Game FAQ/Characters

AIR English FAQ - Characters

• What year is Misuzu in at school?

• What year is Kano in?

• Should Misuzu's surname be "Kamio" or "Tachibana"?

• Does Minagi's surname "Tohno" come from her mother or her father?

• What kind of bike does Haruko ride?

• What's Haruko's job?

• Is Yukito the reincarnation of Ryuuya?

• Does Yukito have an Oedipus complex?

• What is Uraha's true nature?

• Might there be a connection between Uraha and Minagi?

• Does anything happen to Michiru at night?

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What year is Misuzu in at school?

She's probably in her second year of high school.

We can deduce that she is not a first-year from Yukito's phone conversation with her classmate:

The reference is presumably to the rearrangement of classes at the start of a second or third year.

We can show that she's at high school by comparing her vital statistics with those of a known high-schooler, and noting that they are practically identical:

The complete absence of any exam-related stress strongly suggests that she is a second-year. However, we also know that her classmate Minagi's summer classes last at least a fortnight (they are referenced as ongoing on July 28th [SEEN287] and August 9th [SEEN644]), and at a rural school like this that would normally imply a third-year preparing for university... so we can't completely rule out that possibility.

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What year is Kano in?

She's probably a first-year; the possibility also exists that she's a third-year.

On July 26th, when tricking Yukito into delivering Kano's lunch, Hijiri mentions that it is a tōkōbi (that is, a day technically during the holidays when students are still expected to attend school). That implies Kano at least doesn't have any formal lessons that day. But that morning Misuzu says she "should be in time for second lesson." We may deduce that either Misuzu is talking nonsense, or Kano's in a different year.

Kano shows even fewer signs of stress than Misuzu, which implies that she's not a third year; if Misuzu's in her second year, therefore, Kano would have to be a first year.

An additional -- though potentially inaccurate -- suggestion comes from Yukito's own impression of her:

But though Yukito may think she's noticably smaller, her statistics tell a different story:

She's only 3cm shorter than Misuzu, and her figure is rather better, so we can't rule out the possibility that she's actually older.

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Should Misuzu's surname be "Kamio" or "Tachibana"?

Kamio.

Thus saith Haruko, so we know Misuzu was an illegitimate child. Such children conventionally take the mother's name: Misuzu's mother was Ikuko Kamio, so Misuzu is Misuzu Kamio. Even though Keisuke Tachibana is her legal father, there is no such person as Misuzu Tachibana.

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Does Minagi's surname "Tohno" come from her mother or her father?

It's her father's name. It's normal for adults to revert to their old surnames after a divorce, but not their children.

The only question this leaves is whether the name-plate on Minagi's house still reads "Tohno" or not. While that's still Minagi's name, her mother's name is probably different now. Although, given the nature of her mother's illness, she might well not have changed her own back...

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What kind of bike does Haruko ride?

It seems to be a '99 Ducati Monster M900 S.

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What's Haruko's job?

According to interviews with the Key staff, she's an editor.

A conversation with Yukito may provide further hints:

The reference to a busy time of year may be referring to the Bon festival, held in August in the west of Japan, in which case the implication may be that she works for a magazine of some sort.

The boxes in the Kamio garage seem to be for printers and printing supplies, and (while we never see it) it seems Haruko has a computer in her room. So she may do typesetting as well.

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Is Yukito the reincarnation of Ryuuya?

Of course he is!

Going by the artbook, there was originally going to be a CG of Yukito as a child with a sword, which would have made it even clearer. And the TV anime adds a scene in which Ryuuya's scar appears on Yukito's back, which could hardly be less subtle.

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Does Yukito have an Oedipus complex?

It sure seems that way.

He sees his mother in everyone he meets:

And while the aim of his journey is, as he says, "to make that girl [in the sky] smile" (SEEN311), his reason for that may be slightly different:

It's pretty clear these are the words of a man who is rather too obsessed with his mother. That's why he sees her in Minagi, and why he even unconsciously begins to act like a child in Misuzu's presence:

Apparently Yukito takes Misuzu's smile, the smile she wears only in the hope that people won't feel she's a burden to them, and sees in it -- or lays on it -- that smile of his mother's that he has never stopped desiring.

As Sora, his relationship with Misuzu shows further parallels:

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What is Uraha's true nature?

She seems to be based on Kuzunoha, the mother of Abe-no-Seimei.

Kuzunoha was supposedly a fox-spirit; Uraha may not literally be one, but she certainly acts and smiles like one, and Ryuuya calls her ano megitsune ("that vixen") at one point.

Since Uraha's teacher Chitoku appears with Abe-no-Seimei in Konjaku monogatari, the link with his legend is clearly intended to be explicit.

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Might there be a connection between Uraha and Minagi?

There's little doubt that the two are similar, and that the similarities are deliberate. What isn't clear is whether there is any closer connection -- whether Minagi is a descendent of Uraha, a reincarnation, or both. There's no conclusive evidence in the text.

Let's review some of their common points. Firstly, we have Uraha's fussiness about clothes:

And her habit of repairing them:

Minagi too appears skilled with a needle; indeed, she and Uraha are the only people we see wield one anywhere in AIR.

Then we have the whole hizamakura (lap-pillow) thing.

Other points they share are the ability to come and go unnoticed -- and particularly to appear suddenly behind people -- and, in their H scenes, they both prefer to take it from behind. (Though that may be taking the search for similarities too far!)

The remainder of this section is pure conjecture.

The possibility exists that Minagi is actually a blood descendant of Uraha -- and therefore a distant relative of Yukito. We note, for example, that in a passage we have already quoted, Yukito himself comments that he sees something like a family resemblance:

We can also explain more easily why Michiru manifests herself physically in this world, if we postulate that Minagi is descended from Uraha. Such ancestry would bestow on Minagi some trace of Uraha's powers; note that one of the powers Uraha mastered was the summoning of spirits. Suppose that Minagi, inheriting this power, used it on the picture of a (or the?) winged girl that we know hung in her house? We know for certain, since Suzumoto mentioned it in an interview (in ARIA vol. 1) that the said picture is intended to be significant in some way, and that it has some deep connection with the Winged Beings.

As for the possibility that she is a reincarnation of Uraha, it is easy to imagine that Uraha continued to research ways to help Kanna even after Ryuuya's death. One who had mastered sorcery to such an extent, such a master among masters, would surely have no difficulty in achieving so simple a thing as to be reincarnated. Yukito's own sacrifice and reincarnation as Sora proves conclusively that even the weakest of the line of weak sorcerers who descended directly from her had this capability to some extent.

If we do suppose that the links between Minagi and Uraha are anything other than coincidence, the reincarnation theory is probably preferable; on the whole their similarities are more personality traits than anything obviously hereditary.

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Does anything happen to Michiru at night?

Some people think so (that she disappears, or loses the ability to do anything). The most natural explanation is that since she appears as a primary schoolgirl, she adopts the same pattern for her existence: a girl of her apparent age would have to be home for tea, so she too departs "home" each evening.

Whatever the truth, she's almost certainly not solar powered.

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