Discussion topic for Minagi’s arc & character in AIR. Feel free to discuss anything from the route, but mark any comparisons to events outside of her arc and the common route with the [spoiler] tag. Her birthday is the 22nd of December.
This topic also hosted AIR Bookclub discussion from this post onward, and was referenced in our Minagi Route Podcast.
What would you rate this route?
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Minagi is probably my second favorite heroine in Air but honestly I feel that she sadly gets underplayed in the anime. Not to say I didn’t like her cause I do like her. She was generally nice, friendly, and I felt bad for what happened to her (her Mom forgetting her and mistaking her for Michiru, her stillborn sister). But at the same time, she could have been a lot better. Maybe after reading the visual novel, I’ll have a much better opinion towards her and her route. As it stands though, she’s okay but sadly is overshadowed by the other story arcs in the anime.
JESUS CHRIST YOUR ROUTE IS SO FUCKING LONG JUST END ALREADY.
You can’t keep my caps locks under control Discourse, you never will.
Minagi’s route was probably the worst offender at dragging out the story for too long in Air. There were three or four points where I thought it’d end, only to be met with another hour of text. It felt like they either struggled to close the story out, or weren’t sure what morals they wanted to express through the route. The days of hanging out with Yukito, Minagi and Michiru became really repetitive after a while as well. It stopped being fun.
It’s my favorite Air heroine route by quite a bit, but it has a lot of problems with pacing.
WAPU!
Unyuuuuu…
WAPU!
Unyuuuuu…
WAPU!
Unyuuuuu…
WAPU!
Unyuuuuu…
WAPU!
Unyuuuuu…
It may not be saying much, but this is best girl.
It also may not be saying much, but it’s best route too.
Minagi is all about the good ole Key stuff you love and it fits right in with Air’s theme.
The power of friendships and the beauty of love- and the fleeting reality of them as time passes and will, as everything does, bring it to an end. Yet, despite this inevitability, we still accomplish unimaginable feats, perhaps not in spite, but simply because of the fact that it doesn’t last forever. We only have so much time in this world, that much is true, but we can still fight to make wonderful memories laughing, crying or loving as we see fit to make our time worth it to us as a motivation.
This will now play host to the AIR Bookclub discussion. Please confirm the details in the topic’s opening post. We look forward to seeing your contributions, and don’t forget to give us your Key Points you’d like us to talk about on the podcast!
Minagi’s route is dragged out sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.
If you are just starting to play Minagi’s route make sure you give yourself enough time because there are multiple points where you think it’s just about to end and then BAM three more hours of text.
(spoilers about good end)
Minagi’s good end is a decent good end. Although I prefer her true end much more, the good end is just taht - good. I do enjoy that she and Yukito do leave the town together and the CG on the bus is nice.
(spoilers about true end)
But the true end is so powerful and emotion-packed. Michiru’s good-bye makes me cry every time and Michiru meeting her mother for the first time is such a powerful scene. I definitely prefer Minagi’s route to Kano’s and while Misuzu’s route is really good in Dream, most of Misuzu is in AIR so Minagi’s route is my favorite out of the Dream portion of the game.
I don’t know how long the VN actually is, but Minagi’s route will make it feel like you just got done with half of CLANNAD.
The end is always in sight… but you’ll be seeing 2 hours into the future. Arc after arc of conflict. Reading the Kano route is like taking a break in comparison.
It’s my favorite of the heroine routes, but as I said before…
And as Kanon said before…
Reading Misuzu’s part of Dream will feel like a HUGE break then cause her part in Dream is extremely short
I just started the Minagi route last night so I’ll definitely stay away from reading all of the other posts~
So far, I guess her mother is gonna play a big part in this. It’s also interesting how you still interact quite a lot with Kano despite going towards Minagi’s route (and vice-versa).
Problem I have is whenever I think Michiru is getting to be less and less of a brat, she just goes ahead and becomes a brat again >_< Though I guess this time around, a good part of it is Yukito’s fault for intimidating her
Typing this on my tablet is probably the worst way of going about this, but I have a lot to talk about here.
I feel bad for making more comparisons to Kanon, but it is more prevalent here than in any of the other routes. Minagi’s character feels like a cross between Mai’s introversion and Sayuri’s innocent benevolence. Considering that the two were good friends, I wouldn’t be surprised if Minagi was related to them in some way. She is very quiet and soft-spoken, but she is also very kind and nurturing. She is the very definition of a yamato nadeshiko, which I think made her relationship with Michiru and, to an extent, Yukito that much more heartwarming.
She and Michiru are friends, but I saw them more as a mother teaching and nurturing her daughter. To reference Kanon again, this reminds me of the relationship Akiko and Ayu had in the later part of Ayu’s route. Whenever the child knew that the mother was in trouble, she would do everything she could to save her, even if she was overplaying the situation a bit. While that certainly happens here in some respects, Michiru leaves it to Yukito to help Minagi instead, which leads me to believe that she either trusts Yukito enough to help Minagi with her problem, or she has no choice but to trust Yukito in this situation because she knows she is too powerless to help Minagi herself.
From that point in the route onward, Minagi and Michiru begin to change roles. Minagi becomes a tortured, lost soul who refuses to accept her sister’s death, and Michiru takes a page from (this spoiler is not from Kanon, it’s from Little Busters)Kyousuke, giving Yukito assistance in helping Minagi and, at the end, moving her to accept her sister’s death and move on with Yukito. The good ending is beautiful at resolving this issue, as well as being beautiful in general. Who knew Michiru looked so cute without her pigtails? XD
Although Michiru has a huge presence in the route and is integral to the story, this thread is not about her. It’s about Minagi, and she comes with a lot of luggage. Minagi suffers from a sorrow shared by many people: a damaged family. With her sister dead (by her own word, even), her mother mentally disturbed, and her father away with another woman, she’s got it hard. If I were placed in that situation, I would think it was all my fault, too. She does absurd things to make up for it, and even after all this, she still maintains a straight face and acts calm when talking to her friends. She’s a very strong girl, but even so, she is weak without others, which is why she becomes emotionally crushed in the bad ending and gives herself up to Yukito.
Many people complain about the length in this route, and while this is the longest of the Dream arc’s three routes, I can give credit to the writers for remembering what was wrong about Mai’s route in Kanon (absolutely nothing happening for consecutive days) and trying to fix it. I wouldn’t say it was a complete success, but at least every day had something of importance happen, which I can applaud.
In the end, there really is nothing too harmful in this route. Out of the routes I’ve played so far at the time of this writing, this is the most tried-and-true, but both the journey and the destination of both endings (surprisingly) are rather enjoyable. Michiru is still somewhat annoying, but at least she’s less so than that squeaky plush toy Kano calls a dog.
You might want to note what that spoiler is for. It’s certainly not for Kanon.
I would say the complete opposite. Mai’s route was enjoyable, even when nothing much was happening. Minagi’s route is just a drag. If people do have that problem with Mai’s route, then they didn’t even attempt to fix that problem here.
I agree with this. Never during Mai’s route did I feel “Oh my god please just end already” while during Minagi’s route I felt it multiple times
Update to where I am at (of course I still won’t read any of the comments): Shit just hit the fan when Minagi’s mom called her “Michiru.” Here I thought I had forgotten everything about Minagi that I watched in the anime but I guess that’s not the case, and I now remember what happened 
ah well, I’m assuming it’ll still be much more entertaining than the anime! Although, yes, everything before this moment did seem to be quite draggy.
Also, funniest part in the VN: choosing the right choice while browsing the dictionary only for the word to reappear a few days later. Yukito saying “Po” just made me crack up, and that couldn’t have worked if they hadn’t set up Minagi’s habit of saying “Po.” I feel as if that whole side of hers was set up for this moment, and it was totally worth it.
[quote=“Pepe, post:16, topic:722”]
Update to where I am at (of course I still won’t read any of the comments): Shit just hit the fan when Minagi’s mom called her “Michiru.” Here I thought I had forgotten everything about Minagi that I watched in the anime but I guess that’s not the case, and I now remember what happened ah well, I’m assuming it’ll still be much more entertaining than the anime! Although, yes, everything before this moment did seem to be quite draggy.
[/quote]Oh, man. I became very interested in Minagi at that point. I had so many questions flowing through my mind like, “Why is Minagi being called Michiru?” “Who really is Michiru?” “Is Michiru actually related to Minagi?” “Is Michiru actually her long-lost sister?” “Is Michiru actually (Kanon spoiler) Ayu 2.0?”
Of course, I almost completely right. Just went to show how tried-and-true Minagi’s story was compared to the other two routes.
[quote=“Pepe, post:16, topic:722”]
Also, funniest part in the VN: choosing the right choice while browsing the dictionary only for the word to reappear a few days later. Yukito saying “Po” just made me crack up, and that couldn’t have worked if they hadn’t set up Minagi’s habit of saying “Po.” I feel as if that whole side of hers was set up for this moment, and it was totally worth it.
[/quote]I wouldn’t say it was the funniest part in the VN (Yukito’s strange noises while eavesdropping on Kano and Hijiri’s conversation was pretty hilarious), but it did set up a heartwarming connection between Yukito and Minagi, unlike the aforementioned Kano spoiler.
Both of those scenes are hilarious. They were H-scenes too, so I had to not mess it up x.x
The Minagi scene shows some good development. It’s an in-joke for the reader at that point. It shows how familiar the characters have become, and how Minagi actually influences Yukito.
The anime version of that spoilered scene is probably the best part of the anime. It’s the only part I distinctly remember at least.
On a bit of a side note, I understand that Misuzu is shy of people, and especially so with Minagi. However, she does not seem the least bit concerned about Yukito distancing himself away deliberately to be with Minagi and Michiru. It’s rather strange, to say the least. She does not usually keep Yukito out of her sight. It could be that she’s afraid to interact with people she knows will make her sad, or maybe she realized now that since he no longer needs her help to survive, she comes to the conclusion that he never needed her to begin with, and that in effect, he no longer needs to hang around her anymore. But even then that still does not make sense. She knows where he lives, so why doesn’t she go see him after school? Is she really that afraid of Minagi? Couldn’t she have tried to become friends with both of them?
I might be reaching a bit here, but it’s a thought I’ve had during that moment. If it’s more relevant to Misuzu than Minagi, then I’ll just put it in her route instead when the time comes.
Another thing I noticed during both this route and Kano’s route is her gift in sewing. She takes the time to mend Yukito’s dirty, tattered puppet, in the hopes that it will help make the show more aesthetically pleasing. I think it might be a metaphor for Minagi’s desire to be rid of her ‘sin’ against her mother and sister. Yukito’s puppet is dirty and tattered from overuse, and he never takes the time to repair it. It is only when Minagi notices how tattered it is that he begins to notice as well, and she offers to repair it for him. Likewise, it is only when Yukito notices that Minagi has a problem with her family that she begins to notice and lament from it as well, and Yukito offers to point her in the right direction to repair her situation. It really comes full circle here, and I think Michiru notices this as well, which is why she thinks Minagi is in good hands with Yukito.
It’s just an observation, but I think it is one worth pointing out.
Just finished the Minagi route, both the Normal and the Good end! I really need to sleep now so I’ll read the other comments and put my own thoughts in tomorrow.
However, one thing interesting I noticed about the normal end is that… It is much harder to get than the good end >_< You must choose all of the standard dating sim responses in order to get the normal end (accepting the rice coupon, being jealous, and asking for a kiss). Choose any of them wrongly and you are booted into the good end.
It makes sense since the normal end relies on Minagi’s feelings for Yukito, just that I found it funny how it’s the total opposite of your classic bishoujo visual novel 
