Talk:Mei Misaki/@comment-397235-20140821031317/@comment-397235-20140822153604

See, the whole doll thing is something that comes from Mei. So far as I know (and the novel may be different) we never see Kirika actually do that. When Kouichi first meets her in the anime, she seems nice enough and is glad to see Mei has friends, even going so far as to tell him he's welcome to come over whenever; it's Mei who rather rudely tells him to go home, not her.

And the whole doll's eye thing I think is kind of touching. She sees her daughter is visibly incomplete (see what I did there?) and tries to fix it in the way she knows best by making an eye specifically for her; Mei kind of throws that in her face by covering it up all the time (she has a legitimate reason after she realizes she can see Death with it); that felt rather spiteful to me.

I have a motivational on my computer which states "When you really hate someone, everything they do is offensive." Mei is understandably angry with her mother for being aloof and lying to her her entire life, something Kirika didn't help by keeping her and Misaki apart for ten years (she could've scored some major points with Mei had she introduced them in the first place). Kirika wants to pretend Mei is her daughter and will do whatever she can to make that true, which is why she never acknowledges Misaki; that would mean admitting Mei isn't hers, and that's something she can't handle.

I think Kirka's kind of a sad person. I've known legitimately abusive parents before, and she's not malicious, she just doesn't know better. I think, if anything, some part of Mei is jealous of all the time her mother spends with the dolls. I don't interpret Mei as one of Kirika's dolls; Mei sees the dolls as Kirika's children. Kirika doesn't know how to interact with people (we never see Mei's dad, but I'd assume their relationship isn't much better than her relationship with Mei, except he's gone all the time).

This of course disregards the dumbed down version of her in the movie, who is exactly that psychotic (most of the cast of the film is a rough impression of their characters elsewhere, without any rounding at all; this is why Izumi attacks Takako and why Naoya is such a prick the entire time).

I do think it's interesting Mei seems to have a really good relationship with her dad...when he's around. The first time I saw the anime I assumed Kirika was a single mom (since Mei's not biologically hers). Naturally I kill her dad in her senior year. :)

I've noticed I seem to spend a lot of time defending characters no one likes (Izumi, Takako, Kirika...). My dad did always say I should be a lawyer...