Misuzu: Yes she does. At first I wasn’t sure if it was Mai since I can’t read the kanji, but small girl with rabbit ears has to be her, lol.

Hijiko: I am the same, I never liked Mai much previously, but watching this has changed my mind, the same goes for Makoto.

Tim: I know pretty much that Nayuki is going to get shafted regardless since this will obviously go for an Ayu ending. Also I’m not complaining much about the snow bunnies being in part of Mai’s arc, it was a good idea. But it’s just that this small detail is associated with Nayuki’s arc, even if it is something insignificant in the game, I feel that it would have been better to show it then rather than now. But KyoAni could surprise us when it comes to Nayuki’s arc.

As I understood the game, and I understand the anime, the demons are not so much manifestations of Mai’s power as apparitions created by it in order to provide a satisfactory reason to force Yuuichi to stay by Mai’s side.

As for the snow bunnies, I believe they were in the original game as well. They were much less significant in Nayuki’s story there then they were in the Toei anime, and hence having them appear in Mai’s story as well detracted little, if at all, from their significance to Nayuki. In the original version, the only significance of the snow bunny insofar as Nayuki is concerned lies in the fact that it is associated with Yuuichi’s rejection of her when they were children - an incident that essentially serves to summarise their entire relationship since then.

SPOILERS

With further regards to Nayuki, if you are looking to the Toei version to see how her story proceeds, I suspect you will find yourself disappointed. Of all the major heroines, Nayuki’s Toei story bore the least resemblance to her story in the game - for the obvious reason that an integral aspect of the development of the Nayuki-Yuuichi romantic relationship central to the game Nayuki-arc was the removal of the other heroines from Yuuichi’s life. Before Yuuichi can ‘end up’ with Nayuki, he first:

(a) Neglects Ayu, such that she finds her precious object without his help and consequently vanishes from the world.

(b) Neglects Makoto, such that she runs away and (presumably) dies alone, and without his knowle4dge.

(c) Never meets Mai.

(d) Never speaks to Shiori.

The Nayuki story proceeds in the manner it does, in many respects, because Yuuichi finds himself alone with no one to talk to except Nayuki. Since this wasn’t the case in the Toei anime, the animators took vast liberties with her story and essentially created a new one from scratch, with a few references to the original (i.e: the snow bunny incident, and Akiko’s hospital stay - though not the Ayu-created miracle that ended it).

Game Nayuki: As the other girls in his life vanish, Yuuichi spends more time with Nayuki, and gets closer to her as a consequence of their late night study sessions and her personal traumas. He realises her feelings for him, and the fact that he’s basically been taking advantage of her over the years. They make out on her balcony, bonk in her room, and become a couple. Akiko gets well.

Toei Nayuki: Nayuki gets increasingly jealous of Ayu until Ayu vanishes after her date with Yuuichi, whereupon Nayuki begins to feel bad for Yuuichi and for her own jealousy. After Akiko is hospitalised, and is healed by Ayu’s miracle, Nayuki realises that Ayu is in a coma in the room next to her mother’s, and redeems herself in her own eyes, as well as symbolically moving on from her infatuation with Yuuichi, by informing Yuuichi and giving him the time to save Ayu and wake her up.

KyoAni obviously cannot follow the game path; there would also be little point to it following the anime path. The most logical conclusion is that they will make like Toei and invent their own.

Can’t wait for Shiori’s arc since I’m a Shiori fan =P.