Uhm, so I like Mio as a character. She seems like a super delicate, shy girl, and it was nice to see her dry sense of humour and how well she pulls off the deadpan snark. I enjoyed getting to know her more even though dating her felt a bit out of place.
Rin was interesting this route. She started off more outgoing, which leads me to believe there’s some narrative purpose for her doing so. Maybe she maintains her growth across routes or something. This being my second route played, I also have come to appreciate the sheer number of scenarios available, which is awesome and I really appreciate it.
So as far as the route itself… I was pretty disappointed. It felt weird and out of place and the writing was repetitive and odd. So uh, here’s hoping I enjoy the next route more!
Is the thing I took away the most from this reread, Midori is really good.
So, the route is good! Full of S Y M B O L I S M…perhaps a little too much, my blue? her white? the nothingness that exists? are memories real or just an illusion, some of this is either going over my head, or simply never meant anything to begin with. There is one piece of it though, that I firmly enjoy, the BIIIIRDS though, the bird symbolism is amazing, you have to realise Midori is written as ‘beautiful bird’, like how the first time they show up, Riki scares them away, like how he is the thing keeping Midori from winning in the latter half, and how Mio wants the birds to stay, it’s good shit, speaking of good shit, lets talk about…
Mio, Parasol Holding Silent Beauty
Mio is your classic, emotionless, quiet, megane bookworm character. Also not, at all. Her sense of humour is wicked, appearances can be deceiving, her personality is nothing like that tired archetype. However I must admit as much as I enjoy her sense of humour she can certainly lack presence, a lot. Not a bad character, not a bad character at all, but not the most memorable one. Jesus fucking christ I didn’t even intend to parallel her actual in universe issues with that last line. More interesting than Mio is the real star of this route, our dear villain…
Midori
As I hinted at the start of the post, I found myself really enjoying Midori this time around, perhaps thanks to foreknowledge of the route, knowing that she wasn’t truly the villain she played so very well this entire time, you can see the entire time, despite her words she always makes sure Riki remembers, actively being the sole reason he doesn’t forget several times, the whole time she is Riki’s most steadfast ally despite being the villain. This makes her so incredibly interesting, which, combined with her excellent personality lead me to really enjoy her. It’s a damn shame she gets very little attention in the fanbase, partially because her existence is a spoiler, she’s actually wonderful.
So who wants to talk about Glasses. Who wants to talk about how G O O D that scene about the Glasses is. I mentioned it earlier, but Mio’s archetype is often seen with glasses, and in fact, several of her battle accessories are glasses, her lack of them despite this is all to build up to this scene, it’s a wonderful fuck you to the player, to make even them rethink themselves, a great strength of Little Busters to me is it’s tendency to truly engage the reader, and this sort of shit was even brought up earlier in the route where Riki finds fictional and reality in a novel blend together, this route loves to mess with this idea constantly, it’s all very interesting. It also showcases how devious Midori is, it’s not ‘she wore glasses right?’, it’s ‘What kind of glasses did she wear’, stating the lie matter of factly so that Riki accepts it while trying to debate a meaningless technicality, stuff like this is why I think she truly excels at her role as villain, trying to make RIki deny her as much as she can.
Mio’s theme Approaching the Light always amuses me, on it’s own standalone it’s probably one of the weakest songs in the game, although certainly present, but I always mentally associate it with her making absolutely savage remarks which are completely at odds with the calming gentle theme and it cracks me up, I believe in part it’s intended to cause that contrast.
All that said, I do take issue with the route, I’m not the biggest fan of the finale, it all gets a bit TOO vague and symbolismy at that point, and well, perhaps that was the intent, far be it from me to critize the writing of Kashida Leo, I mean the guy made me enjoy a Tomoyo product with his writing afterall, but it falls just a little bit flat for me, there isn’t enough raw emotion involved.
Overall, not the best route, not the worst route, smack dab in the middle, just as I remember, but it was an enjoyable read all the same and I’m happy to gain this newfound appreciation of Midori.
There’s definitely a lot of references to specific literature in this route. Too bad they don’t mention the titles or writers by name, just kinda vague hints. I’m sure it’s really obvious if you’re read up on Japanese mystery novels, but I’m not.
They mentioned one in particular that seemed interesting. Something like every other chapter is fiction told by a character and as he gradually goes insane it becomes harder to tell what’s what.
Okay, I’ll start off this post with a silly joke that just kinda escalated that originally happened in a PM thread with @Karifean (as it wouldn’t fit anywhere else).
Also you will only understand this joke if you have finished episode 2 of Umineko (so slight spoilers for that)
Also said continuation is just one of many instances of foreshadowing.
And now I’ll actually start talking about the important stuff. I recently said on discord that Mio is basically me. That was at a point where I was still in common. So I didn’t yet know the reasons for why she acts the way she does. And I have to say, there are differences between us. The most glaring one is that I don’t loathe myself. I’m honestly pretty contempt with myself, which seems to be surprisingly rare. Perhaps I’m a bit arrogant thanks to that, but honestly, I don’t care. Anyway, back to Mio. Where we are similar however is that we both like reading, are a bit silent, and are both socially awkward and not. Now you are probably wondering “socially awkward and not? How does that work? Aren’t these things exclusive?” Well, let me explain. Mio is socially awkward in that she doesn’t interact with others on her own. Her reason for that is because she wants to be isolated because of the whole Midori thing. My reason by the way is that I’m just a bit afraid of complete strangers and what reactions they might have to me. In that sense, we’re both socially awkward. However, we aren’t actually socially awkward. We very much understand societal norms, and once we’re integrated in a group, we can do all the fun and crazy stuff as well. As a matter of fact, to speak of myself again, if you’re one of my friends reading this, you probably thought to yourself “You, socially awkward? No way!” So that’s Mio. But what of her shadow and twin sister, Midori?
Well, she’s way more energetic, and also pretty mischievous, and she plays the role of the villain in this route. I did expect that she wasn’t really a villainous character, although my reason for thinking this was different from how it actually was. Going from the coma theory, my thought pretty much was that the Mio we got to know in the common route is really just a part of the “true” Mio Nishizono, to be precise the part of Mio that Riki likes the most. I was expecting that the twist was going to go in a direction that Riki must accept both Mio and Midori being part of the same person, personality wise. (He still had to accept Midori so to speak in the twist this route was going for in the end though).
Now that I have spoken about both Mio and Midori, I wanna talk about the route itself a bit. And holy shit, that’s some amazing writing. The amount of foreshadowing is daunting. Already early on, when Mio talks about mysteries, she seems to be most fascinated by the twins, saying later on they’re her favorite characters. The mystery novels themselves also are great foreshadowing, giving the reader the idea of a duality where you can’t tell fact from fiction. And since this is such a central theme that needs to be established so that the reader doesn’t flip out once the memory screwage with Midori and Mio happens, it is no wonder that I was able to make a stupid Umineko joke in the beginning, considering that Fantasy versus Reality is one of Umi’s main themes. Continuing with the talk of presentation, let’s talk about the art for a bit.
This background is very obviously a real photo put through some filters. By doing that, the sea is immediately ingrained in the reader’s memory, along with the scenes happening there. And this is very much a concious choice, especially once you consider that the actual CGs that are shown at the sea have instead a typical anime beach drawn.
Another presentation thing I wanna talk about are the names Mio and Midori. And I’m just a little bit peeved that @cjlim2007 already presented this information, and from memory to boot. Reason for that was that I was really excited about that. Both @Karifean and this discord log can bear witness to that:
I guess I can still provide some links proving his claim of the meaning of the kanji:
Mi:
Oh:
Dori:
What I find interesting here is that Mio is the beautiful fish and Midori is the beautiful bird, even though Mio is otherwise linked to the bird in the poem. But once you think about it, it makes perfect sense. First of all, I think that the bird and the fish in their names are more a reference to the sky and the sea, and less the actual bird in between them. Second, it fits that Mio is the fish because a fish is silent, out of reach in the ocean, and thus isolated. A bird meanwhile is loud, especially during mating season, and generally seen as more juvenile and lively. But then we get to third. Mio wants to be the bird. So once the two switch, Midori becomes Mio, thus giving free the bird.
But I didn’t want to stop there. We saw that the given names of the two were chosen conciously. So what about her given name, Nishizono? Well, I decided that I would research this as well:
Nishi, meaning either west or Spain:
and Zono, or Sono rather (what I had to enter to find it), meaning park, garden, yard or farm:
Now the zono part is pretty obvious, referencing the courtyard, that place under the zelkova tree, which you could consider to be a park. But why west (I doubt they were going for Spain)? What’s the meaning behind Nishi? Once we consider that this plays in Japan, I think we can explain west. Because then west could refer to the West, where many of the forum users live, Europe and America basically. And what is the West for a Japanese person? It’s foreign, alien, and far away. Just like Nishizono-san is when Riki first meets her. Furthermore, Mio likes all kinds of fiction, both Japanese and Western alike. So that could reference that as well.
By the way, I think I’ll try to research each name for their respective routes, see if there’s meaning to find as well.
I have come so far and I’m still not done gushing about the writing. One thing that stood out to me was the usage of Thin Chronicle in this route. I really got concious about the theme when it was playing in scenes with Midori, namely in ones where she was still playing the role of th villain. You have this confrontation thing going on, where you’re cheering Riki on to not give in, and yet such a happy tune is playing. So I started thinking “Why is this theme used?” Then I remembered MagusVerborum explaining the symbolic meaning of bells back in the common route discussion. It’s used both to signify happiness and a transportation to the spirit world, or to view it more generally, going from one world to another. And, well, I think this second one is what the usage of the theme is going for here, as viewed from a metaphoric view, Midori is Riki’s entrypoint to first not forgetting Mio and second entering her world.
Another great thing is how the choices form a bookend. The first really important choice still during the common route is when Mio loses her book and you’re asked if you assume Itou to have good intentions or bad intentions. And what is the final choice?
I also really love how in the bad ending Midori seemingly breaks the fourth wall talking about how time’s up, and that they need to leave the stage now, and that Riki made the wrong choice. This segues me into theory time.
So overall, this route seems to be the token “Throw common sense out the window”-route. From what I’ve seen and heard every Key game has such a route. Unlike the other Key games though Little Busters! doesn’t give any sorts of hints that we have a slightly supernatural setting to begin with. So for that reason this route shouldn’t fit. But once we assume the whole coma/brain trauma theory to be correct, then the supernatural things like people forgetting Mio or the two literally not having a shadow, or the symbolic imagery heavy ending can perfectly happen. I think that what really actually happened is that Mio did open up to Riki at some point, but in the reality Riki wasn’t able to find a happy ending for her and Midori. Since Mio was a philosophical person to some degree, it isn’t too much of a stretch to assume that Riki’s imagination was influenced by that. For that matter, I think this route gives us a big hint why we need to complete all routes before we can go into Rin2 and Refrain:
I think that in the real world Riki’s time with his friends was cut short abruptly and that he will only be ready to move on once he has created happy memories with all of his friends, and a happy life for each of them. For that matter, like I said earlier, the heavy use of bells in Thin Chronicle can also signify happiness, so I expect to hear this theme in at least most of the other routes, if not all of them. On top of that, it can be seen as signifying getting one step closer to exit this dream Riki is having. And even if those memories are technically fake, they will still be part of his memory then, and therefore a happy life for every Little Buster will be his reality. Just like Midori at the end of this route, it will be invisible, impossible to spot, and yet still exist.
Fun fact: at the beach scene we get to see Mio’s shadow (or I guess the clothes’ shadow) and it’s extending behind her when she looks towards the sea at sunset. This means she is facing west and therefore flies off in the Western direction, contrary to her wish of riding a paper airplane to Hawaii.
Bird with wings of white,
I wonder, is she not sad?
Left alone ne’er touched
By the blue of yonder sky,
or the blue of hither sea…
Above is the poem repeated many times through Mio’s route. It took me some time to collect my thoughts about her route but after re-reading the route again as many people suggested, I was able to turn my mixed feelings into a post.
So first to begin with, I’ll try to write my overall feelings about the route in general. Despite the feeling of Mio’s mysterious atmosphere lingering in the air, the route opened up in a quite friendly way. Then the dramatic change happens once Midori appears.
Since she was brought up, let’s talk about Midori a little bit. She was a very interesting character to me. At times she would play the role of the antagonist but later on, she helps Riki out in finding Mio.
Now let’s analyze what Midori is.
Midori is Mio’s imaginary sister that’s for sure. However she is also described as Mio’s lost shadow. To lose one’s shadow symbolizes detachment from the real world and it is hinted that Mio, at one point of time, wished to be truly alone. It is impossible for someone to be perfectly alone, people are everywhere. An exception to this would be… your own world. Yes, Midori is Mio’s wish to be alone personified into an individual identity representing the boundaries between the real world and Mio’s world.
At the same time, a shadow also is a symbol of internal conflict. In this case, this could mean the battle between Mio’s desire to stay with Riki and her determination to be the lonely bird in Midori’s place. If so, that would explain why Midori shows affection towards Riki. It isn’t to impersonate Mio but she is the symbol of Mio’s desire to stay with Riki.
And by now it’s obvious what it means for Mio to become one with Midori or in other words her lost shadow; she is returning to the real world and choosing to stay with Riki.
That’s enough of Midori, now let’s go to Mio. She left a very huge hole in my heart for a few days ( one of the reasons I couldn’t make the post as soon as I finished the route) .
The reason she managed to affect me so much is because I too, sometimes want to be completely isolated and imagine what it would be like to have someone only you are able to talk to.
Sure I have a few good friends whom I opened up to but I still haven’t told them everything they need to know about me. But I wouldn’t say Mio is exactly like me since we’ll… I’m not really much of a reader
About the route as a whole, I felt it was very well written and as much as I liked the true ending where Midori and Riki work together to bring Mio back, I really enjoyed the bad ends and a really nice yet scary detail in them.
If you choose to accept Midori as Mio (after the kiss) , you will notice that in the dialogue box, Midori’s name is changed to Mio.
The same thing happens if you look everywhere except the beach too ( believe Midori has bad intentions) but this time around, Riki forgets about Mio completely and later comes to the conclusion that he was always alone.
Both the bad ends narrate a scenario where Riki too has given up on his reality and has brainwashed himself into believing that Midori is Mio.
I enjoyed this kind of ending too because it made me re-think about reality and it really evoked that feeling where Riki was the one who was isolated from reality all this time.
But although Mio says she wanted this, that’s not what she really thinks is it?
It might have actually been that way if Riki hadn’t talked to Mio but her unexpected meeting with Riki changed Mio’s feeling towards the real world with Midori finally convincing Mio in the end to not disappear.
…
Congratulations if you read through all of that text. Sorry for not being too clear with some of my points but in the end… It’s just what I think and you may agree or disagree
Oh my god thank you for ending your post with a sprite of Mio in her casual clothes. That reminded me of another little detail in the visual design of this route I liked. When the scene leading up to the appearance of Midori happened, so when we first see her casual clothes, I was expecting something dire to happen. Main reason for that is that the main color of Mio’s outfit there is black. To me, it almost seemed like the kind of clothes you might be wearing at a funeral, or perhaps even clothes that people put on you for your own funeral, which might be what they were going for here, since in the conclusion of this route the isolation of Mio is likened to closing a coffin. At the same time, the usage of the color black might hint at the whole “one being the shadow of the other” deal. Granted, the story only ever talks about Midori being Mio’s shadow in a way, but once they switched, you might even say that at that moment, Mio is Midori’s shadow.
This is probably the point that has me the most conflicted. I really do love when stories play around with their language, but something doesn’t click in this route. Currently, I’m thinking the culprit is over-saturation and a lack of finesse. Like, you’d struggle to find a major scene that doesn’t mention the color blue. Then again, I enjoyed myself until the date, so that doesn’t really explain my reaction.
So what happens at the date? Well, the story slows to a crawl for one. Like Riki describes, the third act is a strange amalgamation of anxiety and drowsiness. If nothing else, I can’t say it’s not a daring decision to write it like that. (I really don’t have a conclusion here, but something about the route didn’t mesh with me.)
Reading this, I can’t help but think that Riki kinda did jack shit in the final confrontation. Mio returns because Midori puts the cards on the table. Riki is just kinda there as the thing to return to, the prize so to say, like a fine piece of meat.
What does he actually do in the route as an agent?
Pulls Mio into the wider world during common
Resists Midori’s assault as a show of loyalty
Almost drowns
I guess the point would be that Mio wouldn’t return if he didn’t show that conviction, but he actions during the climax definitely don’t seem relevant to the result.
Fuck off, 2015 me, glasses are supreme! Fetishes aside, I might have said that in the sense of no glasses being better because you’re avoiding the bookworm tropes more. Purely aesthetically, though, glasses are always better than no glasses
Off the top of my head there’s not a ton he does in many of the routes other than being a source of emotional support for the heroines? I haven’t reread yet so I may be misremembering but he doesn’t do anything in Kud’s or Kurugaya’s either, I know he does a lot in Komari’s and I can’t remember Haruka’s.
In my opinion, the central topic of this route is understanding, misunderstandings, and by extension - trust.
Mio has a unique personality and is therefore easily misunderstood. This is typical for Eccentrics and Introverts alike. Her usual expressions are hard to read and she really likes teasing people by wording things in a particular way and letting them shiver a bit before explaining it was a joke and letting the other party heave a sigh of relief. She did that to Riki multiple times on their first meeting in the VN.
During their second meeting under the Zelkowa tree, there is a new misunderstanding. Remember how in the common route topic, we talked about how Riki has a surprisingly negative attitude? Well, when Mio gives Riki her bread crusts so that he can stave off his hunger, he immediately assumes he had stepped on a landmine and attempts to smooth things over. Mio catches on immediately and explains it: She is neither poor nor on a diet. She brought the bread crusts to feed the birds.
Third meeting in the courtyard - Riki’s initial position made it hard for Mio to read. But when he turned around to leave, Mio stopped him, clarifying that she did not mean to chase him away. This is actually unusual for introverts, because it takes us a little bit of courage to clarify misunderstandings. But it shows that she clearly does not dislike Riki’s company.
Then Riki asks about Mio’s worn-out book. Mio makes it clear that any question about that book is a personal question. Mio is making it clear that she will only open up to - thus making herself vulnerable before - someone she trusts, and only if that person wants to genuinely understand her.
At this point, Riki has a particular impression of Mio:
She is delicate.
She is alone, therefore she must be suffering, just like he used to
He’s making some hasty assumptions, and therefore, part of his motivation to approach Mio is pity and/or shallow sympathy. He tries to pull her into his circle of friends, the Little Busters.
Fast forward to Mio losing her book. Especially if you choose wrongly and assume whoever’s got her book must have bad intentions, thus failing to understand the “culprit”, you’ll see that Riki is acting kind of weird around Mio. He is really upset about this whole matter and the negative thoughts start escalating in his head. Why is it bothering him THAT much? After all, the two of them aren’t really close. I assume he really blows his cover here. Mio is smart, so she realizes that Riki is somehow taking this matter personally, probably because he’s projecting some personal image onto Mio. And that means he’s not actually trying to understand her. At some point, she tells him “It’s useless trying to feel as if you’re me.” The next day, Mio gets her book back, but Riki only feels frustration. He wanted to be Mio’s savior, her Kyousuke. He failed to save someone who looked like his younger self, because making that projection and ignoring the actual person was the wrong call.
Assuming good intentions helps Riki understand the “culprit”, and thereby solving the case. The jackpot, of course, is Mio’s trust. She can’t refuse him now and opens up to him. He can now start finding out why this girl was nearly crying over an old book. For now, all he thinks is that Mio’s favorite poem feels lonely and it gives him a feeling of isolation, while Mio describes it as “hopeful”.
(Argh, dammit. There’s SO MUCH to talk about in this particular scene and its variations, but I gotta move on.)
Misunderstandings keep happening, like Mio running away from Riki because she thought he and Kyousuke were about to kiss.
I’ll skip a big part here and only point out that this route is very much a mystery. There’s a lot of foreshadowing to give the reader the opportunity to see what’s coming next and to understand Mio better. There’s a lot of hints to the fact that Mio is going to disappear soon - and she knows it. Riki is catching onto Mio’s wish to be alone, and most notably, to remain immutable.
The beach scene happens. Mio rejects Riki because she misunderstands his feelings for her, ironically, by assuming he misunderstands his own. She thinks Riki is still attracted to her out of sympathy and pity that were his reasons to approach her in the common route. That he kept sympathizing with her because she was slowly disappearing.
At this point, Midori appears and Mio reveals her plan: She wants to disappear, thus becoming immutable. However, she is hesitating due to her love for Riki, which is obvious to Midori.
A few days later, Midori shows up as a substitute for Mio.
Midori has a mission. She needs to figure out Riki, keep him from forgetting, and confirm that his feelings for Mio are genuine. After all, Mio hesitated back on the beach. If Riki could somehow prove his dedication to Mio, she would choose him over her dream of loneliness. Yes, Midori, completely understands Mio, even better than Mio does herself.
In the longer bad ending, Midori straight out explains that Mio’s true desire was NOT eternal isolation, but to have somebody to be there for her.
Contrary to that, Mio is misunderstanding three things, assuming that
Riki does not love her. He’s merely pitying her
Midori hates Mio for forgetting her and that she wants to take her place
That her own greatest wish is total isolation
Getting Riki to prove his feelings to Mio, then explaining her own feelings are Midori’s win conditions.
However, Riki has to play along and believe Midori. Believing in Midori’s bad intentions means suspecting Midori in hating Mio. While there’s logic to it, in this case, it’s the wrong answer. Midori loves Mio. She does not want her to disappear. She wants to save her.
With Riki’s cooperation, Midori’s plan ultimately succeeds. Riki initially failed to prove his feelings, but nearly drowning did get the message across in the end.
In conclusion, Riki and Mio both agree that it’s ok to not understand people right away. That makes it more fun slowly getting to know each-other. (A good way to get there is by believing in the other party’s good intentions, I suppose).
TL;DR
What is the main topic of this route? It’s understanding. Riki was in love, but Mio misunderstood it as shallow sympathy and pity. Midori wanted to save Mio, but Mio misunderstood her and thought she wanted to exist in her place. Riki, too, assumed some things about Mio when he approached her. Some of them were probably wrong. If you assume that those around you have bad intentions, you will never come to understand anyone - neither the strangers, nor those who are precious to you. You have to make an effort to understand others rather than to act on your own assumptions.
This route shows how misunderstanding can change people’s relation and actions, it was a fun read Mio’s a very likeable character in my opinion she teases people with special wording which show how smart she is and how much knowledge she has accumulated from reading so much, but at the same time it shows how she is easily misunderstood due to the use of her complicated wording and way of making jokes.
Allow me to start off by saying that Mio is, without a doubt, the most relatable character in any of Key’s long and winding works for me. I had her pegged as a typical kuudere, grasping a dark secret with all her might in an even darker shell, afraid to be broken at even the slightest touch. You know the old saying: don’t judge a book by its cover. At first, she gives off an aura of evasiveness and loneliness, but her snarky yet tranquil sense of humor and willingness to ship Riki with the other boys was adorable.
Immediately, as Mio spoke of the nature of existence and reality, I grabbed at a lingering thought and unwound the cord. (One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e major spoilers) This story and this route reminded me a lot of Kouhei slowly slipping into the Eternal World, and unable to come back unless he formed a bond strong enough to bind him to the real world. Mio and Riki fulfill that role for each other, here. I would not be surprised at all if this route was directly inspired by One. I’m sure many of us have pondered the nature of what we call reality; is the blue I see the blue you see? Are we but pawns in a game of God’s chess? I remembered when I too wondered these unanswerable questions, these plagues that have ailed mankind since we were capable of thought. I slammed my fist onto the floor of my glass heart, and declared that sitting around and thinking did nothing. If I did not trust my eyes, I would wander as a blind man forever. If life had no inherent meaning, I would create my own.
Back to Earth, as a bookworm myself, Mio’s observations on the nature of reading and the potential of imagination are better strokes than mine on my own canvas. The worlds we all desire to dwell in, worlds filled with love and peace, hope and unity; we have all escaped to them, fleeing from the darkness of this world and into the light of the next. Reading this work of art, the bell only strikes truer. I believe Riki takes it to cloud-high extremes, wishing to live in those single moments of the past eternally with the Little Busters, afraid to face the waves of the future.
I took the dark, foreboding dirt road flanked with dead trees and venus flytraps toward the bad ending, and I certainly got what I asked for. Riki loses his connections with his other friends, Mio included, and becomes Midori’s lover. She disappears in his arms one night, and he falls asleep. The game then presents the above lines in a cold, admonishing tone; this is when I dug the cut diamonds of both the message of the route, and perhaps a central theme of Little Busters from this forgotten earth. As @Naoki_Saten pointed out, the events of this story came about because Mio misunderstood everything. To see the worth in yourself, and the world around you; to believe in and see the best in others. This is the message of Mio’s route to me. I back this up by focusing on the choice that leads to the bad end, where Riki believes that Midori has ulterior motives when she eggs him on to go to the sea. This is a message I will always push and get behind, especially as Riki, having similarities to Mio, seems to suffer from low self esteem. I hope to follow Riki as he learns from this, as something tells me this message will stick even through even alternate timelines.
This line caught my eye. In Snow White, the mirror tells the queen that she is the fairest, but then states Snow White as she grows up into an even more beautiful woman. Perhaps, Mio’s unnecessary feeling of atonement is compounded by the belief that Midori, who is more personable and flirtatious, deserves to exist in her place more than herself? Midori is initially antagonistic to Riki, and in the fairytale the queen cuts the apple in half and gives the poisoned half to Snow White, which puts her into suspended animation, which I think mirrors Mio disappearing quite well.
The route makes use of the colors blue and white, like the sky peppered with clouds or the sea with crashing white waves. To me, blue represent love, be it the love between Riki and Mio as lovers or Mio and Midori as sisters. Blue is the tangible power of love that allows Riki to remember Mio. White, the color of purity and innocence, represents the past that both Riki and Mio seem to long for; the romanticism that this route expresses for fleeting moments that the characters wish could last forever, like their first kiss. Also, the Zelkova species of tree that Mio sits under grows fast until maturity, where it slows down; it is also weak to cold. The former point, I believe, represents how fast Mio grew up with Midori around, and the latter represents the idea of how Mio and Riki wish to ‘freeze’ moments of their lives. For some minor foreshadowing, Mio sneezes, presumably from a cold, earlier in the route.
Even before Plato’s Allegory of the cave, shadows represent darkness, and darkness represents the unknown. The nemesis of humanity’s emotional and logical aspects. Where we cannot see the truth, we instinctively fill in ourselves, creating our own concept of ‘reality’. When concrete truth is presented, we are enlightened and enriched with knowledge, challenging what we know as real. Instead of seeking either the sky or the sea, Mio chooses to stay shackled within the blurry edges of nonexistence, blaming herself because she knows no other way to find value. It is love that drives Riki to help Mio from the darkness, with Midori’s help. At one point, Midori states “You can be ‘yourself’ only by being with somebody precious to you.”
So, finally, I loved this chapter. I love Mio; she reminds me a lot of myself, a part of me that, with the unending powers of love and friendship, was shed long ago as I bloomed into a better version of myself. Just as she did when she found her value through Riki. I stared into what I thought was a story littered with darkness, but all I did was find home, in the familiar embraces of Key’s charming and familiar magic, holding a down to earth message I will always support. It is good to be home.
Back during my first read of Little Busters, I have failed to fully understand Nishizono Mio. To my great shame, even though Mio is my favorite heroine of all time, for all these years, I simply could not understand what her motivations were. I couldn’t relate to her. Why, why in the world would she want to disappear? None of the potential explanations seemed satisfactory. The clues didn’t quite add up.
Therefore, on my re-read after the official release of LB, Mio’s route was still kind of a mystery to me, which is oddly fitting.
I did manage to find my answer, the explanation, the motive for Mio to make that decision. To those of you who have managed to figure it out, you have my respect.
Mio’s reason to disappear
The mystery
First of all, why in the world am I making such a big fuss about it? Wasn’t it all clear at the end of the route? For some of you, it may indeed have been that way. To me, something crucial was missing.
The thing I couldn’t wrap my mind around was: why would she wish for her own disappearance? Whether it would imply ‘mere’ isolation or actual non-existence, it would certainly cut her off from everything she loves and enjoys. In other words: no more Riki, no more books, no more Little Busters. It would be like she never existed. So, isn’t disappearing going way too far?
The clues and puzzle pieces
(I go into detail here. A skippable part where I essentially list all the clues and reasons that didn't seem good enough)
Mio looks forward to reuniting with Midori. She feels guilty over forgetting her. A desire to atone for her sin by trading places?
In her class, Mio got the nickname “No shadow”, she’s like a pebble on the roadside nobody pays attention to
Mio lost her shadow a long time ago. It means Midori will eventually return and Mio will disappear
Contrary to the first impression she gives off, or the stereotype one might associate with her, Mio is enjoying the company of Riki and the Little Busters. In the first place, she’s generally not averse of company at all. She can be Kud’s roommate. As long as there’s enough space for her books, she’s happy to oblige
Her favorite poem: A white bird, untouched by the blue that surrounds her. The beauty of nothingness? Its absolute purity? Mio’s wish to become immutable.
“The reason why people write novels and read them is to lament the fact that they can live their lives only once.”
Ties in with 6. - Mio is an avid reader and she is discouraged by the fact that a person’s lifetime is nowhere near enough to read all the interesting books in existence.
Midori. Twin sister, friend and shadow. Why did she come to exist in the first place?
Let’s start from the top. 1. She never gave off the impression that she must literally pay for this sin with her life. Both Midori and Mio keep saying that Mio is disappearing because it’s Mio’s wish. Mio’s route is NOT about guilt and the desire to repent - that’s a different LB route! 2. While there’s a bad aftertaste, Mio is quite fine with that status, as long as nobody gets in her way. Many people here assume that Mio had such a negative image of herself that she didn’t want to exist, but I disagree. She never struck me as overly self-loathing or suicidal. 3. Midori stated that thanks to Mio giving her her shadow, Midori could truly enter the world as a tangible being, not just someone only Mio could perceive. In conjunction with 1., it means that Mio losing her shadow equals the desire to see Midori again. So why disappear? Why not get on her knees, beg Midori for forgiveness and remain together as shadowless sisters? She didn’t even try. 4. Mio said that the fun times she’s had with the Little Busters made her waver, and so did her feelings for Riki on the beach. So, what could be more important to a teenage girl, than her hobbies, friendship, love, and existence? The most important and prominent point here is 5. Mio keeps saying that she wants to disappear in order to remain unchanged, pure, immutable. She has found hope and beauty in that wish. But I just. don’t. get. why. she has to disappear for it! If she doesn’t want to be influenced by anyone, she can just reject all company, but that would be a contradiction to 4.- eventually, she did agree to hang out with the Little Busters. It also directly contradicts 7. and 6. - if she’s already short on time, and she only has one life, why throw away the one life and one life’s worth of time? Again, what could be so damn important?
We never get a straight explanation for 8., the reason why Midori came to exist. only the story of when it happened. But we can easily figure it out (and discuss it a lot. Boy, I sure hope we will). Mio was playing all by herself. Her parents often weren’t home and when they did talk to her, it interfered with her fun. Nobody shared her interests. Why did Midori appear? Because Mio was lonely! Midori enjoyed the same things Mio did (unlike the other kids) and together, they had even more fun. I’m not an expert on imaginary friends, but according to my logic, someone who’s completely satisfied with the friends they have wouldn’t create an imaginary one. And remember what Midori said about Mio’s wish? She said that disappearing was not her true wish. Her true wish was to have someone to be there for her.
Mio absolutely does desire company. But she never got the company she wished for. So she gave up on it and decided to put herself in a state where she wouldn’t be given any false hope. It’s just like seeking love, having one’s heart broken and deciding to never love anyone again in fear of another heartbreak. Just like wanting to have someone you could trust with everything, only to be betrayed and never trusting anyone again. They still want to love or trust someone, but they’re too afraid of the pain that comes with failure after making themselves vulnerable. Why did she reject Riki and continued to disappear? Because she thought his love was not real and once she was convinced of the opposite, she decided to stay.
But I’m still not satisfied. This motive doesn’t seem strong enough. Again, why disappear?
Mio’s motive
Turns out I already had all the information I needed. It’s just that I didn’t pay enough attention to one particular fact that turned out to be the decisive clue. I found it in the following quote:
How did the whole problem begin? - By Mio losing her shadow.
When did she lose her shadow? - When she remembered about Midori.
How did she forget about Midori? - A doctor made her.
Heureka! That’s it! Some doctor dude messed with her brain and made her precioius little sister disappear! Mio lost a part of herself due to the influence of someone else. That’s why she wanted to become immutable. She trusted that doctor, thinking he could be friends with Midori, but he erased her instead. If you view it this way, It’s a fucked up situation where her own parents basically hired a guy to (almost) kill her sister, and she helped him do it!
To conclude, Mio’s desire to never let anyone change her stemmed from a great loss resulting from someone forcibly changing her. THAT is a strong enough motive for willingly disappearing, one that originates from inner pain. People don’t usually fear the loss of their individuality just by mingling with others, but Mio did actually get her individuality messed with and would thus be willing to take more extreme measures to prevent it from happening again.
I’m only partway through Mio’s route and I haven’t read any comments yet here because I want the surprise and not pick up yet on any theories, Now having been introduced to Midori, the most obvious idea to me for now is that of Jung’s shadow archetype - for very literal reasons. This would be basically happening because Mio is reppressing those sides of her personality that she considers undesirable (even if they are not really that to others) and that Midori is essentially a psychological projection made manifest and has taken over now that Mio is opening up to Riki.
I expect I’m wrong but it’s fun to see if Key are leading me up the garden path with something surprising to come! This is currently probably my favourite route ( she’s the last of my Big 5 as I plunged into the three K’s first and skipped Mio).
Going into LB, I may have been a little biased by my personal dislike of more kuudere/silent type characters (I like various kinds of Haruka-like extravagance so at the time I mainly couldn’t stomach people with no truly affirmative personality) and it impacted the way I viewed her route. I’ve not really changed my stance since then in that, to me, besides her BL-fangirlism moment she remains a character I don’t really have much fun reading, but I’ve found myself heavily able to relate to the themes of coping methods for loneliness, solitude and guilt of her route (for better or for worse).
Midori being the “sociably preferable character” over the silent and not all that sociable Mio, it’s an interesting take on the route to not take the stance that everyone is fine being themselves and everyone can co-exist peacefully regardless of differences (a bit of a cliché message like what most typical routes would do at this point), but rather that there’s no need to suppress yourself because of guilt regarding your situation and general personality.
I had hoped this to be a great story, I was not let down.
Mio’s route was of little personal significance to myself, but that didn’t prevent it from being a pleasure to read.
This route is the first “supernatural” route I’ve encountered (having read Komari, Rin1, and Haruka) so that part was a nice surprise.
Midori was written pretty well in my opinion, her self-conflict didn’t really stand out compared to Mio’s, but that’s part of the charm since she’s the “shadow”. She seemed more human than Mio until when Mio decided to give up on “disappearing”.
The whole fictional and reality mixed into one is not only telling of how Midori came to be, but also the positions she and Mio are in. Midori is a character Mio created into this world, so in my pov, I actually see them as having a mother-daughter relationship instead of being siblings.
As you can probably tell I’m just rambling over here, there wasn’t that much I could say about this route since I couldn’t relate to Mio very well (so I lack the energy to dig deeper). It was a fairly enjoyable read, I rank it above Komari and below Haruka.
And so on finishing Mio my theory of yesterday only very tenuously stands up, more living shadow than shadow archetype, I have to say I like what @Naoki_Saten wrote a few posts ago. I haven’t read all the posts here yet, I still think they have taken a few archetypes here to create the route they wanted ( we have the oft use mirror as gateway) but maybe some things from Japanese myth that I have no awareness of, but maybe a little of the inhambu (a bird spirit) in Brazilian myth. Clearly the tanko ( which I liked more each time I read it) was crucial to the story though as well as existentialism and the powers of individual vs group perception.
I shan’t let the fact that I’m not entirely sure what was going on detract from the fact that this is my favourite route of all the pre-Refrain routes so far ( just Rin2 left now), as this one appealed on a very personal level as well as being very thought provoking.
