I will not censor myself in favor of your ideals.

throughout the video, mizi’s eyes are more or less the only window into how she’s actually feeling, especially when she’s doing her idol work.

just like her agency was taken from her in life with all the fanservice she was made to do, it was also taken from her in death with the removal of her eyes, the only thing that showed her emotions for what they really were. the one thing that would have given a hint to her being unsatisfied is removed to further the image of “perfect idol mizi”, even when she’s a singing, dancing corpse.

this alone is pretty horrifying and that’s an understatement. but the character design choice to put a heart where mizi’s eyes used to be is just as important as the decision to remove them at all. it holds similar meaning.

i’m sure i don’t have to point out that hearts generally equate to love, especially in a nearly entirely visual piece of media. the placement of the heart over the eyes, though, takes mizi’s agency away from her yet another time. the expressions “heart eyes” and “look of love” are relevant here. figuratively, when she still has her eyes, we see mizi give this to sua.

in the second photo, if you look quickly or from a distance, it even looks like the highlights in her eyes are heart-shaped. this is mizi looking at someone she genuinely loves, with figurative “heart eyes” that portray her truest emotions, just as they do in the rest of the video.

then mizi is bitten and infected. her eyes are removed and auctioned off. and where they used to be, she’s left with…

…literal heart eyes. and this time, when she’s barely even mizi anymore, she doesn’t get to give them to sua like she would have chosen to. no, whoever’s behind zombie stage chooses who she directs them to now.

so, who’s getting the “look of love” from mizi as she is currently?

the group of people she was sexualized and sold to, the group of people for whom she’s been exploited at every turn in both life and death, the group of people we know she hates doing this for more than anything—her adoring fans.

being marketed to this exact kind of audience forced all of mizi’s control over her life away from her, ruined her mental state, and even ended up destroying her relationship with sua by extension. and now, she’s a zombie being made to sing and dance for them forever, and to look at them with the same “heart eyes” that were only meant to be for sua. this kind of marketing works best when the fans can develop a parasocial relationship with the idol, after all, believing that they love you just as much as you love them. putting a heart where mizi’s eyes once were forces her back into the same position she was in in life, performing for men and playing to their preferences. only this time, there’s no way for her true feelings to peek through anymore. all that’s left is—

—that “look of love”.

now, this could all still be true and valid analysis even if that heart shape were a visor or covering of some sort. but i personally believe the point about mizi’s agency being taken from her becomes much weaker if the shape is a removable object. it’s important that this is her true face (haha. get it?) and not a visor because this is no longer the mizi we know. we can see it in her unresponsiveness to sua, how she barely knows she’s performing with someone else at all, how her focus is singlemindedly on giving her loyal and loving audience the performance they deserve. that’s common knowledge at this point, sure, but if this shape is a visor, it undercuts the severity of that. our mizi would never look at this audience that way, not when they’re getting enjoyment out of her exploitation, out of sua’s exploitation. if that heart is something she (or anyone, really) can just take off, it creates an implication that she can go back to being our mizi. that she can stop looking at the audience that way, that she can stop being “perfect idol mizi”.

and she can’t. she couldn’t in life, she can’t in death.

making the heart removable in any way gives mizi some of her agency back. and we can’t have that. not when perfect idol mizi sells so well and makes the audience so happy! she can’t go back.