Air TV - 06
I've just spent half an hour trying, and I can't for the life of me figure out Minagi's mother's name.
This is important, because I'm trying to figure out if I (or Kyoto Animation) just didn't care about her name, or if she actually doesn't have a name. I suspect the latter, because if I'm right, it opens up a tremendous can of worms.
Normally, a missing name on someone suggests that they're not meant to be a full-fledged character - they're just foils for the other characters. But Minagi's arc has added a second association: Michiru's missing last name is one of the critical clues to her nature. I'm left wondering if (and why) Minagi's mother is being compared to Michiru.
What's more, despite what appears to be all sorts of emotional scarring, there's absolutely no strife between Minagi and her mother. In any conventional drama, you'd expect that scene in the garden to develop into a climactic shouting match - but, instead, Minagi's mother regains sanity the instant Minagi wants her to.
I hate repeating myself in every post, but this is fast becoming a thesis central to my understanding of Air: The characters all get what they want.
In other words, I think posing as Michiru was what Minagi wanted - not what her mother wanted.
It's an awfully convenient arrangement for Minagi, after all. Nobody has to deal with the pain of loss. Minagi doesn't have to go home to a shattered household if Michiru's the only one who has contact with the household. She gets a little sister who's adoring and devoted, without the messiness of a normal sibling relationship. And, best of all, Minagi doesn't have to form any emotional bonds if it's Michiru who takes care of all the family relationships.
I think that's what Minagi meant by "Everything started with my sin." Plus, it adds a subtle second meaning to Michiru telling Minagi to smile - remember, Minagi "stopped smiling" (and, apparently, stopped feeling anything, and started talking as if stoned) right around the time the various Michirus started to be major forces in her life. "Smile" is shorthand for "be honest with yourself and other people about your feelings."
If I think the shorthand is clear here, though, I suppose I have to go back to Yukito constantly telling Misuzu to "smile." It seems less clear there - yet, if he does mean to encourage her to open herself to actual relationships, Misuzu's sudden and total retreat starts to make some sense. (Again, it strikes me that the only important question relating to Misuzu's collapse is why she'd want to collapse.) It hasn't seemed to help that Yukito has allowed Misuzu to pull away while he goes through other storylines - meaning that we haven't seen much of Misuzu, and I still don't have many ideas.
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posted by Charlie at 7:16 PM
5 Comments:
Regarding the name thing, Minagi's mother was never given a name in the game script, and they didn't give her one in the anime either. FYI, in the game you don't even get to see Minagi's mother's face.
I think at least a part of what you're seeing is simply a symptom of most ren'ai conversions to anime. In the game itself, all the girls are *not* going to get what they want. In the series, though, and in an attempt to appeal to all the various fan segments, the scriptwriter has to feel pressure to resolve everyone's story as 'well' as possible.
That said, these kinds of games are also mainly about wish fulfillment - because the *player* (and thus the main character) wants the girl(s) to be happy, they thus become so (since the player is at least in partial control of what happens).
So, in the series, the viewer's projection into Yukito manifests itself by Yukito himself trying to make the girls happy. *We* feel for the characters, and want them to be happy.
Just my $0.02 (Canadian)
"I think at least a part of what you're seeing is simply a symptom of most ren'ai conversions to anime. In the game itself, all the girls are *not* going to get what they want."
Well, I agree it's awfully hard to spot those artifacts, but what I meant by "they get what they want" is *even if what they want is being unhappy, they get it.* That seems to be the Great Rule so far.
I've been surprised so far at how much of the situations these girls are in can be taken as expressions of subconscious desire. (Of course, it's Yukito's job to convince them to Live Life, Be Happy, etc., and I have no doubt he'll succeed.)
On the other hand, I notice that a whole lot of my argument here hinges on Minagi's easy reconciliation with her mother, and that very well *could* be a conversion artifact. Oh well - better to be interesting and wrong than trivially right.
Um Satoshis right. In the game only Misuzu ever gets what she really wants... and thats doubtful because all i know about the ending of 'air' scenario is that misuzu has her hair cut (OOps spoiler). From someone elses comment i learned that at the end of Kano's scenario Yukito falls into a coma and loses his powers, also Minagi actually leaves with Yukito i think on her dream scenarior. As with Misuzu, the only dream scenario i have completed so far, Yukito is devoured to become energy for her... try to analyze that, and no that wasn't that big a spoiler because of the detaisl that led to that are convuluted
But I'm not talking about whether they get what they want in the end, I'm talking about how they got to the positions they're in when the show starts...
The argument goes: Kano *wants* an outlet for her grief and loneliness that doesn't implicate her sister, so she gets an alternate personality. Minagi *wants* to avoid dealing with the loss of a little sister, so she gets a crazy mother. Misuzu *wants* to be alone, so she gets mood swings and fainting spells. Then, when they've (healed/spent enough time around Yukito) to not want those self-destructive things anymore, the supernatural manifestation disappears.
That ending might be different, but I don't think it undermines the theory, since it's really about the premises, and I understand those are not very different from the game.
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