AIR - Misuzu Kamio Route & Character Discussion

Well I am taking Yukito’s Mother’s words when she says “She never grows up” to mean that the incarnations of the girl in the sky remain childlike. I could be misunderstanding, but that’s how I interpreted his mother’s lines, yeah

I’m trying to find when that was said… Do you remember where? I can’t find the line.

Also:

I’m looking for this line too. Did you make a note of the date and time?

I can’t do it until tomorrow but it definitely happens when Yukito first remembers the rest of the story from his mom, on July 26

Hold on, I found it. It was from earlier on in the route.

[quote=“Yukito’s Mother”]
The girl keeps having the same dream. She’s always, always been alone… Continually disappearing, without ever growing up. She relives that sad dream over and over and over… The girl keeps having the same dream. She can never be happy, no matter how many times she’s born. She’s always, always been alone. And she’ll end her life still a girl. A dream like that…[/quote]

I guess there’s two ways to interpret this line. The first is that the girl remains immature in her life like Misuzu, the other is that she literally dies before she’s able to grow into an adult.

I guess this is something we can talk about on the podcast~

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These lines appear just before Yukito leaves Misuzu, on the 30th.

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Sure thing. However, Kano route spoilers. From Kano’s route we saw that Yukito was able to use his Houjutsu for something other than moving a doll around. He had somehow saved her. Here in Misuzu’s route we see that Yukito is able to use his Houjutsu for something other than moving the doll around (Kano) as well, just as with Kano, it seems to save Misuzu, however (Kano) this time Yukito disappears.

What I meant by “other” power, which should have been worded differently, was that Yukito is able to do things other than moving a doll around with his Houjutsu, and it seems to be some sort of exchange.

It is that aspect of his power that I am referring to in the key point.

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Hmmm, I interpreted that scene with Misuzu differently. Guess I’ll hang on to that for the podcast, but I’ve certainly got some stuff to say.

I needed to reword the above. Not sure if that changes anything though. Anyway, looking forward to hearing your views in the podcast. :slight_smile:

(Except I liked Rin more XP)

[quote=“EisenKoubu, post:11, topic:372”]
Misuzu is very obviously a parallel for Christ, not only in personality, but in circumstances.
[/quote]Im gonna have to flat-out disagree with you here. And trust me, Im all for religious symbolism (you should really read planetarian and then check out the discussion topic). But I see Christ mainly as a teacher, a sacrifice, and a savior. And (as of now) I don’t see Misuzu as any of these.

[quote=“NotKyon, post:14, topic:372”]
The credits rolling before showing the rest of what happens is really jarring. Just before that, you think it’s a good ending… The credits roll, and you feel all happy. “Weird Key magic BS saves the day! Yay! :D” … and then, no.
[/quote]Ahaha, see, I knew immediately it was fake. I agree it was a great ending though. Both the ending before and the ending after the credits. Mostly because I love sudden, cut-off endings that make you think and really want to know what will happen next.

A daily reminder that Natsukage and Sousei are stunningly brilliant! Natsukage is a song I could listen to on repeat for eternity just like the girl in the sky ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), and Sousei… I don’t even know, its just really intense for me. I mean, I could probably go on and on about all the tracks, but yeah.

Will post the rest of my non-podcast thoughts tomorrow~

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Yes this. Definitely this.

Yeah, AIR’s soundtracks are just fantastic. Not sure why I haven’t bought the OST yet, lol. Natsukage is a great track for sure. I don’t remember which one Sousei was, so I’ll go look that up.


Really, Misuzu is just a fantastic character. She’s always trying to hide her own pain and make others smile, and that just makes you feel for her all the more.

So first I want to agree with @Pepe on how great it was to finally see Misuzu again. I had forgotten how much I liked her VA and character.

Despite what a calm, sweet aura the setting gives off, how upbeat both Misuzu and Haruko appear to be, there is something very noticeably sad about the Kamio house. Even before Yukito remembers the words his mother told him, it is obvious that Misuzu is very lonely. Her only joy seems to be when she is playing with Yukito. And Haruko has to work all day to keep them alive, then drinks herself away every night to deal with the pain. She kinda reminds me of Katsuragi Misato from NGE.

Misuzu: “I would have taken anything if it was something Mom bought me.”
->(Clannad)Immediately reminded me of Ushio, in the field of sunflowers

Yukito says he remembers another girl with symptoms similar to Misuzu. Who is this girl? Or is it just him remembering his mother’s words?

I feel like I might be starting tread into ‘you’ll find out when you read Summer and Air’, but What causes Haruko to suddenly act if she doesn’t care, to just run away? She seems to almost recognize what’s really going on and chooses to try and ignore it. Is she just scared?

What are Yukito’s true intentions in leaving Misuzu alone? Does he really believe it will be better for both of them if he leaves now? Or is he just trying to save himself because he’s scared?

I have some other things, but you’ll have to wait for the podcast to hear those :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Nocturne.

The Misuzu route segment of the AIR Bookclub is now over. We hope to have the podcast out as soon as possible. In the meantime, we hope you’ll join us in discussing the Summer route together!

This topic may see some new life later on in the Bookclub as a character discussion topic, so feel free to use it when the need arises!

The AIR Route has just started, so feel free to discuss AIR’s character here once again! But please use [spoiler] tags, as you’re also sharing this space with people who have only read the Misuzu route.

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Much of what I have said about Misuzu’s character still holds up in AIR, since it’s basically an extension of her route. However, we do get some new information on her character in AIR, which I will ‘briefly’ touch on here.

For the first half of the route, we begin to understand why Misuzu makes the decisions she does in her route. Despite her pleasant, childlike exterior, we find that the decisions she makes make her a very human character. She is driven to make friends even if it kills her (which it kind of does, unfortunately). When that fails her, she goes into a spiral of depression, and she even contemplates suicide at one point. Her relationship with Haruko is rocky and distant, but through Haruko’s efforts, they end up growing naturally closer. As Misuzu struggles to stay alive and keeps fighting for her life, she and Haruko become more and more attached to each other and start to understand their similarities.

As the story progresses and Misuzu lose her memories, she becomes something akin to a toddler without a clear direction of what to do. She does eventually regain most of her memories before she dies, but she seems to lose most of her will to live, living on autopilot without Haruko’s guidance. However, it’s thanks to Haruko that Misuzu recognizes that her aunt is the only mother figure she has. From then on, she regains much of her strength, and by the time she dies, she has suffered through a lot. Misuzu goes through a lot for the sake of her mother, as well as for the sake of her future ‘incarnations’, so to speak.

Here’s a couple AIR-specific Key Points regarding Misuzu:

Isn’t it strange that choosing to stick close to Misuzu results in a bad ending? What sort of message is this trying to convey?

Why does Misuzu still feel pain even though Yukito is technically no longer with her? Is she still feeling pain through Sora’s presence? If so, why doesn’t Sora feel any pain?

I’ll restate myself, since I can. Misuzu is a wonderful character with far more depth than she initially seems to have. AIR only makes her better. :slight_smile:

A fond farewell to Tomoko Shikigami Kawakami. You and Misuzu Kamio will be missed greatly.

Bui~!

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She’s dead? wow, 41 years old, that’s harsh. Also, you’re not supposed to put all the Air route stuff here untagged.

Thank you for catching that. Now I know that spoiler tags don’t work across paragraphs. ><

That really makes the ending a lot more heartbreaking.

There’s one thing curious about Misuzu that happens in AIR route. Well, not really about Misuzu, but about her curse…

We are told that the curse causes the girl to forget her memories before dying. But a few days after Misuzu forgot her memories, she started to regain some of them. Like, she remembered about the “baby dinosaurs” in the first festival they went to. I guess you can also think of this as a key point: Does the curse only wipe out some of the memories, like memories of the person closest to them?