Masamune-kun no Revenge – 02
Gotta get dem buns, hun!
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So here we are in the second week of Winter 2017 and Masamune-kun has a lot on his mind. Being that mindful, you’d think he wouldn’t screw it up so much… |
Explosive Croquette Buns
…working makes us faster better stronger..
When we were last with the lunkhead, he had just received a mysterious letter that was placed in his shoe locker, and this episode doesn’t waste any time getting back to that. It’s obvious that this sort of weird insult has an effect on him, and it’s also a piece of work that reminds us of his taunted past. Soon his mind starts working over-time and thoughts past of abuses and paranoia catch up to him. I loved how easily the most negative feelings he could conjure didn’t take at all long to bubble to the surface. It turns his bravado into a paper thin shield, and he fears the worst from people, as he is turning some unfair bullying that he got as a little kid into what he considers fair criticism from his peers in the present. In many ways he’s not only still carrying around that metaphorical baby-fat, he’s forgetting why he drug that tire around in the first place. But he can’t mire around for long; he wants to turn this situation around on the shoe-locker messenger. Which brings him to Yoshino and her daily mission of feeding the troll.
Wicked Step-Aki?
Poor Yoshino, this really is the a very thankless job, and you have to wonder about the nature of her. It’s established that her family has always been retainers of the Adagaki family for generations, and the story actually makes that work for itself other than being an empty trope. Being stuck as someone’s lackey also means that someone else is stuck with you as their lackey; which doesn’t excuse the hell of being born into that sort of tradition. But the two things we take away from Aki’s surreptitious bun-munching (yes, I said it…) this time around is that she really isn’t comfortable with it either; it could be because Yoshino is really bad at it and fawns in a way that is irritating, or Aki chafes at the thought like I do. But I think it dovetails into what I said about her character last episode – she wants true peers that like her for who she is without having to keep up appearances. Though who can really blame her for being fawned on by girls that are pleasant about it?
Gotta a bone to pick?
So, getting back to our clumsy Cinderella, Yoshino; and I should say, always beware the quiet ones, they’ve got something going on that would surprise you. She lays it all down in a way that Makabe just can’t quite ignore. I mean, trapping him and waving around a knife was just to get his attention.But making him realize there was more to his past than Aki and some bullie – she was there as well- was how she kept his attention. So, offering to help him exact his revenge? That has getting him by the raison-d’etre. What sort of hold does she really want to have on him, if she doesn’t have a hold already? I mean, right after Aki reacts to having Makabe’s cold milk box on her cheek, Yoshino does rather have the “significant look” thing going on. How quiet can she keep about things, and how deep are her plans?
So yeah, Makabe, you’re just…just….
The rest of the episode is pretty much devoted to him being a complete tool, a total idiot, and just an arse-face. So yeah, volunteering to help out with school beautification, joining that committee, is meritorious, and then doing it just to get close to a girl you like? That’s pretty typical. But doing to just to to be around Aki, just to get one step closer to his awful revenge? Well things like that have a karmic bite.
First, he get’s some time to think, and having dwelled on his own negativity way to much this day, he actually starts to unwind, and get real. He’s starting to see how his facade doesn’t matter he ends on “No one would want to go out with me”.
Then, second, enters Futaba. As sweet as sunshine, she asks him out, even makes plans to be with him more, despite how busy she must be. He’s taken aback, and becomes genuinely smitten, if only for a while. He soon remembers his dim Love-Revenge plan. That turns Futaba’s sweetness into one more plate on his idiot armor. So he’s got jaws open, ready to bite himself.
Finally, third, in walks Aki just to make sure he clamps down hard. Saying she would take his email was how she got his attention, leading him on the goose chase was how she kept it…But declining him like that? Same stuff she did before to the other hapless boy, only this time not so personally humiliating. What’s that about? You don’t play if you want them to go away…
The lady has style…
Some things, hidden and not so hidden
Youjoshino wanted in the picture, too….
This was a really good follow-up to the premiere episode. It added to the content and took the characters across several very compelling beats while leading us the around the emerging plot a bit, just like Aki does to Makabe in a way. Well in a way, who didn’t see the dork turning Futaba down, who didn’t see him falling hard to get Aki’s attention, who did’t see Yoshino going a touch reverse-yandere? Well, that last one is sketchy for many reasons, and we all have a different eye on her now. But that’s the way this story is going to go from here on out, a touch of the expected, and a touch of the unexpected. See you next time.
Just look out for Yoshi’s Revenge!
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Masamune is such a teenage boy. A dumbass who thinks he’s smart, priding himself on observing one thing (like Yoshino’s situation) and missing a whole forest of other trees, viewing everything through his stupid single-minded revenge goal. It’s really great and so, so painful to watch.
That scene with Futaba was so rough. I love people who actualize their wants, and Futaba was doing that, and she got shot down not because Masamune thought about her proposal at all. I don’t know if I agree with your statement that he was smitten (since I think you mean “with Futaba”). I really felt that, once he realized that Futaba was actually asking him out on a date, he only felt validation of his narcissim, how great he was doing at becoming desirable, and no thought of Futaba ever surfaced. She got turned down not because he considered anything about her, but because he *can’t* evaluate anything other than his stupid goal.
I really like this characterization. He’s actually a really good guy. Is it an act? Maybe? It certainly seems like he has to really wind himself up to be a ‘bad’ guy and keep on point with his revenge plan. And such a bad plan, it’s exactly something a middle-school kid would come up with. But I also think that even if you’re thinking bad thoughts, if you never do bad things you’re not really a bad person. Everyone thinks bad thoughts. It’s how you treat other people that’s the key. And if Masamune is a bad person, it’s how he treated Futaba in that moment that points to him maybe being a bad person.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Yep, if only for a little bit…
I also think he’s a decent person, that’s what everyone else sees, if only he could, right? With Futaba, he’s missing out, and not really thinking down on her. nor is he mean out of spite. He’s not a bully. But yea, that narcissism points him in an awful direction none the less.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I agree that at heart Masamune is a decent person. Or he would be if he dropped his revenge plan and got over his narcissism.
I like that despite how he looks now and the confidence he projects that he still suffers insecurity about how he used to look and fears he could go back to those days of being bullied if his classmates learn about his past. For many the teen years are rife with insecurity and fears about not fitting in. So it’s good to see that inside he has those and the added memory of how it used to be for him.
I like Yoshino. It looks like she’s going to be the most complex character here with her own devious agenda. I hope we’re kept guessing about what her ultimate goal is until nearly the end.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
As far as Yoshino goes, I’ve been sitting on me hat. But you’re on the right track with her being a more complex character. I alluded to how some of the supporting cast very much does fill out the story and character requirements, and she is a lynchpin to that. But she’s also fun and spirited in her own way; I love that little “sha sha sha” she said under her breath as she snuck away…