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Mar 27, 2008 3:19 PM
#1
THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE. ---------------------------------------- So i finished this episode, and all i have to say is what? So, are the kids supposed to be a reincarnation of yukito and misuzu? Yukito was also the crow, himself, and that kid. Was this arc supposed to be a retelling with the crow added because i'm pretty sure that i didn't see a crow in the first episode. |
Apr 16, 2008 8:16 PM
#2
Last few episodes was a retelling and showing us what was happening behind the scenes, the parts where Yukito wasnt around for. Also remember that she gets worse VERY fast when Yukito is near her, so the crow was essentially a way of Yukito being near her without actually being near her. Another significance of the crow was that the Ryuyu wanted to be with Kanna who was still in the skies, feeling lonely and tortured, Now Yukito can be with her forever. Remember that Misuzu was only a VERY small piece of Kanna. Also it seemed like that kid at the end had knowledge of the future so im doubting that he was Yukito reincarnation, some reason I believe that hes an offspring of the race with wings like Misuzu is. |
Apr 27, 2008 2:50 AM
#3
For what it's worth, I put this together after going to a lot of different forums, websites, etc. For me it ties up a lot of loose ends. If someone doesn't agree with any or all of it - good for them. It's there, take what you want from it I'm not going defend it or discuss it. I would say however if you disagree with something within post your own resolution for the situation - you can't why are you disagreeing? 1. Michiru, who is the spirit of Managi’s dead sister, is constantly shown as not being able to blow bubbles. This refers to a sad song that mothers of babies who have died sing to comfort themselves. The main verse is: A soap bubble vanished away. Before it could fly it vanished. The moment it was born it burst and vanished away. 2. Yukito is the last in a line of descendants from Ryuya and Uraha. Sora, the crow, is the spirit of Ryuya who died trying to protect the woman he loved, Kanna. Sora, appears many times you just are looking for him. 3. Misuzu is the latest reincarnation of Kanna. Kanna was the last of the winged beings. In order to destroy her and the cult built around her species, Buddhist monks cursed her to live an endless cycle of reincarnation, suffering and death; never knowing happiness. She suffers from the knowledge she will be alone and sad, that if she is even fond of anyone she develops an extremely painful illness that eventually kills her, but even if she didn’t she will die young because a human is not strong enough to be the reincarnation of a winged being. What causes the greatest amount of suffering is if she thinks that a person likes (not even loves) her they, too, will suffer a painful death. 4. In some forms of Buddhism, reincarnation is not linear which means that a spirit’s reincarnations can overlap and or take different shapes and, therefore, be in the same plane at the same time. While the girl in the sky is Kanna’s spirit, Misuzu is the human reincarnation of Kanna. Yukito’s human reincarnation is the boy on the beach, his (or rather Ryuya’s) spirit is Sora, the crow. Misuzu is reincarnated as the girl on the beach. 5. Yukito left Misuzu to convince her that she would once again be alone and therefore recover. In fact he did not stop loving her even though he knew it meant his death. Misuzu didn’t recover because she made a conscious decision to love Huruko, which caused her death. Huruko didn’t suffer because the curse was broken when Sora took Misuzu’s happy memories of that summer with Yukito and Huruko to Kanna’s spirit, the girl in the sky. Because Misuzu was Kanna’s reincarnation the memories became Kanna’s as well thereby defeating the monks curse. 6. That the curse is broken is shown first by Huruko not being ill and then by the two children on the beach who are the reincarnations of Yukito and Misuzu |
May 13, 2008 1:32 PM
#4
Jun 10, 2008 5:14 AM
#5
I can't take it... The moment when Misuzu's shouting for her mom on the beach and they start to run to each other. I cry every and each time I watch it. Seen it 4 times already and before I realize my eyes are so wet... Just why the hell everyone has to die... I've had enough of dramas for about a year, seriously I'm getting depressed. |
Jul 24, 2008 11:18 AM
#6
Aug 1, 2008 6:00 AM
#7
Huge post, so click the spoiler tag at your own risk :P Kano: the freeplanetling. When she touched the feather (Kanna's feathers possess [sad] memories) as a child, perhaps the sad memory was passed to her. Like the infant in the flashback, Kano had lost her mother as a child. So maybe she was sensitive to that memory -- the separation of a mother and daughter by death. Recall that Yukito felt nostalgic and sad when he encountered the feather that Kano had touched. The magic feather, Yukito's power and Kano's wish made it possible for her to meet and thank her mother as Yukito had suggested she do. This helped resolve her sorrow and guilt over the loss of her mother and I suppose the feather was returned to Kanna with the happy memory Kano experienced by meeting her mother. Recall also that the bruise on Kano's wrist disappeared with the feather. The child had the bruise, yet Kano was reciting the words of the mother. So she had a connection to both mother and child from the memory. As to Minagi, well, she's Minagi, not a reincarnation of someone else. Minagi and Micheru (the buttshaking-ling). I think Minagi was a bit of a plot device to get Yukito (and us) to realize that the "girl in the sky" was more than just a folk tale or legend. Michiru, Minagi's sister who died before birth, meets the Kanna, the girl in the sky and borrows one of her feathers which enables her to come to Earth as a "dream," in order to comfort Minagi and reconcile Minagi with her mother, emotionally broken by the loss of Michiru. Michiru's companionship helps Minagi through the difficult time with her mother; Yukito steers Minagi back home where Minagi and her mother are reunited as a family. In the end the mother finally sees Minagi as herself rather than her dead child. Before she leaves (the dream comes to an end), Michiru gets to finally meet her own mother; another happy memory to bring to Kanna when she returns the feather. So really neither Kano nor Minagi or Michiru played a role in the past (Summer Arc). Neither did Yukito, Misuzu or Haruko for that matter. Misuzu dreams of Kanna, she is not Kanna herself. She is one of Kanna's dreams, she is part of Kanna, but not all of Kanna. A winged being's essence cannot fully fit into a human being. Like the water of the ocean, it cannot fit into a teacup without shattering it. Likewise, Yukito is not Ryuuyu, but he does carry on his will. He is descended from Ryuuyu and Uraha, separated by 1000 years. He inherits Ryuuyu's will (to find and save Kanna) and Uraha's power (magic and the doll with generations of unfufilled wishes which will ultimately be used to help Misuzu save Kanna). Why did I mention Haruko, Misuzu's substitute mother? There's a similar theme between the Summer and Air arcs. Kanna wished to be reunited with her mother, Misuzu has a similar wish: to experience happy memories with her mother. The goal which has taken 1000 summers to finally reach. When Yukito has an attack in the hallway and is wounded, later to discover a scar just like Ryuuyu's suggests Yukito suggested to me that Yukito has passed the point of no return. He's experiencing the curse that his mother warned him about: caring about the girl will cause both he and the girl to die. Misuzu's dreams are having a physical effect on both Yukito and Misuzu. The common theme: Memories and the mother-child relationship. Families stick together. Each of the girls in the series, Kano, Minagi, Kanna and Misuzu were separated from their mothers either by death or by circumstance. The goal and wish for each of them is to reconcile that loss. Sad memories hold us back, happy memories give us hope and keep us going. But we cannot live on memories alone. Each of these girls, even Michiru to some extent, resolve that mother-daughter separation and the guilt or sadness associated with it. Kano meets and thanks her mother. Kano had felt guilty about her mother's death and accepted part of the blame as the reason for her mother's death. Until Yukito set her straight, Kano had wished to apologize (for having been born) rather than thank her mother. Good advice, Yukito! Minagi is able to reach her mother and be recognized as herself rather than her dead sister. She had accepted her mother's condition the result of her sin: wishing for a younger sister who unfortunately died before birth. She then lived as a fragment of her mother's dream, taking on the role of Michiru, whose death devastated her mother. That dream had to end to bring Minagi and her mother together. Misuzu lost her mother as a child and was taken in by her aunt Haruko. The two remained somewhat distant in part because Haruko feared losing Misuzu to her natural father, and Misuzu kept her distance because affection resulted in fits and pain. They overcame these obstacles and became close in the end. Haruko ultimately would have lost Misuzu no matter what she did anyway - the least they could do was to create some happy memories. Yukito guided each of the girls to their respective goals, but ultimately each had to resolve the obstacles on their own to find happiness. Such is life. All of these happy memories were returned to Kanna who was all alone in the sky. Finally a word about Sora the crow. As tragic as it is that Yukito seems to have run away and abandoned Misuzu when she really needed him and cared for him, he did the right thing. He'd gone as far as the two could go with the way things were. Had Yukito stayed as the freeloader at the Kamio house, Misuzu would have died without reaching her goal. Yukito may have lived on, or he may have died within a year anyway, like his ancestor Ryuuyu had 1000 years earlier. This would have solved nothing. Instead, like his mother before him, he placed his heart, his wish, into the doll while he still had power, while he was still strong. His wish was to be by Misuzu's side forever and to help her reach her goal, and to save the girl in the sky, Kanna, fufilling Ryuuyu's 1000 year old wish. In the final three episodes Yukito, as Sora rarely leaves Misuzu's side. He intervenes when Haruko tosses away Misuzu's birthday gift, the baby dinosaur, and alerts Haruko to its presence at the temple towards the end. Misuzu tries her best to reach the dinosaur and succeeds, a rehearsal perhaps for reaching her ultimate goal. But why a crow? Haruko's (some say corny) speech at the end should give us a clue. Humans cannot fly in the sky, but birds can. After Misuzu reaches her goal, Sora flies away to find the girl in the sky who's still alone to bring her back for a new beginning. What is the use of wings which cannot flap nor fly? It's to remind us of those happy memories from when we could fly. What is the use of friends or family who ultimately die or leave? The happy memories they leave behind. Uraha is not Misuzu's mother. They aren't even related. Ryuuyu, not Yukito, was Uraha's companion. Their bond to Kanna was as a family. They would do anything, even give their own lives for Kanna's happiness. Yukito turned into a crow but he never left Misuzu. He's in every scene from his transformation until the end. Don't confuse the series with the movie. Similar themes but different story. The movie jettisoned a lot of the mystical elements that were in the series other than the legend (soap opera) of Kanna and Ryuuyu and... The bit at the end where Yukito's doll leads him to Misuzu and then bounces into a feather and disapears. The connection between Kanna and Misuzu, Yukito and Ryuuyu is more thematic than literal in the movie. At least that's how I saw it. I enjoyed both the series and the movie, but the series is far superior in my view. As for the two kids at the end, Misuzu dies and her soul returns to the sky but this time with happy memories she got from having spent the time with her mother. There's a bit more to it though. There's debate as to whether or not the two kids seen in the ending were yukito and misuzu reincarnated. Nobody really knows. They represent "a new beginning". I hope this was helpful to someone even though it was a bit long-winded. (Credit goes to an unknown poster on Animesuki. I added my own insights where I felt they'd clarify, but the main body is his) |
Aug 8, 2008 8:54 AM
#8
Sep 11, 2008 4:11 PM
#9
i have never cried so hard in my life. seriously. AIR did that. and, after watching it, i can no longer cry during an anime, because I just end up thinking, "this is NOTHING compared to Air." omg, i love the moher-duaghter relationship those two have. T-T. i love this anime so so so so so so SO much. |
Oct 17, 2008 3:10 PM
#10
chinaboat said: For what it's worth, I put this together after going to a lot of different forums, websites, etc. For me it ties up a lot of loose ends. If someone doesn't agree with any or all of it - good for them. It's there, take what you want from it I'm not going defend it or discuss it. I would say however if you disagree with something within post your own resolution for the situation - you can't why are you disagreeing? 1. Michiru, who is the spirit of Managi’s dead sister, is constantly shown as not being able to blow bubbles. This refers to a sad song that mothers of babies who have died sing to comfort themselves. The main verse is: A soap bubble vanished away. Before it could fly it vanished. The moment it was born it burst and vanished away. 2. Yukito is the last in a line of descendants from Ryuya and Uraha. Sora, the crow, is the spirit of Ryuya who died trying to protect the woman he loved, Kanna. Sora, appears many times you just are looking for him. 3. Misuzu is the latest reincarnation of Kanna. Kanna was the last of the winged beings. In order to destroy her and the cult built around her species, Buddhist monks cursed her to live an endless cycle of reincarnation, suffering and death; never knowing happiness. She suffers from the knowledge she will be alone and sad, that if she is even fond of anyone she develops an extremely painful illness that eventually kills her, but even if she didn’t she will die young because a human is not strong enough to be the reincarnation of a winged being. What causes the greatest amount of suffering is if she thinks that a person likes (not even loves) her they, too, will suffer a painful death. 4. In some forms of Buddhism, reincarnation is not linear which means that a spirit’s reincarnations can overlap and or take different shapes and, therefore, be in the same plane at the same time. While the girl in the sky is Kanna’s spirit, Misuzu is the human reincarnation of Kanna. Yukito’s human reincarnation is the boy on the beach, his (or rather Ryuya’s) spirit is Sora, the crow. Misuzu is reincarnated as the girl on the beach. 5. Yukito left Misuzu to convince her that she would once again be alone and therefore recover. In fact he did not stop loving her even though he knew it meant his death. Misuzu didn’t recover because she made a conscious decision to love Huruko, which caused her death. Huruko didn’t suffer because the curse was broken when Sora took Misuzu’s happy memories of that summer with Yukito and Huruko to Kanna’s spirit, the girl in the sky. Because Misuzu was Kanna’s reincarnation the memories became Kanna’s as well thereby defeating the monks curse. 6. That the curse is broken is shown first by Huruko not being ill and then by the two children on the beach who are the reincarnations of Yukito and Misuzu Thanks alot!! I already knew part of what you said, but you clarified what I already knew and suspected, as well as imforming of the few little things I didn't get. This was a very beutiful, yet sad story. I rate this anime at a 9 out of 10. Key employees have an impressive talent at story-telling... Roketsu said: Huge post, so click the spoiler tag at your own risk :P Kano: the freeplanetling. When she touched the feather (Kanna's feathers possess [sad] memories) as a child, perhaps the sad memory was passed to her. Like the infant in the flashback, Kano had lost her mother as a child. So maybe she was sensitive to that memory -- the separation of a mother and daughter by death. Recall that Yukito felt nostalgic and sad when he encountered the feather that Kano had touched. The magic feather, Yukito's power and Kano's wish made it possible for her to meet and thank her mother as Yukito had suggested she do. This helped resolve her sorrow and guilt over the loss of her mother and I suppose the feather was returned to Kanna with the happy memory Kano experienced by meeting her mother. Recall also that the bruise on Kano's wrist disappeared with the feather. The child had the bruise, yet Kano was reciting the words of the mother. So she had a connection to both mother and child from the memory. As to Minagi, well, she's Minagi, not a reincarnation of someone else. Minagi and Micheru (the buttshaking-ling). I think Minagi was a bit of a plot device to get Yukito (and us) to realize that the "girl in the sky" was more than just a folk tale or legend. Michiru, Minagi's sister who died before birth, meets the Kanna, the girl in the sky and borrows one of her feathers which enables her to come to Earth as a "dream," in order to comfort Minagi and reconcile Minagi with her mother, emotionally broken by the loss of Michiru. Michiru's companionship helps Minagi through the difficult time with her mother; Yukito steers Minagi back home where Minagi and her mother are reunited as a family. In the end the mother finally sees Minagi as herself rather than her dead child. Before she leaves (the dream comes to an end), Michiru gets to finally meet her own mother; another happy memory to bring to Kanna when she returns the feather. So really neither Kano nor Minagi or Michiru played a role in the past (Summer Arc). Neither did Yukito, Misuzu or Haruko for that matter. Misuzu dreams of Kanna, she is not Kanna herself. She is one of Kanna's dreams, she is part of Kanna, but not all of Kanna. A winged being's essence cannot fully fit into a human being. Like the water of the ocean, it cannot fit into a teacup without shattering it. Likewise, Yukito is not Ryuuyu, but he does carry on his will. He is descended from Ryuuyu and Uraha, separated by 1000 years. He inherits Ryuuyu's will (to find and save Kanna) and Uraha's power (magic and the doll with generations of unfufilled wishes which will ultimately be used to help Misuzu save Kanna). Why did I mention Haruko, Misuzu's substitute mother? There's a similar theme between the Summer and Air arcs. Kanna wished to be reunited with her mother, Misuzu has a similar wish: to experience happy memories with her mother. The goal which has taken 1000 summers to finally reach. When Yukito has an attack in the hallway and is wounded, later to discover a scar just like Ryuuyu's suggests Yukito suggested to me that Yukito has passed the point of no return. He's experiencing the curse that his mother warned him about: caring about the girl will cause both he and the girl to die. Misuzu's dreams are having a physical effect on both Yukito and Misuzu. The common theme: Memories and the mother-child relationship. Families stick together. Each of the girls in the series, Kano, Minagi, Kanna and Misuzu were separated from their mothers either by death or by circumstance. The goal and wish for each of them is to reconcile that loss. Sad memories hold us back, happy memories give us hope and keep us going. But we cannot live on memories alone. Each of these girls, even Michiru to some extent, resolve that mother-daughter separation and the guilt or sadness associated with it. Kano meets and thanks her mother. Kano had felt guilty about her mother's death and accepted part of the blame as the reason for her mother's death. Until Yukito set her straight, Kano had wished to apologize (for having been born) rather than thank her mother. Good advice, Yukito! Minagi is able to reach her mother and be recognized as herself rather than her dead sister. She had accepted her mother's condition the result of her sin: wishing for a younger sister who unfortunately died before birth. She then lived as a fragment of her mother's dream, taking on the role of Michiru, whose death devastated her mother. That dream had to end to bring Minagi and her mother together. Misuzu lost her mother as a child and was taken in by her aunt Haruko. The two remained somewhat distant in part because Haruko feared losing Misuzu to her natural father, and Misuzu kept her distance because affection resulted in fits and pain. They overcame these obstacles and became close in the end. Haruko ultimately would have lost Misuzu no matter what she did anyway - the least they could do was to create some happy memories. Yukito guided each of the girls to their respective goals, but ultimately each had to resolve the obstacles on their own to find happiness. Such is life. All of these happy memories were returned to Kanna who was all alone in the sky. Finally a word about Sora the crow. As tragic as it is that Yukito seems to have run away and abandoned Misuzu when she really needed him and cared for him, he did the right thing. He'd gone as far as the two could go with the way things were. Had Yukito stayed as the freeloader at the Kamio house, Misuzu would have died without reaching her goal. Yukito may have lived on, or he may have died within a year anyway, like his ancestor Ryuuyu had 1000 years earlier. This would have solved nothing. Instead, like his mother before him, he placed his heart, his wish, into the doll while he still had power, while he was still strong. His wish was to be by Misuzu's side forever and to help her reach her goal, and to save the girl in the sky, Kanna, fufilling Ryuuyu's 1000 year old wish. In the final three episodes Yukito, as Sora rarely leaves Misuzu's side. He intervenes when Haruko tosses away Misuzu's birthday gift, the baby dinosaur, and alerts Haruko to its presence at the temple towards the end. Misuzu tries her best to reach the dinosaur and succeeds, a rehearsal perhaps for reaching her ultimate goal. But why a crow? Haruko's (some say corny) speech at the end should give us a clue. Humans cannot fly in the sky, but birds can. After Misuzu reaches her goal, Sora flies away to find the girl in the sky who's still alone to bring her back for a new beginning. What is the use of wings which cannot flap nor fly? It's to remind us of those happy memories from when we could fly. What is the use of friends or family who ultimately die or leave? The happy memories they leave behind. Uraha is not Misuzu's mother. They aren't even related. Ryuuyu, not Yukito, was Uraha's companion. Their bond to Kanna was as a family. They would do anything, even give their own lives for Kanna's happiness. Yukito turned into a crow but he never left Misuzu. He's in every scene from his transformation until the end. Don't confuse the series with the movie. Similar themes but different story. The movie jettisoned a lot of the mystical elements that were in the series other than the legend (soap opera) of Kanna and Ryuuyu and... The bit at the end where Yukito's doll leads him to Misuzu and then bounces into a feather and disapears. The connection between Kanna and Misuzu, Yukito and Ryuuyu is more thematic than literal in the movie. At least that's how I saw it. I enjoyed both the series and the movie, but the series is far superior in my view. As for the two kids at the end, Misuzu dies and her soul returns to the sky but this time with happy memories she got from having spent the time with her mother. There's a bit more to it though. There's debate as to whether or not the two kids seen in the ending were yukito and misuzu reincarnated. Nobody really knows. They represent "a new beginning". I hope this was helpful to someone even though it was a bit long-winded. (Credit goes to an unknown poster on Animesuki. I added my own insights where I felt they'd clarify, but the main body is his) Ah!! Thanks alot! This deepens my love for these series, as well as clarifying EVERYTHING!!! Well mostly everything, since I still don't know if those 2 kids at the end were their rencarnations... |
Oct 28, 2008 1:33 PM
#11
Air is a masterpiece, and nothing less. I shed tears at the ending. Seriously, Air, Kanon and Clannad together make for the ultimate drama/romance "trilogy". |
Nov 8, 2008 1:19 AM
#12
Nov 13, 2008 7:15 PM
#13
Genix said: chinaboat said: For what it's worth, I put this together after going to a lot of different forums, websites, etc. For me it ties up a lot of loose ends. If someone doesn't agree with any or all of it - good for them. It's there, take what you want from it I'm not going defend it or discuss it. I would say however if you disagree with something within post your own resolution for the situation - you can't why are you disagreeing? 1. Michiru, who is the spirit of Managi’s dead sister, is constantly shown as not being able to blow bubbles. This refers to a sad song that mothers of babies who have died sing to comfort themselves. The main verse is: A soap bubble vanished away. Before it could fly it vanished. The moment it was born it burst and vanished away. 2. Yukito is the last in a line of descendants from Ryuya and Uraha. Sora, the crow, is the spirit of Ryuya who died trying to protect the woman he loved, Kanna. Sora, appears many times you just are looking for him. 3. Misuzu is the latest reincarnation of Kanna. Kanna was the last of the winged beings. In order to destroy her and the cult built around her species, Buddhist monks cursed her to live an endless cycle of reincarnation, suffering and death; never knowing happiness. She suffers from the knowledge she will be alone and sad, that if she is even fond of anyone she develops an extremely painful illness that eventually kills her, but even if she didn’t she will die young because a human is not strong enough to be the reincarnation of a winged being. What causes the greatest amount of suffering is if she thinks that a person likes (not even loves) her they, too, will suffer a painful death. 4. In some forms of Buddhism, reincarnation is not linear which means that a spirit’s reincarnations can overlap and or take different shapes and, therefore, be in the same plane at the same time. While the girl in the sky is Kanna’s spirit, Misuzu is the human reincarnation of Kanna. Yukito’s human reincarnation is the boy on the beach, his (or rather Ryuya’s) spirit is Sora, the crow. Misuzu is reincarnated as the girl on the beach. 5. Yukito left Misuzu to convince her that she would once again be alone and therefore recover. In fact he did not stop loving her even though he knew it meant his death. Misuzu didn’t recover because she made a conscious decision to love Huruko, which caused her death. Huruko didn’t suffer because the curse was broken when Sora took Misuzu’s happy memories of that summer with Yukito and Huruko to Kanna’s spirit, the girl in the sky. Because Misuzu was Kanna’s reincarnation the memories became Kanna’s as well thereby defeating the monks curse. 6. That the curse is broken is shown first by Huruko not being ill and then by the two children on the beach who are the reincarnations of Yukito and Misuzu Thanks alot!! I already knew part of what you said, but you clarified what I already knew and suspected, as well as imforming of the few little things I didn't get. This was a very beutiful, yet sad story. I rate this anime at a 9 out of 10. Key employees have an impressive talent at story-telling... Roketsu said: Huge post, so click the spoiler tag at your own risk :P Kano: the freeplanetling. When she touched the feather (Kanna's feathers possess [sad] memories) as a child, perhaps the sad memory was passed to her. Like the infant in the flashback, Kano had lost her mother as a child. So maybe she was sensitive to that memory -- the separation of a mother and daughter by death. Recall that Yukito felt nostalgic and sad when he encountered the feather that Kano had touched. The magic feather, Yukito's power and Kano's wish made it possible for her to meet and thank her mother as Yukito had suggested she do. This helped resolve her sorrow and guilt over the loss of her mother and I suppose the feather was returned to Kanna with the happy memory Kano experienced by meeting her mother. Recall also that the bruise on Kano's wrist disappeared with the feather. The child had the bruise, yet Kano was reciting the words of the mother. So she had a connection to both mother and child from the memory. As to Minagi, well, she's Minagi, not a reincarnation of someone else. Minagi and Micheru (the buttshaking-ling). I think Minagi was a bit of a plot device to get Yukito (and us) to realize that the "girl in the sky" was more than just a folk tale or legend. Michiru, Minagi's sister who died before birth, meets the Kanna, the girl in the sky and borrows one of her feathers which enables her to come to Earth as a "dream," in order to comfort Minagi and reconcile Minagi with her mother, emotionally broken by the loss of Michiru. Michiru's companionship helps Minagi through the difficult time with her mother; Yukito steers Minagi back home where Minagi and her mother are reunited as a family. In the end the mother finally sees Minagi as herself rather than her dead child. Before she leaves (the dream comes to an end), Michiru gets to finally meet her own mother; another happy memory to bring to Kanna when she returns the feather. So really neither Kano nor Minagi or Michiru played a role in the past (Summer Arc). Neither did Yukito, Misuzu or Haruko for that matter. Misuzu dreams of Kanna, she is not Kanna herself. She is one of Kanna's dreams, she is part of Kanna, but not all of Kanna. A winged being's essence cannot fully fit into a human being. Like the water of the ocean, it cannot fit into a teacup without shattering it. Likewise, Yukito is not Ryuuyu, but he does carry on his will. He is descended from Ryuuyu and Uraha, separated by 1000 years. He inherits Ryuuyu's will (to find and save Kanna) and Uraha's power (magic and the doll with generations of unfufilled wishes which will ultimately be used to help Misuzu save Kanna). Why did I mention Haruko, Misuzu's substitute mother? There's a similar theme between the Summer and Air arcs. Kanna wished to be reunited with her mother, Misuzu has a similar wish: to experience happy memories with her mother. The goal which has taken 1000 summers to finally reach. When Yukito has an attack in the hallway and is wounded, later to discover a scar just like Ryuuyu's suggests Yukito suggested to me that Yukito has passed the point of no return. He's experiencing the curse that his mother warned him about: caring about the girl will cause both he and the girl to die. Misuzu's dreams are having a physical effect on both Yukito and Misuzu. The common theme: Memories and the mother-child relationship. Families stick together. Each of the girls in the series, Kano, Minagi, Kanna and Misuzu were separated from their mothers either by death or by circumstance. The goal and wish for each of them is to reconcile that loss. Sad memories hold us back, happy memories give us hope and keep us going. But we cannot live on memories alone. Each of these girls, even Michiru to some extent, resolve that mother-daughter separation and the guilt or sadness associated with it. Kano meets and thanks her mother. Kano had felt guilty about her mother's death and accepted part of the blame as the reason for her mother's death. Until Yukito set her straight, Kano had wished to apologize (for having been born) rather than thank her mother. Good advice, Yukito! Minagi is able to reach her mother and be recognized as herself rather than her dead sister. She had accepted her mother's condition the result of her sin: wishing for a younger sister who unfortunately died before birth. She then lived as a fragment of her mother's dream, taking on the role of Michiru, whose death devastated her mother. That dream had to end to bring Minagi and her mother together. Misuzu lost her mother as a child and was taken in by her aunt Haruko. The two remained somewhat distant in part because Haruko feared losing Misuzu to her natural father, and Misuzu kept her distance because affection resulted in fits and pain. They overcame these obstacles and became close in the end. Haruko ultimately would have lost Misuzu no matter what she did anyway - the least they could do was to create some happy memories. Yukito guided each of the girls to their respective goals, but ultimately each had to resolve the obstacles on their own to find happiness. Such is life. All of these happy memories were returned to Kanna who was all alone in the sky. Finally a word about Sora the crow. As tragic as it is that Yukito seems to have run away and abandoned Misuzu when she really needed him and cared for him, he did the right thing. He'd gone as far as the two could go with the way things were. Had Yukito stayed as the freeloader at the Kamio house, Misuzu would have died without reaching her goal. Yukito may have lived on, or he may have died within a year anyway, like his ancestor Ryuuyu had 1000 years earlier. This would have solved nothing. Instead, like his mother before him, he placed his heart, his wish, into the doll while he still had power, while he was still strong. His wish was to be by Misuzu's side forever and to help her reach her goal, and to save the girl in the sky, Kanna, fufilling Ryuuyu's 1000 year old wish. In the final three episodes Yukito, as Sora rarely leaves Misuzu's side. He intervenes when Haruko tosses away Misuzu's birthday gift, the baby dinosaur, and alerts Haruko to its presence at the temple towards the end. Misuzu tries her best to reach the dinosaur and succeeds, a rehearsal perhaps for reaching her ultimate goal. But why a crow? Haruko's (some say corny) speech at the end should give us a clue. Humans cannot fly in the sky, but birds can. After Misuzu reaches her goal, Sora flies away to find the girl in the sky who's still alone to bring her back for a new beginning. What is the use of wings which cannot flap nor fly? It's to remind us of those happy memories from when we could fly. What is the use of friends or family who ultimately die or leave? The happy memories they leave behind. Uraha is not Misuzu's mother. They aren't even related. Ryuuyu, not Yukito, was Uraha's companion. Their bond to Kanna was as a family. They would do anything, even give their own lives for Kanna's happiness. Yukito turned into a crow but he never left Misuzu. He's in every scene from his transformation until the end. Don't confuse the series with the movie. Similar themes but different story. The movie jettisoned a lot of the mystical elements that were in the series other than the legend (soap opera) of Kanna and Ryuuyu and... The bit at the end where Yukito's doll leads him to Misuzu and then bounces into a feather and disapears. The connection between Kanna and Misuzu, Yukito and Ryuuyu is more thematic than literal in the movie. At least that's how I saw it. I enjoyed both the series and the movie, but the series is far superior in my view. As for the two kids at the end, Misuzu dies and her soul returns to the sky but this time with happy memories she got from having spent the time with her mother. There's a bit more to it though. There's debate as to whether or not the two kids seen in the ending were yukito and misuzu reincarnated. Nobody really knows. They represent "a new beginning". I hope this was helpful to someone even though it was a bit long-winded. (Credit goes to an unknown poster on Animesuki. I added my own insights where I felt they'd clarify, but the main body is his) Ah!! Thanks alot! This deepens my love for these series, as well as clarifying EVERYTHING!!! Well mostly everything, since I still don't know if those 2 kids at the end were their rencarnations... Agreed - thanks for posting these explanations. They both jive pretty well with how I perceived the story while watching and they both do a fine job of tying up loose ends and connecting the dots for the lingering questions I had at the end. |
Nov 27, 2008 9:27 PM
#14
chinaboat said: For what it's worth, I put this together after going to a lot of different forums, websites, etc. For me it ties up a lot of loose ends. If someone doesn't agree with any or all of it - good for them. It's there, take what you want from it I'm not going defend it or discuss it. I would say however if you disagree with something within post your own resolution for the situation - you can't why are you disagreeing? 1. Michiru, who is the spirit of Managi’s dead sister, is constantly shown as not being able to blow bubbles. This refers to a sad song that mothers of babies who have died sing to comfort themselves. The main verse is: A soap bubble vanished away. Before it could fly it vanished. The moment it was born it burst and vanished away. 2. Yukito is the last in a line of descendants from Ryuya and Uraha. Sora, the crow, is the spirit of Ryuya who died trying to protect the woman he loved, Kanna. Sora, appears many times you just are looking for him. 3. Misuzu is the latest reincarnation of Kanna. Kanna was the last of the winged beings. In order to destroy her and the cult built around her species, Buddhist monks cursed her to live an endless cycle of reincarnation, suffering and death; never knowing happiness. She suffers from the knowledge she will be alone and sad, that if she is even fond of anyone she develops an extremely painful illness that eventually kills her, but even if she didn’t she will die young because a human is not strong enough to be the reincarnation of a winged being. What causes the greatest amount of suffering is if she thinks that a person likes (not even loves) her they, too, will suffer a painful death. 4. In some forms of Buddhism, reincarnation is not linear which means that a spirit’s reincarnations can overlap and or take different shapes and, therefore, be in the same plane at the same time. While the girl in the sky is Kanna’s spirit, Misuzu is the human reincarnation of Kanna. Yukito’s human reincarnation is the boy on the beach, his (or rather Ryuya’s) spirit is Sora, the crow. Misuzu is reincarnated as the girl on the beach. 5. Yukito left Misuzu to convince her that she would once again be alone and therefore recover. In fact he did not stop loving her even though he knew it meant his death. Misuzu didn’t recover because she made a conscious decision to love Huruko, which caused her death. Huruko didn’t suffer because the curse was broken when Sora took Misuzu’s happy memories of that summer with Yukito and Huruko to Kanna’s spirit, the girl in the sky. Because Misuzu was Kanna’s reincarnation the memories became Kanna’s as well thereby defeating the monks curse. 6. That the curse is broken is shown first by Huruko not being ill and then by the two children on the beach who are the reincarnations of Yukito and Misuzu AAAAH.... So that's what happened. |
Dec 20, 2008 9:27 AM
#15
thanks for the explanations I think I get it now ^^ anyway, great anime, but everutime an anime like this ends I'm just sad, and to think clannad is going to be something like this >_< |
Dec 27, 2008 4:13 AM
#16
chinaboat said: For what it's worth, I put this together after going to a lot of different forums, websites, etc. For me it ties up a lot of loose ends. If someone doesn't agree with any or all of it - good for them. It's there, take what you want from it I'm not going defend it or discuss it. I would say however if you disagree with something within post your own resolution for the situation - you can't why are you disagreeing? 1. Michiru, who is the spirit of Managi’s dead sister, is constantly shown as not being able to blow bubbles. This refers to a sad song that mothers of babies who have died sing to comfort themselves. The main verse is: A soap bubble vanished away. Before it could fly it vanished. The moment it was born it burst and vanished away. 2. Yukito is the last in a line of descendants from Ryuya and Uraha. Sora, the crow, is the spirit of Ryuya who died trying to protect the woman he loved, Kanna. Sora, appears many times you just are looking for him. 3. Misuzu is the latest reincarnation of Kanna. Kanna was the last of the winged beings. In order to destroy her and the cult built around her species, Buddhist monks cursed her to live an endless cycle of reincarnation, suffering and death; never knowing happiness. She suffers from the knowledge she will be alone and sad, that if she is even fond of anyone she develops an extremely painful illness that eventually kills her, but even if she didn’t she will die young because a human is not strong enough to be the reincarnation of a winged being. What causes the greatest amount of suffering is if she thinks that a person likes (not even loves) her they, too, will suffer a painful death. 4. In some forms of Buddhism, reincarnation is not linear which means that a spirit’s reincarnations can overlap and or take different shapes and, therefore, be in the same plane at the same time. While the girl in the sky is Kanna’s spirit, Misuzu is the human reincarnation of Kanna. Yukito’s human reincarnation is the boy on the beach, his (or rather Ryuya’s) spirit is Sora, the crow. Misuzu is reincarnated as the girl on the beach. 5. Yukito left Misuzu to convince her that she would once again be alone and therefore recover. In fact he did not stop loving her even though he knew it meant his death. Misuzu didn’t recover because she made a conscious decision to love Huruko, which caused her death. Huruko didn’t suffer because the curse was broken when Sora took Misuzu’s happy memories of that summer with Yukito and Huruko to Kanna’s spirit, the girl in the sky. Because Misuzu was Kanna’s reincarnation the memories became Kanna’s as well thereby defeating the monks curse. 6. That the curse is broken is shown first by Huruko not being ill and then by the two children on the beach who are the reincarnations of Yukito and Misuzu Thanks. That explains a lot to me. I always thought less of this anime because there were many things I didn't understand. I didn't even know why it was that Misuzu would get weak when she made a friend. But monks putting a curse on winged ones makes sense. They may have mentioned that in the anime, but I don't remember it. But if Ryuya is the crow than what happened to Yukito? For some reason I thought he was the crow, but now that I think about it, it doesn't make sense. Did he die? Or did he really leave? I thought he said he wasn't going to leave. I loved the relationship with Misuzu and her mom. I always cry during the scene with Misuzu walking. This is probably the saddest anime I've ever seen. |
Jan 1, 2009 6:32 AM
#17
ASHGARY said: i have never cried so hard in my life. seriously. AIR did that. and, after watching it, i can no longer cry during an anime, because I just end up thinking, "this is NOTHING compared to Air." You know what the worst part is? Air isn't even the most depressing story Key has done. Planetarian is like, 10 times worse. Either way, while Air might have been my least favourite out of the Key/KyoAni-shows, (Air, Kanon and Clannad) I still thought it was an outstanding series. The ending actually made me feel depressed for several days... Though I've never, ever, ever, EVER actually cried while watching an anime, this one came dangerously close. If I were to say one thing I didn't like about the series, it would be that the ending is pretty confusing. |
Jan 30, 2009 3:46 PM
#18
Loved this series..thanks for the explanations! That really helps.^^ As for episode 12..I have never cried so much while watching any anime. It was probably the most depressing ending of an anime that I have ever seen. |
May 8, 2009 4:05 PM
#19
Pretty good series, but I don't like this as much as Clannad or Clannad AS. The ending was much more confusing than either of them, but the explanations on the first page helped quite a bit. I really contemplated on whether or not to give this series a 9, but an 8 seems enough to me. Yet another good anime from Key, now I've only got one left in the romance/drama trilogy; Kanon 2006. Looking forward to it. 8/10 |
last.fm ╢ My CG AMV ╢ Otaku Test ╢ |
Jun 9, 2009 9:30 PM
#20
Jun 30, 2009 3:54 PM
#21
Oh my.... Such a sad but.... Satisfying ending.... Between, thanks Roketsu and chinaboat for the long and explaining post for this ending.... Well At least what Ryuuya-dona wished has been reached.... Happiness for the girl in the skies and his own good ending.... For a moment I felt that Misuzu was being selfish leaving Haruko like that, but oh my bad, I forgot Misuzu was one of Kanna's reincarnations and said... oh she's not an egoistical prick at all--- She's Misuzu... and she got what her memories wanted..... Memories, family, bonds, friendship, happiness.... Those are things that put this anime into my group of "The Brightest Animes ever Pull out from a Regular Plot" The story/plot grows, the characters grow, the art is superb... Really this anime has everything to be remembered for a long while....It's touching... that ending closed everything that was open.... I'm happy I finally found a place where i culd watch it completely.... So the Sora the crow is the next gen of dream yielders... And the kids at the beach are the reincarnation of happy life of Kanna and Ryuuya... Well Kanna might haven't reincarnated in the girl... But I'm pretty sure the boy is one of Ryuuya's reincarnations :D such a nice and symbolic ending... Signs, Green |
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Jul 20, 2009 2:21 AM
#23
Well, this series gets a 9. It was good, even though it had an uneven pace at time. Misuzu MADE that show, I kind of wish the show was a bit longer. |
"Yes, I have been deprived of emotion. But not completely. Whoever did it, botched the job." - Geralt of Rivia |
Aug 16, 2009 11:43 AM
#24
Thanks everyone for your interpretation of the ending. I was confused why Yukito failed to save Misuzu with that doll, but I guess he did manage to break to curse. |
Nov 6, 2009 4:41 PM
#25
Many thanks to chinaboat and Roketsu for explaining the many questions I had. :) |
Dec 11, 2009 10:10 PM
#26
I don't like the idea of Misuzu dying but I really loved the ending of this series because it featured that it doesn't need to be a happy ending to be a peaceful ending. And I was just astounded by the geniuses of Key/Kyoto of how the opening contained those two kids on the beach is actually "Misuzu". |
Dec 21, 2009 12:07 PM
#27
I was glad this one moment where everything was just good, Misuzu get her dinosaur and later it looked like she recover her memories. I was enjoying with these small, happy moments in life Misuzu, a smile appeared to my face (: and sudennly, i felt so sad when she told 'I achieved the goal, I tried so much' .... Haruko is wonderfull, even if in the past she didn't care about her, she did it for her happines - that separation won't be painful. and when they attach to each other it was... the end? ///btw. this boy was weird, like he knows what's gonna happen |
Dec 25, 2009 7:15 PM
#28
It's a bit irrelevant, but you might find this funny if you've been puzzling over the story like I have... I'd figured out the easier stuff, but was trying to tie the loose ends together. I read the comments here and thought "wow, those are really smart comments" and they sound convincing - but I was puzzling over all the comments about the boy and girl. They'd made an incredibly brief appearance, and I couldn't imagine where all the reincarnation stuff came from... So I started watching episode 12 again. Now it was 2:45am and I was tired... I thought that explained why I couldn't remember what I was seeing. It seemed unfamiliar. I fast-forwarded and got even more confused because I still couldn't remember seeing it. Finally I realised. Somehow I managed to skip from episode 11 straight to episode 13, without watching 12. As earlier comments imply (I don't think it's a spoiler - if anything it's the opposite), 13 is just recaps. So imagine - I had to figure stuff out, with most of episode 12 crammed into the last 3 minutes. I'm going to get some sleep at last, and maybe when I actually see episode 12 it'll all make a LITTLE more sense... |
Dec 27, 2009 1:10 AM
#29
patient_senses said: chinaboat said: For what it's worth, I put this together after going to a lot of different forums, websites, etc. For me it ties up a lot of loose ends. If someone doesn't agree with any or all of it - good for them. It's there, take what you want from it I'm not going defend it or discuss it. I would say however if you disagree with something within post your own resolution for the situation - you can't why are you disagreeing? 1. Michiru, who is the spirit of Managi’s dead sister, is constantly shown as not being able to blow bubbles. This refers to a sad song that mothers of babies who have died sing to comfort themselves. The main verse is: A soap bubble vanished away. Before it could fly it vanished. The moment it was born it burst and vanished away. 2. Yukito is the last in a line of descendants from Ryuya and Uraha. Sora, the crow, is the spirit of Ryuya who died trying to protect the woman he loved, Kanna. Sora, appears many times you just are looking for him. 3. Misuzu is the latest reincarnation of Kanna. Kanna was the last of the winged beings. In order to destroy her and the cult built around her species, Buddhist monks cursed her to live an endless cycle of reincarnation, suffering and death; never knowing happiness. She suffers from the knowledge she will be alone and sad, that if she is even fond of anyone she develops an extremely painful illness that eventually kills her, but even if she didn’t she will die young because a human is not strong enough to be the reincarnation of a winged being. What causes the greatest amount of suffering is if she thinks that a person likes (not even loves) her they, too, will suffer a painful death. 4. In some forms of Buddhism, reincarnation is not linear which means that a spirit’s reincarnations can overlap and or take different shapes and, therefore, be in the same plane at the same time. While the girl in the sky is Kanna’s spirit, Misuzu is the human reincarnation of Kanna. Yukito’s human reincarnation is the boy on the beach, his (or rather Ryuya’s) spirit is Sora, the crow. Misuzu is reincarnated as the girl on the beach. 5. Yukito left Misuzu to convince her that she would once again be alone and therefore recover. In fact he did not stop loving her even though he knew it meant his death. Misuzu didn’t recover because she made a conscious decision to love Huruko, which caused her death. Huruko didn’t suffer because the curse was broken when Sora took Misuzu’s happy memories of that summer with Yukito and Huruko to Kanna’s spirit, the girl in the sky. Because Misuzu was Kanna’s reincarnation the memories became Kanna’s as well thereby defeating the monks curse. 6. That the curse is broken is shown first by Huruko not being ill and then by the two children on the beach who are the reincarnations of Yukito and Misuzu Thanks. That explains a lot to me. I always thought less of this anime because there were many things I didn't understand. I didn't even know why it was that Misuzu would get weak when she made a friend. But monks putting a curse on winged ones makes sense. They may have mentioned that in the anime, but I don't remember it. But if Ryuya is the crow than what happened to Yukito? For some reason I thought he was the crow, but now that I think about it, it doesn't make sense. Did he die? Or did he really leave? I thought he said he wasn't going to leave. I loved the relationship with Misuzu and her mom. I always cry during the scene with Misuzu walking. This is probably the saddest anime I've ever seen. Thanks... I did not understood the show at all!I knew about Kanna needs happy memory to beat the curse, but it's so much deeper than that ^_^ Again, thanks. |
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Dec 30, 2009 4:13 PM
#30
Roketsu said: Huge post, so click the spoiler tag at your own risk :P Kano: the freeplanetling. When she touched the feather (Kanna's feathers possess [sad] memories) as a child, perhaps the sad memory was passed to her. Like the infant in the flashback, Kano had lost her mother as a child. So maybe she was sensitive to that memory -- the separation of a mother and daughter by death. Recall that Yukito felt nostalgic and sad when he encountered the feather that Kano had touched. The magic feather, Yukito's power and Kano's wish made it possible for her to meet and thank her mother as Yukito had suggested she do. This helped resolve her sorrow and guilt over the loss of her mother and I suppose the feather was returned to Kanna with the happy memory Kano experienced by meeting her mother. Recall also that the bruise on Kano's wrist disappeared with the feather. The child had the bruise, yet Kano was reciting the words of the mother. So she had a connection to both mother and child from the memory. As to Minagi, well, she's Minagi, not a reincarnation of someone else. Minagi and Micheru (the buttshaking-ling). I think Minagi was a bit of a plot device to get Yukito (and us) to realize that the "girl in the sky" was more than just a folk tale or legend. Michiru, Minagi's sister who died before birth, meets the Kanna, the girl in the sky and borrows one of her feathers which enables her to come to Earth as a "dream," in order to comfort Minagi and reconcile Minagi with her mother, emotionally broken by the loss of Michiru. Michiru's companionship helps Minagi through the difficult time with her mother; Yukito steers Minagi back home where Minagi and her mother are reunited as a family. In the end the mother finally sees Minagi as herself rather than her dead child. Before she leaves (the dream comes to an end), Michiru gets to finally meet her own mother; another happy memory to bring to Kanna when she returns the feather. So really neither Kano nor Minagi or Michiru played a role in the past (Summer Arc). Neither did Yukito, Misuzu or Haruko for that matter. Misuzu dreams of Kanna, she is not Kanna herself. She is one of Kanna's dreams, she is part of Kanna, but not all of Kanna. A winged being's essence cannot fully fit into a human being. Like the water of the ocean, it cannot fit into a teacup without shattering it. Likewise, Yukito is not Ryuuyu, but he does carry on his will. He is descended from Ryuuyu and Uraha, separated by 1000 years. He inherits Ryuuyu's will (to find and save Kanna) and Uraha's power (magic and the doll with generations of unfufilled wishes which will ultimately be used to help Misuzu save Kanna). Why did I mention Haruko, Misuzu's substitute mother? There's a similar theme between the Summer and Air arcs. Kanna wished to be reunited with her mother, Misuzu has a similar wish: to experience happy memories with her mother. The goal which has taken 1000 summers to finally reach. When Yukito has an attack in the hallway and is wounded, later to discover a scar just like Ryuuyu's suggests Yukito suggested to me that Yukito has passed the point of no return. He's experiencing the curse that his mother warned him about: caring about the girl will cause both he and the girl to die. Misuzu's dreams are having a physical effect on both Yukito and Misuzu. The common theme: Memories and the mother-child relationship. Families stick together. Each of the girls in the series, Kano, Minagi, Kanna and Misuzu were separated from their mothers either by death or by circumstance. The goal and wish for each of them is to reconcile that loss. Sad memories hold us back, happy memories give us hope and keep us going. But we cannot live on memories alone. Each of these girls, even Michiru to some extent, resolve that mother-daughter separation and the guilt or sadness associated with it. Kano meets and thanks her mother. Kano had felt guilty about her mother's death and accepted part of the blame as the reason for her mother's death. Until Yukito set her straight, Kano had wished to apologize (for having been born) rather than thank her mother. Good advice, Yukito! Minagi is able to reach her mother and be recognized as herself rather than her dead sister. She had accepted her mother's condition the result of her sin: wishing for a younger sister who unfortunately died before birth. She then lived as a fragment of her mother's dream, taking on the role of Michiru, whose death devastated her mother. That dream had to end to bring Minagi and her mother together. Misuzu lost her mother as a child and was taken in by her aunt Haruko. The two remained somewhat distant in part because Haruko feared losing Misuzu to her natural father, and Misuzu kept her distance because affection resulted in fits and pain. They overcame these obstacles and became close in the end. Haruko ultimately would have lost Misuzu no matter what she did anyway - the least they could do was to create some happy memories. Yukito guided each of the girls to their respective goals, but ultimately each had to resolve the obstacles on their own to find happiness. Such is life. All of these happy memories were returned to Kanna who was all alone in the sky. Finally a word about Sora the crow. As tragic as it is that Yukito seems to have run away and abandoned Misuzu when she really needed him and cared for him, he did the right thing. He'd gone as far as the two could go with the way things were. Had Yukito stayed as the freeloader at the Kamio house, Misuzu would have died without reaching her goal. Yukito may have lived on, or he may have died within a year anyway, like his ancestor Ryuuyu had 1000 years earlier. This would have solved nothing. Instead, like his mother before him, he placed his heart, his wish, into the doll while he still had power, while he was still strong. His wish was to be by Misuzu's side forever and to help her reach her goal, and to save the girl in the sky, Kanna, fufilling Ryuuyu's 1000 year old wish. In the final three episodes Yukito, as Sora rarely leaves Misuzu's side. He intervenes when Haruko tosses away Misuzu's birthday gift, the baby dinosaur, and alerts Haruko to its presence at the temple towards the end. Misuzu tries her best to reach the dinosaur and succeeds, a rehearsal perhaps for reaching her ultimate goal. But why a crow? Haruko's (some say corny) speech at the end should give us a clue. Humans cannot fly in the sky, but birds can. After Misuzu reaches her goal, Sora flies away to find the girl in the sky who's still alone to bring her back for a new beginning. What is the use of wings which cannot flap nor fly? It's to remind us of those happy memories from when we could fly. What is the use of friends or family who ultimately die or leave? The happy memories they leave behind. Uraha is not Misuzu's mother. They aren't even related. Ryuuyu, not Yukito, was Uraha's companion. Their bond to Kanna was as a family. They would do anything, even give their own lives for Kanna's happiness. Yukito turned into a crow but he never left Misuzu. He's in every scene from his transformation until the end. Don't confuse the series with the movie. Similar themes but different story. The movie jettisoned a lot of the mystical elements that were in the series other than the legend (soap opera) of Kanna and Ryuuyu and... The bit at the end where Yukito's doll leads him to Misuzu and then bounces into a feather and disapears. The connection between Kanna and Misuzu, Yukito and Ryuuyu is more thematic than literal in the movie. At least that's how I saw it. I enjoyed both the series and the movie, but the series is far superior in my view. As for the two kids at the end, Misuzu dies and her soul returns to the sky but this time with happy memories she got from having spent the time with her mother. There's a bit more to it though. There's debate as to whether or not the two kids seen in the ending were yukito and misuzu reincarnated. Nobody really knows. They represent "a new beginning". I hope this was helpful to someone even though it was a bit long-winded. (Credit goes to an unknown poster on Animesuki. I added my own insights where I felt they'd clarify, but the main body is his) Wow, really impressive post! Cleared a few things I may or may not have gotten fully (or just not really thought about). I didn't really get the meaning of Michiru, but I guess she was just there :b Anyways, I cried my eyes out in the last episodes. I don't know who I felt the most sorry for - Misuzu or Haruko... Maybe just the fact that they were gonna be separated. *Sniff* |
行けー幼子兵器!あれは木端微塵に粉砕しろ! |
Jan 16, 2010 5:14 AM
#31
Omg... If the last episode wasnt sad enough, this one just took it over the top. Probably one of the most saddest moment's ive ever seen in anime. Now im depressed.. Still that being said, because of the emotional moments in the series, that alone merrits a higher score for this series. I may go back and check it out again.. MAYBE!! lol But honestly i don't think i can handle something that depressing again. That was just to much. I feel like going to watch something with action and lots and lots and lots of comedy and happy moments!! *crys in the corner of his room* |
ArtimesGamerJan 16, 2010 11:27 AM
Jan 20, 2010 2:50 PM
#32
Jan 25, 2010 4:14 PM
#33
such a wonderful, emotional series but so so so sad.... im emo now...for a while |
Jan 29, 2010 9:22 PM
#34
sailorlitakino said: Nothing much to say except for I'm going to go and die in the corner of my room now <.> Misuzu FOREVER! <3<3 This. :( |
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.~ |
Feb 1, 2010 9:39 AM
#35
7,5/10. First couple of episodes were really good. Didn't care about the arcs about those 2 girls. Don't even know their names. Too boring, bleh. Only watched it for Misuzu. <3 BTW, did anyone notice that the art's quality was going up and down throughout the anime? It was so annoying. o___o |
Samu-tanFeb 1, 2010 9:43 AM
Feb 3, 2010 6:17 PM
#36
For the first time in my anime life, i'm unable to decide a score for an anime. Nothing comes even close. I don't know wether i'd enjoyed it or not. I loved the overflowing emotions and the beautiful bonds. I loathed the depression and the deaths and one thing I HATE are incomplete and sad endings. I knew where this was going after Yukito was gone and I didn't like it the least bit. The ending broke me down in anger and depression and left me with a sense of utmost unsatisfaction. The series still had its impact... I guess i'll leave the score tab blank for now... T_T I still like Clannad more. Least it made some SENSE. Up next: Kanon. |
Feb 8, 2010 1:35 PM
#37
Air makes sense. At least, you don't need a flowchart to properly understanding the ending (unlike Clannad ~After Story~) |
Feb 13, 2010 3:33 AM
#38
damn this whole series was too confusing for me :( the part where Misuzu died made me shed a tear,but that's all... it was a good anime,but i don't think i'll rewatch it anytime soon though. Up next in my list is...Kanon |
Sayonara,papa! "Just how a mirror reflects you,people will also reflect your heart." ~Athena Glory,Aria "Whatever happens,happens" ~Spike Spiegel's thoughts on dying(Cowboy Bebop) |
Feb 13, 2010 8:37 AM
#39
Feb 13, 2010 5:21 PM
#40
Air is such a beautiful anime. A lot of you seem to be very confused after seeing Air, but the plot of this anime isn't really that hard to follow, you just have to pay attention while watching it. One thing that I didn't fully understand is the ending though. Sora (Yukito) 'explains' that the girl returned to the sky and is still all alone, and that he will go on a voyage to search for her and one day bring her back. Then we see those kids on the beach, does that mean he succeeded? And who are those kids really? Kanna and Ryuuya or Misuzu and Yukito? Here's a screenshot from the ending of Air in Summer showing Kanna and Ryuuya holding hands, just like those children did. I wonder if there's any special meaning behind that... |
stAtic91Feb 13, 2010 7:44 PM
Mar 31, 2010 6:13 PM
#41
Just my thoughts about this reincarnation thing. Since Air has some Buddhist elements to it, the whole point of one's life is to attain enough karma, virtue whatever you want to call it to break the cycle of reincarnation and attain Nirvana. With all these references to breaking free of the chains to the Earth and flying Air can be essentially a representation of Nirvana with Yukito as a flying crow in the end breaking the generations of Ryuya's will and Misuzu's death and freedom as Kanna's broken cycle of reincarnation and attainment of Nirvana. Also since both Yukito and Misuzu showed such selfless sacrifice for their cause it also signifies that neither have anything left to achieve in this world since both have achieved that small happiness which many desire but cannot truly attain. |
Apr 10, 2010 8:15 PM
#42
Meddigo said: agree, in my opion clannads ending kinda made it fanserviced and forced in my opinion.Air makes sense. At least, you don't need a flowchart to properly understanding the ending (unlike Clannad ~After Story~) i love airs ending alot more, if clannad had an ending like air it would have been perfect (aside from the too complicated stuff) |
Apr 16, 2010 10:42 PM
#43
at the end the kids are reincarnation of that guard and angel girl right? 0.o the lil girl hair resembles the angel girl and the boy said that she wanted to see the beach or something just like the past thing when the guard and that green hair women wanted to take the angel girl to the beach or something anyways is there a continuation to this? or is just left the bird still looking for the angel girl anyways great anime in 12eps I love the OP so much xD |
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Apr 22, 2010 5:22 PM
#44
This is by far the saddest anime I've seen so far. I actually liked this a lot more than Kanon (2006), which is strange because Air is the lowest rated among the big 3 (Air, Kanon, and Clannad). I seriously don't understand why so many people didn't like the ending. |
Apr 24, 2010 12:49 PM
#45
I'm confused and I wanted Misuzu and Yukito to live forever together. That is all. |
Apr 24, 2010 1:48 PM
#46
nicoliolipoli said: I'm confused and I wanted Misuzu and Yukito to live forever together. That is all. You're just focused on a single point of time instead of looking at the whole breadth of what happened. Think about it. "1000 summers" have gone by, and the curse has finally been broken. If Misuzu and Yukito were together then Misuzu would have had to die anyway (see the movie for that ending) |
May 11, 2010 4:13 AM
#47
ZangetsugaTensho said: I seriously don't understand why so many people didn't like the ending. I think its because people don't realize what really happened.....I could be wrong though. If i had to rank Clannad/Air/Kanaon , Air and Kanon would be tied, they were both ok but Clannad blew them away. I think the overall story of Air had a deeper meaning though than all three. |
May 14, 2010 2:25 PM
#48
Honestly... I didn't GET that Yukito broke the curse of 1000 Summers... that's the only problem I had. I feel like there wasn't enough emphasis on that fact... that's a BIG deal! The sad ending? It was meaningful and made a lot of sense... no issues there. Overall, this was a very meaningful anime with some plot-holes (Sometimes, I feel on purpose). I am a fan none-the-less and I will give this anime an 8/10. |
MusashiRoseMay 25, 2010 9:03 AM
May 18, 2010 12:34 AM
#49
MusashiRose said: Honestly... I didn't GET that Yukito broke the curse of 1000 Summers... that's the only problem I had. I feel like there wasn't enough emphasis on that fact... that's a BIG deal! Because Yukito didn't break the curse. Misuzu finally having a friend (Haruko) was what broke the curse. |
May 18, 2010 8:16 PM
#50
Meddigo said: MusashiRose said: Honestly... I didn't GET that Yukito broke the curse of 1000 Summers... that's the only problem I had. I feel like there wasn't enough emphasis on that fact... that's a BIG deal! Because Yukito didn't break the curse. Misuzu finally having a friend (Haruko) was what broke the curse. I see. makes more sense... |
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