Masamune-kun no Revenge – 08
Playing Hangry Hangry Aki!
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So, unlike my lead image, this one doesn’t have much of the latest tsundere-wonder in it. Well, until it does… |
The Case of the Purloined Potential BF
…used to be a letter, now it’s a picture…
So, the show wastes no time setting the stage as it tosses up the points in rapid succession. Makabe, in hesitating to answer Aki’s phone call is not really doing so well to push the issue with her; he’s on the defense the moment he answers. So, he’s got to play it cautious, a fact that Yoshino always underscores, but he’s going to do that “too much and for way to long”. Cause he’s not that committed, is he? Not to love, anyway. But if he overextends, the Cruel Princess routine is waiting to spell out the Bad End. So on her end Aki seems to be playing it well. She’s got advantage on her side and presses it with the lost luggage issue. Now that puts Makabe even more off foot. By itself this would be a great case of back and forth, and could propel them toward the end of the cour. She even gives him fair warning. But it’s a warning that she looks like she will regret? As it stands, Makabe isn’t in this game as much as he wanted to be. Oh, that picture…
Part of me wishes she would have given him the “L”…
That was a great wrinkle for the story to play us with. I like that she keeps that photo “close to her heart”, playing up the romantic angle to the utmost it can probably bear without breaking down, never mind the cleavage and fanservice angle. But it’s a great catalyst non-the-less, a touchstone to that past relationship that pushes so much of Makabe’s actions, purloined by a what can only be Aki-sama’s rival. It’s all that Neko has ever know about love really. It has to hurt, or be a labor, or it’s not worth it? So, at least for now, Neko is going to press the advantage, and she is going to press it as quickly as possible, and as close as she can. She’s his opposite in many ways, and I can’t wait to see why. I love how she knows the boy as well as she does – the invitation was pretty much a Makabe shaped trap. But the picture pushed too far…It’s a moment he always falls back on, for good or for bad. That picture and the time it represents. He feels her not meeting a passion with true purpose. And I think that she may have been wanting this ending; she seems to be more addicted to romance manga that he is. But on his side, is he being a dinky teenage boy, and overthinking it? Or is there more going on?
First move…
This had a really good cliffhanger, all going along with a good build up from what it had done with Neko in previous episodes – from her visit with Makabe’s family to her stealing the picture. While they don’t get into the details of what ails her, it’s specific enough for plot purposes, in that plays up her vulnerable status quite well – what’s with all the meds, and how the situation is doubling down on being dumped in her own right. It also puts Makabe in a bad light with Aki no matter how much her tries otherwise. He just can’t say the right thing at the right time. Given that she hates guys anyway and Makabe is putting her in tailspin, it’s not looking good. So going into the last four or five episodes, he may lose out on everything. But then, the Love or Death plan has always been pointing that way. But man, making Neko out to be more like Makabe than one would have initially thought, and not in a coupling sort of way. Good move, show…
So many different kinds of angry…
Extra Fanservicy Bits…
This would be a good spin off…
Sigh….first the beach, then the pool? Geez, life is boring…
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
I love that they do Masamune’s thoughts in real time, and have the others (well, Aki) get ticked off at him being so slow. And he’s always been a dinky teenage boy and overthought. His life would be much better and simpler if he would just stop putting plans together and trying to figure out other people’s plans (which he’s terrible at).
I’ve never really been able to get that read on Neko. Has she been sincere? Has it been a game? Did it switch from one to the other or back and forth? What’s her motive? I think it’s interesting that the show has been so transparent from the beginning about Aki’s and Masamune’s reasons for their little dance, but has not explicitly spelled out Neko’s. Maybe it’s the kind of thing that everyone knows, and I can’t figure out? Or maybe everyone else has ideas, but isn’t sure. It’s probably going to be something where after it’s revealed, everyone can look back and see the “important foreshadowing”, but for now it’s obscured in plain sight, the purloined letter.
And that was really a good scene between Neko and Masamune in her bedroom. No freaking out embarrassment. No stupid teen stuff. Neko going for what she wants, it seems. And is it finally the real realization that he does want to be with Aki? Either way, it was a really good scene.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I think the contrast between the “song and dance” and Neko’s inscrutability is deliberate and quite fun. It feels like a genuine, or at least thought out, article that you could run across while chasing romance. The situation reminds me of when things weren’t working out with a girl I was dating, so we split up. I didn’t feel we communicated well after a while. Then I started to date again, and me and another girl got along well enough, but syncing up our schedules was impossible. Then (finally!) after a date with this new one, the old one finds me, and tells me she understands what I was saying weeks ago, and now can we please try again….Life is what happens, eh?
So yeah, anything that gives an unpredictable element feels more real to me…