For once, I had the whole day free on Tuesday and I thought "Hey, I could just sit here and read all of Minagi in one go. I can’t be that long right? Wrong. Read all day that day and still didnt finish 'til today. If it hadnt already been used in the last podcast, I think the “7.8/10. Too much water.” joke would fit perfectly here.
Anyways, I think I’ll just start off with replying to others’ thoughts and spread the entirety of my thoughts over several posts as usual.
[quote=“EisenKoubu, post:23, topic:722”]
I consider the ‘normal end’ the ‘bad end’.
[/quote]I agree. I can see why it isn’t necessarily a bad end, but it sure doesnt feel like a good end to me. In fact, I guess I’ll use this as the first “Key Point”:
I’d like to hear you guys talk about the meaning and implications of the normal/bad end. What did Yukito do/say wrong? What did Minagi do wrong? Is it a bad end, or can some “good” come out of what to me seemed like both Minagi and Yukito just giving up? What connection and meaning in light of the themes of the story as a whole does it have?
Yup. I was thinking the same thing for most of the story, and just wasnt really able to get into it like I usually do with Key. But Minagi’s final “backstory” completely saved it for me. That part where we see Minagi’s life, her emotions, her parents emotions, and then all three of their breakdowns, is possibly my favorite part of the entire route. of course, the endless loop of Kaisouroku didn’t hurt too. 
[quote=“EisenKoubu, post:29, topic:722”]
Having just finished Little Busters!, I found a lot to compare here.
[/quote]Same here (The following are all LitBus spoilers, if you couldnt tell)
First of all (and most importantly) “LOVE LOVE HUNTER!”
The “bad” end kinda reminded me of Komari’s bad end, with both the protag and the heroine just giving up on solving the problem and running away and choosing to just keep on living in a broken state (that and the taking-advantage-of-a-broken-girl h-scene).
Minagi’s comment about that “even when everything is sad, Michiru keeps smiling” reminded me of Komari. And Michiru telling Minagi that she can’t cry reminds me of Kyousuke.
Finally the huge internal conflict about waking up from the dream: Extremely similar to the conflict between Kyousuke and Kengo: Becoming strong enough to wake up and continue living vs. Wanting the dream to continue eternally so no one has to go through the pain.
[quote=“EisenKoubu, post:31, topic:722”]
This VN focuses on that facet [family] a lot, perhaps even moreso than CLANNAD
[/quote]I’m sorry, I might sound a bit rude here, but I dont think you realize just how crazy that sounds. THE NAME OF THE VN MEANS FAMILY (or at least, [is supposed to][1]). I know I havent finished AIR yet, and I know everyone experiences everything differently, but that just seems impossible to me.
This route was barely about family anyway, unless its about how family hurts you and then tries to make crappy excuses to make it up to you. Minagi’s mom sent most of Minagi’s life completely rejecting her, and then its just barely even implied that they just suddenly are fine again. Michiru, as stated before, really acts more like a friend than a sister (which honestly was fine by me).
And dont even get me started on Minagi’s dad. I barely met him and he might be my least favorite character in the entire VN. First of all, he’s a selfish bastard: Wife almost dies in a miscarriage, his supposed-to-be new daughter is dead, and in the moment his family needs him the most he just up and leaves. Not only that, but he tries to take Minagi with him, AND then gets remarried, never to be heard from again.
But thats not the worst part. The worst part is the ending. I dont know how anyone found the ending heartwarming. It would have been perfect if it had ended right when Michiru disappeared, or with Yukito leaving town. But it honestly kinda disgusts me that the dad would, after leaving his family for years, just think it would be OK to write and say “Ive got a whole other family now, AND you have a sister now Minagi, AND guess what (as if things could get any more twisted) I NAMED HER MICHIRU.”
Not only that, but the fact that Minagi would just immediately accept all that, AND be happy about it, basically just acting like all that shit with HER Michiru didnt just happen, like HER Michiru wasnt really important because “Hey, she was never real to begin with. And now Ive got a real little sister,” its all just sad.
TL;DR, I really didnt like the ending. But hey, the rest of it was pretty good, so oh well.
[1]: Key Title Naming Sense
