Final report has finally arrived, though one day behind schedule…
This has been a pretty interesting route. It started off pretty badly but started getting better and better steadily, building up to a, in my opinion, perfectly written ending.
From day 20 onwards we start seeing the true gist of the route. Makoto starts behaving in weird ways, looses some of her dexterity at some basic skills and, finally, Amano appears to reveal the truth.
Regarding her, like @EisenKoubu, I’ll give my opinions about her in her topic, since I could talk about her for a while and she doesn’t strictly belong to this topic.
Anyway, it is revealed that Makoto is a fox Yuuichi had taken care of when (suspense suspense) he had been in the town 7 years ago. Hooray for the memories theme. Though it is OK to have the memories theme in some routes, the fact that they seem to be appearing everywhere is starting to bother me, but now I’m just deviating from the topic.
Makoto’s condition keeps getting worse and Yuuichi feels really concerned about her. Nayuki doesn’t seem to care all that much from what we see form her reactions, but Akiko looks as if she is going through the same pain as Yuuichi, only that she hides it until the very end, when she, almost crying, replies to Yuuichi with a “Take care”, knowing that she won’t see Makoto again.
This particular line from Akiko was very striking, since we don’t usually see Akiko show her true emotions. She always plays it cool and remains calm in every situation. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this as well.
And now we get onto the more philosophical part of the post: Makoto’s last days once Yuuichi knew what was about to happen. Yuuichi was quick to realize that there was nothing he could do to sabe Makoto and, instead, started pleasing every single one of Makoto’s requests, as, since she was about to be gone forever, he at least wanted her to depart having been the happiest she could have been.
Yuuichi no longer cared about himself, as we can see when he reads that manga he hates to Makoto, just to try to make her smile. He really suffers because Makoto no longer gives clear signs of emotions and he doesn’t know what she wants to do, if she is having a good time or if she is just tired of playing.
To the reader, all this emotions are not only showed with pure writing, but also with heart touching music. My personal favourite of the route was “A Newborn Wind”. It gave me that mixed feeling of the ending of something good. All the good times, the farewell times and the painful times mixed in a single melody. And, in fact, I don’t like all that much the voiced versión, but rather this instrumental versión, the sounds of which evoke fragile snowflakes falling down on a lonely person who is absorved in his own thinkings.
Coming back to the story, I found something curious: the presence of the snowman on Makoto’s “wedding”. That snowman looks like a symbol to me. It is said that it isn’t a well made snowman, so, I’ll take my guess and I’ll say that the snowman represents Makoto’s and Yuuichi’s relationship. Something with potential, but not well built from the start. And I say this because Yuuichi starts trully “loving” Makoto (as lovers or brothers, whichever is fine) when he knows that she will disappear. This means, that he really has no time to get to know all about her, nor time to build some last longing memories. All he will keep from these days is that Makoto was a por girl or, let’s call it spirit, who gave everything she had to be able to stay with him for some time but he couldn’t do everything he could, since he had lost so much time at the beginning of their relationship.
What are your thoughts on that snowman? Also, what do you think about Yuuichi’s and Makoto’s relationship?
Now, let’s look at your thoughts about this route!
He surely starts caring more about these mundane things, but may I ask, why? Is it because he trully starts seeing those things as important? Or is it because by caring about those things he makes Makoto happy, which seems to be his goal during Makoto’s last days.
That question is up to answer by every one of us, and we will all give slightly different answers. Let me highlight it so that it get’s some attention during the podcast. Was it all worthwhile?
My opinion on this goes as follows. For it to be worthwhile, Yuuichi has to feel fullfilled. Yuuichi feels relieved because he knows that he isn’t all alone because he has Amano. However, when Amano went through this she was alone and she didn’t end up pretty well, I’m sure that if you asked her just after that, she would have said that it wasn’t worth by any means. Yuuichi however, wasn’t alone, and that helped him overcome the pain, so if you asked him, he might say that Makoto had been happy enough and that his pain was worthwhile, since he could share it with another person and wasn’t as tough for him.
I might even write this on a Wall in my bedroom. Nice conclusion and I totally coincide with you. However, while it’s true that Makoto was treated, by this definition, as a pet, a couple question arise: Should she be treated like a pet or like a human? What makes Makoto want to reincarnate as a human at all cost to spend some time with Yuuichi?
I don’t find it tall that strange. If we consider that Makoto’s motivation to transform into a human were to be with Yuuichi, it isn’t weird that she comes up with excuses to be more with him.
When you can’t understand these things: KEY Magic. Or maybe symbolism? OK, let’s go big on this one and let our imagination take control. What I’ve associated snow with in Nayuki’s route and in the common route is that snow is some kind of thing that covers Yuuichi’s memories from 7 years ago. Once he starts remembering, snow melts. Since the scenes that happen at Monomi Hill take place after Yuuichi remembers what happened 7 years ago (fully or partially), it may be a reference of Yuuichi having gone through that snow cover and having rediscovered his old memories.
This is it. Now time for a closure. Makoto’s route started quite bad, but evolved brilliantly. While the main issue I had with the route was Makoto’s character itself, the story told and the way her last days are written and presented make up for it excellently.
I thought I wasn’t going to like this route, but overall, I pretty much ended loving it. I’ll give it a 4, since my only 5 so far has gone to CLANNAD After Story and I don’t feel this route is as good as that.
Anyway, cheers and let’s hope for a good internet connection to be able to hear the Podcast!