#friendly reminder I'm still a few events behind N25 so I might be completely wrong lmao

[shiraishi--kanade]

hi jay! as resident kanade expert, i was wondering. if you have insights into the mizukana dynamic. i’ve always found them interesting because they have the least personal connection of any niigo pairing. i think the interactions they do have show more of kanade’s sweet side without the overwhelmingness of her savior complex.

i would guess that it’s because mizuki is less susceptible to having someone “save” her. mafuyu has no idea what she wants— her entire life has been dictated by others. so when someone steps in to make everything better, it’s easy to let that happen. and with ena, we know she’s sensitive to attention, positive or negative. kanade praising her art is all it really takes to give the illusion of saving.

with mizuki, since she’s so closed off, kanade doesn’t have a clue what her problems are. ena and mafuyu have a more general idea, but kanade… doesn’t really have anything to work off of because of their lack of closeness. it creates a paradox where she can’t really do anything to help, so instead she’s just a good friend to her for the most part.

but that’s basically all i have! so, what are your thoughts?

Hi! Sorry I left you in the askbox for so long - I have exams right now and I also kind of... Thought about it too much and then forgot. (⁠〒⁠﹏⁠〒⁠)

In general, I think you're right about that. Mizuki is definitely in an interesting position in a group; while openly acknowledging that they're not okay, they refuse to tell the group why. For Kanade, I think, it's a little confusing. She's by no means emotionally unintelligent, and she's stubborn about saving someone once she sets her mind on it, however, with Mizuki, I think there's three factors why she isn't as proactive:

1) what you said;

2) this particular conversation in Carnation Recollection event.

I think this could have easily led Kanade into a sense of comfort that she has already done her "duty" with Mizuki, so to speak. I'm not saying she's ignorant to the fact that Mizuki is not okay, but that she might think she has already done all she could (and in a way, that kind of is true: n25 can't do much more than to just be their support network/stable friendship group at the moment, and actually communicating their issues is currently on Mizuki themselves). Combined with Mafuyu's situation being as dire as it is, and Mizuki seemingly being the only group member to have their shit together from an outsider's perspective, Kanade's focus is just on other issues right now.

3) To a certain extent, Mizuki parallels Kanade in the ways they help other people. You know the whole thing with Mizuki always offering an umbrella to other people (but never holding one to shelter themselves)? Basically, that.

Despite Kanade's "savior" role, Mizuki is the one who actually much more actively takes on the helper role.

(and like, many more examples, but those two come to mind more easily, with how much of those events is focused on Mizuki helping other people, one of them Kanade, and feeling inadequate to do so)

Despite claiming to "not be the one" who should be giving out advice, Mizuki is actually one of the more thoughtful and determined members when it comes to that. They're steadfast in savings Mafuyu, but also recognise the suffering of Kanade and Ena, too, through their own worldview.

I think while they're not entirely without issues in respect to the whole "saving each other" thing (it would be pretty boring otherwise), their motivation and oftentimes methods are much healthier and come from a more considerate place than Kanade's do. In-universe, Kanade might be leaning onto Mizuki so much in helping her on her mission that she doesn't fully realise they need help to, and if they do, how to help them; narratively, I think this is set up at least partially intentionally, and the confrontation and true connection between Kanade and Mizuki is yet to come.