Saku Saku: Love Blooms with the Cherry Blossoms (Mio)
This is the third installment of Saku Saku: Love Blooms with the Cherry Blossoms and in this one we are going to talk about the path and third playthrough I did with Mio. I want to take a moment to state that I actually learned a few things from this route and was pleasantly surprised by the thought that went into this particular path. While I feel that it was a bit short in story, it did at least make up for it in content. That said it I have to agree with a fellow blogger and reviewer when they stated that it did have times that it felt forced.
If you wish to read about the previous installments please follow the two links below:
Mio is Yuma's childhood friend and they have always been together. Mio's characteristics are her overly positive attitude, seemingly always nice demeanor, and her strong sense of loyalty to her friends and strangers alike.
Growing up with grandparents and parents that took care of the local shrine, she and her older sister are the current caretakers of the shrine. Mio also has a strange obsession and overly active imagination when it comes to BL (Boy Love) Manga which despite her innocent appearance and attitude, she is in the words of Yuma a, 'closet perv'.
Mio also has a mental disorder that causes her a great deal of grief, that being her androphobia. Now I actually had to do some research on this one and honestly, I hadn't even guessed this was a thing though in a way I guess I should have considered but it isn't something that you will run into often.
Androphobia is the fear of men, and in Mio's case, the fear causes a physical reaction. When any male touch her she will automatically begin to cry regardless if she wants to or not. Because of this Yuma has tried to help her out by putting her through a sort of rehab by holding her hand first thing in the morning for a short period of time in the hopes to help her cure the disorder or at the least help minimize it.
Now if you read the previous content you already know slightly how she and Yuma become members of the student council. With this being a straightforward story with a few choices here and there first of the primary choices is when Yuma is at the pool with the rest of the Student Council. This is the first of the key choices you make. Once you make this choice it puts you on your path with Mio if you choose her. The second decision later of who you are thinking about is the second crucial decision. Once those choices are made you will start down the path to dating Mio.
As the two become closer than they already are it is finally become closer a set of new circumstances surfaces. Due to Mio's condition and the circumstances around that condition that Yuma has never been made aware of, Yuma attempts to keep his distance from Mio within reason as to not trigger her conditional response. Because of this however and the fact he is doing it on his own accord eventually Mio understandably becomes upset over the situation as a whole.
Yuma comes to the realization that Mio just wants a normal relationship with the one person she loves and by him keeping her at arm's length that isn't going to happen. However, the two finally break through that barrier by having sex for the first time with one another. It is during this time that Yuma realizes that as long as he is focused on something else (you know sexually) her condition doesn't kick in. Eventually, however even the sexual contact reminds both of them that other things such as hugging, holding hands, and kissing are extremely hard for them and this causes a bit of a problem between them.
After several times having sexual relations, Yuma and Mio end up in a pretty good fight. After the fight, Mio is instructed to not speak and ignore Yuma until his birthday to build upon their relationship, (let me be clear, that is not a way to build up a relationship this advice was given by Tina so yeah obviously don't do this.) This causes Yuma a great deal of pain and in some circumstances a great deal of anguish as he feels he has caused Mio to hate him.
While this is of course not true, it is obvious to him that she is still mad at him. The day of his birthday finally comes and as he gets up he is met with several messages from Mio to meet her on the road to school. Getting dressed he runs out of the house and heads to see Mio. Upon getting there she explains to him what caused her condition. The day of his accident that should have killed him, he had spoken with Mio and her older sister, Mio had asked him to go with them to play at the park but being a boy and going through that stage where he didn't want to be 'seen' playing with girls. She had a chance to take him by his hand and lead him anyway because she knew he would go with her if she did. But she chose not to. He left and soon after was involved in the accident.
Soon after that, her guilt took the form of the mental condition Androphobia. Yuma never knew that in a way it was because of him that she had started have these problems in the first place. Though he wasn't able to fully understand everything as a truck being driven by someone not paying attention comes towards them. Mio throws herself at Yuma and pushes him out of the way and also manages to land on him. Soon the driver leaves and Mio passes out. Yuma realizes that she is bleeding from her head and that he needs to get her to the hospital.
After a while, she awakens and the two are reunited and spend time with one another. While they embrace Yuma realizes that she no longer shows any signs of her condition.
He continues to do things to her to see if her condition will return but after days with one another holding hands and hugging and kissing like a normal couple her condition never comes back.
Mio's story was a little bit of a rollercoaster ride and at some points also felt a bit forced but otherwise, it was a good one. Not sure if it was my favorite yet as I have 2 more playthroughs to make, but so far it is one of the better ones of the ones I have played. Stay tuned for the next installment where I will be going through Anna's route.
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