The Dangers in My Heart – 21 – Thanatos vs. Pigman

Kyoutarou, which is what Anna has decided to call him now (and I hope he calls her Anna at some point!), wakes up to find her in his bathroom brushing her teeth. It’s like they’re already married! As is Kyoutarou’s M.O., he suspects this good fortune is some kind of a portent of doom for him.

Thus week, he finds a completely new thing to get worried about with Anna: social media, specifically a toxic fan on Twitter with the handle pig_man1209, or Pigman, who has a bit of an unhealthy obsession with Anna and is always trying to find out where she is, what she’s doing … and who she’s with. Kyou tries to tell this fan off (with the handle thanatos_moros), but gets blocked.

When Pigman learns Anna is filming in their hometown, Kyou can’t help but think like an obsessed otaku does, and fears that the fan might try to confront or hurt Anna. Sure enough, while on a video call with her as she’s sitting by the water, what looks like a shadowy figure in a hoodie seemingly pushes her into the water. The call goes dead, and Kyou is near death with worry.

Eventually he stakes out her apartment until her dad comes home, and nice guy that he is, he invites him in to warm up with some tasty soup. Anna’s dad then gets a picture message from Anna on her mom’s phone: it’s a map to Kyou’s house, and asking him to let the person who lives there know she’s okay.

Since that person is already at her place, Anna’s dad hands the phone to Kyou to call Anna himself. She’s fine and always was, it was her mother behind her, and she dropped her phone in the water. After they hang up, Anna tells her mom she likes Kyou, and Kyou tells her dad that he likes Anna. Pops’ response is to give him his monster hunt friend code.

The threat of creeps finding out where Anna is has not lifted, so when both Anna and Pigman declare they’ll be at a ramen stand of note in Mita, he rushes to her aid, only to find her with her model senpai, Nico. Anna momentarily pretends not to know Kyou, at least not too well, but when Kyou asks if he can have lunch with them, she agrees, and Nico looks annoyed.

When Nico is the person sitting precisely where Pigman said they’d sit at the ramen stand, he mutters “Pigman” to test her, and her reaction makes it clear SHE’S Pigman. He identifies himself as Thanatos, whom she blocked, and claims to be a fellow fan. After Anna finishes and steps out (this is the kind of place you need to give up your seat ASAP) Nico quietly fangirls out, declaring Anna “perfect”.

This actually comforts Kyou, who finishes his ramen next and declares he “won.” But he also won because he knows the real Anna, the very, very, imperfect Anna. An Anna just as imperfect as him, but one he cares for more than anything. To his declaration of victory, Nico simply tells him to place his empty bowl on the rail.

When Nico exits and finds Anna chatting with Kyou, she sees just a glimpse of that real Anna. It’s a face she’s never seen before, and she finds it even more adorable. When she takes her leave, Kyou follows her for a bit to warn her to stop posting Anna’s personal info, because that shit’s not cool. In response, Nico unblocks him and gives him her LINE ID, asking him to send her photos of Anna at school, which is also not cool, but regardless, Kyou now has the contact info of a famous model.

That point is driven home when the subway car home he and Anna are on is plastered with photos of Nico in cosmetics ads. Anna snuggles up to Kyou, apologizing for worrying him with her phone. He slowly separates himself from her and tells her that there are people out there who want to see “famous faces fall.”

Pigman wasn’t one of those people, but they are out there. So he asks her to be more careful what she posts, and to keep “some distance” in crowded spaces, implying that includes at least a bit of distance from him. Not wanting him to worry and wanting to “grow up” more, Anna promises to abide by those rules.

Normally, I’d say Kyou was being presumptuous in thinking her agency hadn’t already given her some kind of guidance on handling social media, but 1.) there’s no guarantee they did any such thing, and 2.) this is Space Cadet Anna we’re talking about. She’s happy Kyou has her back, and so am I. I just hope they can continue closing the distance .. when not in crowded spaces.

The Dangers in My Heart – 09 – Everything On the LINE

Sometimes Ichikawa is so dense it hurts. Yes, Yamada asks him for his LINE ID in a bit of a roundabout way, but seriously dude, just exchange LINE IDs with her, damnit! But no, everything has to be done the excruciatingly hard way.

Winter break approaches and Sekine wants a boyfriend, so she just casts her LINE out to everyone, starting with Ichikawa. Her more aggressive approach works, and we not only learn that Ichikawa’s avatar is Rem (whose right eye is also obscured by bangs), but Sekine knows who that is and is more of a Ram fan. Oh, and Yamada feels cheated.

It isn’t until Sekine sends Yamada to the class track star (who lives in the same apartment building as her) for his LINE ID that Ichikawa realizes what a tactical blunder he made in the library. Thankfully, when he suddenly blurts out an “AH!”, that’s all Yamada needs to say never mind to the guy.

He’s determined to tell her tomorrow that he does indeed use LINE, but descends into doubt and indecision as he reads three more pages of the shoujo manga she lent him. He seems to think she wants a guy like the boy in the manga, starts seeing parallels between their story and their own scenario, and warns himself against such trains of thought. He still feels like having any kind of hope is folly.

The next day, a casanova stops by  to very aggressively asks Yamada to come to his house and “go at it” (in “video games”). He’s flanked by another girl he’s either dated, dating, or stringing along as proof of his virility. Thankfully, Chihiro is right there as Yamada’s Iron Defense.

But when the guy says Chihiro is welcome to join them as well, that Iron Defense suddenly crumbles. This doesn’t bode well for Ichikawa, but it distresses Yamada even more. Yamada and Ichikawa realize the same thing: that dude is using Chihiro to get to her.

But Yamada would never say that; she insists she’s not going. Chihiro says fine, she’ll go with Sekine, but Yamada says “forget it, but I warned you”. As spacy as she can presents, she’s always exhibited the emotional intelligence to cut to the meat of things.

Yamada was just looking out for Chihiro, and that they ended up at odds leads Yamada to cry in the library. She hides her tears when Yamada comes in, and starts talking about all the video game systems her dad has, no doubt working towards inviting him to her place.

But then two older girls who know loverboy come in to size up and even pick on Yamada a little. They conclude that she must already have a boyfriend, but she insists she doesn’t and then emphatically repeats it while looking directly at Ichikawa. The girls think they know what’s going on and leave.

Just as Ichikawa is telling Yamada she shouldn’t hang around him when other people are around, one of the girls returns with the loverboy. Rather that separate herself from him, Yamada draws him even closer until they’re in position to kiss. From the interlopers’ view, that’s what they look like they’re doing, and they leave.

Later in class, Sekine breaks it to Chihiro that loverboy was just using her so Yamada would come. Realizing this, she decides not to go after all, and after class tries to flag down Yamada. When she tries to ignore her, Chihiro calls her a “big stupid she-giant”, and Yamada chases her down the hall.

The chase ends with Chihiro in Yamada’s arms, and Ichikawa overhears as they make up. But even as peace returns to the girl group, one withering look from loverboy gets all the wrong gears spinning in Ichikawa’s head.

What if, all this time, Yamada was just using him to shake off a guy she didn’t like? I tell ya, my heart sank all the way down to my feet when he took a sudden, unadvised detour off the new road he and Yamada had been walking. Me no like regression! Stop thinking wrong!

The next day, my nightmare scenario unfolds, as Yamada brightly greets him only to be stonewalled. He completely ignores and avoids her, even avoiding the library. Yamada stands at a distance like a stunned puppy. When he starts heading home without a word to her, she follows him.

Out the door of the class room, down the hall, down the stairs. He quickens the pace, but there’s no way he can outrun those determined legs. Finally, she manages to grab his wrist and wall slams him, her eyes raw and primed for tears. She asks him, with pain in her voice, if he’s mad at her, and why.

When they hear voices, she jumps away from him, asking if he’s mad because she’s always so close. Ichikawa, still in spiteful victim mode, brushes her off and says he’s “got places to be,” not caring if she’s upset the guy she’s using hates her.

But when he hears her begin to sob, the tune in his head thankfully changes. Like a radio caught between stations, the static gives way to clarity: Yamada isn’t the kind of girl who would use him, and he doesn’t hate her. He was just looking for an excuse to hate her. Now he’s hurting her when he doesn’t want to, but he has the power to stop that hurt right now.

He turns back to her as she drops her tissue—from one of the packs he left for her in the library ages ago—and corrects course, hopping back on the road. He clarifies that he just has some stuff to do during lunch break, and isn’t mad. A Yamada relieved beyond belief pulls him into a dramatic hug.

She apologizes for this make-up hug, as she assumes he doesn’t like being close, but Ichikawa takes her wrist in his hand, looks up at her, and says “I never said that,” which is exactly what the heroine in the manga says to the guy. After they check to see if anyone is around, they remain in a protracted hug, then agree to walk home together. This scene made me cry tears of joy. I legit needed a tissue!

Just like that, all is well, and my heart is back where it belongs: within my rib cage! The gorgeous colors of the setting sun mimic the similarly vivid warm feelings emanating from Yamada and Ichikawa as they chat on the way home. Ichikawa lets her go on about natto, and she asks him what he’s doing for Winter Break.

When he returns the manga to her, she asks for his impressions, and they learn they even have the same favorite part. Yamada, who had just earlier looked at December 24th on her calendar, tells Ichikawa she’ll bring the next volume for him on Monday.

But Monday comes, and she “forgot” the volume. By “forgot”, I mean she hatched a brilliant and foolproof scheme to not only get Ichikawa’s LINE ID, but arrange to hang out together before he heads off with his family for the break.

She insists that the cliffhanger at the end of volume 3 demands that he read the next one ASAP, so they have no choice but to meet up somewhere. She then asks him for his LINE ID. Youmiya Hina’s voice brooked no dissent, and Ichikawa wisely agrees.

From there, the floodgates open. The two start messaging and don’t stop until the morning. Yamada proposes meeting up at 2PM tomorrow by Hachiko in Shibuya, and Ichikawa confirms, while noting it’s already tomorrow. After the first half of the episode plunged us into the depths of despair, this felt like suddenly rising and breaking through the surface of the water with a dazzling splash.

The pure excitement of this development is sold so well by the editing, Yamada’s expressions, and composer Ushio Kensuke, who has really been giving the endings the extra dramatic oomph and flourish they deserve. I couldn’t help but think to the times when I first started clicking with a girl I liked, and the rush of adrenaline and dopamine that comes with that sudden flow of communication.

What an emotional roller coaster this was. I’m exhausted in the best way. When a show makes you feel so much in such a short time, you know it’s something special. We’re now officially back on the road again, and just kicked into high gear with a full tank of gas. Avanti!

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible – 01 (First Impressions) – Getting a Little Closer

I wasn’t initially going to pick this show up, as it sounded awfully familiar to shows I’d already seen (most prominently Takagi-san). However, I needed some Tuesday evening comfort food, and two words sealed the deal: Hanazawa. Kana. She voices the titular Kubo, the smart, popular, athletic, and beautiful class idol who has eyes only for Shiraishi. This, despite the fact Shiraishi has such a severe lack of presence, most of the class doesn’t notice he’s there, and considers it good luck when they do.

Kubo sees him just fine, and no one else will do when it comes to killing time in class. She decides they should experiment whether he’ll be noticed if he stands on his chair during a lecture (he can), then “punishes” him by sitting on him for failing to say Good Morning back to her (he assumed she was greeting one of her girlfriends). She initiates little bets, but is neither as competitive as Takagi or as aggressive as Hayase.

Like those other two rascals, Kubo’s primary purpose is to get closer to the boy she likes, and even if he hasn’t yet gotten the message (and probably won’t for some time), she looks determined to keep trying until she does, and in the meantime enjoy herself immensely. She even arranges for him to be able to give an answer in class by being called upon and giving him the floor.

At the end of a day Kubo tries to casually ask for Shiraishi’s LINE contact (called PINE in the show), but they’re interrupted by her friends, and before she knows it, he’s vanished. But when she spots him at a park on a school holiday, she cannot hide her elation, and uses her phone’s difficulty focusing on Shiraishi’s face to draw closer to his than ever to take a selfie together.

She then gets his PINE info, and proposes both verbally and in a text that they should hang out together sometime. Shiraishi wonders if she’s just messing/toying with him, but responds “all right”. He has no idea just how happy that makes Kubo. Her big sister even remarks at how cute her face looks, and asks her (and also can guess without asking) what happened to give her such an expression. Just love, baby.

Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible is a bright, breezy, fluffly school rom-com with cute character designs, exemplary voice wrok from both Hanazawa and Kawanishi Kengo (Rei from 3-gatsu No Lion, among other things), and generally low-key cozy vibes perfectly suited for a Tuesday Winter anime.

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – Ultra Romantic – 01 – Glory in the Granular

Miko Unplugged

“Continue” pressed and the utterly destroyed Shuchiin Academy miraculously reincorporated—an auspicious start to the third season. Our first easing back into the thick of things involves the student council room suddenly turning into a sylvan glade. Yuu can hear Miko’s peaceful study music because her earbuds are ever-so unplugged and she’s unaware.

The peaceful forest soon turns to jackhammers, the growling of camels, and finally positive affirmation from the voices of popular heartthrobs. Basically, Miko is exposing herself as a listener of increasingly embarrassing things, and giving ample ammo to Yuu, whom she’s been clear about not caring about a whit.

Even so, when the other council members enter, Yuu makes a sacrifice, not-quite plugging in his headphones to listen to a particularly frilly and chipper idol theme. He isn’t seeking thanks from Miko, just trying to mitigate the damage by getting her to notice she’s made the same mistake he just made.

However, Miko truly does care about Yuu so little that she ignores his hidden warning, and switches her morally supportive dreamboats right back on for everyone to hear and be thoroughly awkwarded out. As such, the first bout of the season is lost by both Yuu and Miko.

The Curse of Read Receipts

Kaguya is overjoyed to now have access to the President through LINE, but when he sends her two messages in two hours, she doesn’t know how to reply. Her fatal error is believing he isn’t aware she’s read his messages. From his chat screen it’s obvious she read them instantly due to the read receipt feature.

Eventually Miyuki determines that Kaguya isn’t aware of read receipts, and when his third sent message is instantly read, further determines that this is the adequate evidence of her faving feelings for him he’s been looking for. Granted both of them have been staring at their LINE screens for each other’s sakes, but as always this is about who admits love first!

Believing victory to be in grasp, Miyuki calls Kaguya to inform her of the read receipt feature and what it means. At this point, he really has won, but for Kaguya’s aristocratic dirty tricks! She employs Hayasaka, who was herself hesitating on whether to inform her mistress of her tech error, to make up some excuse.

Hayasaka’s hastily-summoned excuse ends up being not only wonderfully plausible but pretty much turns the tables against the cocky Miyuki: his messages are labeled as read immediately because they are…via computer…by the household staff…for security screening purposes. In light of this extended exchange, Chika, Yuu and Miko’s LINE messages to Kaguya go unanswered, and thus those three are the losers in this round.

Muscle Queen Kaguya

When Yuu gives up five feet from the council room dorm carrying a large load, Chika is sufficiently disgusted by his weakness to call for a Student Council Arm Wrestling Tournament. Because this involves holding hands, Miyuki and Kaguya are all for it. Miko is excluded from the bracket by a way-too-into-it Chika, while Kaguya shows off the result of using a hefty 15-kg draw weight on her bow in archery club by destroying Yuu.

Chika initially seems to be a tough out for Miyuki, until Kaguya, jealous and furious of them holding hands, informs the referee (Miko) that Chika is cheating, then explains precisely how she’s cheating in a level of detail reserverd for someone who wants nothing more than to have an innocent excuse to hold the hand of the boy she likes.

The final, then, is Kaguya v. Miyuki, of course, and they too seem equally matched at least to casual observers. However, as our trusty narrator explains, the two are both committed to drawing out the match—by remaining in a state of bliss—as long as possible!

Their delicate balance is only thrown off when Kaguya notices her hand and the Presidents are getting sweaty, and their sweat is starting to mix…so she panics and easily defeats him, in the same way she was able to joint lock him last season then return to her calming pose—with authority.

Thus Kaguya “wins” the third and final bout of the week, but her “prize” is to be awarded the titles “Muscle Queen/Princess” by Chika, resulting in her standing awkwardly atop a mountain of orange muscle men. Then Miyuki tells her that her final forceful thrust at the end was an impressive bit of arm wrestling.

To paraphrase Chika, A society that allows weak anime to go about their business oblivious to their own weakness is in serious need of a reset! Thankfully, Love is War is back, and remains at the top of the anime mountain; a no -cavities, low-sugar, low-carb show that never goes to bed before at least 30 minutes of muscle training.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War 2 – 12 (Fin) – Adjusted for Inflation

After the thrilling but nearly completely comedy-free Ishigami Sports Festival denouement, Love is War returns to its bread-and-butter with a relatively understated slice-of-life, life-goes-on finale. We get two stories, the first of which is by far the most emotionally engaging.

The Principal wants to snap photos of the StuCo, but Shinomiya family policy forbids Kaguya’s face from being distributed in any media, so she sits out the shoot. The Principal quickly pulls Miko out of her shell, but gets on Kaguya’s bad side when he pairs Miyuki and Chika as a dating pair.

While Kaguya once looked down on other girls who took pics with their phones, she’s nevertheless come to enjoy documenting her life with the StuCo on her antiquated flip phone (full disclosure: my landlord still has one, and she’s not planning on giving it up anytime soon!).

When the other members insist on including her on a private rooftop shoot, her phone falls off the roof during the exchange with the principal, and it is destroyed, along with all of the data (since it’s not only old, but a weird proprietary phone with no SD storage).

Crestfallen, Kaguya and Ai head to the store to buy the latest smartphone, but she’s thoroughly down that all of her precious memories were lost. The rest of the StuCo picks up on that, so Miyuki finally starts a StuCo LINE group with a shared cloud album, having held off until Kaguya got a smartphone, not wanting to leave her out. Suddenly, her phone, so sad and lonely when new and empty, starts to burst with brilliant 4K HDR photos of the StuCo’s hijinx.

This also serves as a curtain call for some of the most indelible images from this marvelous season. Kaguya’s blank look of quiet despair becomes a gleaming smile, and the five StuCo members pose for another group photo. Needless to say, Kaguya wins, having lost a low-res flip-phone album but gained a much more comprehensive hi-res one.

The majority of final segment feels like a stakes-free epilogue that could also have aired at any point this season. It makes a point to demonstrate that despite all the development these characters have gone through, they can still fall into their old habits, whether it’s Miyuki worried about Kaguya saying “How Cute” to Yuu losing his nerve.

The premise is easy enough, and starts out as a very direct double entendre involving pumping. Chika has a big balloon leftover from the sports fest, and pulls everyone into an increasingly stressful game in which each player must pump at least once, but if the balloon bursts, they lose. Chika actually gets poor obedient kohai Miko to pump the most, but lets her stop before it bursts.

This leaves Miyuki and Kaguya as the last two to pump, and they too survive, but when Chika gets a drop of tangerine juice on the paper-thin rubber, a cataclysmic explosion occurs that destroys the entire academy. As the credits zoom horizontally from right-to-left (a la Chihayafuru), both Kaguya and Miyuki, who survived the blast, are determined to get the other to take their hand.

What sets this interaction apart from so many past ones is that for once their wavelengths are perfectly aligned and they each get what they wanted, which was to hold the other’s hand without saving face or enduring mockery. It’s the perfect way to wrap up this momentous second season, while creating hope for a third one.

Still, I’d be very surprised (and delighted!) if a potential third episode surpassed this second, which goes down as one of the best second seasons of anime ever. MAL has it at #22 all time, and I think that’s a little low. I’ve savored every minute, and now that it’s over for now I shall miss it dearly!

Kaguya-sama: Love is War – 02 – It’s Not as Simple as Win or Lose

As a show that blasts through a lot of rapid-fire dialogue and shifts from one scenario to another, tackling a wide variety of interpersonal and societal concepts, it would seem Love is War trusts the intelligence of its audience.

But if that’s the case, why spend the first four minutes of this episode repeating all of the introductory explanations of how things work in the show? Did they just need to fill time, or did the producers think this all had to be explained again in consecutive weeks with the exact same narration and animation? I got it the first time you yelled it at me, VO guy!

Fortunately, that repetition is followed by three more very solid segments that build on the ongoing (and extremely counterproductive) conflict between Kaguya and Miyuki, starting with the notoriously frugal StuCo Prez finally acquiring a smartphone.

Unbeknownst to him, Miyuki dug into her bottomless rich girl resources to make it so he couldn’t resist buying one, so that he’d have to ask her for her contact info, which she’d consider no different than a confession, which would be a win for her.

While he doesn’t know he only has the phone because Kaguya wanted him to get one, he knows he can’t ask her for her info carelessly, and instead tries to bait her into asking for his by sharing a cute picture of him in his youth to Chika, then announcing he’ll change it in three minutes.

It may seem like playing dirty to use Chika as such a transparent pawn, but it’s not like she hasn’t influenced (and will influence) many of their decisions anyway. In this case, she’s a tool to lure Kaguya, who has to play dirty right back by applying “Maiden’s Tears” and protesting simply that Miyuki is being “mean.” It’s not a tactic she can use every time, but it works here, thanks to the psychological “Barnum Effect.”

However, Chika inadvertently throws another wrinkle into the equation that results in a draw, or loss, for both parties. She believes Kaguya is crying because she can’t chat on Line with her and Miyuki, because her antiquated flip phone—which she’s had since Kindergarten—won’t support the app. For all her towering rich girl resources, sentimentality is her undoing (as is her being unaware she couldn’t get Line on her phone).

As with all of their disputes, this isn’t really one that had to take place at all, if only Kaguya and Miyuki weren’t so proud and petty. This is proven when they innocuously exchange contact info anyway.

In Round Two, it’s frigid outside but Chika is already looking forward to Summer, and warns Kaguya and Miyuki that if they continue to sit on their hands they’ll graduate school with “nothing happening.” Chika means having fun high school memories, but Kaguya and Miyuki clearly see it as ragging on their lack of progress due to simple stubbornness and embarrassment wrapped up in an overstuffed “Love is War!” cover.

Chika suggests a Summer trip together, and Miyuki’s imagination immediately turns to the mountains, where he’ll woo Kaguya under the stars (with the requisite mention of Deneb and Altair before she states her desire to be “Alpha Centauri Bb to his B”). Naturally, Kaguya’s suggestion is to go to the sea, not the mountains.

Miyuki can’t swim, which he knows Kaguya would find “cute”, but every excuse he has, from crowds and sun to sharks, is immediately shot down by Kaguya, who had an entire manual prepared with counterarguments to anything he’d say in such a situation. Miyuki curses her for being such a rich girl; all her arguments backs up by cold hard cash. Besides, Kaguya says, the mountains are full of bugs—something the bug-hating Miyuki didn’t think of.

So he relents and says he’ll have to buy a swimsuit. Kaguya has won; they’re going to the beach, right? Wrong. Chika mentions she also needs to get a new swimsuit…because she won’t fit in her old one. Kaguya enters a body spiral, fearing she’ll be the one called “cute” by Miyuki  he inevitably compares her “peashooter” bust to Chika’s “tank-class” physique.

Now at a stalemate, with both now having good reasons not to go to either locale, they leave it up to Chika. Bad Idea; they should have come up with a third place to go as a compromise. Chika picks the mountains, but due to her previously unmentioned obsession with death and the occult, she picks the creepy Mount Osore. The match ends in neither a win or loss for anyone, but is simply “ruined.”

The third segment was my favorite, because it shakes things up a bit by having a wild card element other than Chika: a classmate seeking romantic advice from Miyuki. The kid assumes, like most of the school, not only that Miyuki and Kaguya are a couple, but that Miyuki is an experience veteran in the ways of love.

The truth is, as we know, that he has ZERO romantic experience, and is a complete dilettante in matters of love. But due to his otherwise high opinion of himself, his intellect, and his ability to bullshit, Miyuki decides to sally forth and offer advice, well aware that if he messes up and his ignorance is exposed, it could ruin his reputation.

This has all the makings of a train wreck in slow motion, and Kaguya is lucky enough to be there to eavesdrop, because we’re treated to her hilarious commentary of the advice session, in which she internally contradicts pretty much every piece of advice Miyuki provides.

She’s certain the chocolate the guy received was obligatory, but Miyuki insists it was meant to show that she actually loves him. Even the guy thinks she was making fun of him with her friends for not having a boyfriend, but Miyuki insists all four girls are into him, and he’ll have to break three hearts to win the fourth. I just couldn’t stop laughing not just at Miyuki’s ridiculous advice, but Kaguya’s harsh critique of same.

Finally, Miyuki demonstrates to the guy how to confess and ask the girl out, by using a tactic he “invented” that is nothing more than cornering a girl and slapping the wall, something Kaguya privately points out has been around forever. The thing is, Kaguya is on the other side of the door when Miyuki slams it, so in a way, he unknowingly does a wall-slam (or “wall-down” as he calls it) on her…and it kinda works.

Miyuki also tells the guy not to engage in unsightly convoluted schemes with the girl he likes, and even he can’t ignore the irony of him making that kind of statement…convoluted schemes being his stock and trade.

The guy, whom Kaguya has concluded to be an even bigger idiot and naif than Miyuki, thanks him for his advice, and brings up the rumor that Miyuki and Kaguya are dating, which flusters both of them. Miyuki quickly denies, and furthermore relays his suspicion that Kaguya doesn’t even like him and may indeed hate him.

When the guy asks him how he feels about Kaguya, Miyuki lists all the things he doesn’t like first, irking her from behind the door, before launching into ebullient praise and declaring her the “perfect woman”. The fact is, Miyuki spotted Kaguya’s hair peeking out from behind the door and so said what he knew she wanted to hear—as well as something he truly believed about her, but wouldn’t suffer consequence since she “wasn’t there to hear it.”

Similarly, Kaguya can openly display her wonderful mood after having such nice things said about her without worrying about him getting suspicious about why; after all, she doesn’t know he spotted her. Still, while there’s no consequence there isn’t much benefit to Miyuki’s actions, as it’s not like he wasn’t able to get Kaguya to confess, so he’s the loser for expending so much effort. On the bright side, as I predicted, the guy’s wall-slam actually ended up working (for once), so go figure!

Tsuki ga Kirei – 12 (Fin)

Going into the finale, I held out a glimmer of hope that Kotarou would be able eke out a high enough score to get into Akane’s school, and even if he wasn’t accepted, they’d figure something out.

Well, the finale wastes no time giving us the answer, dropping the news that Kotarou was not accepted in the first minute. It’s a crushing blow, especially knowing how many “first loves” like this are ended by long distance.

Still, if he had passed and been able to attend high school with Akane, where would the drama be? Kotarou’s mentor tells him that nothing an author goes through is for naught; one could say the same of lovers.

One person who hopes long distance will change things is Akane’s sister, who reasonably asks Akane if she’ll take the move as an opportunity to break up with Kotarou and turn the page rather than endure the pain of the distance. Akane is adamant that that’s not what she wants…and that her sister is a jerk.

Another is Chinatsu, who is ecstatic when Kotarou is accepted to the municipal school and takes it to mean fate has worked out in her favor. She decides the time is right to confess to Kotarou; to tell him she’s always like him, and ask if she’s good enough.

And she’s just…not. Everything worked out in her favor except the most important thing: that Kotarou is able to return her feelings. He’s not. She accepts the loss (again) and tries to look forward to the next year with Kotarou as just a friend.

Chinatsu tells Akane about her confession attempt, but Kotarou doesn’t, which makes their last date together before her move more fraught. When Kotarou tells her all the ways HE will make this work—getting a job to afford train fare to Chiba as many times a week as he can manage—she becomes overwhelmed by the burden she believes she’s putting on him.

This is another case of these two being in uncharted territory with no map compass, or experience. Kotarou’s a great guy who loves Akane, but she needs more than for him to say HE’s got this; she has to be a participant in making their relationship survive, and because she’s anxious by nature (doubly so when it comes to him), his unceasing niceness actually works against him as she becomes overwhelmed, cries, kisses him, and runs off.

That meeting on the river is the last time they see each other…before the move, but Kotarou decides to take the advice of friends and start writing as a way to process his feelings. He posts the stories of his first tender love to an online board, where they resonate because everyone has been there, and many even wish they could go back to a time when love was so simple.

Ironically, he’s posting these stories at the end of those simple times. From here on out, things will get more complicated by all of the things in life that interfere or threaten what we want most: to simply be with the person we love.

Yet even though he’s too late to say goodbye to Akane in person either at her now-vacant house or at the train station, Kotarou’s feelings, and the fact they’ll never change, manage to get through to her, and they’re the same feelings she has for him: a deep, warm love that is poised to endure the challenges of growing into adulthood.

And so ends the first stage of the romance between Kotarou and Akane. It turns out not to be fleeting, as thanks to the magic of LINE they stay in touch almost constantly, and also meet up quite a bit once Kotarou makes enough money.

As the credits roll, we see the couple enjoying more firsts like movie night alone (with the parents coming home too early); their first trip together alone; missing out on chatting when Akane gets home too late; Kotarou having drinks with Akane’s parents; Akane being fitted for a wedding dress.

It may seem like jumping ahead, but Tsuki ga Kirei isn’t about these moments and days and nights years…it was the story of how these two found each other, fell in love, and never stopped loving. It was a foundation, and it was a damned strong one.

By the end, after the challenges of long distance and high school and entering the workplace and more hard work and more distance, Kotarou and Akane come out of it wonderfully, get married, and have a child.

It’s the happy ending I hoped for, but with the added bonus of having been earned due to the challenges endured and sacrifices made. And brothers and sisters, if any of you came out of this episode—and that beautiful closing montage in particular—with totally dry eyes, you may want to check your pulse!

Tsuki ga Kirei – 01 (First Impressions)

Tsuku ga Kirei, or As the Moon, So Beautiful, is a quiet, wholesome little tale of tender love blooming with the cherry blossoms. It’s the story of a guy and a girl who like each other but have no clue how to initiate contact. The girl, Mizuno Akane, steels herself by kneading her ever-present “squeezie” and attempts said contact; the guy, Azumi Kotarou, is mostly passive, hiding either among his mates or in his books, but observing nonetheless.

In a stroke of dumb luck (or a meet-cute, if you will), both Akane and Kotarou’s families decide to eat out at the same restaurant (sadly, not Wagnaria). From the moment they notice each other’s presence to their closer encounter at the beverage counter, the dinner scene is suffused with tension.

It’s a tension that reminds Kotarou of one of his favorite writers, Dazai, who said “how excruciatingly arduous and unbearable it is to live,” mostly because he just hasn’t mustered the guts to talk to the girl he likes. Not that Akane is having any more success.

Their mutual concession to the acknowledgement of each others’ existence is for Akane to kindly ask Kotarou not to tell anyone at school about their encounter, and her gratitude that he’s in agreement. They continue to exist in close proximity, unable to make a connection right away; waiting for the other person to make a move, or return a glance.

In another stroke of luck, Akane and Kotarou are assigned to the same sports festival task group. Akane is in charge of coordinating communications through LINE (the real-life ‘LIME’ of ReLIFE), but neglects to contact Kotarou, landing him in trouble with the group leader. She makes up for it by helping him with his gruntwork, giving him her LINE ID and even making a bit of physical contact by patting the dust off his back.

That night, she receives a message from Kotarou, who starts batting his light switch cord in celebration of the progress he’s made. When Akane gets the message, she beams like she’s never beamed before in the episode, equally glad that finally she’s made a connection with the guy she likes. Even teasing from her big sister can’t knock her off this high.

The seiyuu of Tsuki ga Kirei’s lead couple put on a clinic of wordless sounds. Sounds of reluctance, tentativeness, disappointment, and frustration. But all the tension pays off with the genesis of a relationship, and one can’t help but root for both of them, as their joy at the end is palpable; the proverbial speck of gold, glimmering faintly at the bottom of a river of grief.

The message from Dazai is clear: anything worth having is something that’s hard to get.