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Innocence Lost in Mirror: A Look at CLAMP's Miyuki-chan
By: Michelle Rogers
On first impression, the Miyuki-chan OVA is meant simply as a fun romp through CLAMP's imaginative take on Wonderland. A light, slightly risque comedy of a young girl pursued
because she's "cute" and hasn't awakened into her sexuality yet (a point the cast in Miyuki's dream world plan to remedy if they can help it). But perhaps there's something a bit
more in this two piece parody of Lewis Carroll's stories.
Firstly, this is probably a bishoujo work but had the feel for me of a shoujo one. The feel and impression is not of a titillating slice of anime for the fanboys, but of a fantasy drawn up by women to entertain
women. Nudity is implied but not implicit or graphic, overtures are made but not taken through. Miyuki is approached and flirted with but in a sensual manner and we in the
audience are all the while in on the joke. Enjoying the cast of Carroll's familiar tale, waiting for the next cameo. We know Miyuki is never in any danger, and she won't even be
taken advantage of, simply teased by unconscious shadows of herself in her dreams, her own mental prodding and caricatures of a sexuality she is seemingly in denial of.
The intended audience by impression of the work should be late teen to adult, so the viewer would be a young woman who's already passed through puberty and already
dealt with the awkward stage of coming into one's own sexuality or simply into womanhood itself. Thus, this viewer can identify with and see the humor in the contrast between
Miyuki in her conscious life, waking up and being unaware of her sexuality or simply trying to keep from even thinking about it versus the Miyuki of the unconscious who is on
the cusp of waking and is needing to confront this new dilemma and situation of her life.
Second, the importance of dreams should be noted. Jung pointed out that the unconscious of a person is just as valid and important to health and growth as one's conscious.
Through dreams the elements absorbed in one's day may surface. One might not notice a person they passed on the street or a place they walk by habitually, but that detail may
still register on an unconscious level and surface later. While our conscious mind may work away at a problem or work instead to repress it if it is something we don't want to deal
with or at the moment are not capable of processing, a defense mechanism may store it away. Sometimes when someone says they can't remember a traumatic event or something
they wouldn't like to remember or confront, they are in fact telling the truth. Because consciously they don't. But whether they do or not, the problem or aspect of oneself may
work through images and representations the dreamer alone understands to help the conscious make light of the situation, aspect, or problem. This type of importance of dreaming is
what is happening to Miyuki. We only see of her conscious self very little, only a typical school girl impression. In the first episode, Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, she wakes and
runs down the block chanting frantically how she's late. In the second, Miyuki-chan in Mirrorland, she's in front of her dresser mirror combing her hair out before school and admiring
her reflection. We aren't given a hint of Miyuki as an individual but instead Miyuki as a typical, normal school girl, thus it's possible we are meant to see her as a representation of
girls at this age in general.
Miyuki's dream takes on the semblance to the Lewis Carroll tale. Several ideas could be gleaned from this. On one hand it is usually taken as a children's story, and
remembered from childhood for the fantastic world Alice fell into and her whimsical adventures there. That this is the first similar world Miyuki finds herself in could be taken
this is the more innocent aspect still. Her first dream on the matter. The second novel, Alice Through the Looking Glass, is usually thought to be a bit darker than the first,
and even representations in other anime lend a darker connotation when they take from this novel. Dream Hunter Rem is one example. That Miyuki has this for the backdrop of her
second dream could lend itself to a more mature prod from her unconscious, and be a type of mental build on what has already been established in her mind.
In Wonderland Miyuki accidentally follows the playboy like bunny down a hole and finds herself before a door with a woman guarding the way (part of the door herself). Miyuki
doesn't know what to make of this, and isn't sure if she should take the door as a door or as a woman. The door doesn't seem to give a definitive answer that she is really either,
but tells Miyuki to touch her and go through. This initial symbol could be important for what is to come. Should Miyuki take what she is going to see then on as what it appears to be,
or does it represent something more? This is the nature of dreams. The door is a door, but a door that leads Miyuki deeper into herself. The door as a symbol between the surface of
consciousness and the unconscious and the deeper chambers of the mind is again not unseen in literature and anime, Yu-Gi-Oh! uses the same imagery. But too, the door is a woman,
and this too is obvious to Miyuki. In fact, everyone she meets from then on will be female. Some have taken this to mean Miyuki is bisexual or lesbian, and this could be true. We aren't
shown what her sexual or romantic preference is. We aren't really shown anything of the conscious or hinted at real Miyuki. But that the players of Miyuki's mind are all female
could also represent Miyuki herself. Shadows of herself, her personality. Miyuki is a young girl, so the door to her deeper psyche and deeper into her dream realm is female.
The aspects she will encounter represent a need to confront and understand the changes of her body and the mental maturity that will come as well. So these aspects will be
female to represent this. If her dream was meant to delve into other aspects of her personality, I would think we might be given an animus figure of some type or a masculine
representation, but instead the characters all seem to be shadows and extensions on some level that come back to Miyuki.
By the second half, Miyuki will be taken to Mirrorland. In the first half, the heroine was chased and flirted with, but not much more. Here Miyuki finds herself primping before her mirror
and suddenly her reflection comes alive and drags her inside. Mirror images many times either represent that which is opposite (indeed while Miyuki comes off shy and reluctant for
any type of physical contact offered, her mirror self is confident and only too willing to enjoy caresses or risque activities within the dream; too the sign on entering Mirrorland itself is
written backwards and the first glimpse of sky and ground has the two spheres reversed from where they should be, with the sky below Miyuki's feet when the Jabberwocky carries
her off). But too the mirror and reflection do not lie. They might be distorted or offer a reverse reflection, but the mirror cannot reflect something that isn't brought before it. So the mirror is
a symbol of truth as well. Which begs the issue that though on first impression the Miyuki of the mirror is a more aggressive and sexual Miyuki, the Miyuki of the mirror may still be a true
unconscious reflection of Miyuki herself. And to have her physically wrench the conscious or dreamer Miyuki into the dream and take her into the situation where she must confront her
mirror self (the two play a game of chess opposite each other, where the pieces lose their clothes if taken, and the loser of the game itself will lose hers) is a way to make Miyuki confront
this wakening part of herself. To strip away the child and make her see she will have to take her first steps with coming to terms with becoming a young woman.
Dreams of such a nature do not necessarily literally mean the dreamer will have sex or is struggling with that issue itself, but as in the case given, that the things it represents: maturity,
end of childhood, change of both internal and external perception, etc. are coming into play and the dreamer needs a way for the unconscious and conscious to have a dialogue on
them. Perhaps if Miyuki is indeed in a bit of denial, the images chosen for her dream were particularly blunt so she could not continue to ignore the stage of her life. The end screens
for each half do not say "The End" but instead say "Endless" and "Never End." This is because there is no end for Miyuki, she'll continue to grow and find herself through her
experiences. And the audience and Miyuki will continue the cycle of reaching that awkward age and laughing and enjoying it after.
This essay is copyright of Michelle Rogers 2003.