I don’t remember him every using it, key word me remember it could have happened and I just forgot.

As soon as Sora witnesses Yukito dissapearing, and he briefly realises he is Yukito, he goes up to the puppet and makes it walk for Misuzu, making her realise that Sora is Yukito.

[Pepe]

I guess, as we are finishing up with AIR route, I wanna bring up something that I suddenly thought about… How exactly did things “transition” from Dream to AIR? See, we get that explanation with Clannad, Little Busters, and Rewrite, and we don’t go looking for an explanation in Kanon because there isn’t a final route that glues everything together…

After Dream, what happened to Yukito? After Misuzu’s route in Dream, he disappears. Does his soul travel back in time and go into Sora? This would be in agreement to the “time paradox” because we see that Yukito also disappears in AIR route. If he didn’t disappear in AIR route, then Sora’s existence wouldn’t be possible and it would cause a paradox. But the funny thing is, Dream doesn’t even have Sora in it, at all. That, in itself, is a paradox. (sidenote: I think it’d be a pretty awesome plot point if Sora was in Dream, and we find out later on that it is actually Yukito)

I guess the big point I am trying to make is what exactly is Dream? Do we think of the events of dream as parallel universes? Do we think of them as alternate timelines? Does Yukito’s disappearing and transmigrating into Sora cause another, extra split in the timeline? If it is just a dream, then who is dreaming? And if Yukito had the power to do that, why didn’t Uraha do that back in Summer?

The more I think about trying to explain Dream, the more I get awkwardly confused. All I’m doing now is contradicting my own thoughts, so help me out here x.x

but yeah, i guess I’ll leave that as a keypoint: What exactly is Dream, in relation to the occurences in AIR route?
But if any of you guys have any thoughts about it for now, please post it here as well! I am curious to hear everyone’s thoughts on this

[Bonecuss]

Does Yukito’s disappearing and transmigrating into Sora cause another, extra split in the timeline?

That’s what I thought happened.

And if Yukito had the power to do that, why didn’t Uraha do that back in Summer?

What I gathered here was that the puppet has all the wishes of the descendants, which allow Yukito’s wish to try over to come true, so Uraha wouldn’t have been able to do that since the puppet wouldn’t have as much stored magics and wishes.

[Bowiie]

After Dream, what happened to Yukito? After Misuzu’s route in Dream, he disappears. Does his soul travel back in time and go into Sora?

I’ve got a tie in to this that sheds a little bit of light on what happened to a couple of characters (I think)…tune in to the podcast to find out! (Oh look a teaser)

[Pepe]

What I gathered here was that the puppet has all the wishes of the descendants, which allow Yukito’s wish to try over to come true, so Uraha wouldn’t have been able to do that since the puppet wouldn’t have as much stored magics and wishes.

Hm oh yeah, you’re right. I guess that’s one of my numerous questions answered ^_^;

That’s what I thought happened.

I guess it could work that they are alternate timelines. I mean, the concept has been reused in other Key works after AIR, so I can sort of accept that. I’m starting to get some Rewrite-level thoughts here: Kagari, in Terra, “modified” Kotarou’s inner psyche in order to allow him to make a choice to not kill Earth Kagari, which created a whole new timeline that couldn’t have happened in the common part of Rewrite. In the same vein, Yukito brought his soul into the past and transmigrated it into a bird, so that he could create a whole new timeline that couldn’t have happened in Dream.

But I guess that begs the additional question: Why did Dream have to show Minagi and Kano route in order to progress the game into Summer? I get it, it’s a game, and that’s the reward for completing all routes… But after reading so many VNs where explanations are given as to the “why” alternate routes had to happen, I just can’t be satisfied with that answer anymore

[Aspirety]

I recorded the big speech in the sky here for you guys.

There’s a LOT to take from this, probably the biggest bombshell of the entire route. The conversation between the mother and child seems to be like, what Yaobikuni told Kanna before she died. But much like with Yukito, I’m sure it’s something that’s been passed down from mother to child for eons.

But the one thing I’m struggling with right now is… Who is the conversation at the very end between? And what does it mean??

[Bowiie]

Who is the conversation at the very end between? And what does it mean??

I think that there is a break in there, in other words it isn’t one continuous conversation. The speaker and audience change when the background goes away and the tone of the conversation shifts. That’s how I took it anyway.

[Aspirety]

Yeah I get that, that much is pretty clear. I’m asking who it shifts to!

My gut is telling me it’s Misuzu speaking to Sora…

[NotKyon]

I finished reading this yesterday, but was too tired to post anything. Hence, today. Also, there will be some overlap with what others have said here, though there may be some slight differences.

From the beginning of the route we get to see things from the point of view of Sora, a crow. Here’s something interesting: In Japanese Shintoism, the crow is a messenger of the gods. (That link also holds a lot of other interesting symbolism for crows across various cultures.) The translation made effort to point out that Sora means “sky” as well. There are other meanings (like “void”) but I don’t think they’re too significant here. Worth noting though.

Also, if you decide not to follow Misuzu, then the bird (as he’s unnamed at that point) decides to find his mother instead, and the route ends right away. The message here seems clear: Nothing is solved if you run away toward what might comfort you. Although the message wouldn’t be the same standalone. (i.e., without knowing what happened prior to this route.)

My impression from this point was: “Oh, Yukito became a crow and traveled back in time.” And then we see Yukito. “Oh, so he’s not Yukito. But… there weren’t any crows that followed Misuzu around, so… Is he Ryuuya, somehow? But that doesn’t make any sense either… I’ll wait until more information is available.”

Potato makes an appearance! Apparently he’s the monster of the garden. (I think. Maybe.)

We learn a bit more about how the curse affects Misuzu. Specifically, on the 22nd she says “It’s like another person inside me starts crying.” Does that mean that a fragment of Kanna’s soul got stuck in Misuzu, as opposed to Misuzu being a partial reincarnation of Kanna? (Personally, I think it’s the former.)

On the 22nd you can make your way to the bad end which is called… Relief. In this bad end Misuzu dies without having any happy memories with her. Nothing was solved.

On the 28th, assuming you made it past the bad end we learn that the mother and daughter were praying for Saika the girl that Misuzu (and Yukito, I guess?) helped.

On the 1st, leading back to what I was saying in Misuzu’s route, this:

My interpretation then was that Yukito sacrificed himself so she could live. There’s a lot that corroborates that point, but apparently that’s not all.

Later on, Sora is heavily implied to actually be Yukito, or at least a part of him. He even manifests as Yukito and hugs Misuzu, but it’s unclear whether that actually happened or if he was somehow only able to do so in her dream. I’m betting it actually happened because the latter would be inconsistent with Misuzu’s curse and her dreams. (Even though we could reason that it’s possible due to having just been “saved.”)

Anyway, my impression at this point is that Misuzu was given a chance to end the curse by Yukito, whether that was his intention or not. With Sora’s form, he can be with her one more time without causing her any pain. Is Sora able to stay with her because he’s not human? Or is it merely because he’s unable to truly become her friend incidentally?

After removing the majority of Misuzu’s hair, Haruko says something really frightening the next day.

Eventually we reach the final scenes. The final moments of Misuzu… The extra time that Yukito was able to give her, in exchange for himself, allowed her to create happy memories. I believe it is those happy memories that bring the curse to an end.

But what’s really confusing is the end scene. The two children were there the whole time, and seem to be a different version of Yukito/Misuzu or Ryuuya/Kanna or X/Y… how can their presence be explained even though it overlaps with Yukito’s and Misuzu’s when it’s heavily implied that Yukito’s and Misuzu’s struggles solved the problem? I mean, the boy is at least implied to be heavily aware of what’s going on, which makes him an enigma.

Okay I guess that’s all for now. As a quick aside, the scene where Sora flies into the sky was pretty cool both in how it was presented and for the meanings you could draw from it.

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SUPER BONUS SCREENSHOT

This reminds me a lot of… (click at own risk) Key’s newer game, Rewrite

[Bizkitdoh]

You just got so many Biz points just now. We’re kindred spirits, you and I.