It is quite funny to think that when I first delved into Muv-Luv, my expectation was near zero. All I knew beforehand was that this thing was sitting at the top of vndb, and… that's it. Didn't care about what hype it got. Didn't care about the Kickstarter project that raised quite an amount of fund either (ROFL). On top of that, didn't care about what year it came out and what version it had lmao. I simply did a few mundane things namely went on the Internet, dug up some links, downloaded, and fired this thing up (oof, a blatant admission of guilt, but I did buy the Steam version later on, I swear). I even had the intention of playing this game 100% blind (looking back, I really should have, feck it), but time wasn't on my side so welp.
But what do you know, before I caught my sense of it, I had already found myself being overwhelmed by so many HRRRRNNNNNGGG moments of this VN. While I shall have the ridiculously high production value of this VN to thanks for that, there was one particular existence that did not stop forcing me to watch over her.
I mean, yeah, to some people, she's just a pretty standard heroine with good ol' trope and a bit of fleshing out in the horrendous setting of BETA-verse to make herself stand out more than the norm. However, to me, she is that one guiding light that enlightened me in so many fucking amazing ways that I never thought I had needed.
Her name is Mitsurugi Meiya, born a daughter of a powerful noble house, lived as a disposable political tool, and died a free person.
What really defines Meiya’s character is that, despite all the injustice inflicted upon her, she still held her head high and embraced all of that as if they were trivial matters. Such is the embodiment of dutifulness, a trait so rare to be found in anything related to 2D culture. Her theme is the difference between living and being kept alive, which undoubtedly stands out from almost anything else that could be offered in this franchise.
Though she never displayed any sign of contempt against the way things were, the tears she shed upon receiving the doll is her genuine feeling regarding the separation. No matter how one looks at it, Meiya is but a teenage girl. She is not a robot that will blindly follow orders, nor a soulless being who would grind her teeth and suffer in silence. She most likely had things that she wanted to accomplish as a normal girl, like hanging with friends, touring the big world, or maybe doing something as simple as having a good time with a sister. Therefore, it was such a heartfelt moment to see Meiya filled with regret like that. Almost no word was uttered during that moment, but her reaction alone is enough to tell the whole picture.
If her rights had been dictated by other people like that, what else could she do to make her life counted as “truly living”? Love could be one answer. Unfortunately, fate had once again turned its back on Meiya. No matter what she did to Takeru, like how she always stayed by his side, supported him, lifted him up, and even willingly gave away her pride as a woman to get him back on track, her feeling never reached Takeru, for whatever reason it was. It could be that Sumika’s influence on Takeru is just too tremendous, or Takeru was just that dense to realize, because hey, if it took more than a decade for Sumika to finally got close to Takeru, then 2 months would have probably been hopeless for Meiya from the start.
Yet again, what did she do while being sidetracked like that? Of course, her head still held high, and her pride stood still as if it would only wither when the Earth did so. What’s more, not once did she even think about using shortcuts to get to Takeru, nor did she ever resort to underhanded tricks in the competition against Sumika. Given how Meiya was portrayed, most likely, she wished to win over Takeru in a straightforward manner, and by not relying on anything deemed as “convenient”. And just like that, everything she did, she did it fair and square, in that “battle” as it had been in life.
When a golden opportunity presented right in front of her eye, she tossed it away and aided in mending the bond between Takeru and Sumika instead. It would not be a stretch to say Meiya was an utter fool in that event. When it comes to love competition, there’s no such thing as unfair advantages. If she had used that moment to gain Takeru’s affection, nobody could have ever complained, or at least they could understand.
Nonetheless, this is when Meiya truly shone as a tragic heroine. Logically speaking, it would not have been a wrong decision of hers to advance towards Takeru. But Meiya is no ordinary girl. She was molded in a strict environment (Mana hype) and greatly influenced by the way of the Bushido. Naturally, it goes without saying that her heart would never allow herself to commit such dishonorable deed, even if it came at the price of having herself devastated mentally, which had also been foreshadowed earlier.
As the hour was upon her, Meiya once again had to withstand yet another detrimental blow to her heart, which was to witness the man she loves flirting with her mortal rival. With her reaction being crystal clear this time, this seemingly trivial incident significantly fueled up the “suffering” in Meiya. However, that did not stop her from carrying out her duty as a Storm Vanguard, nor did it affect her combat performance in any way.
Eventually, the inevitable arrived. It would be a lie to say I was not in denial for a long time, close to 100 hours of reading, in fact. But life sucks, doesn't it? I had no other option but to open my eyes to face the reality that Meiya never had a chance in this endeavor. Not since Alternative, nor Ultimate, but right in Extra (I don't hate Sumika for that btw, she's all good, I used to hate her a lot for other reasons tho XD). Things had been set in stone from the very first stage of the story. The role of the girl known as Mitsurugi Meiya would always be to remain a “shadow”, to be left in the dark, unwanted, unnecessary.
And yet again, she did not faze. If anything, her face burned clear, even at the gate of hell. Without a single shred of hesitation, nor regret in life, she asked the man she loves to pull the trigger and send her to her grave.
Human can't choose how they were born, but they can choose how they would meet their ends.
- Tsukuyomi Mana
There is no mistake that Meiya was truly “living” her own life in that short span of tragedy, no longer bound by any of the injustice she had been through before that.
During her final moment, the last thing that flashed through Meiya wasn't that which she loved, but that which she wanted to protect, that which she held dear. Yes, it was, unexpectedly, Kouubin Yuuhi, not as the Shogun, but as her flesh and blood. This was hands down the most cathartic revelation in this trilogy. It neither felt forced nor came out of the blue, given how the sisters had been through during the Coup D’etat, in a very subtle way, of course. Looking back at Meiya’s journey again, as she got rejected by her old family, rejected by the government, and rejected by the man who stole her heart away, who could she possibly turn to in such a hopeless situation like this? Somehow my mind pictures a scene of a young and crying Meiya running towards Yuuhi when she was in trouble. That is what sisters are for, aren't they?
All and all, while Meiya suffered a great many things, she always remained herself, still with that same noble act, still with that same naivety, still put on that smile despite being utterly tormented. Everything about Meiya was handled subtly, from how messed up her life was, to the “pain” she had to endure for falling in love, and to her reason for “being alive”. And lastly, as her character was designed to be the one who does not need rewarding for her deeds, the name Mitsurugi Meiya serves as a shining beacon for those who embrace destiny no matter how cruel it is.
On a different note, I can agree that Meiya's character is indeed far too good to be true, it's a bit ridiculous even. The way she went out of her way to resist temptations and retain her moral code even at the darkest hours cannot be, in all honesty, deemed as practical. She's more of a living ideal than a human being. However, Muv-Luv is a work of fiction, so I don't care if she is unrealistic as a character. It's not the point, to be honest. And you can never tell, should humanity face a similar crisis in the far future, what guarantees that there won't exist such noble souls as Meiya? But I digress. None of that matters. For me, Meiya just simply fits in the setting of Muv-Luv. She's there to remind me that there are lots of things out there that I should try and stop taking things for granted. I owe her a great deal to that.
AAhhhhh, when I first made the draft for this long-ass rambling post, it was 2 am, on the rooftop of my house. I kept asking myself the question, why and how in the actual F*** did I have to torment myself like this. But what do you know, such is the power of the 2D world. I've been through quite a lot of traumatic works and so, but Muv-Luv has got to be the one that hit me where it hurts the most. And I shall have Meiya to thanks for that. Again, thank you, my best Shogun-ish Storm Vanguard. It was such an incredible experience to have you accompany me on a long journey.
P/S: and NO, Meiya is not my waifu since that role is reserved for Mana and Mana alone. Meiya is more a precious one to me, kinda like that Noble Confidant bs (f*** I mean thank you Kouki), sooooooooo welp.
