Air TV - 05

If you've never set up an equatorial mount before, you probably didn't notice that Minagi's telescope wasn't properly balanced. It shouldn't have fallen like that when she released the lock.

It's hilariously funny because, well, it's true. Here's a candidate for the explanation I was looking for three episodes ago of Minagi's half-stoned speech patterns: she's carefully not allowing herself to actually feel anything. That's why she vocalizes her expressions, e.g. saying "blush" out loud, but not actually blushing. It looks at first like just a cuteness affectation, but if it was, then all the girls (or at least Mizusu, who's a colossal, writhing mass of cuteness affectations) would be doing it too. Instead, I think it's about conscious control; saying "blush" means concluding, through a sequence of reasoning, that the current situation is one in which blushing is warranted, which is not involved in an actual blush.

Obviously, Michiru is involved. A comment over at Matthew's lays it out:

Notice that Michiru never had a family name ? Who in THIS world does not have a family name ?

And given AIR had a supernatural theme to it....
You should roughly get an idea now.

To that, I'd add the repetition of that heavy crossfade visual effect drawing a parallel between Michiru and Alternate Kano, Michiru's sudden disappearance in episode 4, and, most importantly, the way Michiru can't blow bubbles - in other words, she can't affect the physical world in any non-trivial way.

That's just confirming suspicions, of course, but this is where things get interesting. I've speculated before that the "supernatural" elements of Air are actually expressions of the repressed desires of the characters; Michiru not only provides Minagi with the little sister she wanted, but with an "other half" - specifically, the half that has emotions. Since Michiru hasn't faced family traumas (heck, we still don't know what happened to Minagi's father) and she can't affect anything really, it's safe for Minagi to feel things through her.

Changing topics, I'm mostly baffled by Misuzu's breakdown. Obviously, it's the external manifestation of whatever changed in her dream - voices pulling her down - but, well, I'm mostly baffled by Misuzu's dreams, too. The best I've done is a guess that they're meant to indicate a conflict between a desire for freedom and a desire for human relationships; in that light, it seems like Misuzu's started to feel "tied down," panicked, and tried to push people away. (How much do you want to bet that that episode at school involved Kano?) I'm not really satisfied with that, though; I hope things will get clearer once the focus shifts fully to Misuzu.

What I'm really interested in is the hints at the beginning of the episode of an actual storyline for Yukito; first, he has that dream about loss (followed by the sledgehammer symbolism of Misuzu walking out of a bright light) and then he spends the episode saying things like "So that's what a harmonious relationship is like?" There's not much to go on - based, mostly, on the preview, I'm now harboring suspicions that Yukito really likes his "wise traveler" image, in the same sort of way that Misuzu really likes living alone with Haruko, but is starting to harbor doubts that he wants to stick with it (again, in the same way as Misuzu.)

I suppse the next episode will tell if this is a real thing or if it's just a diversion to set up Minagi's story. My fingers are crossed - this could get really good.

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