I just finished Nayuki’s route (first time I read it). I liked it quite a lot, but since I haven’t read the others in Kanon, I won’t say much of Nayuki compared to the other characters in this post.
So, if I understood your post well, your only `problem with Nayuki’s route is that the change from “brother-sister relationship” into “lovers relationship” is way too quick for it to be believable?
To me, even though I recognise the H scene was way too forced and uncalled for at that point, the transition was fairly well made. I mean, Nayuki was still in love with him as you mentioned. She keeps leaving hints just like you said. Yuuichi, on the other hand never actually feels like she’s completely his sister. He feels embarassed when they do things together in public, such as eating that bento box in class.
Therefore, when Yuuichi realises that he is in love with Nayuki, it didn’t feel all that rushed. It was an evident conclusion that could be foreseen from the moment Nayuki starts leaving those hints.
Now, talking about the OST, while I share your opinion about that uneasiness but yet, mysterious motivation to keep on living that Afterglow gives, my choice is 風を待った日 (The Day when I waited for the Wind). The reason I prefer this piece of the OST over others is the fact that when Yuuichi is sitting on the bank before Nayuki comes at the end of his route, he starts thinking about how the snow was falling too a couple weeks ago. Well, I live in Spain and it’s May now, but still, this scene somehow managed to trick me into thinking that it was actually snowing here. Also, the main melody resembles a jazz piano melody that merges both the happy feeling of the upbeat melody of “Last Regrets” with the slightly melancholic or sad feeling of a blues. Also, there is a part which begins at 1:45 of the music in which you can here that same “jazz piano” but now with a tension feeling, as if either something is to happen or something important has actually just happened. At the same time, in the background is a violin (or viola, I’m not that good at discerning them), the sound of which makes me think of an ode to something, maybe an ode to those good times with Nayuki that just ended.
Anyway, I found so much inside a single OST track that I fell in love with it.
My vision on your snow bunny / strawberry shortcake symbol is that they both represent the moment in which they no longer are children and have to face with life’s rawest face (correct me if that phrase is wrongly expressed in English please). The snow bunny, being a bunny, something children usually like, and being made of pure white snow, representing one’s innocence, is crushed by Yuuichi as if he wanted to tell Nayuki how everything wasn’t as light hearted as she thought, and that she should start watching the whole picture. Similarly, The strawberry shortcake is something very sweet (a lot considering Japanese people are not that used to eating sweet things as far as I know). That sweetness may be Nayuki’s perception of life, crushed after her mother’s incident.
Expanding on the subject, the way the cake was crushed may signify different things depending on how you look at it. If the cake fell from Akiko’s hands, it may symbolise how Akiko was the one who imposed (maybe it is a harsh way to put it, though) that cheerful way of living into Nayuki. Hence, once Akiko disappeared, the cake itself fell as did Nayuki’s mental health.
If we look at it from another perspective, if we consider it was the car’s fault to crush the cake, we might think that Akiko was trying to protect Nayuki’s innocence, or even her existence. That however, is something impossible to accomplish it’s only a matter of time before Nayuki realises that her way of seeing life isn’t even close to what actually life is about. In this moment, the car might represent the life (not anyone’s life, but life as a general concept), showing Akiko the futility of her self-imposed mission.
Be it one way or another, what can be extracted from these scenes is what is explicitly mentioned in the VN: Nayuki was way too dependent on her mother and her way of facing cruelties in life had to change. That’s the message I got across at least.
However, the sentence in which she says something along the lines of “I depended too much on my mother, I can no longer be strong, but if I’m with you I can be strong, so let me depend on you”, kind of states that even though she’s made a step towards maturing, she still has a long way until she finally reaches it.
Although I don’t understand the what first question is specifically referring to (and would appreciate it if you could explain it to me), for me, the second question’s answer would be: if I like something now, why keep on hating it? This however, implies that you have already started liking something,l but if we assume Nayuki’s perspective just after Yuuichi arrives the town 7 years after, the question would turn into: Can I forgive what happened, considering the circumstances in which it happened and considering what might have changed in this 7 years?
So to me, it revolves more about forgiving than being able to love something again.
Well, I enjoyed this route a lot and consider it being quite well done as I said at the beginning of my post, and since this has been my first route, your statement might be true. I’ll be happy to reaffirm it or revoke it after I finish Kanon and have listened to all podcasts.
Indeed.
I wanted to finish this post by praising you insert praise the sun emote here. Those posts of yours are elaborate as hell, are you used to critiquing novels, films or anything? Anyway, I’m going to use your posts as a critique guideline whether you like it or not.
PS: I’m not a native English speaker, so as I mentioned at some point half through the post, feel free to correct me if anything is wrongly phrased or if there are spelling mistakes. One’s mind should always be open to improving.