Mizuki Foreshadowing

Hi! I'm Renn, just a girl happy to feel seen in a game with such beautiful writing. Came for the canon trans rep in a character-driven visual novel, stayed because this game really is for everyone who feels like there aren't stories written about them! --- Sorry if the blog's a little hard to navigate; tagging as though I were a content creator was bad for my health. I mainly do fanfic these days, since this game gives us such thoroughly well-developed characters to play with. Here's what I got~! --- • the shizumafu fic which dominated my life for a year-and-a-half • • a significantly shorter shizumafu timeloop fic! (if 234k is too much) • • an artsy N25 Evangelion crossover • • a reimagining of the L/N MS if Ichika had formed Leo/need in Saki's memory • • an angsty Umamusume crossover featuring Saki and MMJ I'm really proud of • • a 2k fic of Shizuku taking a walk through the cottagecore dimension, with a sadistic twist • • and a cute 3k honamafu oneshot if you just want to get to know my writing style! • --- I also have an illustrations account poetry blog and like, a normal place I reblog things.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

Empty Luka stop being my favorite Challenge: Impossible

I like how natural it is that the tree should die. It's the only thing growing in Empty SEKAI. (and, as we all know depressed people cannot keep a plant alive) It literally sprouted during the Mafuyu running away from home arc; this feelings-plant is not surviving.

With the first two units, it had felt strange anything should be going wrong with the plant, but that isn't the case here. This is the part of the story it feels like things should be going wrong. To be perfectly honest, I don't know why they're setting this before Mafu6 not after, but I guess I'm about to find out.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

So. Famously, both the names Yoisaki and Kanade are not actual people names. Yoisaki loosely means 'through the night' and Kanade is the word for 'to perform a song'.

Yoisaki Kanade is, itself, a screenname.

Obviously her actual real name is Yoisaki Kanade but, I get the feeling some lost first draft of the story had the characters still not know Kanade by her real name even after meeting her in person.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

UPDATE: A great deal of fact-checking has gone on, and it turns out what I was thinking of was that Yoisaki isn't a real last name. But, Kanade is a real first name.

So the name 'Yoisaki Kanade' wouldn't come off to a Japanese audience as an obvious pen-name for a depressed composer like I thought it would.

Really, what got me thinking about this was a scene I was writing where Airi goes into telling someone about her friend Ena and Ena's experience with K, which I had end in tragedy. I know this wasn't how it went down but I always enjoy the idea that Ena confides in Airi and relies on her for support, and that Airi of course gives it in a heartbeat. The conversation was happening at the Yoisaki residence though, so it felt strange that Airi didn't know K's real name. Except, I realized that learning that K's name was Kanade, 'to perform a song,' would seem a little surreal to her; that Airi might still doubt that K told Ena her real name, and then I remembered the trivial with Kanade's last name.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

So. Famously, both the names Yoisaki and Kanade are not actual people names. Yoisaki loosely means 'through the night' and Kanade is the word for 'to perform a song'.

Yoisaki Kanade is, itself, a screenname.

Obviously her actual real name is Yoisaki Kanade but, I get the feeling some lost first draft of the story had the characters still not know Kanade by her real name even after meeting her in person.

[renn720]

I like the little reminder that Kohane's into photography. A lot of the characters have little details that only really show themselves in mixed events or side stories. I remember being completely blindsided in the Valentines photo contest event learning about this being a pasttime for Kohane and her dad.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

I just really love that this is randomly one of Haruka's summer voicelines.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

This is a mostly random thought but, each member of MORE MORE JUMP! has a character outside their group who is Very depressed and who takes some amount of hope in their idol trying her best and inspiring people. Airi has Ena, Shizuku has Mafuyu. Minori has both Mizuki and Kanade but mainly Mizuki. And Haruka has An.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

I did a double-take because, normally when somebody says that, they mean they're excited to get dessert and are interested in whether there's something seasonal on the menu. No, Haruka is excited for the excuse of a seasonal menu item to have a dessert.

Ichika's her dessert buddy though; the two of them really did snack on all the sweets Ichika bought for a group of five that one time Ichika rescued her.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

Oh The Vibes Are There. Holy Shit The Vibes Are There.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

Oh You Have Got To Be Kidding Me

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

Oh The Vibes Are There. Holy Shit The Vibes Are There.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

I've wondered more than a few times just what distinguished Airi becoming an idol from Minori consistently failing to become one, and it turns out the answer is Airi's mom desperately wanting her rambunctious daughter to finally stop getting into fights with the neighborhood kids.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

This scene is sweet and cute and fun but it's undercut with the bittersweet context that Airi's mom is very likely overjoyed that her rowdy tomboy always getting into fights wants to be more girly on her own.

Third-grade Airi's going on and on because she's excited and inspired and her mom is going along with it too.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

I thought the name would be a play on Morning Musume, but it's all in English in the voiceline.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

Okay so, while I had a lot of fun paralleling Mafuyu and Haruka in the fic, they also just have So Much in common.

Identity - Haruka doesn't know who she is if not an idol; the double date with Anhane showed a side of Haruka she left behind in the past. The last thing about Haruka unrelated to her seven or so years in idol hell is her love of penguins. Mafuyu obviously has lost sight of who she truly is as well; she wants to rediscover her true self. Minori wants to bring out Haruka's best self [Haruka the idol] while Kanade wants to bring out Mafuyu's true self.

Food - Haruka of course has a severe eating disorder. She's lost the ability to break her diet and so frequently is shown wishing she could eat but she can't. Mafuyu doesn't care for food at all; she can't even taste it. It's meaningless to her.

Hope - So, I think this flies under the radar because Haruka herself is trying to hide it from Minori, that Minori didn't magically give Haruka back her sense of hope during the main story. Every single time MMJ gets faced with some conflict or challenge, Haruka consistently sees right through to the messiest parts of it and her response is generally to caution the others to be ready for the worst-case scenario. But also, she's often blind to the solutions Minori comes up with. Part of that is because of Minori's unique perspective as a dedicated fan, but it's also because Haruka just doesn't have that kind of optimism. While I want to say Mafuyu also lacks hope, that isn't true. Mafuyu is willing to take any bet because she has nothing left to lose and everything to win. Kanade frequently challenges her to take steps forward and we get to see exactly how agonizingly difficult that is for Mafuyu, but if it's hell where she's at and hell to move forward she'll move forward.

Adoration - This one covers two things. Mafuyu and Haruka are each very popular. Mafuyu is constantly helping her classmates with schoolwork and is praising and being praised by them and Haruka is Haruka. But, Mafuyu herself doesn't care for that attention, except when it's from Shizuku, and when it's with her, Mafuyu fights heaven and earth not to let Shizuku know she's depressed. She wants to be the beacon of hope Shizuku sees her as. Likewise Haruka consistently views fan interactions as a hazard unless those fans are children in which case she goes out of her way to be Haruka the idol for them.

(Adoration) - Secondly, Minori is obsessed with Haruka and Kanade is obsessed with Mafuyu. Minori tempers her obsession with challenging herself to view Haruka for who she is as a person rather than who she is as an idol, and Kanade had a whole event about destroying herself trying to understand Mafuyu's pain from Mafuyu's point of view. Kanade's warm music and Minori's fangirling aren't enough and they each know it. Likewise, Mafuyu and Haruka treasure Kanade and Minori in roughly the same ways.

Masking - Mafuyu and Haruka have each spent, honestly, about the same amount of their life forced to mask and act out a persona in every aspect of their life. Mafuyu is her mom's 'good girl' and Haruka is Haruka the idol. Both of them, were nothing else. Both of them lost their old persona. However, while Mafuyu's trying to no longer need the mask, Haruka still puts on an act for the camera; she chose to forgo her own My Color moment.

Safe-space - Running is kind of sacred to Haruka. Sure it's part of her fitness routine which she enjoys maintaining (as opposed to her diet which she also maintains), but the opening montage to the idols dressed as shrine maidens event alone shows that running is when Haruka feels most at peace. Music, of course, is this for Mafuyu. Nothing makes Mafuyu feel the way music makes her feel. She very materially needs her work she does with N25.

Future - The unspoken part of MORE MORE JUMP!'s story is the context which does not need explaining to a Japanese audience; idols sort of fall off the map by age 25. We actually got to see it happen with Haruka's Idol who she saw a vision of in World Link 1. It actually isn't important whether that was the actual truth of what ever happened to Haruka's Idol or if it was Haruka fantasizing of the best-possible scenario for her life. Shizuku, Airi, and Minori all have their best days as idols ahead of them however, while Haruka has hers behind her; even among idols [who have no futures], Haruka has no future. Mafuyu, of course, would die if she continued on to medical school; her story centers around her having no future.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

I love how we get to see an npc just get completely wrecked by the storytelling medium.

bOLD WORDS FROM SOMEONE WITHOUT A CHARACTER MODEL

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

OH LET'S FUCKING GO!!!

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

I've been studying Haruka overcoming smiling (to be able to rewrite it as Minoharu; loop 0 in a Madoka fic), and, I never really appreciated before, that Haruka's idol simply lacked the context that Haruka has difficulty smiling in general. To Haruka's idol, this girl is having trouble self-expressing because she's terrified at being separated from her mom in such a huge mall.

She goes out of her way to make Haruka feel special, like she's excited to get to spend time with her.

Haruka always struggled as a kid because she worried people without trying to, and latched on to a story of a girl who could always make people feel happy and at ease, and now she gets a label for that other than 'princess'.

Haruka's idol knows it'll be difficult for Haruka to join in on the fun, or even to know how she's supposed to or allowed to, and goes out of her way to wordlessly instruct her on what she can do and what she wants her to do.

And, it wasn't until seeing that Haruka was comfortable enough to follow her lead and enjoy herself as an active participant in the crowd that she announced her as her special guest. Haruka's idol set it up such that if Haruka were too shy to have clapped, she wouldn't put her on the spot like she's about to.

One thing that I enjoy, that also featured in Hear Me Hopeful Show after Minori faceplanting during Nanamin's stream, is inviting the audience to dance the same way. Nanamin did it to encourage that the audience shouldn't laugh at Minori because they'll find the dance steps to be difficult to perform, but Haruka's idol is doing it so nobody in the audience is inclined to scrutinize this child's dance form.

Haruka's idol is framing Haruka to the audience as 'you can do it too! let's dance together!' and, even though she is making this small child get up on stage with her, the audience identify with Haruka and are rooting for her.

Another thing I like, Haruka is up on stage so she shouldn't be clapping along to the music, but Haruka doesn't know that, and when she thinks she's supposed to, Haruka's idol encourages it rather than corrects her.

Haruka finally breaks out of being unable to smile by realizing she is not somebody who can only worry people, she's also able to make them happy and at ease.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

Oh my god. So I'm always drawing parallels between N25 and MMJ, but I just realized that the leader's fixation who has trouble with hope and emotions and has a disconnect with personhood, also had an incredibly formative experience getting separated from her mom in a public place.