We are never told that Makoto knew where he lived during his seven-year hiatus, and if I remember correctly, he did promise he would come back, and she trusted him more than enough to wait for so long. After seven years, with growing impatience, she decided she wanted to meet him faster. Similar to Nayuki’s route, she discarded a greater happiness to achieve a goal of hers faster, with fatal consequences. Also (and this is just a personal theory of mine, don’t take it to heart) perhaps part of the deal that turned Makoto into a human ensured that she would be able to see Yuuichi again somehow, through manipulation of fate or something. You could just broil it down to “It’s Key Magic,” and it would probably be a better explanation as to how Makoto was able to meet Yuuichi after so long.
In the hopes of beating some people to the punch, I found some information on kitsune, or foxes, and the legends that surround them.
Amano refers to them as ‘Youko’; an uncommon term referring to fox spirits that can be easily interchanged with ‘kitsune’. They first appeared in Japan in the seventeenth century, and unlike Chinese fox spirits, they were quickly accepted as part of Japan’s official religion. There are some differences between Chinese and Japanese fox spirits, but I’ll focus on some of the details on kitsune that I found that bore some resemblance to the events of this route.
Kitsune are said to possess significant intelligence, perhaps beyond that of humans, and blessed with a long lifespan and some magical power. Despite being called fox spirits, they are not ghosts; instead the term refers to fox-like creatures with supernatural abilities.
Kitsune may take human form, particularly beautiful women. Their transformations are not limited by age or gender, and they can duplicate the appearance of a specific person, (anime spoilers) which makes the part of the anime’s ending with Makoto suddenly appearing to help Yuuichi make a whole lot more sense. A common belief during medieval times was that a woman encountered alone, especially at dusk or night, was likely a fox.
In folklore, kitsune are often presented as tricksters, either out of their own amusement or for purely malevolent purposes. They often play tricks on people who are overtly proud, boastful or greedy, but some stoop as low as abusing the poor and humble. They target men the most, using women as vessels of possession instead.
Alternatively, kitsune are portrayed as lovers or even wives. These stories tend to involve a young human male and a kitsune who takes the form of a human woman. The outcome is, more often than not, marriage between the two, with the kitsune woman being a faithful and loving wife until the husband discovers the kitsune’s true nature and forces her to leave. In some cases, the husband wakes from the whole ordeal as if from a dream, and returns to his family in shame.
There are far more interesting details out there about kitsune, but those are the ones I found that bore some similarities to Makoto’s route. Maeda certainly did his homework, it seems. :3
) and I’m not sure why.
She’s probably one of the first examples of a “woobie” in that regard. But that doesn’t make her hardships any less valid, I feel, and I’m glad to see there are people that still consider her route as their fave.