Hmm. In hindsight I might have just been reading it wrong then. If we interpret the “she is still in the sky” as being more figurative then literal, then it all fits. Uraha may not have seen a vision of her in the sky, but the sky is the last place they saw her, and in this context ‘sky’ can also mean the afterlife, be it heaven or, more likely in this case, limbo for Kanna. It’s not “I saw her in the sky”, it’s “she is still in the sky”.
Then we have the vision Ryuuya (and us) saw, of her being tormented by a dream of causing Ryuuya’s death. This may seem like an illusion, but that’s before Ryuuya learns that his fate will likely be very similar. He learns soon after that he’ll die in a year, so it’s almost as if the curse making Kanna suffer is a bit more, real. It’s making her suffer because she unintentionally caused Ryuuya to die, and that knowledge continues to haunt her in the limbo she’s stuck in. I believe they called it “the void” here.
As for the memories part, I guess yeah, that is an unrelated statement. It’s a bit weird how it’s spoken like that, but I guess it makes sense. Why would the illusion of Ryuuya’s death be something she cared deeply about? Well, because she cares about Ryuuya, and she’s suffering because she knows she caused his death. It’s less an illusion and more, confronting a harsh reality (even if it hasn’t happened yet in their world). The memories part, yeah. She flew off with those memories, but ran out of strength. She wasn’t able to hold onto that happiness while the curse weighed down on her. She’s too consumed by guilt.
Maybe, that’s a better way of interpreting it. The way it’s written is definitely unnecessarily confusing though, lol.
Alright, I am done with the route, and I guess I’ll paste down all my points here now
Sacred Mountain / Ryuuya
After a month of traveling, they reach the mountains
Trying to find the correct temple, uraha sees some sacred rope marking a barrier of some sort
They approach the barrier and reach a primordial forest filled with mist, and Ryuuya senses a battle going on
They are suddenly attacked by six-feet tall monks, but Ryuuya easily fends them off, and keeps his promise not to kill
Despite seemingly struggling with the spell inside the barrier, he finds two monks cornering Uraha and Kanna
While fighting the monks, one of them mentions “Yaobikuni” before Yuuya stabs him in a non-vital point.
The monk murmurs something, and Ryuuya is suddenly hit with a sharp headache, and suddenly remembers his childhood, where he encountered a dead monk and he should have been killed
He’s suddenly pulled back to reality and the other monk retrieves his sword and charges at Ryuuya
Ryuuya could have one, but in order to keep his promise, he ends up getting slashed in the back before rendering the monk unconscious
Kanna and Uraha return to treat him and carry him, but the monk warns them about not releasing the Yaobikuni
Ryuuya falls unconscious and dreams about a bird flying, and he can’t reach it
He awakens and Uraha informs them that they are already inside the barrier, and should be safe
He goes to a nearby spring to treat his wounds, and meets Kanna there. She feels guilty about ordering him not to kill and is afraid of Ryuuya dying
She tries to say that he should kill, but Ryuuya stops her. Instead, she requests for him not to die
Ryuuya then tells her his story. He was abandoned as a child, and a monk found him, but the monk was killed by bandits when he was 5 years old, while he was spared
He then did all he could to survive, and ended up not believing in prayers… until he met Kanna
Kanna starts to profess her feelings to him and starts undressing. Ryuuya asks her about it, and she says Uraha instructed her exactly what to do
As Ryuuya is about to “sink his poisonous fangs into her”, he realizes Uraha is watching and calls her out
They stop, and rest before traveling during nighttime
They reach the top of the shrine and see a mirror, which may denote a curse, but they decide to all go inside the cavern there
Suddenly a voice talks to them, warning them not to fight
They introduce themselves as Kannabi no Mikoto and her protectors, but the woman refuses to believe, until Kanna decides to show her wings
She admits being her mother, but is stuck behind iron bars
She tells them to take Kanna away from this mountain, but Kanna says she wants to stay with her mother, so they think of a way to free her
She instructs them to return the mirror to the water, and Ryuuya stabs the center of the mirror while in the spring
The mother escapes, but instructs them not to touch her as her body is already tainted
As they are walking away, they hear a whistle from an arrow, and Ryuuya senses a battle coming
They reach a clearing and are attacked by arrows. Kanna’s mother is shot, and she retaliates at the attackers
However, one arrow hits her heart, and she tells Kanna to remember these words: “Power. Wind. Our ancestors. Now is the time. For one to succeed the stars. Tenfold. Eternal. Whatever befits. Thou must, in thy wings, in they soul, find a way.” and the rest are a rush of words in many languages
Kanna asks if she can talk to her, and she tells her the story of her life and her travels with Ryuuya and Uraha
Uraha tells her that she should show her mother what she was planning to show, and Kanna brings out the beanbags
Kanna fails to juggle the beanbags, and continues as her mother slowly passes away
She tells Ryuuya not to bury her, and her final words remain: “Now I have no regrets. I simply wanted to share my wings with thee. This summer sky… As… Thy heart”
They leave her with the beanbags and Kanna cries into Ryuuya’s arms.
They try to escape but are constantly impeded, so they stop to rest as Ryuuya’s wound is opening again
They huddle up and Ryuuya finally admits to them being like a family, and Kanna asks them what their wish is
After imagining a life as a family by the sea, Ryuuya and Uraha silently prepare to fight the enemies surrounding them
However, Kanna starts to reveal her wings and gives her final order: “Live happily forever”
She unleashes a powerful wind and slowly flies up, as the enemies start shooting her and succeed
Her wings suddenly burst into feathers and she disappears
The next morning, Ryuuya vows to take revenge, but Uraha stops him
She confesses her love to him, and they leave the mountain
A Dream of the Sky / Ryuuya
They leave the mountain and end up living in the capital, trying to gain information
They find out that there was a political struggle happening: “A group court onmyouji joined with another family to try and seize power. To make that happen, they had to get rid of the winged ones that Emperor Kazan worshipped. But the eastern mercenaries they employed to do the dirty work betrayed them whent they saw the winged one’s power…”
They hear rumors in the west and head there, but it seems Ryuuya’s wound never fully heals, having him to walk with a stick
They are recognized by a Monk as they are traveling, having them follow him into a run-down temple
They are met by the elder monk, Chitoku, and says he knows about the events. They ask where Kanna is, but he says she is not in this world anymore.
The monks originally thought that Yaobikuni (Kanna’s mom) was immortal, but it seems their own sealing techniques made her live longer
He says that winged ones originally have pure souls, but people started keeping them as weapons. Thus, all the souls she killed ended up cursing her
He says “Winged ones are said to inherit dreams. That is why they are pure and innocent.”
He brings them to a sealed cave at the back of the mountain, which is were the winged ones supposedly used to live
They were called “kumari” and were not demonic. They gave humans a great deal of knowledge
The imperial army intended to destroy all worship of winged ones, and they plan to erase them from history
Uraha says she can still hear Kanna’s voice, crying. She asks Chitoku to teach her their mystic arts (the Japanese says “Houjutsu”)
He accepts and they live at the temple. She learns “Houjutsu” which includes
Reading people’s minds
Making them have visions
Moving objects without touching them
Curing illness with the wave of a hand
Making people forget what they heard
Even summoning the spirits of the dead
Ryuuya ends up at the cavern, doing nothing at all and is practically incapacitated, and spends his time trying to understand all documents about the winged ones
After two years of training, Uraha attempts to channel Kanna’s soul, but it overpowers her and she passes out
She contacts Kanna’s soul, and says she is still in the sky, and she is still sad
She transfers what she saw to Ryuuya, and it is an image of Kanna crying to Ryuuya’s corpse
This vision that Kanna is constantly seeing is an effect of the curse directed at her
It seems that curse is also draining away at Ryuuya’s life force, as it was also targetted to all who become close to to bikuni, and Kanna inherited that curse
Uraha expects Ryuuya to only last one more year, and he asks how to save her
Uraha says that, after time, Kanna’s soul will then return to the earth, and transmigrate for eternity, however the curse will never disappear
The “inherit dreams” seems to imply that they can pass down their memories to the next generation, and this includes the curse
Having her soul and all those memories transfer to a human vessel will cause the human to break
Since it will take at least one hundred years for her soul to reach earth, Uraha suggests to father a child, and continue their legacy
He accepts her offer, but only on the condition that he spends all his remaining time for her
They spend the rest of the year together, and Uraha creates a cotton-filled doll
Ryuuya dreams about their time traveling with Kanna, and upon waking up, he requests to see the sky
They spend the time trying to listen/feel Uraha’s child, Yayako, in her stomach
Ryuuya says “You can forget everything and be happy. You can forget about Kanna. You can forget about me”, but Uraha refuses
How do I feel about this route? I thought it was nothing short of amazing. It was exciting, it was interesting, and it was heart-wrenching. I had a total cry count of 4 in this route (some more tears than others). I also think it explains soooo much, not just about Misuzu’s route, but about all of the routes. I guess I’ll save most of my thoughts for the podcast, and just reply to the current posts here
I guess, to respond to others first…
YOU SLY DOG! You read summer in advance, and you knew didn’t you? YOU KNEW! Dammit @EisenKoubu! XD
This is how I understood it: Kanna had been cursed to forever remain with horrible dreams (or something like that). However, upon leaving the world, she was left with those memories. Now, dreams are something we usually can’t control, and they are built up based on our own memories. Since those were the memories that Kanna was left with, those are what ended up construing her dreams. Those memories are things that Kanna cared deeply about, but, because of the curse, those ended up becoming the nightmares that would haunt her for all eternity.
The strength here probably refers to her strength to fight off the curse. She wanted to keep these memories that were dear to her, and fought the curse that was harming her, but she lost strength, and the curse caused her precious memories to turn against her.
Yeah, that does make a lot of sense. It goes back to Ryuuya’s statement: “Dreams are things you remember from your past.” I think that’s going to be relevant to a lot of things in AIR.
Plot Summary
Ryuuya, a samurai sent to protect a “winged one,” arrives at a shrine. He explores the general layout of the shrine and the land, when he comes across a girl. (Well, she fell on him, from the sky. Almost as if she had been up there. Nah, she’s not the winged one.) Later it turns out she’s the winged one he was sent to protect, Kannabi no Mikoto. (Or just Kanna ― a name which means “There is no God.”) Aside from Kanna we also see Kanna’s faithful servant, Uraha. Apparently neither really care too much about the rules of the shrine. It is likened to be closer to a prison.
Kanna’s about to be transferred to another shrine. This happens every year. (Even though she said that she had stayed at that shrine for as long as she could remember. Perhaps I just misread that section though, but it seemed to be in conflict with her earlier statement to me.) So, after having become good friends, Ryuuya, Kanna, and Uraha escape that shrine in order to find Kanna’s mother. This turns out to be a pretty good idea anyway since the shrine was set on fire. There are some pretty well written (IMO) action scenes that come up. (With a pretty kick-ass BGM we only get in this route too!)
Ryuuya is about to kill one of the guards when Kanna and Uraha show up. Kanna forces him to vow not to kill people. (Ryuuya accepts, and admits that if she had told him to kill the guy that he would’ve lectured her.) Instead of killing the guy, Ryuuya just beats him up a bit more, then ties him to a tree and gags him so he can’t yell. Later, Ryuuya steals some kimonos (he does pay for them though) on account of it being difficult for Kanna and Uraha to walk around. Plus it’s hot. It turns out there are beanbags in one of the kimonos. Sweet! Now Kanna can learn how to play hacky sack juggle!
Ten days after they had escaped the shrine they reach a market on the side of the road. Uraha, being apparently very on top of things, was curious about why the market was setup at such an inconvenient location. She learns that a checkpoint had been established further down the road, with guards on the lookout for winged ones. Kanna learns what a chicken is. The two winged ones chat about trivial matters.
The spoils from the party’s visit to the market include: An assortment of random toys that I don’t remember. (Sorry. Thought I had notes on this.) Later on, Ryuuya sends Kanna to get firewood, and splits some walnuts like a bad-ass. Kanna found a festival though. Ryuuya, Kanna, and Uraha look at the festival from a short distance away. Kanna reveals that she had tried to fly in the past, but couldn’t.
Moving along…
They arrive at the mountain that Kanna’s mother is imprisoned. She’s feared to be a demon. Some warrior monks are not pleased by the presence of our beloved outsiders. Fighting happens. Ryuuya wins without killing anybody. However he is slashed in the back. (Yukito gets a random pain in his back after he was with Misuzu for long enough, by the way.) Eventually they make it to the mother. They set her free by breaking a mirror. (This seems to be a recurring theme whenever magic of any kind is involved. Not in AIR specifically, but in general.) They try to escape the mountain. Kanna’s mother is hit by two arrows (there’s that two again). Ryuuya reasons that this was on purpose. (It does not appear to be the case that he voiced his thoughts though.)
Kanna takes her mother’s memories, the memories of their ancestors, and their party’s dreams, and heads to the sky. (Holy crap, she can fly!) Unfortunately she’s shot with arrows and disappears within the sky, with her wing’s feathers scattering about. The game must’ve glitched because suddenly all of the text around this point was blurry… *ahem*
After a few years Uraha has Ryuuya’s child and Ryuuya dies. (Ryuuya states that he’ll continue his journey in the sky. That was a cool line.) This part was also sad, but at the same time hopeful.
Arc Opinions
This arc (or route if you prefer) was done really well, in my opinion. Its strongest moments are its action scenes. The writing feels very well done, but there are moments that it’s lacking or seems to contradict itself. However these are usually minor points that aren’t really worth mentioning. The presentation is blatantly different in terms of graphics and music. There are no choices, so it’s a kinetic route, but it really wouldn’t work any other way IMO.
The almost H-scene with Kanna did not at all need to be there. The actual H-scene with Uraha was… Well we learn something about Uraha during the scene which can be used to better psychoanalyze her, but that’s not really… Yeah, how about no?
Kanna is presented as a child, for the most part. She is referred to as such continuously, even in her almost H-scene. (“Underdeveloped.”) Uraha is presented as though she’s a mother. In fact, she becomes one. Ryuuya’s relationship with Kanna suggests more of a father figure than anything else. Indeed, toward the end of their time together he even refers to them as a family.
Interestingly, Ryuuya suggests that living somewhere near where the Dream arc takes place would be pleasant. 【Ryuuya】「The warm seas to the west might be nice.」 (Although I’m not sure if my understanding is geographically accurate.)
There was already reasonable discussion about the curse and its effects. I have nothing of value to add to that. The current consensus seems right to me.
Miscellaneous “It’s almost like” quotes:
【Uraha】「The three of us eating together like this is almost like-」
【Ryuuya】「Noblemen and women sent to a distant outpost as punishment, crying with shame and fustration over our meagre rations.」
【Uraha】「Sitting around a fire in the mountains like this is almost like-」
【Ryuuya】「Like a womaniser who kidnapped a princess and ran into the mountains but was so clueless he later regrets doing it.」
【Uraha】「Huddling together like this, it is almost like-」
【Ryuuya】「… We’re a happy family.」
Just to expand the “in a way” part, she’d be more of a minor reincarnation. (Uraha states “It would be like putting an ocean in a vase.”) It’s kind-of an interesting concept. How much of Kanna do you suppose Misuzu is, I wonder? For example, we can see that Misuzu is very childlike, and Kanna herself was also very childlike. (She is likened to a child numerous times throughout this arc as well.)
Yeah, that plan felt very weak to me as well. It definitely didn’t seem like one of the better written parts of the story overall.
This romance was pretty weird, to me at least. IMO, their relationship was closer to father/daughter than anything else. Though that’s not entirely consistent either.
I completely agree with this. If you combine this route with Kano’s random thing it all starts to make a lot more sense. Although this requires some “leaps in logic” that are basically just stringing together assumptions, it still really helps to stitch the story together.
Key Points:
Ryuuya states that it might have been better if he had understood what the monk who looked after him did. That way, he might have taken a different path. Kanna disagrees because then she would have never met Ryuuya. Considering the overall story so far do you think it may have actually been better? (It would imply that Kanna would have never suffered her curse either.)
Is the feather that Kano touched one of the feathers that fell from Kanna, or was that a different feather? We know that Kanna inherited the memories of her mother as well, so it seems like this may be a possibility.
This carries over into Minagi and Kano with Michiru explaining that the feathers hold memories and that she was trying to fill the feather she borrowed with happy memories. I’m also still of the mindset the feather didn’t really curse her as much as it just found someone that had similar feelings to Shiraho and transferred over the memories since I feel safe saying she wasn’t really “possessed” as much as she was just reliving the memories.
[quote=“Aspirety, post:6, topic:1122”]
This seems to contradict the idea that “She’s still in the sky, even now.”
[/quote]I think she is still in the sky, if you remember when they were talking about the curse it said something to the effect of it made them live longer than they should, so it is possible that she is still in the sky just that a portion of her soul is escaping and taking residence in people. Uraha did say that it would be impossible for a human to hold all of a winged ones soul so I think its only a portion of Kanna’s soul that is leaking out.
[quote=“Aspirety, post:6, topic:1122”]
Also, are we meant to believe that the doll Yukito has is the same one Uraha made?
[/quote]I don’t really think its the same one that Uraha made as much as thats just where the tradition started, talking about things that are preserved for a thousand years is all well and good, but this doll/puppet isn’t preserved it gets used and (at least with Yukito) abused.
[quote=“NotKyon, post:25, topic:1122”]
Yeah, that plan felt very weak to me as well. It definitely didn’t seem like one of the better written parts of the story overall.
[/quote]Well their hands were kind of tied at this point, if she isn’t going to reincarnate for AT LEAST a hundred years what else can you do but hand it off to the next generation. Which if you zip forward (or rewind) to where we started we see the plan has worked to this point the children are getting their they are just struggling to finish the deal a bit.
I personally really like Summer, we’ve finally reached the point in the story that I know I didn’t get to in the anime, so this was something new for me. The three main characters really helped out at the start, with such a jarring transition between the end of Misuzu and the start of Summer it would be easy for my attention to wane a bit, but my interest in the characters kept me around long enough until the story kicked in and grabbed me. Summer does a good job of subtly answering a lot of the unanswered questions we had from the Dream routes, and its done in a way that they don’t wave a sign in front of your face that says “Hey look here’s the reveal!” and I can appreciate that.
[quote=“EisenKoubu, post:25, topic:1122”]
The romance in this route is all over the place.
[/quote]I actually really liked the romance in this route. It starts out with Ryuuya and Kanna being very similar to Yukito and Misuzu with the constant teasing that Ryuuya likes to do. Setting the Kanna side of things aside though I actually really appreciated Uraha in this route. Its easy to lost sight of it because most of the focus is on Kanna, but nearly every interaction that Ryuuya had with Kanna involved Uraha. Throughout the whole route we see nothing but Uraha pushing Ryuuya and Kanna together, and don’t really think anything about it, but the scene at the end where Ryuuya has his sword to Uraha’s throat reveals a different part of the story. We see the first emotional burst from Uraha and we have the line “I, Uraha… am the same as Kanna-Sama. I cannot… live without… Ryuuya-sama.” I believe that Uraha had feelings for Ryuuya the whole time yet was willing to suppress herself for Kanna. TL;DR Uraha best girl.
Me having played the memorial edition (and memorial patch), perhaps you could outline here what exactly you are referring to (even if it is nonsense) XD
P.S. did she make any more “Ryuuya being infertile” jokes? XD
At the point they were at, though, it seemed to be the only choice.
I do honestly believe that it is similar to Theseus’ Ship that @ArdWar mentioned. I wouldn’t be surprised if the puppet was mended over time, thus having potentially zero of the original material used to make it. But is it still the same puppet, then??? (insert paradox here)
Okay, to be fair I haven’t come up with a better idea either. And from what we can see so far, it appears to be headed in the direction of working, at least. But the plan itself still felt like it came out of nowhere. Maybe it’s just the translation, but the presentation of the plan felt very forced. I almost want to say it’s Key magic, but it’s not quite that.
Umumu… Her knowledge of such matters implied to Ryuuya that she was experienced. We find out that she has zero experience.
P.S. Ha! No, but that would’ve made the scene worth it, lol! xP
[quote]However, it seems, too, that objects can change over time. If one were
to look at a tree one day, and the tree later lost a leaf, it would seem
that one could still be looking at that same tree.[/quote]
Anyway, the ship of Theseus is a good explanation for it. Although I have nothing more to add, this is a fun philosophical concept in its own right.
I almost want to say it’s Uraha trying to find an excuse to get it on with Ryuuya Well ehem I have a better answer for this, but I wanna leave it for the podcast~
Whaaaaat, and here I thought all of those jokes were foreshadowing for the H scene. Tsk, these guys need to learn to use their humor more properly
This idea becomes even more interesting if you think about what Yukito’s mom said…if it is the same puppet but with all different makeup would it still be holding all the wishes of the previous generations like his mom implied?
[quote=“Pepe, post:29, topic:1122”]
I almost want to say it’s Uraha trying to find an excuse to get it on with Ryuuya
[/quote]“Oh darn well I guess theres nothing else to it come on Ryuuya its baby time!”
[quote=“Pepe, post:29, topic:1122”]
Whaaaaat, and here I thought all of those jokes were foreshadowing for the H scene. Tsk, these guys need to learn to use their humor more properly
[/quote]Insert obligatory long running discussion of if H-scenes are planned or just tacked on
Random thought am I the only one that was disappointed that there was no “potato-like” anime there? Yeah it would have been a little (lot?) out of sync with the story, but I still wanted it to happen.
Do the wishes vested in the doll suffer from general entropy? That is, do they fade over time? Either way, we could say the wishes get stronger (even if the doll is mended over time) whenever a Ryuuya descendant gets closer to the girl in the sky.
AIR TRUE ROUTE!: ~potato~ now available as OVA! Buy the English version now! Japan only!
Anyway, it would certainly be cool to see potato mini-adventures or something. I wonder if there are fanfic manga out there that focus solely on potato… hmm…
That’s definitely how I’d do it! I could go back through the H scene again to double-check but… Don’t really want to… xP
[quote=“NotKyon, post:31, topic:1122”]
AIR TRUE ROUTE!: ~potato~ now available as OVA! Buy the English version now! Japan only!
Anyway, it would certainly be cool to see potato mini-adventures or something. I wonder if there are fanfic manga out there that focus solely on potato… hmm…
[/quote]I was mildly confused by this response until I realized that being the genius I am I typed “anime” instead of “animal”. I was trying to say I was hoping to see an ancestor of Potato in Summer somewhere…it just got derailed thanks to muscle memory and not proofreading… OTL
Would’ve been interesting if Kanna took the chicken back, and the chicken had a potato-like personality. Ha. For example, if after completing the game you go back and play through Summer again and you get a choice at the market “Bring the other winged one with us,” or “One winged one is enough” (or something like that) and it gives you a little extra inconsequential fun.
Sorry Im so late to the party guys, but ya know, life happened.
Summer was pretty darn good. Much longer than I expected. It was like, really interesting, then slowly trailed off into being tiring, then suddenly really interesting again, then suddenly not very well written, and then I kept expecting it to end several times. BUT THE ENDING WAS GREAT. Ah, whatever.
[quote=“EisenKoubu, post:3, topic:1122”]
Misuzu and Kanna have very different personalities and value very different things. If Misuzu is supposed to be the reincarnation of Kanna, why does she act differently from her?
[/quote]I actually would have said Misuzu and Kanna have somewhat similar personalities…
I think my favorite “connection” to the rest of the story was Ryuuya’s injury on his back.
Conversely (or maybe controversially?) I think Kanna’s almost H-scene was important, as it made clear that Kanna did indeed have romantic (as opposed to just platonic) feelings for Ryuuya.
The change of music was nice, and the music itself was good, but it was disturbingly misused in some scenes. The most noticeable instance I can think of was when they were leaving with Kanna’s mother and going down the mountain.
Summer route was tremendous fun. It took us to a completely alien setting from the rest of the VN, but also managed to tie everything back to the main story. It presents the cause of everything, the events which caused a cycle of fate to continue repeating over and over for a thousand years. The characters are all fantastic, the action scenes are great, and the ending is beautiful. That said, it still felt like a prologue to AIR for me. It didn’t even have it’s own credit sequence! And at no point did it bring me anywhere close to tears. It’s a very good route, but I feel it’s outclassed by the others in many ways. It certainly did cause me to think a lot about the world of AIR and make connections between things. AIR wouldn’t be the same without it, it just added a lot of flavour to the story.
Fun analogy time! The way I view AIR is like a pie. Dream is the crust of the pie, it lays the groundwork that holds the rest of the story together. Summer is like the fruit that is used to make the filling in the pie. Its an ingredient of the filling, but not the filling itself it helps add on to the filling to make it complete. Without Summer AIR could have still happened yet it would have felt like it was missing something, yet it couldn’t stand on it’s own the same way you couldn’t have a pie shell with just fruit in it. Finally AIR is the filling of the pie, it adds the sweetness and completes the pie as a whole giving it it’s full flavor. The same way the filling of a pie tends to overpower the taste of everything else AIR tends to stand a head above Dream, and Summer because it gives you that sense of completeness that would be lost without it, but in reality it is built on top of the other ingredients. Dream, Summer, and AIR all play off of each other to give us this great experience of AIR as a whole, without any one of the three the experience changes drastically.
TL;DR: I really liked Summer route the ending would have felt hollow without it.
I was REALLY confused by the sudden shift in scenery (Key seems to like doing this), but I just went along with it. Summer was AMAZING. Kanna and Ryuuya were so cute to watch interact and Uraha is the best character in this VN, I swear. I loved the group’s journey and how Kanna learned more about the world, but the one thing that pissed me off was how amazingly quick they killed off her mother. Like, we went from the lake scene to the cave, to back at the lake, to her death, in about maybe 10 minutes flat. (However, the scene with Kanna trying to juggle was very heartwarming and sad and made up for the death.) Kanna sacrificing herself made me yell out loud so much, I didn’t want her to go!
The epilogue of it all was cool to see, and it also gave a lot of background info and the twist that Uraha and Ryuuya are the ancestors of Yukito!
Also, girl in the sky, is it actually Kanna? How does Misuzu fit into all of this?! The only thing I think would happen wth this would be Ryuuya and Uraha saying their dreams about “living near the west sea” with Kanna. So maybe that’s the town Dream was set in.
Okay I’m like 2 and a half years late to this party, but I just finished Summer in my own personal reading of Air and need to make something clear: This is some of the best content Key has ever put out.
To start off I want to talk about the cast of Summer, looking at the nuance of each member of the cast as they all are exemplary, not only in terms of the game but on the greater scale of key works as a whole. Kanna and her arc is simply fantastic. Her’s is not simply a single grand revelation about herself, or worse a factual realization, but a slow development of one coming to understand themselves and their own feelings. Kanna does not understand how to qualify her emotions due to her disconnect from the world. She does not understand praise, shame, grief, sorrow. Seeing her slowly come to understand these things, slowly come to feel and love the family she has found in Ryuuya and Uraha was profound. All of the three core characters here have a number of quotes that stick with me, moments that were so hard hitting, and for Kanna it would simply be her asking the simple question:
“Am I strange?”
To which Ryuuya naturally says of course not. Key as a creator falls back on themes of empathy and miracles in all of their games, but here it is expressed so simply and yet so beautifully. Kanna might not know much of the world or herself at that early point in the story, but she does know that she is in some way different. That she is not permitted the gift of normalcy. It is this empathy that saves her. Not physically, but emotionally.
To which of course brings us to our protagonist. Ryuuya is fascinating for just how much he is distinct from the kinds of protagonists we see in all other mediums. He has that similar overarching personality as Yukito and Yuuichi, that sarcastic joker with a heart of gold, but here we see it in a different lens. Unlike many key routes, the relationship between Ryuuya and both of the girls felt perfectly natural and genuine. When, on his final breaths, he proclaims that Kanna is waiting for him I could not help but become moved. What Ryuuya learns from Kanna and Uraha is simply that the world does not have to be cruel. After living such a harsh life, he is able to feel purity and love from another, the thing which he only realized at the end with Kanna was what he always wanted.
Lastly is Uraha. The third star of the triangle, so to speak. How underappreciated and unexpected. Uraha doesn’t quite get the screentime of the other two for most of the route, but the ending really showed her in a fantastic light. She is a beacon of hope, always believing in the future. Her running gag, turned emotional during the climax of the story, was truly moving. As Uraha observes, the three of them really make a family and that sort of dynamic is just not something we get to see. Even in, say, Kanon, where there is a literal blood related family they don’t have that tonal warmth of family. Clannad gets much closer, but the familial connections are almost all between only two people. Here we see these three go from strangers to a legitimate family in a relatively short period of time and completely sell it. Uraha’s lines at the end of the route, that she will not be alone, that Ryuuya and Kanna will be with her even as she continues to live was the most poignant point of the novel thus. Uraha is the emotional core of this story.
Summer is a story about love. “But wait Bread, aren’t all key stories about love?” Yes you silly lad, naturally all the key stories are about love. But many of them are not actually about love in a practical sense. Many of the Little Busters girls suffer from a lack of attention to the romance. Not only does Summer tell a fantastic love story, it also conveys a deeper love. An agape love and a sense of family unlike many other stories. Kanna growing from a spoiled princess to sacrificing herself for the two she loves, Uraha’s resolve to live alone as the only survivor, Ryuuya not flinching in the face of his own mortality, I was completely sold on how much these three people care for one another. The tragedy of these three being separated couples with the hope and resolution that some day these three can be put to rest. Their dynamic and their struggle is top notch. Forget the rest of Air, forget the rest of key, this story is simply amazing.
You have good taste Yuuichi Suzumoto was such a great writer and I’m sad that he hasn’t remained active with Key after planetarian
This line itself just succinctly describes the story so well. The summer arc is more than just lore and war and the struggle between friend and foe. It’s about how the three seemingly strangers become a family, each of them learning from each other. Each of them completing each other. Each of them showing to each other that there are more important things than everything else in the world: protecting each other.
Kanna protect Ryuuya and Uraha by sacrificing herself. Ryuuya protected Uraha and Kanna by fighting for them. Uraha protected Kanna and Ryuuya by continuing their legacy. And if that isn’t what family is about and if that isn’t something worth fighting for, then I don’t know what is.
Well ehem I have a better answer for this, but I wanna leave it for the podcast~
Yuuichi Suzumoto was such a great writer and I’m sad that he hasn’t remained active with Key after planetarian 
