Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso – 04

Kaori is a force on stage

Can they make it in time? And will Kousei even be able to play if they do? It’s time for the second round of the competition, and for Kaori and Kousei to make their debut.

What Am I Even DOING Here?

Kaori breaks him out of his reverie

First tho, Kaori’s gotta get Kousei on the stage. Like he was all week, like he was on the roof, he’s still not sure he can do this. The same excuses: he’s not an accompanist, he can’t play anymore, he’s not prepared, they won’t be satisfied with the performance. Always hesitating, always holding back. But Kaori’s not that way. Always pulling, always moving forward, she’s literally pulling Kousei onto the stage. “Look up, look at me.” Look out of that cage of sheet music you’ve been trapped in. Once again, she has that freedom that Kousei didn’t know anyone could have, but in seeing it, he’s entranced.

She might deny it, but to Kousei, SHE is the freedom

Kaori’s personality is the driving force behind all she does. At this point, it’s unclear why she’s focused its power on Kousei, tho. Tsubaki? We understand her. She wants Kousei to be happy, she wants him to come out of his self-imposed mental exile. As she said last week, she doesn’t even care if he keeps playing the piano or not, but she wants him out of the box that he’s put himself in. But why is Kaori doing this? She even showed doubts yesterday (in the show) that this was the right thing to do for Kousei. But today, it’s full speed ahead. Perhaps that’s because it’s time to fish or cut bait, they’re headed for the stage.

The best drawing of Kaori so far

But something else that’s becoming clear to me is that she’s basically been holding back on Kousei: her knowledge of him, her responses to him. I wonder if she recognized him from the very beginning, seeing him while she was playing with the kids, and just went along with Tsubaki’s “Friend A” business. At every turn, she’s been way ahead of Kousei. Is it because he’s just that legendary? Or is it because she’s generally interested in him. It’s even to the point where I think she was actually waiting for him, not for Watari. If she was interested in Watari, I would have thought that she’d have talked about him quite a bit more. Yet we saw none of that. Did Kousei’s piano affliction cut that off? Did it just get edited out? I don’t really think so. The more we see, the more I think that Kaori’s been interested in Kousei, at least in his opinion and his approval, from almost the beginning.

And Now the Test

Bad mom… and good mom

Once on stage, the buzz spreads quickly: Arima is the accompanist. I liked the audience judge (he hasn’t been named, but he’s the voice of the judges for us) wondering what they had planned. The answer: nothing. There’s no plan, there’s no practice, there’s no ready. This is just “Let’s a go!” But from the start, Kousei’s thinking the wrong thing. How it’s not too hard, how he’s glad it’s this piece. And then his mom shows up, and it starts falling apart. The flood, the silence. No matter how hard he bangs the keys, he can’t hear it. But everyone else can. He is ruining the performance, turning the crowd against him (“Why is he messing up her performance?”). And finally, he just gives up. But at least this time he’s asking the question: “Why, I’m pounding the keys so hard, why is the only thing I can’t hear my piano?”

Everything about the animation of the piano in this series has been excellent, including this symbolism of Kousei’s affliction

But Kaori’s not going to let him go. She hasn’t said it, but we know why she’s in this competition: It’s not to win. It’s not to even compete. It’s so people can hear her music. And this time, her music includes Kousei. And for once, we see a different side of Kousei’s mom. Not the broken wretch, trying to transfer her pain and failure into her young son, but before that, a lively loving woman, teaching her son not to bang on the piano, but treat it like a baby. And so steeled, Kousei joins back in with Kaori, but not as an accompanist. This time it’s as a soloist, the way he knows how to play, even if he can’t hear the notes. Answering the power of Kaori’s violin. And tho she chides him for trying to steal the spotlight, I think she’s delighted to rise to the challenge. I think this is the music she wanted to play with Kousei, the performance she wanted to give. She wanted someone at her level, someone she could punch who would punch back. And having found that person, she gives it her all, leaving everything on the stage, even her body as she collapses after the performance.

An excellent episode, I thought, perhaps with the exception of the cliché of Kaori collapsing. We’ll see how they continue that next week, and I hope that it can pull out something good. Perhaps it will forestall a debrief of their performance, as that could have ruined the mood if they talked about his initial failure. But that doesn’t seem like what Kaori would want to talk about anyway. She’s an exceptional (in more than one way) young player: willing to flout the standards of the competition, interested only in her performance being received by the audience. And I think she wanted Kousei along in part because he could bring her level up.

She saw it

But what’s getting complicated is the romance angle of the show. A lot happened in 8 minutes of performance, and none of it was lost on the two people in the audience that mattered, Watari and Tsubaki. She saw the look that Kousei gave Kaori. You could almost hear Tsubaki’s heart cracking over the sound of the performance when she saw that. But at the same time, Watari’s possessiveness of Kaori increased. Does he have any claim on her? He saw a sparkle in her that he hadn’t seen before. Is he falling for her? And if he is, will it come down to, as he said in episode 2, the girl he is crushing on being in love with someone else, but still sparkling in his eyes? That would be an intriguing turnaround. And is Tsubaki realizing the same thing? Who says that it only applies to guys?