Man, the summer season is almost over, but I don’t think I’ve found a single couple out of all these shows to root for.
Oh Boy, Was I Wrong About Her Ep. 10
Another week, another mishmash of random events. This would be fine at the start of the season, but not now. I just feel like the show is aimless.
Anyway, the siblings create a group chat, and it includes Haruki and Saki. One of Hayato’s classmates invites everyone to hang out at the pool, but it hasn’t happened yet. There’s a weird incident where a man grabs Haruki because he supposedly mistook her for someone else? But there’s no follow-up to this scene. We just shove it under the rug and forget about it. Haruki tags along to see Hayato’s mother in the hospital, but the woman still thinks she’s a boy. This means Hayato is still hiding Haruki’s gender for some bizarre reason. The girl then has a sleepover at Minamo’s place. Before the credits roll, the two childhood friends agree to help out at a classmate’s cafe. Yup, that’s your unfocused episode in a nutshell.
It’s so unsatisfying, because it doesn’t feel like we’re building up to anything, much less a romantic conclusion for our two childhood friends. Even Haruki being an illegitimate daughter feels like a distant memory, because the anime can’t focus itself on any particular subplot. The screenshot above is actually perfect for this show, because just like Hayato, it can’t commit. We all know the two childhood friends are destined to be together, but Hayato doesn’t have the balls to lock in. The show is similarly gutless.
Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky Ep. 10
Koharu relents and finally lets Kakeru stay by her side. No, she hasn’t remembered her previous experiences with him or her other friends, but she accepts his support. She allows him to cheer her on. Most of all, she lets herself believe that there’s still hope. Her prognosis isn’t great, but there’s still a small but real chance for her to live a relatively long life. But I still don’t really like how it all went down. I mean, he practically forced his way back into her life. Is that romantic? All I know is that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But what’s done is done, and it’s time to focus on Koharu’s recovery. Unfortunately, progress is never linear. Some days are good, some days are bad. When Koharu’s feeling well, she even tries to walk on her own two feet. When Koharu isn’t feeling well, however, Kakeru doesn’t get to see for days and days. Still, a phone call with his mother bolsters his will to stay strong.
I think where this show has lost me a little is partly due to false expectations. At the start of the series, I was hopeful. I wanted to see the show give us a better insight on what it means to live with a disability, because what we’ve gotten in the past has been underwhelming. For instance, I was disappointed with A Silent Voice centering itself so much on the male love interest despite having a uniquely deaf character, so I wanted to see if this anime could do better with the topic of blindness. Well, we got like half of an episode that was narrated by Koharu. But even worse than that, it’s the fact that cancer has taken center stage. I’m sure the author intended to write this story from the beginning. I just also think trying to do two things has made the story less compelling than it should be.
Saved by the Ice Cold Prince’s Embrace Ep. 9
They needed to remove Katrina from Count Sashebal’s family registry, so they banged it out. By the end of the episode, our girl officially belongs to Count Gibal’s registry, i.e. her future mother-in-law’s family. Man, efficient. Plus, I expected some kind of drama — a cliffhanger to keep the dozen of us still watching this show — but we get nothing. Hm.
Hana-Kimi S2 Ep. 11
There’s a Christmas ball coming up where the guys have to dance with a girl from the nearby all-girls school. They have to! No gay stuff! Well, there aren’t enough girls to go around, so some of the guys have to cross-dress and pretend to be girls. You can already guess who one of those guys will be. Yep, Mizuki is a girl pretending to be a guy, who is now pretending to be a girl. Snip snap, snip snap… You have no idea the physical toll that these sex changes can have on a person! But jokes and pop culture references aside, it’s such a bizarre situation, isn’t it? Mizuki can’t get close to Sano without becoming a dude, but she can’t dance with him precisely because she is a dude! When I last talked about Goodbye, Lara, I found a piece of analysis which might explain why the show’s eponymous character couldn’t end up with her best friend Mari. Lemme reuse that quote:
“The attempt to hold onto heterosexual relations with men while having homosexual relationships with women — a theme we saw in Suzuki’s “Onna to onna no yo no naka” — is deeply embedded in the genre of women’s science fiction.
Women in these texts seek deep spiritual relationships with other women while living in a system constrained by the rules of a heterosexual society that expects them to marry and to take on the responsibilities of pregnancy, childbirth, and running a household. This is not unusual even in real life. While men in Japan disappear into their male space — a work space marked by politics and economics — women create a space designed solely for their own pleasures. They share the same fashions and food, along with other interests like tea ceremonies and flower arrangements. They engage in endless conversations, go to the theater, and discuss their opinions about plays and films. They strive to have their own creative space. If Suzuki chose to investigate the artificiality of a separatist all-female nation, one could say that Hikawa Reiko chose to depict a more realistic female space that exposes the blind spots that emerge from time to time within the patriarchal system.”
Can the same be said for men and their relationships to each other? I mean, we see it all the time. How many times have we seen shounen protagonists end up with a girl at the conclusion of a long series when he will have shed countless blood, sweat, and tears for his best bro throughout the other 99% of the story? There’s a same-sex camaraderie in these anime that the opposite sex can never fully understand unless they undergo a metaphorical sex change. Doing so gets them almost everything they could ever want except for one thing: sex itself. So now they have to sex change back! If Mizuki wants to dance with Sano, she has to become a girl again. It’s a bizarre phenomenon. It’s a bit sad, too, because what this ultimately says is that people of opposite sexes can never truly achieve a certain level of closeness and understanding with one another unless they’re willing to bite off more than they can chew, and it’s perhaps because those relationships come with certain societal expectations. Can a guy and a girl share a room like Mizuki and Sano? Can a guy and girl then snuggle as they drift off to sleep? Certainly not in your average anime! A formal relationship comes with all the expected baggage. You become a couple, you get married, you have kids, etc. Most of all, the shoujo can no longer remain a shoujo. Once her body transforms — once she becomes pregnant — she will have necessarily turned into a josei, i.e., woman. There’s no going back:
“Shōjo connotes someone who is neither an adult nor married. She represents the time in a woman’s life before she must succumb to the ‘woman’s role’ assigned to her by the patriarchal system. Within the system, adolescent girls are placed in compounds separate from adult women, mainly in protected spaces like schools. Whereas adult women are constantly restricted by their roles as wives and mothers, adolescence is an independent and more pleasant time for girls.”
To be fair, the person I’m quoting believes women and mothers can still “hold on to their ‘shōjo interests’,” but if it were truly that easy, we’d have more stories about “adult shoujo” characters. Instead, anime is inundated with stories about high schoolers. But I digress. My point is that, ironically, to retain her shoujo identity and still get close to Sano — to have her cake and eat it too — Mizuki has to pull off a ridiculous lie about her identity. That is at least one way to interpret this mess.
On the other hand, she’s a girl sneaking into an all-boys school just to get close to a guy, and if we flip the gender, everyone would find the boy in the same role gross and creepy. So Mizuki should just come clean already.
But seriously, reading is so important. Normally, I would just shoot from the hips and give you my raw thoughts on the episode. It’s so much more fun, however, to make all these connections… then afterward, I still get to shit on the show normally like I always do!
Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You Ep. 9
Yamada’s coworker Zawa saw Sasaki come to the register with a woman. He was also wearing a wedding band at the time, so the coworker naturally thought he was married. It’s a fair assumption. Of course, it’s a misunderstanding, but even then, his explanation sounds flimsy. The woman being his sister, I can totally believe. Her randomly making him wear her husband’s old ring is a little less credible, though.
But whatever, we’ve seen Sasaki in action for the past two months, and there’s no way a guy like him could ever be married. I would normally say it’s borderline emotional infidelity to have intimate smoke sessions with another woman when you’re married, but Sasaki behaves like a child. He’s a billion times more awkward than the high schoolers I watch in You and I Are Polar Opposites. Hell, Nishi has literally gotten more action than he does! Despite being old enough to be her father, Sasaki’s ironically the immature one in this… whatever you call this thing he has with Yamada.
In the second half of the episode, Sasaki shares with Yamada his newfound habit of smoking in the morning. He then inspires Yamada to do the exact same thing. Imagine looking out at the tranquil winter landscape with its clean, chilly air… then deciding to pollute it with your nasty cigarette smoke.
Please Excuse My Younger Brothers Ep. 10
This is going to be a 2-cour series, so we have to set the primary incest couple aside for now. Instead, it’s all about Syu and his new friend, someone he met online. Ito might be projecting, because she immediately assumes that it’s a love connection. But like always, Gen has to be a massive wet blanket. Yeah, yeah, Syu’s gotta study for make-up exams. Talk about a quick way to make a former shut-in relapse.
Anyway, Ito helps Syu get to a convention where he can finally meet his friend. As soon as he sees them, he rushes up to them and starts showering them with praise. Then the rest of the family comes out to say hi, which makes Syu’s friend feel overwhelmed and run off in a panic. Watching this unfold, I kept waiting for the shoe to drop, because there just has to be a twist. No way would the anime just give us a straightforward guy-meets-cute storyline for the little brother. Well, as it turns out, his friend is biologically male, and they were worried about coming out to him. Immediately and hilariously, the anime pumps the brakes on all the love talk. Haha, yeah, they’re just best friends! Syu’s too young to even think about love! Whatever, man. You have a girl falling in love with her stepbrother, so why pull your punches?
Rich Girl Caretaker Ep. 10
This week, Narita has no friends, so Itsuki tries to rectify that problem. Unfortunately, everyone here sucks. Teachers automatically assume she got into a fight just because she tripped and fell. Narita tries to look casual and approachable by enjoying a lollipop at the school gates. Instead, a girl thinks she’s smoking. She tries to strike up a conversation with a guy who is also into kendo, but he just brushes her off rudely. His parents have told him to avoid powerful families altogether because they can crush you. So yeah, it’s just an entire school full of assholes and idiots.
Equally dumb is how, according to Shizune, Narita is a potential threat to Hanako because she’s too good at sports: “Miyakojima Narika-sama outdoes Her Ladyship in most athletic fields. She’s considered a rival to Konohana family dominance.” Just the dumbest shit ever. As bad as the fiancee thing, actually. Whoa, your daughter married a less than impressive guy?! Boom, stonks go down! Whoa, your daughter didn’t win every single sporting event in high school! Stonks go down even further! Fuck, this show is so aggressively dumb, it’s pissing me off. Hell, porn movies probably have better plotlines than this.
The Duke’s Son Claims He Won’t Love Me Yet Showers Me with Adoration Ep. 10
Oh man, nothing ever happens on this show. Absolutely nothing. When we last left off, Julius had invited Elsa to accompany him on his next business trip to Ralt. Well, it turns out Ralt is just an anime version of the Netherlands. I literally google’d “netherlands tulips” and got a picture of a field of flowers with windmills in the background. But hey, a trip abroad is always a golden opportunity to take in another culture and thus try new, delicious food, right? Y’know, like… uh, french fries…
When the couple heads to the hotel, they discover that they’re going to have to share a room. Well, duh, they’re married. What did they expect? Most people would assume you want to share one room, one bed. But remember, this is a show where nothing happens. As a result, Julius volunteers to sleep on the couch so his wife can take the bed. Even so, he whines to himself, “She really doesn’t see me as a man at all, does she?” This fucker…
At one point, they bump into Jarmo, who is also here to represent his father (and probably stalk the couple). Since Jarmo badly wants to ruin Julius’s happiness, I thought the guy could maybe inject a little drama into the episode. But again, nothing ever happens in this show. Julius gets a little jealous, and as a result, he asks his wife to start calling him by his name. That’s literally it.
Lately, I’ve been reading about Gothic influences in all forms of media (including, apparently, Metroidvania games). Well, this show is like the antithesis of Gothic. A single paragraph from any of the Bronte sisters’ books probably has more drama packed in it than this entire series from start to finish.
The Ogre’s Bride Ep. 10
On the other hand, here’s a show with too much drama — too much drama because the evil sister is too dumb to breathe. It’s the day of the demon banquet, so Yuzu has been invited to come meet Reiya’s parents along with VIPs from the other clans. Naturally, her future in-laws adore her. Even the head of the fox clan walks up and personally apologizes to Yuzu. But then there’s her family… her stupid, stupid little family. First, her parents try to sneak in uninvited, so thanks to demon magicks, they’re now lost in the woods far from the actual party. Yuzu is assured, however, that someone will come rescue them… eventually. Then we have Karin, who has been warned repeatedly not to bother Yuzu anymore. But she can’t help herself, so the sisters get into a fight that results in Yuzu being shoved down a flight of stairs. The episode actually cuts off here. Oooh, cliffhanger~!
What gets me is that Reiya knew this could happen. So did Karin’s fox fiance, I would have to imagine. After all, she was only invited to the banquet as a test. Karin needed to prove that she could behave herself. So how come she was able to wander off on her own and thus confront Yuzu? Don’t you think 1) her fiance should be watching her like a hawk and 2) Reiya should also be watching Yuzu like a hawk? But both guys are suddenly nowhere to be found! How curious! Well, we know the fox guy is whipped. He’d do anything Karin asks him to do. But I don’t trust Reiya. I think he wants this to happen. Why? Because the relationship between the two sisters is now irreparable. With enough time, you never really know what could happen. If the sisters hadn’t fought — if they had stayed separated for years — maybe Karin would’ve eventually matured. Maybe they could then get back in touch in ten or twenty years, put everything behind them, and become a family again. But fat chance of that happening anymore! Reiya is now justified in keeping Yuzu away from her immediate family. Hell, I wouldn’t trust him with her grandparents either!
Hanaori-san Still Wants to Fight in the Next Life Ep. 9
I can’t come up with a single interesting thing to say about this episode other than that maybe Ryusei’s first love is finally making her long-awaited appearance.
