Glasslip – 07
Man, Kakeru, you can’t have a girl look at you like that and not react
There’s a common theme in anime, and in life, that people wish that “these times could last forever.” I don’t know if anyone in Glasslip has wished for this, but it’s no different there that these times don’t last forever.
Flux and Change
The handholding is a nice touch
Things don’t last, and what we’re seeing is the end of a regular group being together. One could ‘blame’ it on a bunch of different people in the group, but as I said back in the beginning of the show, it was in an unstable equilibrium in the first place. All they needed was a push one way or another, or multiple pushes in different directions, to start rolling apart. It’s certainly true that some people in the group – Yanagi, Yuki, and Sachi, for instance – blame Kakeru’s arrival, or even Kakeru himself. But I don’t think that was the reason. He’s just given a direction for Touko to go in, while the others go in different directions.
Boyfriend-san?!?!?
One thing I find interesting is that the person who’s still most comfortable in the group is the one who has found what he thinks is the most secure situation. Hiro is even rewarded when Sachi introduces him to her mother (and I love hearing Miki Itou, she’s always a great choice for a role like that) as her boyfriend. He’s the one who keeps wanting the group to be together to do things, because he’s pretty darn oblivious, a lot like Touko. But it’s not all his fault, because he seems to be pretty insulated from the rest of the group. He’s not going to find out much about Yana and Yuki because they’re not going to tell him, and neither is Touko. And he’s the only one who doesn’t have any problem with Touko and Kakeru. As far as he knows, Kakeru’s just a guy Touko likes, and could be a friend.
Sachi has a much different reaction when she is with Touko
Nobody Else’s Friend
Hanging out with himself
But everyone else is trying to deal with the issues that their lives are having. Kakeru’s wondering if he’ll need his imaginary selves to continue talking to, now that he seems to have found something special with Touko (this just seemed like a general device to show that Kakeru does a lot of self-contemplation, although it’s a bit odd for them to be personified, even in his head). It seems like they’ve been more like imaginary companions for a boy who has moved around a lot in his life. Touko’s trying to figure out what Kakeru is with her. Is he her boyfriend? Does he like her? He seemed to after the last episode, but she’s too embarrassed to really get a clarification on it. And their discussion is interrupted by a vision, where she becomes very protective of him, underscoring the amount that she cares for him.
At least all the middle school girls think Yuki’s cool
But the others really don’t care for him at all. Sachi still seems very jealous of him, even if she spins it as ‘the group’ is interrupted by Kakeru. I also note that Sachi lies to Hiro to get him out of the room so Touko can visit. Is she two-timing him? She’s said to him that he’s her boyfriend, and said to Touko that he’s not. And then she plainly uses him to try to set a meetup when Touko’s going to meet Kakeru at the beach, just to interfere. Good for Hiro that he gets upset at this. Meanwhile, Yana blames Kakeru for making Yuki be ‘not cool’ (although all the girls in Hina’s swim club think that he’s super cool). I am not sure if she’s referring to Yuki’s failure to deal with his rejection from Touko, Yuki’s failure to deal with Kakeru, or Kakeru just making Yuki look like a yokel. But Yana’s opinion of Yuki has changed, even more than when she saw him confess to Touko.
Is Touko seeing Yana’s intent?
Things never stay the same. It’s how you deal with the changes that determine how you move into the future. But even though Touko’s handling a lot of the changes well, she’s still having trouble keeping up with the others at times. And her visions are turning into something worse, perhaps affected by the mindset of the person she’s talking to, or maybe they’re just becoming more and more paranoid. First with Kakeru falling, and then with the image of black birds flying at her from Yana. Is this something she can get a handle on? And will the strengthening of them drive a wedge between her and Kakeru?
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I was so WTF about the Diet Coke Break Yuki. I could not believe that I was watching that transpire. I fully expected him to break out a can of soft drink and guzzle it sans shirt.
Oh, goodness, I may not like how Sachi is manipulating things, but it is so very interesting, and shows some incredible depth to her character. I wonder how long and strong Hiro’s reaction will last…
Kakeru’s “hanging out with himselves” is a very neat construction of his time sensing…how it that going to play out…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I personally think Hiro will bounce back pretty quickly. I somewhat think that his reaction is based on the fact that he holds no malice towards Kakeru. All he’s seen of Kakeru is 1) he’s another guy their age and 2) Touko seems to like him. So as far as Hiro’s concerned, why shouldn’t he be invited to hang out with them. I really don’t think he gets the subplot of Sachi trying to keep Kakeru away from “her” Touko, just that Sachi doesn’t like Kakeru.
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
Touko is slowly starting to realize that her friends are becoming more distant from her, and i feel that as that is happening, her visions are becoming more paranoid and menacing. It’s the doubt growing in her that is starting to change her visions i believe. As for sachi, i never put it past her to do such a thing; I still dont think that she is looking to be romantically involved with Touko, but the person she loves being with the most is being “taken” away by another guy, and she decided to do whatever it took to stop that from happening, even going as far as manipulating hiro’s feelings.
This goes back to previous eps when we see that Sachi actually was aware of Hiro’s feelings the entire time, and while i dont think she is uncomfortable with making more out of it, she had other things occupying her mind at the moment and hurt her friendship with Hiro. Who knows what’s actually on Sachi’s mind; for all we know, she may feel like she is living on borrowed time and is desperate to do whatever she has to in order to keep the person she deems closest to her from slipping away from her. I dont like what Sachi did, but i certainly dont hate her character.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Heh, I *do* still think that Sachi is more in love with Touko romantically than Hiro. For all that she calls Hiro her boyfriend to her mother (perhaps because that is acceptable to her seemingly traditional mother, whereas having a girlfriend wouldn’t be), she hasn’t said at least on camera to Touko that Hiro’s her boyfriend, just denied that idea. Perhaps she just likes having the company of someone who will sit and read with her, or she’s mainly humoring Hiro.
Hmm, I don’t know if the worrying visions that Touko’s seeing are due to her own worries or that she’s picking up things from others.
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
See i dont know about that because Kakeru was alluding in this ep that the fragments they see may not be true depictions of the future. Now for all we knwo they could have just been his personally musings and we should probably take it with a grain of salt..but stories usually lay out hints like that when there’s more to something that meets the eye.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
One thing I’ve noticed (and checked) is that the voices heard by Kakeru and Touko don’t match the actual happening. While the words and speaker may be the same, the inflection is different. It’s not exactly the same. So they haven’t been ‘true depictions of the future’, more like allusions to the future.
In my statement above, I was trying to make a distinction about what the source of the more sinister nature of some of Touko’s recent visions is, whether it’s internal (like you said, paranoia or unease on Touko’s part) or whether it’s external (like Yana’s bad mood projecting onto Touko).
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
She was using him D= That was awful. So that’s why she said without any problems that Hiro was her “boyfriend”… Is the word “boyfriend” in japanese means the same in english, or is it different from “kareshi”, like in the meaning of a friend who is a boy?
Right now I’m way more interested in Sachi and Hiro than the “what should we do” from Touko and Kakeru…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
There was definitely a meaning that okaa-san and Hiro both thought was in operation, and that was “special boy to Sachi”. To me, the thing I’m interested in isn’t really Sachi and Hiro, but Sachi and Touko, since that’s what’s pushing that triangle.