whenlifegiveslemons

Avocado | 19 y/o

[depsidase]

[unicorncryptid]

"my life isn't a crime, I'm not one of those people -"

"you sure? new parameters for Those People just dropped. check again."

[lizardywizard]

And if you truly cannot imagine this, if you're convinced that it will never happen to you, consider this one thing.

Would you want scammers to know the state of your loved one's dementia?

[the-haiku-bot]

Would you want scammers

to know the state of your loved

one’s dementia?

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[cecut]

what do red pandas even do

[cecut]

I MEANT AS SELF DEFENSE STOP THE HATRED im sorry red pandas

[sokkalore]

does this answer your question

[crit20lesbian]

[worldheritagepostorganization]

World Heritage Post

[mimikyuno]

it’s so annoying how clpl does not release duet alts for niigo like, so many missed opportunities. especially in the case of yoka, which is Meant to be a duet between ena and mizuki. the pronouns keep switching between “watashi” and “boku” they’re literally talking to each other in the song. clpl released only ena’s alt for it and i need them to release mizuki’s as well at some point bc that song is as much about her as it is about ena and i need a fan to do a mash up of the two alts since they’re too lame and boring at clpl inc to shake things up and start giving niigo duet alts starting with the gayest one of all

[bugbraiin]

One thing im uncomfortably woke about is bugs. And im actively trying to get more uncomfortably woke. By this i mean i DO believe the normalised fear of bugs stems from both government and business propaganda. The start of household pesticide sales coinciding with the boom in insect related horror movies. The promotion of anti intellectualism and anti enviromentalism. If you're scared of bugs, you wont care about saving them. If you dont care about saving them, you wont care about saving our home, since without bugs it cannot be saved. If you dont care about saving our home, the rich can do whatever they want with the chunks of it they continue to destroy.

I WILL calmly and kindly try to help anyone who is afraid of bugs. I will show them my finds, i will explain their importance, i will tell them just how sweet and gentle and friendly they are. And I WILL shoot down any immature loser who believes senseless killing is the only possible response to not liking something.

Get woke. Love bugs.

[pukicho]

comic where steve from minecraft sees a round guy

[miowhy]

tg: miowhy SLEEPY MIZUENA Someone wake them up

[emotsper]

minori hanasato #1 himejoshi warrior of sekai

[whereserpentswalk]

Fuck hostile architecture, I want unhostile architecture. I want benches to be designed to be as easy as possible to sleep on. I want little places for pigeons to nest to be purposefully put on buildings. I want people designing public spaces to think about what they'd be like to skateboard on. I want "Please loiter" signs. I want people to be kind. I want...

[awritersbro]

We need cities that do not resent the fact that people live in them

[the-haiku-bot]

We need cities that

do not resent the fact that

people live in them

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[tobiasdrake]

One thing I will always appreciate Fullmetal Alchemist for is the fact that they let Roy Mustang be complicit in genocide.

Mustang is an Atoner figure. Something that plagues Atoner figures is when writers are too precious about the characters we're meant to like to actually let them be guilty of something serious.

The Atoner might be trying to make amends for their involvement in the Great '87 Hotel Massacre, and then three seasons in you find out what happened. And it's like, "I drove a taxi to the hotel, and the KILLER was in it! I ferried the killer to the hotel! That makes me responsible, and now I must atone for being nearby while the killings took place! And also vanquish the real killer who is the villain for this season."

Or maybe the Atoner did do the killings but they were under mind control the whole time and would never, ever have done it in their right mind.

But FMA said no. Mustang, Hawkeye, Hughes, even Armstrong to an extent though he suffered a breakdown and fled during it. They did that shit. They followed their orders and they did that shit. And it haunts them.

Roy did that shit. And his atonement, his grand ambition, is to see everyone responsible for that shit brought to justice for their crimes. Including himself.

That is how you write an atonement plot.

[clovernot]

'I Will' by Mitski is THE mizuena song for me.

ESPECIALLY "I will see your body bare / and still I will live here" ena's insistence on not leaving mizuki, even when she runs away

they make me so ill I'm gonna cry

[the-overanalyst]

saw this on twitter >

hopeless romantic ena is real. she wants to be those fishes sooo bad. (and specifically, it would seem she craves domestic fluff.)

sometime in the future she happens to flip back to that page in her sketchbook and thinks, "oh. this kinda reminds me of when mizuki and i..." and after a solid minute of fond reminiscing, it hits her. "is mizuki my other goldfish???"

[underpunsideration]

Trying to understand what was going through Mafumafu-san's head when writing 携帯恋話

So there's been this rumor floating around that Keitai Renwa was N25's original Untitled song, but it got rejected because it didn't match the group's feel, and so Kuyamu to Kaite Mirai was written and used instead.

Turns out, it's actually...true??!?

日陰者の雑談１

こっそりお話をしましょう

Here's the actual link to where Mafumafu himself talks about it. (relevant part is from around 8:00 - 11:00)

【プロジェクトセカイ×まふまふ 第2弾！】動画はお馴染みタッグ！「25時、ナイトコードで。」への提供曲「携帯恋話」セルフカバー投稿！ : まふまふ速報

プロジェクトセカイ ユニット「25時、ナイトコードで。」への提供曲「携帯恋話」セルフカバー投稿

Here's a site where a fan talks about it.

To summarize the info:

Mafumafu initially submitted Keitai Renwa, and sung it himself (as opposed to using a Vocaloid) which staff was fine with

He wrote Keitai Renwa based on N25 being a "cool" and "dark" girl character group. (その、25時ナイトコードでっていうグループが、あの、女の子キャラのグループだったんだよね？ちょっとなんか、クールな感じの、ま、暗めな感じのというか。) (note: my transcription may have errors...)

However, staff told him that it was fine for him to do something with a "darker worldview" (暗い世界観), something similar to the stuff he likes. So, he wrote Kuyamu to Kaite Mirai, and that became N25's Untitled song.

(note the fansite started their description at 9:20, so it skips the first two points)

There's a lot of misinformation that floats around regarding this game, so I'm glad that this rumor was actually true. Granted, it was STUPID difficult to find it, as even though both EN and JP fans talk about this story a lot, nobody's ever had the link before.

Of course, the other issue:

How blatantly romantic is Keitai Renwa actually? (and why is it an Ena/Mizuki duet?)

携帯 means "mobile", as in "mobile phone." 恋話（こいばなし）means "love talk" or "girl talk" (about love/dating/whatever). However, in this case, 恋話 is read れんわ, as a pun on 電話, as "携帯電話" means "mobile phone".

Also, the song isn't actually about girl talk. It's an extremely blatant romance song. More specifically, it's a romance song about a broken connection, your lover withholding a secret, lying and smiling to your face, a love that's cold like a cup of tea that cooled before it could touch your lips. (and yes, 恋 is used, it's explicitly romantic love)

Despite being the initial candidate for N25's unit song, the lyrics don't apply to Kanade and Mafuyu. They do, however, for some reason, apply quite well to Ena and Mizuki:

"Let's laugh even if it's a lie" says Mizuki

Ena wonders when Mizuki started drifting away. And re: the second line, i don't actually know whose mistakes are being mentioned, but it could work with Mizuki driving herself deeper into despair or Ena unintentionally hurting Mizuki.

I wonder if there was an older draft of the game where Mizuki said things much worse than "scary selfie girl"...

Ena searching for Mizuki is the literal story of their Mizu2 cards

Tbh this is more of a Mizuki line than an Ena line

もしもし is what you say when you answer the phone in Japan. The singer is calling their lover's phone, hoping they'll finally pick up.

So how precisely is this song a MizuEna song? Well, even though it's definitely not a description of anyone else's relationship in Niigo, there's admittedly a lot of parts that just imply a dying or toxic relationship in general, as opposed to specifically MizuEna. Sure, the untruths and coldness are (tragically) the only way Mizuki knows how to have relationships for most of the story, but it's not certain that it was written based on them specifically.

...is what I'd like to say, but let's be honest, Colorful Palette knew exactly what they were doing with this LOL. I mean, they gave Akito/Toya Ifuudoudou, it's pretty clear what they were doing here.

Not to mention, this DOES support the idea of Ena being a shoujo protagonist, chasing the tall, mysterious girl she's fallen in love with, who both mocks her and cares for her intensely...the omnicapable genius to Ena's relatable girlfailure...the love interest who's deeply hurt and emotionally withdrawn, but incredibly tender deep down.

If you told me they presented the story summary as a yuri between Ena and Mizuki, and Mafumafu wrote Keitai Renwa based on that, I would believe you in a heartbeat.

[netsuijae]

way to be subtle about it ena

.

based on ena's recent birthday card story :3 aughghfv theyre so <333

link to the scene below if u havent seen it :)

[the-overanalyst]

saw this on twitter >

hopeless romantic ena is real. she wants to be those fishes sooo bad. (and specifically, it would seem she craves domestic fluff.)

sometime in the future she happens to flip back to that page in her sketchbook and thinks, "oh. this kinda reminds me of when mizuki and i..." and after a solid minute of fond reminiscing, it hits her. "is mizuki my other goldfish???"

[kazenzen]

Small mizuena another comic I'm drawing (it's still in progress).

Anyways due to popular demand (1 person) I'm going to go into another long MizuEna yap session under the cut.

(This is REALLY really long I'm warning you don't click unless you want to do a lot of scrolling).

This time I want to focus specifically on what exactly they like about each other - what do they find attractive in each other?

So... what's their type? What kind of person do they like?

As usual, Ena is really straightforward. She is canonically stated to have a weakness for bright, cheery girls.

She openly states she can't say no to Emu's cute smile: and immediately folds to An's cheery approach on their first meeting:

If a girl is cute, has a bright smile, and is nice to her, then apparently she's meeting all of Ena's standards, lmfao. Special points if you throw her a compliment (she'll take anything tbh, but if it's about something related to a skill, to something that she put effort into, then it's 1000x more effective).

On top of this, she also shows a strong affinity for girls who display a strong sense of caring, gentle mindfulness. We all know how she is Kanade, but also look at her here gushing over the overwhelmingly kind and caring and cute Honami:

Mizuki: "Haha! It really was fun. And Honami-chan's such a nice person..." Ena: "Right? Honami-chan's honest, kind, and really cute!" Mizuki: "Why are you bragging about her, Ena?"

So….

Ena happens to like cute, cheery girls with bright smiles, as well as girls who have a certain kind and caring sense of mindfulness…

Is there anyone who happens to embody all these traits…?

Would you look at that?

It's a recurring theme that Ena finds comfort in Mizuki being a warm place of respite when she's exhausted from her grueling work and something she openly values. Ena even states this directly. These small interludes with Mizuki offer her warm moments of relaxation:

BTW tangentially related but while digging through the older card stories I found this Yuki/Enanan exchange that takes place pre-main story Mafuyu breakdown, where she gushes about how caring and mindful Yuki is:

"So unlike Amia" lol. It's just ridiculously hilarious how plain backwards she has it, considering what their overall relationships end up being.

I've said this before, but we don't even need to get to Secret Distance or Picnic or even Insatiable Pale Color, literally in Ena's first release 25ji card side story she's already telling Mizuki that she's more likeable than she thought and that getting to know her more has made it more fun to work together:

^ Ena's being pretty bashful about it which is super cute, but all the while Mizuki is running laps around her and teasing her as usual, it's almost sad to watch, lol. All it took for Ena to get like that was one (1) nice compliment from Mizuki btw. Our girl is THAT weak smh…. Also, this is a bit of conjecture, but considering that this happens only because they start hanging out in person, I wouldn't be surprised if seeing how cute Mizuki is IRL contributed at least a little bit in the way Ena suddenly started completely changing her tune, lol.

(Also, Mizuki openly stating that from her part she just hasn't given Ena that much thought is interesting to me. I've been mulling over it since the first time I read this interaction. More on this later.)

Also, one last thing about Ena I barely ever see mentioned is that she really cares about people being able to express their own individuality. This is a core value she strongly shares with Mizuki.

We consistently see her noticing and enjoying the way different characters express their own individuality through creativity.

And in the HonaEna art event, she's dead-set on wanting to encourage Honami to draw in whatever way lets her express herself best, even though Honami originally asked for help learning to draw in a more universally appealing style. It's something she always, ALWAYS encourages and tries to nurture:

This clip captures this part of Ena perfectly. Mizuki witnesses some random girl try to force her own sense of fashion on her friend which puts her in a glum mood for the rest of the day. Then she tells Ena about it, and seeing her react so openly furious is enough to cheer Mizuki back up:

Not only is this something incredibly, humongously, ridiculously important to Mizuki, but it's also something Ena clearly admires about Mizuki - the way in which she unapologetically expresses herself. We know Ena loves Mizuki's smile and feels more relaxed when she's around, but one consistent thing she always compliments whenever she praises Mizuki is her sense of stylishness, even when they don't particularly share the exact same tastes:

There's this mizu6 scene where Ena's praising Mizuki, and she's again honing in on her sense of personal taste and flawless skill at expressing it:

(caught you blushing there, Mizuki).

But okay, that's Ena's side. Ena is simple, easy, straightforward. She already likes Mizuki enough immediately post main story to go all dere-dere on her, and then Insatiable Pale Color happens, and while Mizuki doesn't have that big of a role there, just her showing up for Ena to lift her up at her lowest moment is enough to have Ena get like this moving forward:

(OK girl….)

So, what about Mizuki? What's her type? What does she find attractive?

Mizuki is loud and friendly and has a mischief-loving personality, but she also tends to be more guarded than Ena, and in general it's just really hard to catch her getting flustered or swept up by others. Still, she does get several moments where we can catch her admiring others in her head or even getting outright weak-kneed in front of them.

Here with Kanade, for example:

She admires Kanade's utter and complete devotion, her intense dedication, even despite the pain she's been through. She almost sounds wistful here, like she wants some of that devotion for herself.

In Ena5, Mizuki says she hates when people walk on eggshells around her, which initially gave me the wrong impression that she hates when others go out of their way to look out for her. But while revisiting her other interactions, I noticed it's actually quite the opposite.

Mizuki shows very positive, strong emotional reactions whenever people stick up for her, especially if they do so while showing consideration to her boundaries and making sure she's comfortable.

Look at her getting all soft here when An does exactly that for her:

(btw look at our girl An rizzing up both Mizuki and Ena, what a queen, lol).

Also in this scene where Shizuku does this super sweet, considerate, gentle gesture for Mizuki, and a similar moment with Toya:

Mizuki loves feeling understood and being looked out for. She loves when people gently make sure she's comfortable. It's something we consistently see her get all weak and soft over. Honestly, it's so consistent with her that it's almost impressive that I failed to notice this before.

Speaking of Toya, here's another sweet scene where, like with Kanade, Mizuki is charmed by his strong drive and passionate dedication despite all his struggles:

Also! Let's not forget, there's one last important thing about Mizuki. Yes, this girl is an otaku!!! She loves anime, and not only that, she has an anime waifu that she adores!

Here's the scene where she fawns over her waifu Mia from hit anime MiraMagi:

It completely tracks with what we've seen! The things she consistently admires in people. She's determined, works hard and devotedly does her best despite struggling (Kanade, Toya), and she sticks up for you when it matters (An, Toya, Kanade).

But, hey, wait a minute…

A girl who you start out "rooting for when she was doing her best despite struggling" but end up "totally falling in love with" when she shows her dependable, admirable side as she dives in to save you… Doesn't that sound like someone?

She's determined, works hard, doesn't give up, and dashingly dives in for you when you need her, huh?

If we look at the whole timeline, from Mizuki's side… Well, unlike Ena who explicitly likes Mizuki a lot as early as immediately post-Main Story, it's hard to find any evidence for early-story Mizuki. Of course, Mizuki is always friendly and nice and very caring (despite the merciless teasing), but there's also no moment where she seems to notice Ena in a particularly positive way…?

And let's not forget this:

Ena: And what about you? Did your opinion of me change since we started hanging out together? Mizuki: Hmm... I haven't thought about it.

Immediately post main story Mizuki, who has explicitly shown a strong admiration for Kanade and connects on a strong, personal level to Mafuyu:

In comparison to them, she apparently hasn't "given much thought" to Ena.

We see in the backstory her immediate first impression of her is "that girl who's insecure about her drawings despite being this good."

On top of that, early stories Ena has a penchant for putting her foot in her mouth. The "scary selfie girl" joke is funny, but let's not forget that it all started as a way for Mizuki to indirectly defend Mafuyu when Ena starts talking smack about her behind her back. It might seem like the usual lighthearted teasing at first glance, but this HAS to have had struck a nerve for Mizuki, who has been on the receiving end this exact same thing (with this context in mind that final "You do? I'm surprised." feels especially icy. She really went after Ena's throat here.)

Ouch.

There's also this pre-Ena1 area conversation. Mizuki's not targeting Ena specifically here, but she still makes it very clear how harshly she sees people who only do things for attention. (Mizuki's using particularly harsh language here, which is unusual, and Ena says that last line in a clearly hurt tone too). It tracks though. Of course Mizuki, who values authenticity and self-expression more than anything, who has explicitly being accused of "attention seeking" in the past just for trying to be herself, would feel like this:

While Mizuki's teasing can be pretty merciless, it always has some nugget of truth to it. Whether it's an actual objective fact, or something that gleams some light into a genuine belief she holds. (Not just with Ena btw, it always follows this pattern even when she teases other characters, including those outside of N25.) In early stories, Mizuki's feelings about Ena's attention-seeking ways at certain points seem to go past just cringe to outright disdainful annoyance. Again, this is Mizuki, who values authentic self-expression more than anything in the world. It's even quite explicitly shown here in this early 4koma:

Anyways, the whole point of this endeavor was to find out how Mizuki feels about Ena early on. And in summary, what we seem to have is: good -> Her art is amazing and resonates with me neutral (?) -> seems insecure about her drawings (?) very no bueno -> mean girl who talks smack behind your back -> only cares about getting attention (at the expense of authenticity)

Oof. Not off to a great start, right? I mean, she clearly doesn't outright dislike her, otherwise she'd probably have bailed already, but at the same time Ena hasn't been making that good of an impression either… Especially compared to the other N25 members.

But then Insatiable Pale Color happens. Mizuki doesn't really have much of a role there, but it's still interesting how it reframes Mizuki's understanding of Ena.

This is the event where both the extent of Ena's passion for art and her insecurities regarding it get exposed to the rest of N25. On top of that, Ena even vulnerably goes in-depth about her own need for validation (which fuels the selfie account) and how much she hates herself for it.

Mizuki gets an important realization: She only does it for the attention → No, actually, she's really serious about her art. Her own need for validation is a deep-rooted sore spot for her.

It feels deliberate to me that episode 1 starts specifically with Mizuki's usual merciless teasing about Ena's need for likes:

"All you care about is getting lots of likes."

This is the last time we ever see Mizuki make this type snide remark about Ena "just wanting" likes by the way. Mizuki can be merciless with her teasing, but she's never trying to be outright hurtful. If she notices it's a real insecurity for Ena, then she drops it. Notice that she never even once teased her about her art. Ena being insecure about it was something Mizuki was able to pick up all the way back from their first meeting after all.

There may be an element of guilt too. In later events Mizuki reveals that in the past she's made others feel alienated because she's poked at things they may be hiding or be insecure about.

It's almost like seeing how much she cares and how hard she works on her art in Ena1 shifted Mizuki's view of Ena into someone you're "rooting for when she was doing her best despite struggling".

It's so clear post Ena1 the way Mizuki approaches Ena's desperate scouring for positive comments in a more gentle, compassionate way:

Also note how moving forward, even if her own personal values regarding authenticity and self-expression never change, she's still able to show Ena a lot of compassion, even as she teases Ena about the selfie account.

Post Ena1 Mizuki knows Ena's usage of social media shifted depended on her mental state, which heavily implies the reason Mizuki started watching over Ena's account more intensely was because she was using it as a way to keep track of Ena's emotional state (and as an extension, without it she has little way to know how she's doing when she disappears for days on end to work on her art assignments.)

If we see this whole thing in the context of Mizuki's mental waifu scale, Ena is only at level 1 at this point.

She does her best despite struggling → I'm rooting for her! But she hasn't still reached level 2.

She reliably dives in for you when you need her → I'm in love!!

She explicitly starts worrying and "rooting for her", but she still doesn't see her as someone dependable. Unlike Kanade and hell, even Mafuyu, Mizuki is the only member who doesn't even seem to trust her to pull through post-Ena1.

If Ena1 is the event that turned Ena into "someone you're rooting for", then Picnic is the event that opened up the idea that she could even be someone Mizuki can depend on.

Airi does a lot of legwork here by outright wingmanning for Ena, but the cool thing is how this recontextualizes some of Ena's rougher moments in Mizuki's mind. Specifically the "two-faced mean girl" part. Ena is blunt and awkward, but she's also always honest and has this inner caring side.

^ (Airi wingman of the century).

Anyways she's not quite there yet though. Mizuki's image of Ena has improved dramatically and by now she really likes her (we even see Mizuki show this soft, tender tone when she talks about Ena's cringy flaws, almost like she's started to find them charming), but still, she doesn't trust her. Doesn't trust N25. We can see Mizuki scolding herself for even considering the idea of getting closer to N25 - she's still approaching the group with a mindset of "I'm going to squeeze all of the fun I can possibly get out of this before it inevitably implodes". The thought of actually relying on Ena is still out of the question. Whenever she has an inner positive thought about Ena, it usually comes in the form of: "she's really nice. She just can't leave me alone…" with this specific troubled look.

The next event where their relationship takes a step forward is "My Footsteps Your Destination", and if Ena1 is the event that places Ena in the "someone I'm rooting for" category and Picnic opens up the idea that Ena may be someone reliable, then Mizu2 is the one that puts her squarely into the "I'm totally in love!!" category.

There's also another last important checkpoint on the path to Mizuki's heart we haven't covered, and it's the issue of her boundaries. Mizu2 addresses this. Ena has the best, sweetest intentions, but up to this point, and specially throughout this event, we see her just... coming on too strong. Mizuki has very strong, hard-set boundaries. Sweet Mizuki, who we've explicitly seen likes people who make sure she's feeling comfortable and safe while giving her the space she needs. But here comes Ena, who just keeps trying to jam herself in like a freaking brute. In Mizu2 she ends up making Mizuki feel so cornered that she's literally puking from stress (!!!!!). It's honestly very hard to watch. The stress she's putting her in even has Mizuki thinking things like "everyone (including N25) should just vanish and leave me alone", and this event is one of the very few times (pre-mizu5) we see Mizuki lash out in this desperate, almost angry way:

This might be my hottest take yet, but I genuinely believe Meiko telling Ena to stop trying to force herself in was the right call here. I know the event ends as kind of a downer when Mizuki ends up feeling like the leeway Ena is giving her means she'll just drag out the lie forever, but still, thanks to this Ena does get one VERY important concession. Ena frankly expressing how she feels, while also giving Mizuki room to breathe and letting her decide the pace at which she moves forward is actually what gets Mizuki to FINALLY admit that there IS in fact something she's worrying about, instead of constantly deflecting with jokes. A hypothetical scenario where Ena just kept pushing and pushing doesn't feel like it would have resulted in a "good ending."

On top of that, this is actually the fist time Mizuki decides Ena is someone she could actually rely on. She WANTS to rely on her!

Ena has always had a caring side despite her prickliness, but post Mizu2 we get to see an Ena who also start developing this very tender gentleness that is just really effective on Mizuki. We see her almost real time start smoothing out some of those rough edges of hers, until she becomes someone who's able to be like this for Mizuki:

It's such impressive growth it's almost hard to believe she's the same awkward girl from earlier stories.

Mizuki's attitude completely flips too. Up till now she's been rooting for and worrying about Ena, mostly been thinking of her as "nice" (with a slightly troubled expression), but post Mizu2 we get scenes like this one, where Mizuki is admiring Kanade's dedication and the sense of romance in her bond with Mafuyu, and then her mind wanders to Ena instead "I guess my K is…"

(ok girl omg why don't you smooch her while you're at it!!)

(Also, remember that early Mizuki quote where she almost wistfully talks about Kanade's intense dedication? Waow!)

The first Ena event post Mizu2 is Blank Canvas, and that also happens to be the first time we ever see Mizuki genuinely admire and look up to an aspect of Ena's character that goes beyond "she's nice and can't leave me alone." Her grit, her resolve, how she keeps walking forward even when it hurts. There's a scene where Mizuki gets all soft as she outright calls Ena cool.

Mizuki who wants to be loved for who she is without having to prove anything, without having to fight for it, and Ena our local struggler who wants her efforts to be recognized, who needs to believe her efforts mean something, as she unconditionally pours every inch of herself into what she loves… it just works, they click perfectly, it's like they're made for each other.

They make each other better people. Mizuki's delicate mindfulness makes Ena develop this gentleness that gives her a very tender, almost prince-like quality in later stories. It starts in Mizu2 but keeps developing through the stories, and I mean, just look at how soft she is post Mizu5! Not just with Mizuki btw it trickles down to how she interacts with the rest of the extended cast. Meanwhile Ena's blunt intensity inspires Mizuki to finally, for maybe the first time in her life, lift up her eyes and find in her the resolve to walk towards a future she thought was impossible. This goes beyond her interpersonal relationships btw, it's only post Ena5 that Mizuki finally starts looking past merely surviving day to day and starts actually giving some thought to what she loves doing, her craft, and what she wants to do with her life. (yes this is Mizu6 propaganda it's so good read it pls).

Regarding Physical attraction

I wanted to address some interesting things I found regarding how each of them seem to experience physical attraction.

Ena has canonically shown some VERY strong, gayass reactions to attractive women in general. Just look at her reaction to Haruka here:

(pls someone help my poor girl omg, she left all her dignity at home……..)

And here's Ena getting all stuttery as she admires Shizuku's beauty:

Anyways there's no need to beat around the bush, here's Ena just straightforwardly calling Mizuki attractive:

Ena is up there with An and Minori as one of the characters who has shown these super strong, physical, bumbling gayass reactions to very attractive women. (Interestingly, unlike the other two who are very vocal about it, Ena tends to keep it inside her thoughts most of the time which might make her come off as a bit more closeted.)

Anyways yeah, unlike Ena, I could barely find any moment like this for Mizuki. Even when meeting what's basically the in-universe incarnation of Aphrodite herself, Shizuku Hinomori (if anyone will get a reaction, it's her, right?), Mizuki's one of the very few characters who doesn't seem to go weak-kneed at her godlike attractiveness, instead going for a "waow, famous people!! BTW look at my favorite outfit!!"

Like seriously, compare that reaction to the way Ena immediately loses her composure just by laying eyes upon Shizuku's beauty, it's quite the contrast.

Mizuki doesn't go awooga at Shizuku like most of the cast does, but she does call the idols cute. She has a strong sense of personal taste, and she's always expressing it. She's not shy about complimenting other's looks either (especially in the context of cuteness), and she's especially prone to praising when someone's choice of outfit/makeup really suits them.

When it comes to Ena, while Mizuki canonically always shows very unimpressed, sometimes almost mean reactions (especially early on) to Ena's attempts at fanservice shots, she has zero issue complimenting her appearance when she does like what she sees, usually when it's in something that she feels suits her:

In Mizu5 there's this short scene where Ena dresses as this fanservice maid and Mizuki again shows this very milquetoast, unimpressed reaction. Hell, she shows a much, much nicer reaction to the idea of Ena being all embarrassed about wearing the "lame" squid shirt (a shirt that "feels like Ena" according to Kanade):

Hell, even when Mizuki's gushing about her anime waifu, she never mentions the slightest bit about her appearance, it's all about her character (it wasn't love at first sight with her waifu either, but more of a slow-burn… just like Ena?). This just makes makes Mizuki come off to me more as someone who needs to have an emotional connection with someone before she can even start seeing them in "that way". Very unlike Ena, who has canonically shown very strong, visceral reactions to women's physical attractiveness.

Mizuki also happens to be an idol fangirl!! And her oshi happens to be Minori, of all people:

It's interesting to me that while Ena has shown strong gay reactions to the looks of the more beautiful idols Shizuku and Haruka, the one who immediately turned Mizuki's head was Minori, who may be the less "polished" of the idols, but her whole idol persona is just "being herself." Her whole thing is that she perseveres despite all the adversities. It just seems to really support this reading of her, and completely tracks with everything else we've seen from Mizuki (and falls perfectly into her waifu strike zone too!)

Anyway that's it, sorry this was so long. I promise after writing it I kept scrapping and scrapping parts but it still ended up long as hell.

[mimikyuno]

alright i wanna yap about why i believe that mizu5 is extremely well written in terms of characterisation and build-up. because the thing is. what happened this event is gut-wrenching and tragic but the beauty of it is that it 1. wasn’t in vain and 2. it actually puts mizuki and ena in a much safer and more stable position with each other and within the group in the long run.

first of all, let's talk about the build up. because we, the audience, have also been waiting a long time, just like ena, and we have watched mizuki get ready little by little, we find ourselves perfectly positioned to empathise fully with both girls this event. we know the stakes and we feel them because real time has passed in the real world. over 3 years since ena's promise (around 1 in game). this build up felt as strong to us as it did to these two. we spend the whole event watching mizuki hype herself up – her hands are shaking, she can’t decide whether to message ena or not, she spends the whole festival smiling and enjoying it thinking it might be the last time she gets to laugh with niigo (and props to satohina’s voice acting because i could hear the anxiety in her voice the whole time). but you see, that’s exactly the issue. she even voices it, clearly, in her conversation with rui.

despite the fact that she is recognising that niigo probably won't reject her, she voices not only that she is scared of things changing, but also of being a burden.

"if i end up making them accept me"

"if i force them to talk to me in a certain way."

if you're trans, you know this fear. that people are humoring your identity out of politeness, rather than because they actually see you as who you are. for mizuki, this is coupled with the fear of losing her safe space where she's just one of the girls - they hang out and swap clothes and shop together and are so close. would things feel awkward if they knew she isn't cis? what if it's a burden on the rest of niigo, to be friends with someone like her? and mizuki hates being a burden, and this issue of hers gets discussed more in depth in ena5. because mizuki herself doesn't even recognise what she is saying rn as a major issue in this whole situation. she doesn't see that even if she gets to come out and it goes well, she'll still spiral. because meanwhile, this is ena:

the whole day, she's been watching over mizuki. miss "oblivious-as-all-hell-except-when-it-comes-to-this-pink-thing" has been worried all day, catching glimpses of mizuki's anxiety but shoving her worries aside in favor of trusting in mizuki and waiting until the end of the day as promised. she wants to do it right. she is ready to hear mizuki's confession, whatever it may be, and react the "right" way.

and see, here is why what happened, albeit horrifying, actually set them on a healing path much quicker than if mizuki had gotten the chance to come out to ena herself. because ena would have tried her best to react "well". and mizuki would have felt like she was "forcing" ena to accept her for who she is. that ena is only being kind, but things will never be the same. in time, the doubt would have eaten away at mizuki, and she would have tried to distance herself again and ena's efforts to pull her back would have taken much longer. the two of them would have needed to sit down and have a real, vulnerable heart-to-heart. from a storytelling standpoint, it would have been a nightmare to write right, and would have dragged on this arc for so much longer.

instead, we get this tragedy. mizuki doesn't get to come out, ena doesn't get to react the "right" way. mizuki sees her looking shocked (at the realisation that mizuki's coming out was robbed from them) and interprets her expression to mean that everything's changed. ena doesn't get to stop mizuki from leaving. they both suffer in between mizu5 and ena5. both of them unable to confide in anyone, all they have is rumination. which is a net good for ena. she gets to get used to the idea, and to reflect on everything that happened. ena, always impulsive, gets the chance to sit with her feelings, unable to do much, for weeks. it's good for ena, as a character, to have failed in stopping mizuki at the festival. as a person, ena is terrified of failure, but she also always managed to pick herself up and improve herself afterwards (with her art, and in this situation too). failing in reaching mizuki at the festival, ena gets the opportunity to reflect on what she could have done better, and why mizuki felt the way she did. and when she finds mizuki, she finally gets to see her unguarded. mizuki, the girl who is always smiling and brushing everything off. in the confrontation at the end of ena5, mizuki, hurt by what happened at the school festival and weeks of isolation, gets to be completely, utterly vulnerable in front of ena for the first time. she voices all her fears: of things changing, of niigo walking on eggshells around her not to offend her, of people talking behind ena's back if they see them together. she doesn't want to be a burden. she just wants to be. and the doubt that she's just a burden on her friends will always eat away at her so what's the point? and ena is angry, ena (the bleeding heart of the group) tells her none of that matters. all that matters is that she loves mizuki. that she cares about their friendship. that nothing would hurt more than losing her. that friends aren't burdens. you don't "deserve" to be friends you just are. and what she's learnt about mizuki changes nothing. and she doesn't care if mizuki is uncomfortable with the idea, if she says something that hurts her, ena wants to know because she wants to do better because that's what friends do! and it's only because mizuki has experienced weeks without ena and the rest of niigo, and because ena is so hurt and has run so much she can't stand anymore, that mizuki manages to allow ena to break through the last of her walls. she falls to her knees, and cries.

had mizu5 not happened, they wouldn't have gotten here this quickly. together, at the root of the issue, with their defences shattered, completely open with each other. both of them putting their whole heart in the other's hand, trusting that she'll treasure it. trusting that it will be okay.

[appledoves]

day seven: change and the future (free day)