Ok final thoughts on Liz as it applies to Sea, or from what I've gathered about Sea's view of the movie (though I think this applies to everyone). The issue I'm seeing the most here is that the movie is being taken at face value. And if you're a face value reader then I guess this movie won't work for you on that high of a level. But I think you're taking the entire movie as just the metaphor being presented. Liz is Nozomi, the Blue Bird is Mizore. Mizore is shy, Nozomi is not. Nozomi has to let Mizore go. Undoubtedly that is what is going on here, but I think you just aren’t reading into it enough to get to the meat of what is interesting about these characters and their dynamic. Which I find sort of ironic since the last 20 minutes of the movie are spent with the characters separating themselves from the metaphor and the storybook.
My point is, is that there is so much more to these characters than the metaphor being presented. For quick example, Mizore’s oblivious selfishness in the context of her relationship to Nozomi. What does Mizore do when she finally comes to the realization that she is the blue bird? She goes to practice and plays to the best of her ability without thinking of the repercussions that it will have on Nozomi. Immediately. Without inhibition. I think this speaks to how unaware Mizore is of how she might affect other people, which ties into her own view of her self-worth. Even further into the film, during the confession scene, Mizore goes on about how much she loves everything about Nozomi, Nozomi is her reason for existing, etc, etc. Not once does she realize how Nozomi is feeling in that moment. Defeated, humiliated, broken. Mizore ignorantly makes it about herself and her own feelings. What Nozomi wanted to hear in that moment wasn’t “I love everything about you”, she wanted to hear “I love your flute” (this is why she responds to Mizore’s confession with “I love your oboe”), which again ties into the main idea of oblivious selfishness that I think the movie hits home about Mizore’s character. She’s a flawed person. There is so much more to be extrapolated here than ‘she is shy and needs to be let go’. The movie is so much more than what is conveyed through dialogue.
On the flipside, Nozomi’s character strikes as one of extreme courage as well as care towards Mizore. If anything, I’d call Nozomi the ‘good guy’ in the context of the film. As stated above, Nozomi feels absolutely destroyed after the performance scene. All at once she has realized she is simply not good enough for music school, realizes she has to let go of her best friend, and also that her friend was just holding back from playing well because she was so bad. The mindset of Nozomi in the confession scene is ouchy. On top of all of this, Mizore (like the little autist she is) confesses to Nozomi as Nozomi has to let her go. There is so god damn much going on in this scene emotionally that I find it frankly a little absurd that Nozomi’s response is laughing about it. There is a twinge of jealousy and hostility with the line, “I love your oboe” but I think in this scene Nozomi realizes that 1) None of what she is experiencing is the ill will of Mizore, rather just ignorance of the situation due to Mizore’s personality. And 2) Letting Mizore go in terms of their musical relationship is completely separate from letting her go in terms of their actual relationship (put to even more detail by the following final scene of the film). So, in short, I think Nozomi’s actions in the confession scene were harshly realistic but also incredibly courageous as to not get mad at the situation. And I think this shows substantial growth from where she began at the start of the film, almost desperate for validation from everyone that she too should go to music school, to the acceptance and understanding that she can’t cling to Mizore in that way and drag her down.
So yeah. That’s one angle with which to view these characters, which is what I think makes this movie great. There are no concrete answers outside of the extremely obvious shit, but so much can be extrapolated and expanded upon by the viewer.