Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso 18 – 19

He’s just not going to let her give up

Two Episodes, Two different performances.

Showing What’s Possible

Nagi and Kousei stand out

Starting with the first performance, because that’s a good place to start. Nagi and Kousei get to perform at her cultural festival. And while Nagi’s happy that she can hear the piano and everything’s going well at the beginning, Kousei has now embraced that which is he formerly felt was a terrible handicap with playing, not being able to hear the piano and the notes he’s playing. So he pushes. And from then we get to hear the voice in Nagi’s head, as she reacts to Kousei’s playing. At first scared, shocked that he is pushing, not following. And then she breaks through and decides to match his intensity, meet his challenge. And of course, the audience reaction is excellent, with Takeshi wondering how his little sister got involved with Kousei, Hiroko realizing how much Nagi (and Kousei) has grown, and the rest of the audience enraptured… including Kaori listening from her hospital room.

Takeshi hears the wrong thing

It was nice to have a performance like that, the first one that wasn’t full of Kousei’s mom and Kousei’s insecurities. And it was nice to have Kousei play without being the focus, with Nagi being the focus of the performance even afterward as she accepted the feelings of her friends. The only person who’s not focused on her is her brother Takeshi. He’s more worried about how Nagi knows Kousei, and the “precious experiences” and “lots of things” that Kousei is showing her, and thereby renews his passion to defeat Kousei, now not just in piano, but for his sister’s attention. So maybe something of her feelings got through to him, but of course he didn’t take it the way she wanted him to.

A Renewed Reason to Live

Going for it

Did we know Kaori was that bad off? What’s worse is that she had given up. She had said her goodbyes to performing, to that thrill of living, and almost even to Kousei. It seemed like all she wanted from him was to comfort her and pat her head as she moved out of this life. But Kousei’s not interested in that. He played with Nagi to kick her butt out of that thinking, and it worked. But what he follows it up with is even more inspiring or cruel, depending on your point of view: He asks her to play with him another time. And this when she had already felt like she left it behind. But it has the intended effect. Kaori decides to have some surgery that probably has some small chance of success, and also restarts physical therapy. I liked the scene where she was talking to the doctor, with her parents behind her, and her mother’s breakdown as she says she couldn’t face them before, having decided to give up. And giving that speech in front of her parents points out that Kousei is the one who has inspired her. And they get a chance to thank him when they meet him at the hospital. No idol worship this time, no fawning. This time it’s sincere gratitude from parents who feel like their daughter has a chance because she hasn’t given up.

Offering the Egg Salad Sandwich of Friendship

But before that, Kousei has to play in the first round of another competition. Thankfully, the show skips over about 2 months between the festival and the beginning of the competition. We do get a little bit of Tsubaki being all tsundere about Kousei again, as Kashiwagi listens and tries to push her the right way, as usual. I’m beginning to think that there’s nothing the show could do to get Tsubaki to finally be up front with her feelings for Kousei, at least not with Kaori alive. She’s definitely on her way to the friendzone. And the way she’s acting, she’s gotta accept that.

Takeshi tries to beam the others out

Some others who have entered into a friendzone are Kousei, Emi, and Takeshi. Meeting backstage before their performances in the competition, Kousei shares his egg salad sandwich with them. That finally seems to have broken the ice, or at least the overwhelming tension between the three of them, especially right before a performance. And while Takeshi, going first, worries that he doesn’t have any nervous energy before the performance, he doesn’t miss it, as being more relaxed allows him to throw down a great performance, one that sets a bar for the others (and gets the crowd all applauding, again out of character for a situation like that).

I thought it was interesting that Emi and Kousei didn’t just reflexively say something like ‘good luck’ or ‘do your best’ as Takeshi started to the stage. And not because they didn’t want him to do well, just because that’s not appropriate for this situation. These two episodes were good, with the two performances taking up a lot of the time, and the rest of it wrapping up Nagi’s story and bottoming out Kaori’s moods. It was much better seeing her on the way up than continuing to wallow in her own situation. Will this surgery help, whatever it is? Or will it fail. Unlike the illness itself, which we all saw coming a mile away, the results of that surgery are a lot more ambiguous, and the show could do almost anything with it.

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!