Air TV Question(s)

[fishsticks]

Alright, so...
I just (10 minutes ago) finished watching Kyoto Animation's Air...had seen it when it was initially released by ADV last year, but for some reason (unknown to me) I didn't retain any of it. Drug-induced haze, maybe (I kid).
Thusly, it was (sort of) all new to me. And I'm somewhat at a loss. Hoping someone could set me straight (spoilers ahead):

Specifically, Yukito seems to be giving me trouble. What did he actually do at the end of episode 7? Did this "magic" (or whatever it was) actually have any effect? Are we to assume that he in fact died (and was re-incarnated as the crow)? Or was it something else?

And, finally, Kanna's curse was not broken, yes?

I would be much obliged if someone could enlighten me.

[something]

I assume I can dispense with the spoiler tags when answering, since this thread assumes knowledge of the whole show.

The curse - Air is deliberately ambiguous about this, and while there might be more detail in the game or supplementary materials of some sort, it's been awhile since I checked into all that and I don't even know if I found a "canon" answer. But the short reply would be that, in my opinion, Kanna's curse was broken. For one thousand summers Ryuuha and Kanna have been reincarnated, and for one thousand summers the curse has remained. But is it Yukito and Misuzu who, finally, broke the cycle.

This is not to say, however, that Misuzu survived the ordeal. In was with her death, with her attainment of the "goal" that the curse came to an end. Yukito and Misuzu's painful sacrifice is what would enable the next reincarnation to finally live free from the curse - the young boy and girl we see at the end.

"Noe we know what lies ahead of us. They will suffer a cruel fate for the rest of their days. ...But we have been given a new beginning. Goodbye." Then he walks off with the girl, hand in hand, and she becomes the figure in the AIR logo...

So is my take, anyway. And god, I teared up just loading up the last scene there to double check the boy's wording. What a wonderful show.

[fishsticks]

So is my take, anyway
Damnit, I can't believe i didn't pick up on that. And Misuzu always wanted to play by the ocean...
And god, I teared up just loading up the last scene there to double check the boy's wording.
That's a relief...I was feeling pretty abnormal/pathetic there, for a while.

[The Great Bear]

Like something, no spoiler tags:

Yukito and the crow:

I take it that Yukito used his magic somehow to weaken the curse. I agree with something that it is not actually broken until the "GOAL" scene, but Yukito did something to either ease her burden or work to break the magic placed upon Kanna's soul by the monks.

As for whether he dies or not, that's something that's debatable. He does, somehow, transform into the crow, and then transforms back briefly into Yukito in that one important scene.

Well, that's my take at least.

[something]

I take it that Yukito used his magic somehow to weaken the curse. I agree with something that it is not actually broken until the "GOAL" scene, but Yukito did something to either ease her burden or work to break the magic placed upon Kanna's soul by the monks.
I think what it also did was put the focus on Misuzu and Haruko.

I feel that there's some really, really important symbolism in Misuzu's relationship with Haruko in those last days. Those last painful but beautiful days... if you think about Kanna's relationship to her mother, it was anything but happy. She hardly ever knew her for one, and when she did finally meet her again it was an almost instant tragedy. By having Haruko and Misuzu come fully and intimately together at the end of Misuzu's life, it not only broke the thousand year curse of Kannabi no Mikoto, it also redeemed the loving mother-daughter relationship that Kanna was never able to truly experience.

And fishsticks: Don't worry, crying at Air isn't abnormal... not crying at Air is abnormal =P

[Grico]

Yeah crying is perfectly acceptable. My best friend's girlfriend happened to wander in for the last episode and she ended up crying even though that was the only episode she saw of the whole series.