Going through someone’s personal belongings like this — it must feel weird, doesn’t it? It’s like an invasion of privacy, but what privacy? They’re dead. And now you get to learn all sorts of things you never expected or wanted to learn, especially since Makio’s relationship with her sister was so fraught with issues. All of a sudden, she starts hearing one of her sister’s sharp barbs. It’s almost like a jump scare. As I said or implied last week, it doesn’t appear as though Makio has ever processed the symbolic death of her family. She simply ran away from it. By putting it off, she now has to grieve both the symbolic and literal death of her family at the same time. But the funny thing is that the symbolic doesn’t have to stay dead. It doesn’t violate the laws of nature for the symbolic to suddenly come back to life. So who knows? Maybe as Makio confronts her past and thus old hurts, she’ll come to realize things weren’t as broken as they seemed. Perhaps I’m being too optimistic, but she might have some love left for her late sister. You never know.
As they go through the apartment, Asa asks if her aunt hates hearing about her mother. Makio doesn’t give Asa a straight answer. I mean, Makio’s not wrong. Asa should be free and open to voice love for her mother (or not as the case may be). But the kid also wants to know how Makio feels about it. It’s almost like she wants her aunt to open up rather than letting those feelings pickle away in a jar. It’s a strained metaphor, but hey, she’s literally speaking to us through a jar of pickles. Or rather, she’s being reflected off the surface of the jar.
Shortly afterwards, Asa tries to reclaim a bit of normalcy by finally returning to school. Thanks to a bunch of busybodies thinking that they had good intentions, however, everyone now knows about her recent, tragic loss. Again, she only wants to feel normal, because everything else in her life has been so abnormal. Her life has been turned upside down, she’s suddenly living with a relative she has rarely spoken to up until now, she’s in a completely different home, etc. So of course she just wants to get through graduation like a normal student. The most infuriating part about this whole sequence is how Asa’s not even allowed to be mad. As soon as she raises her voice, another faculty member butts in just to tell her to calm down. This is the first time she’s openly expressing a negative emotion, and they immediately want her to bottle it up. A kid just lost her parents, and they can’t even show her any grace. Let the kid be mad. What’s the harm if she yells a bit? Is it going to hurt anybody? C’mon. Asa’s justified in her anger, too. Whether or not someone might have said something insensitive, it’s absolutely her choice if she wants to tell people about her parents’ deaths. And as they always say, hurt people hurt people, so Asa lashes out at her best friend as she leaves. In her grief, she returns home to the home she no longer has. She’s lost.
At first, Makio tries to be direct about how Asa shouldn’t cut off her best friend Emiri, but you try telling a teen to do anything and see how that goes. So instead, she relates to the girl instead. She opens up and talks about her own ironclad relationship with Nana — how their friendship helped add meaning to her own life. Makio also adds that it helps to have a friend who has known you for life. Asa realizes that she and her friend share a similar bond. And after some reflection, she thankfully relents and reads Emiri’s message. She then calls her and mends the relationship. After all, it would’ve been a shame if they drifted apart over this incident. Asa and Emiri will eventually be normal again.
Stray thoughts & observations:
- Hm, yeah, I should probably look up what you need to do about the mail after someone dies (among other related tasks). After all, my parents are getting up there in years. I’ve reached that point in life where a call likely means that a family member has passed away. You usually don’t want to think about these things, because they’re “so far off.” But not anymore.
- Geez, nobody even emptied the place of perishables. Of course, I don’t blame the kid. Rather, what’s the point of all those people showing up to the funeral if none of them are willing to take any responsibility? I’m surprised there aren’t flies buzzing about. Maybe it hasn’t been long since they died.
- Asa might not want her mother’s old clothes now, but it might be something she appreciates having later when she’s older.
- Strange to be getting a grammar lesson in the middle of one of my anime. The funny thing, too, is that I think I have pretty decent grammar. But if you ask me to explain when a “past participle” is, I’d just go, “Huh?” It’s like how we know the answer to “2 + 2,” but we rarely ever use words like “addends” in our everyday vocabulary.
- Geez, Asa’s first day back at school is for her graduation. Luckily, it’s just middle school.
- Dude, is this teacher for real? Oh, thanks for reminding me about the ceremony! I guess all that pain and anger will just disappear now that you mentioned it! You shouldn’t be teaching if you have this little empathy.
- Again, this is only middle school. Who gives a shit about middle school graduations? Did I even get a certificate for it? I honestly can’t remember. Did we even have a ceremony? I literally cannot remember.
- Makio mentions how she’s never fought with her bestie, because fighting is reserved for outgoing people. Huh, I’ve never thought of it like that. I can’t say I’ve ever fought with my friends either. I just reevaluate the friendship instead. If I feel as though they’ve wronged me or that we’re drifting apart, I just reassess the friendship. If they let me down, we probably weren’t that close to begin with. By lowering my expectations, I have no reason to be hurt. You can’t lose what you never really had to begin with. Is that sort of a fucked up way to handle friendships? Yeah, probably. I essentially never fight for them. At the same time, life is too short for drama. Would I have lost a friend like Emiri? Maybe.
- I no longer keep in touch with any of my grade school friends. I lost touch with them during my college years, and I honestly wouldn’t know where to find them nowadays.
- I wouldn’t say graduation is just a formality. But it certainly doesn’t matter to me. I skipped both my high school and college graduations. They just don’t mean anything to me. But I don’t care about milestones in general. I can’t remember the last time I celebrated my own birthday.
- Makio’s BFF sure is something.
- Going in, I was afraid that this show might be too slice-of-life, but so far, it has been fantastic. It’s easily one of the top three shows for me. Frieren is, of course, immaculately animated; I would expect nothing less from Madhouse. Hopefully, we continue to get more contemplative Frieren and less action-packed, pew pew Zoltraak Frieren. You and I Are Polar Opposites is certainly the feelgood show — the one you tune into when you just want to smile. But Journal with Witch is the most emotionally engaging anime thus far.
- But take all of that with a grain of salt, because I’m avoiding some big shows like Jujutsu Kaisen and Oshi no Ko.
