Insomniacs After School – 12 – Love is Powerful

The bad news: The next day is raining cats and dogs, with more terrible weather in the forecast, so no photography work can be done. The good news: we get to bask longer in Isaki and Ganta’s infectiously adorable domestic bliss. There are couples that burn bright and briefly, and then there’s these two soulmates, who feel so comfy and right together it’s as if they’ve already been married for years.

Far from their first kiss creating an awkward rift, these two feel even more close and comfortable just hanging out together, even in silence as they do different things. When their bare feet accidentally touch (guest storyboards by Quentin Tarantino), they draw apart, then re-touch and stay there, connected ever so lightly but profoundly. They’re not awkward, but they are still bashful! You get the feeling both of them would be perfectly content if things just stayed this way forever.

But when they run low on food and camp budget funds, they’re bailed out by the arrival of Ukegawa and the girls, armed with groceries (in Anamizu’s case, way too many bananas!) I loved the joke of Kani bringing a pouch of mysterious white powder she says will “get the party started”, and it turn out to be okonomiyaki flour, as she shows off her pro spatula skills.

After dinner, everyone get a look at Ganta’s photos are genuinely wowed. It’s a nice confidence boost for the guy. It’s a testament both to the writing and to how likable the other characters are that their presence never feels like an intrusion of the couple’s “honeymoon”. On the contrary, it’s more a validation and celebration of their relationship.

When the girls go out for a ladies-only sunset soiree, Ukegawa gets to rap with Ganta about how things are going. He can tell something’s different about his old friend, saying he’s “back to being the cool kid he was” while also seeming taller. Ganta wordlessly admits he and Isaki are pretty much an item, and Ukegawa makes clear everyone who’s come is rooting for them. Even Kani!

When Nono’s ghost story involving a lady screaming is interrupted by the call of a wild deer, it freaks the girls out and everyone ends up in a pile on the floor. After dark they light fireworks, Ukegawa breaks out his Ukelele (great name-instrument synergy), and everyone eventually joins him in a song about love and happiness. It’s not the Al Green song, but it’s a damn pretty song.

The next day, after Ganta films some video of Kani dancing and Nana blows and sketches some bubbles, the friends board the train back home, and Isaki and Ganta are alone again. Isaki describes her granmother as the lovey-dovey type who was always holding her gramps’ hand when he was still alive.

She predicts that Ganta will be a stubborn old man. When he asks her what kind of old woman she’ll be, she pauses and says she doesn’t know what the future holds. She smiles a bittersweet smile as the sun beats down, and Ganta is compelled to take her hand and not let go. He feels like if he doesn’t, Isaki might melt away in the summer heat.

While stolling about hand-in-hand, Isaki gets a call and then texts from her mom; thanks to her sister posting pics, the gig is up. Her parents know she’s alone with a boy. Her phone call is presented inaudibly, which has a more profound effect, especially as we watch her body language and fidgeting.

Her parents order her to come home right away. When she tells Ganta she’s not going anywhere until they complete the camp by going to the Mawaki Site, Ganta tells her she’s being willful and selfish, as her parents are merely worried about her. They exchange insults, mostly playfully, and then her parents message her that they’re picking her up tonight.

First, Ganta tells Isaki that they should clean the place well, as they were fortunate to spend the time they did there. This makes Isaki tear up, but she agrees. Then Ganta asks Isaki to let him kidnap her, and her face lights up. He notes that they shouldn’t defy her parents, but he doesn’t have a choice. They started this training camp together, and they’ll finish it together. Let no one say Ganta can’t be a romantic guy when he wants to be!

3-gatsu no Lion – 40

I realized something this week. Whenever 3GL strays too far from the core cast of Rei, the Kawamotos, and Niakidou, my interest flags. We’re now in episode 40 of 44, and the show (granted, based on the manga) has seen fit to spend not just one but two episodes on the grizzled 9-time Kishou champion Yanagihara, looking to beat a revitalized Shimada for his tenth to make him an “eternal champion.”

Which is fine; that’s all fine…if I really cared about Yanagihara as a character…and I don’t. Aside from bickering with the comic relief chariman, I hadn’t really thought much of the guy, and while we certainly get a portrait of the kind of man he is and the burdens he carries (all his old retired friends see him as a proxy in this match), the “old man raging against the dying of the light” is, to be generous, a well-tread path.

From a technical standpoint the execution is all there, as is Shinbou’s usual eclectic visualizations of the players’ emotional states. The trips into Yanagihara’s psyche in which he’s bound and pulled by the hundreds to thousands of strips of cloth, or burning like a human torch, or standing in a one-burnt but now verdant field, are all visually arresting.

And yet…I was still left mostly cold, in part because he ends up winning (and delivering Shimada yet another loss), and in part because, as I said, Yanagihara just isn’t on my list of characters I’m emotionally invested in, and two episodes simultaneously felt like not quite enough to get invested in, and too much time to spend on a tertiary (at best) member of the cast.

Mostly, I think I’ve just got Kawamoto withdrawal. So congrats, Saku-chan, for winning the tenth and becoming eternal with one hell of a game of shogi—a game no one who knows shogi (or thought they knew it) expected a man of his years to play. But with just four episodes left, I’m ready to get back to our core characters’ lives.

3-gatsu no Lion – 39

Returning from an Olympic break, 3GL turns its attention away from both Rei and the Kawamoto and focuses on two other shogi players. Shimada is going up against Yanagihara Sakutarou in the Kishou Championship; Rei and Nikaidou will only be giving commentary.

Yanagihara has won the championship fourteen times, and at 66 is the oldest active Class A player. As one of the elder statesmen of his sport, he seems to effortlessly surround himself with supporters and pals, all of whom call him “Saku-chan.” This irks Shimada, who really really wants to win his first title, even if he has to end Yanagihara’s warm reunions.

What Shimada might be too focused on winning to understand is that Yanagihara isn’t interested in passing the mantle of Kishou champion to anyone. Why would he? What comes next after he’s been knocked off the top of the pyramid?

He now stands alone, while everyone else has put their faith and their hopes in his continued success, and he wears those wishes like a mess of heavy white sashes, constantly threatening to smother him.

We see the weight both of those sashes and the realities of old age, as he takes every morning extra slow to ensure he takes all the medicine he needs to take. Once the match begins, Shimada is determined and uncharacteristically fiery, but Yanagihara is no slouch.

On the contrary, when an old friend told him early retirement “scared him” and was like “standing in a burnt field”, Yanagihara summons the flames that burned the field to begin with, and uses them to propel himself along in the match, which so far looks like the liveliest and most aggressive Kishou final match in years. Poor Shimada…he has the worst luck with opponents!