Just finished Mio yesterday. It was my last route before Rin2 and Refrain and damn was that one to do “last.” Pardon my french, but that literally fucked me up. I can’t count the number of times I said HOLY SHIT while reading. Definitely my favorite route yet.
Its really hard to put into words. Every single line in that route, save maybe the short tanka history lesson, was important and had some deeper meaning, even in the common route. Where do I start? Actually, I don’t think I will start. I tried writing out every little thing that had a double meaning, or came back around to smack you later, or that was impossibly deep and awesome, and it must have just hit me so hard that I cant remember all the specifics. I’m gonna have to go back and take notes so I can spit out every little thing that made it so amazing.
I can speak to what Midori is/represents. I think she started out as just Mio’s imagination. She was a girl who enjoyed stories more than anything else, and she wanted someone to share it with, so she created an imaginary friend. But of course, her parents and doctors were worried about her, talking to herself, so they made her forget. When she later remembered Midori, Midori became the embodiment of Mio’s wish: her wish for Midori, the “person” who was always there to support her in her childhood, never to be forgotten.
I don’t think Midori was who Mio wished to be, I think Midori was the friend Mio wished to have. And clearly the embodied Midori was struggling with wanting to fulfill her friend’s wish, wanting to experience life, but not wanting Mio to disappear.
I can also speak to how incredibly much I related to this. I have a bunch of friends that I love to hang out with and talk to, but I find it hard to start conversations with people, and most of the time I just prefer listening anyway. And really, I’m introverted and I often don’t want to even be with people at all. So every time Mio talked about being alone, it hit me. When Riki said, “We’ve all been alone since birth”, it hit me hard. During the bad ending, when Riki fell asleep and woke up alone… damn. That bad end in general was just… wow. Deep. The craziest part of it all. Is that when I was reading the bad end, when Riki was struggling to remember Mio, I was feeling really tried and almost falling asleep. And then, when Riki remembered the poem, and suddenly remembered everything again, I was suddenly wide awake. Like I said, the amount I related to it is insane. I will describe it in more detail when I go back over every little idiosyncrasy of this route that made have so much meaning.
