Finally, a Miki episode!

We’ve spent a lot of time with Miki and the role she’s played in Koyuki’s life, but we haven’t really gotten much time in her head. We know that she’s living something of a dual life, a perfect class idol by day and a rambunctious weirdo by night. We know that she’s tormented by guilt about her role in Koyuki’s bullying, but not what drives and motivates her beyond that.

It says something about Asagawa’s skill as a writer that I was engaged the whole episode, even though there’s not a whole lot that’s original about Miki’s story. In middle school, she had a reputation as harsh and blunt, and she made up her mind to comport herself perfectly in high school. She’s succeeded, but at the cost of feeling a real sense of connection to her classmates and so-called friends, leaving her with only a few people she feels she can be her real self around.

We’ve all seen or read this before, right? It’s a classic story of learning to embrace your full self and stop being fake. It’s a standard of high school dramas. The popular girl who feels so, so alone seems to be a trope anywhere that high school is widely attended. I could probably pull five series that do this off my shelf without having to even think about it. Oh, look, there’s His and Her Circumstances. Yep, that has this plotline almost to the letter.

But here’s the thing: it’s not just that Miki was off-beat before her glow-up. Some flashbacks show that she was outright thoughtless, berating her volleyball teammate for not going for a ball that she might have been able to hit. Pushing Koyuki into Igarashi’s arms was only the tip of the iceberg, and it all came to a head when she aggressively confronted one of Koyuki’s bullies, leading to a physical altercation where she fell against the classroom’s hallway window, breaking the glass and severely slicing her hand. She didn’t want to change just because she was bad at being a girl and wanted to be more feminine; she wanted to change because her abrasiveness had scared her peers. She needed to change.

And there’s the rub, right? It’s all well and good for stories to trumpet the message, “Be true to yourself!” But we are a social species, and we need to learn to get along with others. Social skills are important, and priding yourself on being blunt and unpleasant will get you nowhere, even if you dress it up as authentic. Social rules and etiquette exist for a reason, and following them will get you much farther than if you ignore them just because you think they’re silly.

But at the same time, if you focus all your energy on acting “right,” it’ll drain you until there’s nothing left. While the most obvious parallel is His and Her Circumstances, among other high school dramas, it made me think of last season’s Journal with Witch. While the protagonist Makio is almost stridently true to herself, her elder sister Minori was so focused on conforming that she was empty and isolated on the inside. Conformity may make it easier for others to like you, but it will not save you, and putting on an act all the time will only sap your vitality. You need to find a balance, neither single-mindedly individualistic nor a total sheep.

Of course, this all plays out according to expectations. She has a vent session with some older coworkers, who assure her that while it feels like a big deal now, a couple of years down the road, she’ll have more freedom to find people who like her for who she really is. But wouldn’t you know it, her class friend just happens to overhear her, and her core group begins to ice her out socially.

Naturally, Miki gets by with a little help from her friends, and each one helps in a fantastically in-character way. Yota drops everything and rides over to meet Miki in a park near her house, listening to her woes and assuring her that he, Koyuki, and Minato all see just how hard she’s working to get along with others. He’s a people-pleaser himself, so he doesn’t offer suggestions or advice, just comfort and support. Koyuki says, “Screw them,” but then puts forward trenchant insights about how seeing the good in others is different from truly opening your heart to them, and the latter is what leads to real fulfillment. Minato doesn’t do anything directly, but manages to put some slight social pressure on the girls to stop being such weenies. 

 After a couple of heart-to-hearts with the people who really know her, she sits down with her classmates to talk it out, and they come to understand one another once again. Only now, Miki doesn’t have to push her true self down anymore and feels free to be weird and loud around them. Balance has been achieved.

Rating: 4

Ramparts of Ice is currently streaming on
Netflix.