Another one from the Japanese that seems to be more complete.
02 "A person has died. A murderer has simply died, that's all. I think I would’ve thought it didn’t matter before. ...We spent too much time together."
03 "I'm no longer the person I used to be. That person taught me! Faith, a new world... It was all up to me... everything."
04 "Es said they would save Muu! Their words keep changing... They are the worst!"
07 "I wonder what went wrong. Where did I make a mistake? How could I have stayed true to myself?"
08 "I warned them many times. Many, many, many, many, many times! You should have stopped it! You, of all people!"
09 "Something feels like it's disappeared from within me, and I'm anxious... so anxious. I'm tired of everything now."
10 "That's what it feels like to lose something precious to evil. Acknowledge me! Es! Your anger and sorrow - I'll return them to you!"
(Milgram T3 rant/analysis. No hate meant towards the creators or anyone who thinks differently from me, this is just my personal opinion. English isn’t my first language, forgive any mistakes. LONG post):
Man… I really, really love MILGRAM but I’m kinda… not excited for the rest of T3 anymore, and that’s been going on for a while now because all the characters feel “neutered” lately.
HARUKA’S video was perfect, in my opinion. His development during T1, T2 and T3 feel coherent and complex. To me, his and Amane’s case are the most nuanced and complicated of the bunch, and Haruka’s final report did not disappoint. They pulled no punches when explaining his heinous acts but it’s completely comprehensible (not necessarily justifiable) how he ended up in that situation. 10/10.
YUNO’s left me a little confused at the time, but I was still hopeful. Looking back, though, I’m a lot more critical of the choices made for her story. What we thought was a case meant to debate abortion was actually about a misscarriage. Yuno didn’t choose or plan to terminate her own pregnancy, she went to the top of an abandoned staircase, hopeless for what her future might hold, and (implicitly) wanted to end her own life but ended up falling by accident.
What crime is there to judge, exactly? The point of MILGRAM is to analyse situations of “murder” where the law wouldn’t be able to/would have a hard time dissecting, but what blame does Yuno have in this case? There was no intention on her part. Was her crime simply the thought of not wanting a teen pregnancy?
I know she considers herself a murderer and maybe that’s why she’s in MILGRAM, but regardless of how one might feel about the subject of abortion, pregnancy and the like; it’s undeniable that this narrative choice makes Yuno INNOCENT (forgiveable) to the eyes of the great majority, robbing it of the nuance it could’ve had if it were more along the lines of a reckless pregnancy and a careless abortion (which, just to be clear, would still be super forgivable in my eyes, but at least there would be more to debate on).
FUUTA’S case is not bad, really. I mean, I think the whole "hat" plot point was very silly, and I guess that’s kinda the point? They wanted to show how such a large disaster came from such a tiny “mistake” and how Fuuta was so eager to call out misdeeds that he went even after the smallest offenses… still feels a little too silly to me though, almost illogical that so many people would band together behind his cause. I still have a hard time understanding what the whole deal about copyright even meant kjsahkjahskajas.
But that’s more of a nitpick than anything, because what really bothered me about Fuuta’s case was his Voice Drama and Q&A. The video shows someone who embraced the role of a “villain” instead of a “hero”, who’s so regretful of his actions that he clings to Amane’s religion without caring for what it means, only that it can save him (he holds a flag without any of its symbols), almost fanatic, in a way. His voice lines on the website also push that narrative.
Then comes the Audio Drama and he’s… Weirdly lucid and aware of his mistakes. In the Q&A’s he’s changed and evolved… And that’s not really what his music video communicated? I know, the project is multi-media because it’s trying to tell such a complex story, but in previous trials I don’t remember having such conflicting representations of the same character depending on your source. The MV’s, in my opinion, should be the main source of information and how you form your opinion of the character, since it’s taken directly from their psyche.
Such a drastic difference makes me wonder if halfway through production they thought Fuuta would be considered too GUILTY (unforgiveable) and decided to make him more sympathetic after the video. It feels a little anticlimactic to me when they build up a certain image of a character based off of our choices and the way they’ve damaged them, and then suddenly make them “nicer” for the sake of giving them “closure” with Es. It's a little boring.
MUU’s case suffers from the same issues as Yuno and Fuuta, in my opinion.
She wasn’t an active bully, didn’t order or influence anything on purpose. Everything just happened around her, without Muu’s input, because of her “aura”. Loss of agency, intention and action, so again, loss of nuance to Muu’s character (also, everyone suddenly turning on her because she was the one who got attacked is a bit unrealistic but I can normally let that slide, I’m just being nitpicky because I’m already unsatisfied with the rest of the story).
In her video she’s angry, unseeing of her own flaws, blaming Es and us for everything, including Haruka's death. In the Voice Drama, she starts out angry but kinda quickly we get a tearful, “emotional” moment of forgiveness between the two and… It feels forced and unearned, again, for the sake of an artificial, emotional closure. Both Muu and Fuuta feel like different versions of themselves between the MV’s and Interrogations. Conflict is intringuing, so getting rid of it so fast is a bit annoying.
Our voting feels meaningless when the resentment the characters have harbored towards us because of our choices is easily forgotten near the end. Our theories feel meaningless when the cases which were supposed to be nuanced end up being complex only because they’re logically contrived.
SHIDOU, to me, has always been the most mysterious character when it comes to his crime, so I was really curious for his final report. Not to mention we didn’t know how Amane had managed to kill him, with the limited resources inside the prison. His death was a lot simpler than what I expected, but I still think it’s well-done, and I like his video.
But the final report… The idea of a doctor purposefully failing a surgery to end the patient’s life is super interesting and nuanced. A death that was already on its way and was only allowed to happen due to inaction from one who could’ve prevented it is 100% the sort of stuff MILGRAM is made for.
The concept of a doctor struggling with the morality of “killing” patients for organ transplants after a loved one becomes brain-dead themselves and refusing to donate their organs, in a way possibling “killing” others who might need those organs, is also very interesting, nuanced, and very MILGRAM.
Now, were either of those concepts explored and properly expanded upon in the first two trials? I don't really think so. I know it’s been memed a lot but, really, THE TRUCK DRIVER??? That came absolutely out of nowhere!!
His case isn’t bad, it just wasn’t explored in the narrative in a satisfying way and maybe involved too many different angles to allow it to develop naturally. I feel like they should’ve just chosen one plot (truck driver or brain dead patients) and stuck with it, either a selfish revenge or a complex moral dilemma (not to mention how contrived and unrealistic it is for Shidou to be allowed to operate on the driver or his family, but whatever).
MAHIRU. Oh, Mahiru. This may be the case I’m most heated about because It’s the most recent, but I feel like Mahiru was the least well-handled character and case.
I’ll try not to linger too much on her death, but I did think it was kind of forced. I don’t really understand how her injuries would need Shidou constantly around to keep her alive, or how none of the other characters (Yuno, who was helping and learning with Shidou, or Kazui, who was a police officer with some semblance of first aid knowledge) couldn’t have stepped up in his place, it feels like an artificial conflict and artificial consequence for our voting, but I digress. Once again, this is a nitpick.
Her final report suffers from the same issue as Shidou and maybe a little of Yuno’s. A plot point that was never hinted towards, an unrealistic set-up, and loss of nuance.
The arranged marriage plot is confusing, it’s never mentionedd before, and, I might be wrong due to my limited knowledge about japanese society, but again, feels a little out of place in such a modern setting. This idea alone wouldn’t be so odd to me if it also didn’t lead towards the strangest choice I’ve ever seen in all prisoner reports so far.
WHY did Mahiru and her boyfriend flee to the MOUNTAINS in the FOREST of all places??? It’s so, so silly… I know it has been memed to death, but the rats were literal…? The forest was literal…? I know they still represent the central theme of codependency disguised as a sweet fantasy, but I just can’t take it seriously when the setting is so fantastical and far-fetched compared to all the other cases.
The idea of a person who has psychological issues and/or a distorted world-view due to their upbringing, leading them to harm others in their delusion/naivety/self-centeredness is a super nuanced idea (it’s also the basis for Amane’s, Muu’s and Haruka’s cases).
The themes of oppressive, manipulative love inside a toxic relationship is also a concept that fits perfectly inside MILGRAM, and the debate around how much “blame” someone has if they push someone towards suicide, intentionally or not, is also a great basis for discussion around a character (the basis for Fuuta’s and Kazui’s cases).
But these super relevant topics and meaningful discussions, to me, get completely overshadowed by how absurd the setting is. Her situation is so out there and involves so many hyper-specific aspects that it's hard judge and analyse it properly. Where I think Fuuta's is the most relatable and probable situation for one to end up in, Mahiru's is the oposite.
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So, In summary, I’m holding out for Kazui’s and Amane’s MV’s (my favs I love them ♡), but I’m honestly a little bummed and trying not to get my hopes up, considering the recent turn of events in most cases.
Hello everyone! I'm back not even 24 hours later with my actually current reaction! And god, what a video to come back to. This has been by far my favorite of the Third Trial so far, both because I love the arc Mu has gone on and because it contained the most new information and perspective that genuinely surprised me and changed how I felt about one of the prisoners.
As always, spoilers for Milgram through Mu Trial 3. I'll be using @maausmt's audio drama English translation to refer to throughout this post! I'll be going through all of my points to discuss through the MV, including a lot of my interpretation of Mu's character. Let's get into it!
Pain takes place basically between It's Not My Fault and After Pain.
This is mostly a timeline question, but I feel fairly confident in this based on the staging of the MVs and comparing it to both the hourglass and the end of Pain character summary.
In It's Not My Fault, Muu spends the vast majority at the top of the hourglass as she sets it that way at the beginning of the MV. (Rei only flips it back at the very end.)
In Pain, we actively see the moment that the hourglass runs out.
And in After Pain, we only really see Mu at the bottom of the hourglass, after she's fallen from grace.
As for the actual story of Mu, we also see that follow this roughly three MV arc:
In It's Not My Fault, Mu spends most of the time as queen bee and is just generally slaying throughout. She's in control, and she's loving life.
Then, Rei shows up, and everyone in Mu's entourage (and she) immediately notice her general disinterest/disapproval of Mu, and they immediately turn on her.
(I also really love how this scene paints Rei as the transfer student coming into this wild scenario. She's just squinting like, what the fuck is going on at this school? Why are they all worshipping Mu? And they're like, whoops, you weren't supposed to ask that question, get pranked.)
Right at the end of the It's Not My Fault MV, we see Rei flip the hourglass, accompanied by this image of her, on the ground, gripping the leg of a chair in the classroom. We can now assume that this is the moment in which Rei flips out and hits Mu with the chair, as we see in Pain.
We now know this is the pivotal point at which the social dynamics shift to favor Rei over Mu.
This leads into Mu being bullied within the mid-ending (before she talks about Haruka) part of Pain and when she kils Rei. This is the same timeline as in After Pain, with the staging of the kill scene in Pain being a direct reference.
So, that's our timeline! I honestly think it's really funny that they were like, "well, we told the end of Mu's story in a song called After Pain, so maybe we should make that song chronologically after the song Pain." But, y'know, it works.
The Pain MV shows Mu comparing two sets of "villains" and "heroes"-- Es and Haruka, and herself and Rei.
The lyrics of the song are written such that they, in large part, can refer to Mu and Rei's situation in addition to Es and Haruka's. Although, generally speaking, I'd say that the lyrics lean more towards Mu telling Es how she feels, whereas the MV depicts what was happening with Mu and Rei. Still, there's undeniably crossover based on how the lyrics are distributed across the MV.
No really, if only you judged me INNOCENT
He wouldn’t have had to die, poor baby
I mean after all, it’s not my fault
This lyric is most clearly directed at Es about Haruka; Haruka directly stated that he'd only kill himself if we voted Mu guilty, and we did. Therefore, Haruka's death was preventable if Es had found Mu innocent.
However, it also applies closely to Rei about herself. If Rei had judged Mu innocent (giving her "proper" respect and worship upon arrival), she wouldn't have had to die, because the bullying wouldn't have started in the first place. Mu could have continued being the beloved spoiled princess, and Rei wouldn't have lost her life.
I'm... not sure if that's the right interpretation, though? After all, Mu is pretty harsh towards herself in the way she's portrayed in the Pain MV.
She depicts herself as childishly taunting a lot of the time, and the consistent "it's not my fault"s feel more like they're used to chastise her previous self who actually believed that.
This line, similarly, would be used to say "it's lame that Es is alive and Haruka isn't, when his death is their fault." But, when you apply it to Mu and Rei, especially with the staging, the undeniable interpretation is "it's lame that I, Mu, the villain, am still the one who's alive [when it's my fault."
Though Mu taunts Es for being a murderer, she, too, is a murderer. That's even something they connect over in the audio drama.
Mu: I’m so sorry for killing a person! Rei too…! I’m sorry! hic… *cries* Warden-san… you too… you…
Es: …
Mu: When Haruka died… Mahiru too… and Shidou too… you were also having it rough…
Es: …
Mu: Hey.. It’s okay to cry…
Es: …ah…
They both cry.
Mu clearly understands Es' guilt over the Haruka situation by the end of the audio drama, and she clearly sees it as similar to the guilt she feels over the Rei situation. So, interestingly, I think the more accurate to Mu interpretation of the earlier lyric--
No really, if only you judged me INNOCENT
He wouldn’t have had to die, poor baby
--is "if only [I] had judged [Rei] innocent, [she] wouldn't have had to die, poor baby."
While Rei did kinda die as a result of not worshipping Mu, I guess, the bigger issue was the bullying. While the file asserted that Mu wasn't the one who prompted the bullying directly, she "understood that anyone who rebels against her must fall, and that she was undoubtedly the center of the universe."
That means that Mu is finally acknowledging her role in starting this. While she insisted heavily in her second audio drama that she didn't play a hand in the bullying, she's now acknowledged to herself that, by not stopping her followers and believing she was in the right, she condoned the violence and let it continue.
Mu has finally realized she doesn't understand or think of how others feel.
This is explicitly stated in the audio drama in regards to Haruka:
Mu: I’m sorry for not understanding Haruka’s feelings..! Mu is an idiot.. so even now Mu still doesn’t get it…
It's also basically directly stated in the lyrics.
(While this is partially targeted at Es, as all lyrics are, I believe it applies to herself as well.)
But is also seemingly a trend with her. She's never been good at understanding others, because historically in her life, she hasn't had to. That's something she's finally started to self reflect on:
While this lyric could be read as Es-coded, I think it's more accurately Mu blaming herself for never thinking about what others are thinking. In the Pain MV, this happens right before she starts sobbing from Rei hitting her with the chair-- the display of "unsightliness" that tore down her throne. She's blaming herself for not understanding that her status hinged around her perception of being beautiful, not reading the room.
Before, she didn't see any reason to think of anyone else-- she was, after all, the center of the universe. But now that Haruka is gone and Mu still doesn't completely understand why he killed himself, she's left at a loss that only understanding Haruka would have been able to fill. She doesn't have a chance to get to know him better now, because he's already gone.
It's only by realizing that she doesn't understand others that Mu was able to grow and gain awareness of herself.
I was shocked to see how (in my opinion) accurately Mu portrayed herself in Pain. She showed herself as the villain at the beginning, then showed herself breaking down in a moment of weakness, followed by her stubbornly trying to hold onto her pride despite her world becoming hell once the bullying turned towards her. It shows her snapping and killing as a way to try to regain control. It's all accurate to how I've read the story, and unlike After Pain (where she's pitying herself as the victim) or It's Not My Fault (where she presents her meanness as a virtue), it shows her in both her understandable parts and her flaws.
I don't think Mu would have ever been able to have this much nuanced understanding of herself if she hadn't started to understand how other people feel in response to her. This is something that I believe is directly brought on by mourning Haruka, and she has NO idea how to handle it.
Mu wants to blame Es because it's the only way she can repent.
I'm not sure I phrased it exactly right there, but basically, Mu knows there's not anything she can do to save Haruka or Rei anymore. They're dead and gone; their fates have been sealed.
Not doing anything to honor their memory or atone just leaves Mu feeling guilty though, and while she's got a better pulse on the situation now, Mu has never been good at just taking negative emotion as it comes. It's all still foreign to her. Typically when this happens, she lashes out to try to turn the tables of the pain. She's not quite at that level of self servingness anymore, so she turns to Es.
The best way she can find to appropriately atone while also punishing herself and acknowledging blame is to compare herself to Es-- to acknowledge her own faults while bringing Es to the same painful conclusion she's come to realize-- that whether she intended it or not, she murdered someone who, at the beginning of the story, was innocent.
She's vengeful on Haruka's behalf, upset as his death, but she's a murderer, too. Mu is judging both of them as murderers and as villains. She wants Es to go down the same path of acknowledging that they have blood on their hands that she has. And, like, honestly? Pop off, queen.
Anyways, some final scattered thoughts:
Mu having so much of her social status/"worth" being tied to her beauty makes the Cinderella cover make a TON of sense.
I was initially thinking this cover would go to Mu just because it's a popular song that someone would cover, and I thought it fit her best stylistically and lyrics wise out of the options, but uh, yeah, checks.
So irritating!! Hello to the unfortunate me
I’m confused, I hate it, I hate it
me when the hourglass fits
No no no, It’s not okay
I’ll go back to a cocoon and try again
Bonus points for cocoon!
What exactly is Mu wearing at the end?
It's giving religious-- I heard some people say Mother Mary vibes? That could make sense with Haruka's weird mom complex stuff.
(Which, by the way, it's so unfortunate for Mu that she really just wanted a genuine friend and Haruka came with a lot of his own issues, too. Would be nice for her to have a solid, dependable friend who just likes her for her and doesn't die instantly. My bad Haruka.)
VOTE: INNOCENT
This one is really easy in my eyes. Mu has acknowledged what she's done wrong and grown from the situation. I think she's unlikely to do it again. I think it's even possible that she'll try to seek help to establish a more "normal" life with people reacting to her in a normal way after this is all over. While she's definitely made mistakes, I don't think she's a threat to society at this point or anything, which means my mind is easily made up. At least if I didn't get to finish Shidou's change in mindset arc, we got Mu's :')
I'm really happy with how her story concluded, this was a really fantastic MV overall and made me really excited to analyze again. I hope you all enjoyed it as well, and hopefully enjoyed this analysis! If you read through this all the way, thank you, and I'll see you at, uh... Shidou's death video...??
I think the phone scene in Non-Demonium is so perfectly done in a really horrible way ("horrible" as in "wow that fucks me up" btw)
When Amane's mother first collapses, Amane doesn't know what to do: her faith is shaken and she wants to treat her like how she did the cat, but because of doing that, the cat was presumably killed and Amane was severely punished. So she hesitantly begins to pray. And she prays until she feels light on her eyelids, which causes her to open her eyes. But it isn't holy light from her mother being healed. It is her mother holding out a phone for her, with the number for medical services typed out.
Amane's mother knew she was sick. When she collapsed, although struggling, she was clearly able to type out the number and then hold it out for Amane to take (which would've taken more effort than pressing it herself). And why? Because Amane's mother knows that if she dials that number, she's going to be punished or even expelled from the cult. What's the story that leads to the best outcome for her? Getting her child, who has already gotten in trouble for violating the medical doctrine specifically –meaning that even if Amane did it and claimed her mom told her too, she wouldn't be believed and her mom would get off scott free– to do it would guarantee medical help while also making sure she herself didn't have to suffer consequences.
But that doesn't work because she's already broken Amane. She herself taught Amane, PAINFULLY, that any violation was to be punished violently. Not only that, but a large part of ensuring she followed the doctrines was telling her that it was the only reason she was alive. By telling Amane to phone the hospital, she's telling Amane that her life doesn't matter: that Amane's birth was meaningless, and that all the suffering she endured was for no reason.
So Amane punishes her. In the exact ways she had punished Amane. And Amane does not see any reason to stop following her schedule, or to be upset about it, or to tell someone what happened, because that is what she was taught. Her data comes from "a few days after the incident", meaning it was a few days before she started to doubt or before anyone else knew.
