Disclaimer: This post contains Spoilers and Impressions and should NOT be read by anyone named Jet prior to their viewing of the film.
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Kyoto Animation's 2018 film Liz and the Bluebird prominently features footsteps; it is woven into a fluid series of images in the montage opening the film. Beyond that, Ushio's soundtrack deftly inserts footsteps into the music itself, guided by sound design that amplifies the footsteps. Footsteps and ambience. Footsteps and piano. Footsteps and introspection. Footsteps and excitement.
Mizore behind Nozomi. Mizore ambulates slowly, irregularly, and embracing the shoe-gazer aesthetic; it is not walking geared towards socialization. Nozomi bounces excitedly with rhythm, hair swinging side to side; perhaps more active than a typical walk cycle (gait), but in line with the "normal". Deeply amiable. A conversant pace. Society values rhythm in walking and in conversation; walking in particular is seen as a window into one's soul. This appears in how Nozomi and Mizore are demonstrated as disjoint, physically implicated in their gaits, in the opening sequence.
Whether Nozomi and Mizore are truly disjoint is a major question permeating the film. Especially from that individualist western perspective, Nozomi and Mizore are fundamentally dissimilar, not fitting together now or ever. Like begets like. In the classical form of storytelling, physical ability, yes even including something simple like footsteps or social behavior, is used to differentiate people. Oedipus is punished by blindness for his sins. Sisyphus is 'punished' on account of not being able to stop the boulder from rolling back down. Difference in ability (disability) is offered as a tragic punishment or hubris, and is levied as power in such a storytelling style. In this perspective, Mizore's tempo will never 'catch up' to Nozomi's (simply based on their gait patterns), and this belies the tragedy of the film. But Liz textually suggests they are, by the end, joint -- and director
Yamada, notorious Nozomizo and Mizonozo shipper, likely believes this in
full honest. I firmly believe the film spins and fractures this western classical tradition of storytelling.
But I deeply worry that people would read Nozomi and Mizore as disjoint from such a background. I worry because this reading invokes deeply ableist ideas that people must be similar in behavior in order to have a fulfilling relationship. People come from different ability backgrounds and for many it is difficult or impossible to live up to those standards. From my condition, there are many tasks I struggle with tremendously, such as cleaning (a room), which places me at a 'disadvantage' relative to many relationships I would make. I've personally had circumstances where this inequality led to friendships not forming, or dissolving. This idea that people must exist in equal positions, and equal in being normal, is therefore quite harmful to me.
Furthermore, we are trained to consider ability medically and this provides a framework for seeing disability as a tragic form of punishment. Sisyphus and Oedipus are templates upon which medical correction could apply if they were not undeserving (on account of opposing the society). In this case, the circumstance between Nozomi and Mizore is far less dire. But this idea of correction still applies, as there seems to be an expectation for Nozomi to fix Mizore.
To get to this concept, I want to talk about this idea of normal gait. Gait is deeply pathologized and used to infer much about a person. From the opening sequence of Liz, someone could infer that Mizore is not in the right place, physically and emotionally, based just on how she's walking. As an activity that directly connects people in space and time, it is a physical metaphor of great importance. Ambulation via wheelchairs or mobility scooters or with other mobility devices (like a cane) is typically stigmatized from an emphasis on normal walking. However, it should be noted, that modes of transportation, like buses, cars, and bikes are socialized as normal. There's a lot of politics around walking that have to be contended with, even if they are (in my experience) generally unstated.
Biomechanics, the study of human motion, has devoted much attention to gait. In my classes of biomechanics, gait and its control are seen as important enough to warrant their own section. This often involves defining, precisely, normal walking in terms of a walk cycle; an essential part of this for example is the swinging of the leg while it is airborne (the "swing" phase). Nozomi strongly emphasizes this behavior in her walking, while Mizore barely focuses on it. One cannot overstate how reductive normal walking, defined by an ideal gait cycle, can be. For a class, my partner and I defined this gait cycle based on a series of differential equations and conditions to compare to a 'disabled' gait cycle. This model does not offer much room for human variation (unless the model were to be modified to account for it). Though gait may seem like it is a low-energy task, to the able-bodied, it involves a tight coordination of the lower body.
This may seem like just a simplification. But this approach underlies ideas about what a normal gait is, and potentially how Mizore does not fit into it. For something so subconscious for many, walking is a complex and coordinated activity. Nozomi's gait is expressive and musical seemingly without explicit attention. But Mizore walks in such an explicit manner, almost as if transfixed by the very act of walking. But walking in this manner is seen as inherently disabling and out of bounds. (Let's return to the ideas of physical disadvantage needing correction.) In practical terms, we see Nozomi as having to wait for Mizore on account of her pace, which creates a supposedly unequal dynamic. After all, mathematically, Nozomi and Mizore will not meet up due to Mizore's lower tempo. This very situation has played out in my life, where I often find the sensory act of walking overwhelming and sometimes I walk more slowly or pause. But walking slowly and/or consciously is not an aberrant trait and is also a valuable part of the human experience. I want to push back on this idea that Nozomi must correct Mizore (though I will maintain that the pressure on Nozomi still exists).
But let's probe this correction more. For starters, the differences in walking between the two characters are implicated in broader differences in social behavior. So Nozomi would play a role as correcting Mizore as a person, not simply as a walker.
From a social perspective, Nozomi is expected to fix the "disjoint" between Mizore and society. But this attitude treats disability (inequality of ability) as something to be violently removed. This may sound deeply cynical to suggest. This corrective attitude is rarely fully intentional, though. Though not explicit, there are many opportunities when people will stop precisely in time with other people; but this itself creates a drive to replicate the same patterns.
This form of social pressure excludes people who walk in a "disjoint" manner as someone who needs to be corrected. And living with disability is to experience this. Not being able to "do" many social norms consistently or well...and being pressured to correct oneself to rise to that normal behavior.
It's an awful power.
To me, seeing Nozomi and Mizore as disjoint, at the conclusion of the film, invokes this devastating power. This comes directly from my experiences.
But, Nozomi and Mizore are in fact joint because Nozomi and Mizore grow to understand each other intimately. Through moments of sharing, like when she waits for Mizore to catchup, or when she plays music with her. To see Mizore as needing correction is to dismiss these beautiful moments of human interaction. Nozomi refutes this. In the story of Liz and the Bluebird, difference of ability is positioned as valuable, as signified through the motif of footsteps, by dismissing the expectation of punishment borne out of Western storytelling and of society.
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