(L) Mashiro-iro Symphony

[Flower]

I have been thinking about the general trend of the way the discussion seems to have gone since ep 10 aired, and in many ways this sums it up for me:

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Now of course, I don't think we can go all out and say that the ending was certain at this point (of course the writers knew...), but I think Shingo's attraction to Miu and Miu's alignment ("being on the same wavelength") with him are on display in the early episodes too. It was just so much in the background and subtle that it seemed at the time like nothing would come of it (because other characters were dominating the focus back then).

Most everybody thought we'd have a Miu arc, but then we'd head back to Airi, so Shingo's attraction to Miu wouldn't amount to anything, even though it was there. Contrary to those expectations, Shingo's attraction to Miu did amount to something, and the time spent with Airi led to another destination....

I would only add that the 2 ep Ange mini arc (which featured both Ange and Sakuno to a lesser extent) further prepared me to expect another mini arc with Miu and Sana. Again - this was under the expectation that Airi would be the main girl.

Really in many ways the real "hook" that made me think Airi was going to be the girl at the end was the scene of her and Sakuno bursting out of the bushes in ep 1 in slow motion. It was that moment that made me "commit" to Airi, and then the next few eps of her steadily growing closer to Shingo "sealed" it for me.

Yes - Miu was in the background, but that is the point. She was in the background, as was Ange and Sana. In the first few eps Sakuno was a little involved with Airi.

To be honest I really had no clue as to the direction the series would take, I assumed Miu and the others would be "standard background characters" in a harem type series: that is, all the girls fall for the protagonist, but he chooses only one. So Miu (and the others) being interested in Shingo did not really grab my attention the same way as the events with Airi did.

Ah well ... I am not complaining of the path that things did take, I guess I am just white-knighting those who were equally surprised by it as I was. For me it was NOT clear from the last two eps, which could just have easily have been turned into another mini-arc with Airi being the final girl decided upon.

Have to give another plug for examining the game thread for those who are interested to see how people thinks it relates to the series and its development thus far, though. I found it interesting. The producers of the anime did a good job with it - it is an unexpected surprise for me, but one which makes me go back over the material and rethink things. Good job in my book.

[Vena]

Originally Posted by Flower

Ah well ... I am not complaining of the path that things did take, I guess I am just white-knighting those who were equally surprised by it as I was. For me it was NOT clear from the last two eps, which could just have easily have been turned into another mini-arc with Ange in a Santa Claus costume Airi being the final girl decided upon.

Two episodes to go! We clearly have the.... err... development, yes, that's right, development for it. And here we were, all writing off Ange's arc as a transitional filler but little did we know of the true secret master plan hidden in all of this! How hard of a troll would that be?

[Flower]

Originally Posted by Vena

Two episodes to go! We clearly have the.... err... development, yes, that's right, development for it. And here we were, all writing off Ange's arc as a transitional filler but little did we know of the true secret master plan hidden in all of this! How hard of a troll would that be?

Umm ... to be honest I would be more surprised if Sakuno in a santa outfit were the one decided upon.

[Vena]

Originally Posted by Flower

Umm ... to be honest I would be more surprised if Sakuno in a santa outfit were the one decided upon.

Now that's just completely outlandish, we barely even know her aside from a few characteristics that have slipped in in the background, but, at the very least, we know she's not crazy.

We know Ange is crazy. Put a santa hat on her head, and she's off with the reindeer.

[Flower]

Originally Posted by Vena

Now that's just completely outlandish, we barely even know her aside from a few characteristics that have slipped in in the background, but, at the very least, we know she's not crazy. ....

And that's the very reason I would be even more surprised!

*cough cough*

Anyhoo ... back on thread topic and all....

[amoirsp]

Originally Posted by Flower

Umm ... to be honest I would be more surprised if Sakuno in a santa outfit were the one decided upon.

I wouldn't mind this at all.

Spoiler:

On an anime standpoint, is it just me or does Sakuno doesn't seem thrilled about Miu-Shingo indications? Understanding is one thing but she totally seems uninterested in general. (If this was Airi-Shingo indication there would be more ... positive uplifting support I guess?) And it's not from dislike of Miu but it just seems like she doesn't prefer Shingo's behavior in this manner?

Although Shingo didn't exactly change, his actions in the previous episode is slightly out of tune with the usual. You know, like how his actions generally cause a positive light but not necessary an inadvertent negative one (Sana). Kind of like how he's usually perceptive but the more attention he had on Miu the less perceptive to other things he got perhaps?

Or maybe I'm thinking too much since Sakuno's normal facial expression is one that looks uh what's the term, deadpan? I mean I look at much earlier episodes, there's more smiles in a way. Now it seems like eh whatever? Sure she has little relevance in Miu's route but she just looks outright not thrilled. Conversation and proximity between the siblings seems reduced (yes due to the club so it's ok). Like she tells Shingo just to do the usual (instead of something fabricated or out of his abilities) and him wanting Miu is fine but is also straying away from his usual character a little? Ah thinking too much but yeah. [Or heck maybe Sakuno is SO perceptive that she noticed the Sana thing and Airi going to support Sana so Sakuno was not smiling due to that with the Shingo indirect unintentional pain dealt.]


And on an anime comparison note, although it was mentioned, I'm surprised (not really) that there was so much Akane-Iro comparison (which by the way wasn't game accurate in many ways I heard ... though the imouto bias was about right) instead of Hoshikaka comparison (something more recent). My point was that hm, you see Mashiro do a non-primary confession and yet in Hoshikaka the momentum seemed to warrant a non-primary confession too (I didn't quite watch all of it though). This was mentioned already in this topic though.

Despite Manglobe with it's like, hammer/seal, it's like only 4 minutes into the 4th quarter. Something is going to happen in the next two episodes (probably just resolving whatever was implied). Oh Manglobe.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by amoirsp

Spoiler:

On an anime standpoint, is it just me or does Sakuno doesn't seem thrilled about Miu-Shingo indications? Understanding is one thing but she totally seems uninterested in general. (If this was Airi-Shingo indication there would be more ... positive uplifting support I guess?) And it's not from dislike of Miu but it just seems like she doesn't prefer Shingo's behavior in this manner?

Spoiler for Episode 10:

I thought about this too. Basically, the whole thing went down like this:

1. They conclude that "Miu" is looking for "Shingo"
2. Sana decides that she'll take both cats and runs off to get "Shingo".
3. Both Airi and Miu object, and Airi runs off to stop her.
4. Since it's decided they'll re-unite the cats, Shingo & Miu are left alone to wait for Sana's return

When Airi ran off like that after hearing Sana's comments and rather-desperate tone, Sakuno clearly figured out that something was up. When Ange asks Sakuno to explain what they're doing, she looks up to the sky as the clouds gather and wind picks up -- it's like there's a bad vibe in the air, and Sakuno knows it. I can only guess, in context, that she realized that "Shingo" being reunited with "Miu" would be bad news for Sana -- that Sana's self-deception was nearing the breaking point. I guess the pointless cleaning was mostly to keep Ange occupied, and perhaps so they'd still be around if something went down and Sakuno needed to step in. It's interesting that when Sana returned, they both just continued cleaning -- I think they might have known she was there (did Ange's sigh have a double-meaning?), and this is sort of Sakuno's way of giving everyone space/privacy "until the deed was done" so to speak.

So basically, I think her face in this episode is all worry/concern about what's going to happen. I don't think it's particularly about Shingo and Miu, but more continuing with the bad mood they all detected at lunch time revolving around Sana. She might not know all the details, but I think she figured out enough that she knew (at least instinctively if nothing more) that it was time to give them some space. Besides, them getting in the middle of this has only drawbacks, because they want to continue to be everyone's friend when all's said and done.

[winhlp32]

Episode 10:

Spoiler for Episode 10:

- Well, this anime's job is done. It made me want to buy a PSP, get the game and force Shingo into a relationship with Sana.

- I do want to ask the people who have played Miu's route in the VN, does the route really put this much focus on Sana? It seems to me like Manglobe really cut out a lot of the parts where Shingo would interact alone with Miu(e.g. go on dates, studying together, etc.), while leaving everything concerning Sana intact.

- Which leads to the main gripe I have with this romance played out(I think I may have said this last week already): It feels like the main characters of the show are really Shingo and Sana, and Miu is the side character that Shingo went and fell in love with. If I could've had a closer look and understanding of what Miu was thinking and her actions in the past few episodes, if Manglobe could've for example expanded on why Miu thinks Shingo liked Sana instead beyond that misunderstanding, and as she was got closer to Shingo herself displayed her emotional turmoil as well, then I could root for her more. So I feel that Miu as a character isn't as developed as I like.

- And then theres the whole "fate really hates Sana" undercurrent running throughout the last few episodes. It feels like everything fell into place to squeeze Shingo and Miu together and push Sana away. From the cellphone call interruption when Sana wants to invite him to do something in the weekend, to the Sana hearing both Shingo and Miu think of each other the same way(easy to be around), to the two cats liking the names given to them, to events that set up Shingo seeing Miu in full frontal nudity. And in the end, they wouldn't even allow Sana to keep the cat. Really, the cat symbolism this episode went a little overboard.

- I think that although this is Miu's route, Sana is the real star. The fact that she actually helped herself stuff up the chances she could've had with Shingo, that she had so many layers to her character that conflict with one another, that we were able to witness firsthand her roller-coaster of emotions really was what made this series this good.

[hyl]

Originally Posted by winhlp32

Episode 10:

Spoiler for Episode 10:

- Well, this anime's job is done. It made me want to buy a PSP, get the game and force Shingo into a relationship with Sana.

- I do want to ask the people who have played Miu's route in the VN, does the route really put this much focus on Sana? It seems to me like Manglobe really cut out a lot of the parts where Shingo would interact alone with Miu(e.g. go on dates, studying together, etc.), while leaving everything concerning Sana intact.

- Which leads to the main gripe I have with this romance played out(I think I may have said this last week already): It feels like the main characters of the show are really Shingo and Sana, and Miu is the side character that Shingo went and fell in love with. If I could've had a closer look and understanding of what Miu was thinking and her actions in the past few episodes, if Manglobe could've for example expanded on why Miu thinks Shingo liked Sana instead beyond that misunderstanding, and as she was got closer to Shingo herself displayed her emotional turmoil as well, then I could root for her more. So I feel that Miu as a character isn't as developed as I like.

- And then theres the whole "fate really hates Sana" undercurrent running throughout the last few episodes. It feels like everything fell into place to squeeze Shingo and Miu together and push Sana away. From the cellphone call interruption when Sana wants to invite him to do something in the weekend, to the Sana hearing both Shingo and Miu think of each other the same way(easy to be around), to the two cats liking the names given to them, to events that set up Shingo seeing Miu in full frontal nudity. And in the end, they wouldn't even allow Sana to keep the cat. Really, the cat symbolism this episode went a little overboard.

- I think that although this is Miu's route, Sana is the real star. The fact that she actually helped herself stuff up the chances she could've had with Shingo, that she had so many layers to her character that conflict with one another, that we were able to witness firsthand her roller-coaster of emotions really was what made this series this good.

Spoiler for VN:

Yes, the last few episodes of the anime were pretty faithfull to Miu's story in the VN. Including the parts with Sana and the symbolisms with the cats. Although the anime did change some things like that phone call interuption as both a setup for Miu's development and to make us feel even more bad for Sana.

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Spoiler for Episode 10:

When Airi ran off like that after hearing Sana's comments and rather-desperate tone, Sakuno clearly figured out that something was up. When Ange asks Sakuno to explain what they're doing, she looks up to the sky as the clouds gather and wind picks up -- it's like there's a bad vibe in the air, and Sakuno knows it. I can only guess, in context, that she realized that "Shingo" being reunited with "Miu" would be bad news for Sana -- that Sana's self-deception was nearing the breaking point. I guess the pointless cleaning was mostly to keep Ange occupied, and perhaps so they'd still be around if something went down and Sakuno needed to step in. It's interesting that when Sana returned, they both just continued cleaning -- I think they might have known she was there (did Ange's sigh have a double-meaning?), and this is sort of Sakuno's way of giving everyone space/privacy "until the deed was done" so to speak.

So basically, I think her face in this episode is all worry/concern about what's going to happen. I don't think it's particularly about Shingo and Miu, but more continuing with the bad mood they all detected at lunch time revolving around Sana. She might not know all the details, but I think she figured out enough that she knew (at least instinctively if nothing more) that it was time to give them some space. Besides, them getting in the middle of this has only drawbacks, because they want to continue to be everyone's friend when all's said and done.

Spoiler for ep 10:

True, i am sure Sakuno does not know exactly what is going on with Sana, Shingo and Miu but she did detect the bad atmosphere during lunch. But I think that Sakuno knows that it was something involving around Shingo and Miu, because these last few episodes Shingo has been hanging out with Miu alot. Like a few episodes ago when Shingo asked her what to wear with the "date" with Miu and when Shingo brought Miu home after her collapse.

[amoirsp]

Thanks for the explanation. It's easy to get narrow minded for me despite seeing those other plot points and symbols.

On an adaptation note I don't remember when was the last time a minor character (originally game base construction-wise) was done so well she actually overshadows the other characters in either growth or development or character. I like it (though it also means as some pointed out, what feels like a loose end or a pacing issue or something seeming oddly timed or paced despite being reasonable or accurate.

Oh well. Instead of overkill thinking I'll look forward to episode 11 and reading further discussion. It's been quite enjoyable.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by winhlp32

Spoiler for Episode 10:

- I do want to ask the people who have played Miu's route in the VN, does the route really put this much focus on Sana? It seems to me like Manglobe really cut out a lot of the parts where Shingo would interact alone with Miu(e.g. go on dates, studying together, etc.), while leaving everything concerning Sana intact. [...] If I could've had a closer look and understanding of what Miu was thinking and her actions in the past few episodes, if Manglobe could've for example expanded on why Miu thinks Shingo liked Sana instead beyond that misunderstanding, and as she was got closer to Shingo herself displayed her emotional turmoil as well, then I could root for her more.

Spoiler for Episode 10 compared to the game:

Yeah, as hyl alluded to, the anime is pretty faithful to the game in this regard. You really aren't missing a whole ton of character development for Miu, all things considered. There weren't like a whole ton of dates or together-times that flesh things out much more than what we saw (though of course the anime is still compressed and re-arranged a bit compared to the game).

I don't think Miu was really in "emotional turmoil" about Sana being in love with Shingo. Even with the misunderstanding, Miu still could see that the relationship Shingo and Sana had was special. She noted particularly when they started addressing each other by first names (which happened after the misunderstanding); she showed a bit of jealousy about that. Overall, I sort of took it that she saw them continuing to get along and what that implied as a sort of foregone conclusion, and was blind to the fact that Shingo was actually just being nice to her, but his feelings lied elsewhere (note the recurring theme of Shingo's kindness causing the heroines to misinterpret his feelings). I don't think she was ever really making a conscious effort to win him over... but she felt naturally drawn to him and wanted to spend time with him. But when confronted with his feelings she's like "wait, what?" I think she had just arrived at a premature conclusion a while ago, and never challenged that assumption until he broke the status quo; that's likely why we never saw her give it much thought or concern. We do see pretty clearly in the previous episode that he's a guy she obviously likes, so she really has no reason to refuse since he's serious.

Really the only piece of information that wasn't clearly stated in the anime (but was strong implied by the context) was Shingo's reason for wanting to go out with Miu, which is basically a desire to protect her as she puts so much weight on herself. When Shingo hears about Pannya being let go soon, he realizes that Miu is continuing to hold her emotions inside, and figures she'll keep working herself until she collapses to run away from it. So he wants to be there for her so that he can be her release, and so she doesn't have to work so hard or face things alone -- really an extension of the promise he made to her mom in the previous episode here. Like I said, they didn't spell this out explicitly in the anime, but in the context of the confession and everything else that's happened so far, his reasons are pretty clear. Even in the game, though, this realization was only really spelled out during the confession, which largely progressed in the same way.

The major difference between the game and the anime was that in the game the Miu confession happened sooner, so the development of Sana's character continued even after you knew that Shingo and Miu were the couple (so it was a sort of narrative irony that you knew something Sana didn't, which in a way made it more cruel/tragic since it was just a matter of time). The way the anime modified it made it even more dramatic and honestly worked a bit better in some ways for an episodic anime. It just means that now they've introduced a few elements that would otherwise have happened a bit later, which will allow them to (basically) cover the rest of Miu's central plot in the time remaining. But that means, in the balance of things, that this show may have spent more actual time developing Airi and Sana than they did Miu (who was developed largely in the background during these two parts). Of course, I don't think that was by accident either. Like I said before, this show isn't only trying to tell a love story (though love is one of the central themes).

Originally Posted by winhlp32

Spoiler for Episode 10:

And in the end, they wouldn't even allow Sana to keep the cat.

Spoiler for Episode 10:

I don't think that's been established yet. Airi didn't want her to keep the cats due to the obvious heartache it would cause her. Miu didn't want her to keep the cats due to her allergy. Meanwhile, Sana was only bringing "Shingo" so he could be re-united with "Miu". What ultimately happens to the cats at this point hasn't been shown.

[pezzie]

Spoiler for Episode 10:

I'm really surprised that the show went down Miu's route. She's been my favorite since I first saw the show, but I was almost positive that Airi would come out on top as well, so this is an extremely pleasant surprise for me.

I really can't say that I'm surprised at him not choosing Sana though. From our perspective, it's true that we see her emotional side, heartache and all. But from Shingo's point of view, there isn't a whole lot of affection there. To Shingo, for all he knows, Sana is a girl that occasionally chats with him, and half their conversations end up with her smacking him upside the head or kicking him in the stomach. Is it a wonder why he wouldn't be interested in her, or if he would even think for a second she would be interested in him? Sana has her own tsundere tendencies to blame for this turnout. Miu on the other hand has always treated Shingo with a lot of affection, and even the cold Airi from the beginning of the show has treated Shingo a lot better than Sana has.

[elior]

Originally Posted by Flower

Umm ... to be honest I would be more surprised if Sakuno in a santa outfit were the one decided upon.

miu arc until now is 4 episodes so it not mini like you say

[hyl]

Originally Posted by elior

miu arc until now is 4 episodes so it not mini like you say

I wouldn't use arc though, seeing that the anime is using it's 2nd half almost exclusively for Miu's story

[Magicmonkeyman]

Im been lurking over this thread for ages and finally decided to register ans share my opinion. Loved the game from day one.
Im just going share opinion instead of

Spoiler for Episode 10 . . .:

Well played manglobe, Preordered on blu ray. Miu wasn't my favorite but i had to admit that her scenario is the best suited for anime adaption. Although miu wasn't my favorite i loved her scenario because of what happened to the interaction that sana was involved and from a few episode ago i knew sooner or later this was going to happen. This scene was basically my favourite scene in the game and it captured the sadness of sana better than the game. As sad as it was (at least for me) i couldn't stop myself watching shingo X miu happiness and then sana scene again and again. Overall i reckon screen time of some characters isn't really fair but then it only a 12episode show with 12 X 20min per episode. They did what could do and gave the character as much as they could and stay faithful to the game. I had high expectation for this series months before it aired and glad that my it met my expectation as a big fan. As for the remaining of the show lets just enjoy the colors of the lovers.

[Triple_R]

Alas, I have not yet had a chance to watch Episode 10 in sub format, so I'm not yet ready to take part in the excellent discussion on it (and Mashiro-iro Symphony as a whole) that I've seen here on this thread.

However, I did feel inspired recently to do a very simple (but hopefully cute and/or funny) Mashiro-iro Symphony AMV. It's inspired by the fact that the OP includes a Christmas tree and wintery fun, as well as by the fact that we're close to Christmas now.

Plus, I was amused by the idea of doing an AMV to a song sung by Frank Sinatra.

So, without further adieu, I give you "Have a Mashiro-iro Christmas." I'd love to know what everybody thinks of it. ^_^

[Vena]

Originally Posted by Magicmonkeyman

Spoiler for Episode 10 . . .:

Well played manglobe, Preordered on blu ray. Miu wasn't my favorite but i had to admit that her scenario is the best suited for anime adaption.

Spoiler for Interesting thing to wonder, vague game mentions...:

We've made a lot of parallels between game and the anime, but we've never really asked which heroine would be best suited for the time we are alloted in 12 episodes. With the game more or less completed in total very recently for me, I do think that to a large degree the Miu route is probably the easiest to fit in our block of time because the writers are faced with less (and lighter) background issues than most of the rest of our serious cast (and I'm ruling out Ange as her route is... weird). Miu's character is probably the simplest of the cast as she's more or less a straight shooter and not a deeply layered/deep character (not meant in a negative sense), and she's so much like Shingo that following her route requires the least amount of split-focusing that would have been required to really delve into Airi or Sakuno. (Cannot say much for Sana, as I do not have the PSP version, but I can only imagine that her character evolution would require a good bit of investment to really do justice.)

In the case of Sakuno or Airi, the former would have required a pretty stark change in tone, and the philosophical/moral/societal issues that would crop up (and that should crop up) in the context of the show would require more than a few episodes just in and of themselves to really address, face, and resolve. Suffice, even if her route is relatively short in the game, it would take a longer time to properly and fully adapt to a visual media. The latter case, Airi's, would have required a sort of backtracking through her history to build on the things alluded to on her birthday and then take us to the fact that she and her mother clearly have issues, meanwhile the romantic development would have to be going on. There just doesn't seem to be enough time to fit all of that in if you start from our branching point at Episode 7, without the showing coming off as either schizo or with even more mood whiplashes than what we were dealt with Sana. Comparatively, Miu is more of the fluff, less of the problems (Sana being the biggest emotional driving point in Miu's arc), and is easier to cut up and fit into our... four episodes?

So... it makes sense?

Guess we need a 24 episode remake down the road.

[hyl]

As an expansion to Vena who did not play the psp stories

Spoiler for anime and psp routes:

Sana's route wouldn't have worked unless you were a little familiar with her in Miu's story.
Yutsuki would have been possible story that could have been animated in my opinion, because it's quite light and sometimes funny because of her odd character traits at the beginning. But aside from 1 cameo, she has not appeared in the anime though and i doubt many people who read the original VN would have appreciated that the anime would use a psp exclusive character though.

Spoiler for story:

To be honest, i don't think Airi's story could not be animated though. There was plenty of time if the anime did not use that many episodes at the nukobu.


edit

Also Airi's story was probably in my opinion the best written story in Mashiphony (including the 2 stories from the psp game) and i liked the themes in her story though

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by hyl

Spoiler for story:

To be honest, i don't think Airi's story could not be animated though. There was plenty of time if the anime did not use that many episodes at the nukobu

Spoiler for Comparison of the anime to the game:

Agreed with this point. If they were going to animate Airi's route, all that would have been required would be to cut the Nukobu arc short before it goes too deep, sort of the way they did with Ange's arc. But the main thing I think they would have had to cut was Sana's development. The problem with doing that, of course, is that they pitched Sana as one of the main heroines, and none of her character development really occurs except either through the love triangle (shown) or her own route (in the PSP game).

What I expected them to do beforehand was basically remove the love triangle, just focus first on saving the club, and then on supporting Miu as a group not just Shingo individually. That way they could have salvaged some of Miu's route without going down the romantic route, while still allowing plenty of time for Airi's plot to be developed bit by bit (continuing on from the Bath scene, which would have been brought up again in Episode 7 and so on).

I can say though that the choice of content in the anime makes the most sense if they wanted to include as much of the game as possible while remaining faithful to the source material. This way we got a good bunch of Airi, a section of Ange, and a fair bit of both Sana and Miu; the only character who really didn't fit too much was Sakuno, and I think that makes a fair bit of sense.

And yeah, if you ask me to rank the game stories, I would agree with hyl that Airi's route is the best (it is the "canon ending" after all), though both Miu and Sana are probably tied for second place and both very good.

[Vena]

I'll just answer both hyl and relentless without the double quotes.

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Spoiler for Comparison of the anime to the game:

Agreed with this point. If they were going to animate Airi's route, all that would have been required would be to cut the Nukobu arc short before it goes too deep, sort of the way they did with Ange's arc. But the main thing I think they would have had to cut was Sana's development. The problem with doing that, of course, is that they pitched Sana as one of the main heroines, and none of her character development really occurs except either through the love triangle (shown) or her own route (in the PSP game).

What I expected them to do beforehand was basically remove the love triangle, just focus first on saving the club, and then on supporting Miu as a group not just Shingo individually. That way they could have salvaged some of Miu's route without going down the romantic route, while still allowing plenty of time for Airi's plot to be developed bit by bit (continuing on from the Bath scene, which would have been brought up again in Episode 7 and so on).

And yeah, if you ask me to rank the game stories, I would agree with hyl that Airi's route is the best (it is the "canon ending" after all), though both Miu and Sana are probably tied for second place and both very good.

Spoiler for Game story shenanigans:

My line of reasoning was that, if they kept the form similar for the first six episodes, and jumped into Airi from episode 7 onward, we'd have had to deal with much more Airi than anything else to really get everything to fit. Conversely, because of Miu's rather *light character* and background, you can push her forward while also spreading the screen time/development around a bit more (and naturally including Sana to a large degree), and all you're losing is fluff. In Airi's route you'd have to either cut into Airi's background (either running through it or omitting elements) or you have to cut the time alloted to other characters.

So as a spring board for the series to be popular, it makes the most sense to go with the route that can include all... even if Airi's story is the best one. (I doubt any one would argue to disagree.)

Our duty is clear, make this succeed against all DVD/Blu-ray odds, and have them animate another series for Airi, then Sana, and maybe we can find time for Sakuno. Strange as that is, it will inevitably be better than whatever garbage we get over the next few seasons.

Ange who?