LLucico

mizuena is a really interesting case to me where we have the seemingly standard setup of prickly tsundere x lighthearted smartass, but when you get to know the characters, they actually completely subvert your expectations.

The "tsundere" half who would normally be the more "difficult" and closed-off one ends up actually being the one who wears her heart on her sleeve, honest and passionate and fiercely loyal like it's the most natural thing in the world. Mizuki on the other hand, who is the more well-tempered and seemingly frivolous of the two, turns out to be the more guarded and distant and has the actual wider hard-set boundaries. Mizuki is the one who's actually 素直じゃない, not Ena. Ena, who approaches everything she does with an almost overwhelming level of intensity and claws her way to get what she wants even when it hurts, and Mizuki, with her low friction tolerance, who acts bratty and jokey to avoid any show of vulnerability. The only way into her heart is to pry it open but do it too fast or too forcefully and you'll scare her away. Ena starts to see the extent of these boundaries and struggles trying to figure out how to navigate them in secret distance - culminating all the way over in mizu5. It's all really interesting to me, who's more used to very standard, tropey versions of these character types.

Their vibes to me are more like... a grumpy but loyal & loving dog, and the cat who playfully rubs itself against your leg but gets in perfect out of reach distance when you reach out to try and pet it.

There's something about Ena's pure honesty that's just so charming to me - like, she's always true to how she feels even if it makes her look bad or if it comes at the expense of her own image. I always think back to that scene where Mizuki teases her by pretending to be a model scout. Ena reacts by getting mad, but she doesn't try to deny that she (and only she!) got excited at the idea of being noticed by a scout or even tries putting up a front. It's not the standard tsundere "t-that's not it, don't get the wrong idea!" but rather "yeah, so what? Got a problem with me??" Things like these, she consistently owns them, even the parts that make her look lame or like some desperate, jealous loser. I genuinely think that's really cool!

With Mizuki, you don't even need to get to picnic, in early release card stories Ena is honestly telling Mizuki she likes her more than she expected and has more fun with her around. To which Mizuki's immediate reaction is teasing her, and then when pressed by a frustrated Ena who goes "what about you? How do you feel about me?" Mizuki reacts with a dismissive "tbh idk" (ouch! lol - is she deflecting? or possibly she actually didn't think much about Ena that early in the story...? or she just likes being a tease? i'm still not sure!) In fact, Ena would probably be much more mushy with Mizuki the way she is with Airi or Kanade if Mizuki didn't tease her so mercilessly every time she tried, lol.

Unrelated but it's so sweet to me the specific, different ways in which they watch out for the other. Ena, our always straightforward girl, at the end of Picnic resolutely tells herself she wants (WILL) protect Mizuki's smile. I love the moment in Mizu6 when she sees Mizuki's sister and her first thought is "amazing! so that's the kind of person who can be Mizuki's number one ally. I need to be more like that!!!" LOL. Mizuki's support is a bit softer and mindful - she can't do anything but watch over Ena as she fights her own battles, but she mindfully tries to always provide a moment of respite in the inbetweens, like getting home to warm meal after a long hard day. The moment after the events of Ena4 where she gets her some cheesecake after the exhibition as a pick me up is super cute.