When analyzing characters, it's very tempting to find a similar character and say that character X is the second coming of character Y, while conveniently simplifying and/or ignoring all of the unique traits that make the two completely different. Likewise, it's really hard to resist that urge to overanalyze a character, taking them to symbolize the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. That said, I hope everyone will forgive me as I now go ahead and do both.

When looking at Miyazawa Yukino, I can't help but feel that she isn't the self-centered, selfish, egomaniacal faker that she likes to believe she is. Perhaps it's my generous nature, but I don't believe that Miyazawa is the pond scum she likes to call herself; instead, she seems to me to be a lot like Arima -- making her a good deal more human than any anime character I can think of off the top of my head. The wonderful part about it all is that while they both seemed perfect to the outside world, it was only a façade. And yet, this is not necessarily a bad thing. These masks are a defense mechanism they developed to shield themselves against their over-sensitivity to the opinions of others. Unfortunately, the cost for this emotional security was the inability to grow close to anyone outside their private circle (Miyazawa's family for her, and no one for Arima) -- or at least, until they met each other.

In many ways, they deserve to be together -- more so than most anime couples. Not only are they both of similar intellect, personality, interests, status, etc...., each possesses some trait that the other admires and feels that he/she lacks, namely: Arima's "genuine" perfection and Miyazawa's silliness. Nowhere in Yukino do you find traces of the stereotypical empty-headed, clumsy, foolish, cry-baby character that most series try to pass off as a heroine; likewise, Arima is not a perverted, nerdy, pathetic schoolboy who couldn't get a date for the life of him but somehow got the perfect girl to fall in love with him. Or in other words, unlike the characters of most anime series out there, there can really be no doubts as to why these two characters love each other.

Just because they feel they deserve to be together does not mean that everyone else in their life will agree with them. Yet, perfection may look great from the outside but in truth, it's a rather lonely place, as both Miyazawa and Arima have realized. And so, (although it's rather clichéd) their difficulties only strengthened their relationship. At this point, it is uncertain what fate exactly holds in store for our couple, but more than any other series, I feel that they will be up to the challenge, together.