Masamune-kun no Revenge – 09
…and in a way it was a farewell…
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Last weeks cliffhanger leads to this weeks cliffhanger, but not before doubling back and visiting on Neko’s past, and then on other points in-between…. |
It’s been called love and affection
The paper-airplanes of love spoke volumes of bad romance manga
This episode was pretty much as straight-forward is it could have gotten. After last episode’s rejection, Neko fell prey to her anime-plot-derived-illness, and collapsed in a Almost-but-not-Quite Sleeping Beauty Pool of Wonder and Wisdom. One of the things I like about her character was how refreshing and direct she was, and how she wasn’t afraid to go for what she wanted without hiding behind any sort of imagined convention. She’s a direct contrast to our two main characters, and as such provides the sort of support they both really need to develop properly (in that, nudge and a wink, narrative sense). Neko is, in a word, regret. Or more precisely, she’s the reaction to regret.
They both look close at this angle…
but the next shot tells a different story…
She acknowledges the cough-cough-maybe-I’ll-die illness she must succumb to, and doing so allows her to express a part of herself with the freedom the other two simply haven’t been able, by hook or silly crook, to find yet. She really is Aki’s stubbornness to metaphorical levels, only by a remove, and expressed a bit more productively. Which is something they harken to in the most obvious manner possible by this episode end. But before I get to that, I want to take note that, one again, our male lead behaved like a total turd-bucket…or did he just realize he was caught in a melodrama, and so he really could worry about his own problems?
…like being his own person outside an arranged marriage…
…the reveal of the smoker also speaks volumes…
So, a fetish averted…
I can really keep this week that short. It was mostly to reinforce th very sad past Neko was waiting to get out of, and prepared to take the heartache if she couldn’t. Being Aki’s Regret, that’s pretty important. So the execution of the idea is far more important than the idea itself and I think they did so effectively.In terms of the girls, they both found a person that they could confide in and take comfort in. Both of them experienced it and expressed it in different ways – Neko being defined by all her efforts fore-shortened, by a family that couldn’t admit weakness, and Aki by a what I’ll call, for now, a very sublime form of selfishness. There’s much more to come…
…or a fetish waiting to happen…?
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POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd this was the episode I was fearing not so much the reveal that Neko was dying, but the fact that Masamune’s “revenge” at this point seems so pointless! He saw how sad it made Neko after she was rejected and he is all “I still want my revenge though.” WTF seriously? LOL
I get that “revenge” is what this series is about because its in the damn title for crying out loud, but wow after all the stuff going on currently revenge is still his number one priority?
It’s still fked up that Neko gets pushed to the side just because Masamune has a hard on for his dumb revenge! Then again Neko liked the “idea” of love and probably didn’t have real feelings for him anyway due to her dying and what not and she just wanted to experience it which is fine sorta like Rem of Re:Zero she knew Subaru would reject her, but she went for a confession anyway.
LOL the end Aki reunites with the fat er fake Masamune? I’m kinda glad he appeared maybe it will kill off Masamune’s revenge once he realizes Aki doesn’t care about him anymore and wants to hook up with this random fake version instead? That said I have a feeling Masamune won’t go through with his plans and actually fall for Aki?
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
The one thing that I saw was the Neko represented one point of view, and that her “death” wasn’t so much a person dying, as it was her letting go off her baggage and allowing both Aki and Makabe to learn from that point of view, like remembering her life after she “died”. In all honesty she was a fairly one dimensional character (in a field of the same), but I like the show for how they use that as competing ideas.
One of those being the idea of Makabe’s dumb revenge. And I don’t think he’ll shrink when the new one show’s his face, quite the opposite. But the new Makabe has a place, much like Neko did. He’s not about himself, he’s about the other the lead characters. Again, one dimension.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Oh I fully agree Neko! For me I felt that she was just shoved into this series at the last possible moment to cause “drama” and yeah in the end she is kinda a lame character and a poor attempt to make us feel for her set of special issues.
Right that too Makabe realizing everyone is important around him and not everything is about himself, but at the same time hes the worst main lead ever! Such an unlikable personality or is that the point? A lot of main leads in these types of anime from Snafu to Haganai to this are typically terrible imo.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Neko, and I suspect that second Makabe will get the same treatment, had a bit more going on in the source manga (a point I usually never bring up as I let the show be the show). She wasn’t shoved into the show, but she was subjected to a shrink ray of sorts.
I agree that Makabe is a terrible person, and oh goodness I say that all the time. But, Neko didn’t shrink from him, and neither does Kojuurou, who considers him a friend. So Makabe is a decent guy, all things considered. But man, dumb plan dude. Stop being dumb!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t know if Masamune is as much stuck on his revenge as it’s the safe retreat for him. It’s what he has thought about, what he has decided himself, unlike all these darn feelings assaulting him from inside and out, with Neko, with Aki, even with Yoshino, Kojuurou, and Futaba. That’s why he’s gone back to it, even though it’s not really what he wants, based on how easily he is swayed from it.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
You know, I had this tack in mind, the safe retreat, but it got jostled out the back of my mind.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Why is it that the heroine mysterious fatal disease always leaves them looking lovely, instead of worn and haggard which would be the reality? This trope should have been abandoned after “Love Story.” If she’s dying, have her look like it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
There are quite a few people, especially younger people, who don’t look terrible until the very end of a fatal disease. Especially if they are working hard to conceal it or keep up appearances. Young skin is more naturally resilient and the other mechanisms of growth can cover for a lot of problems. And on top of that, it’s frequently the treatments that are the most devastating to people’s immediate health and visage. So I don’t think this is really the problem that you think. From what the show said, Neko’s not dying now. She’s just leaving. And having been rejected, there’s no reason to come back.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
I’ve heard the next arc with this “other” Masamune is greatly hated by manga readers, because the characters are “dumbed down” to make the plot work.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Yeah, Second Masamune – I think I’ll call him that from now on, as it sounds like Second Breakfast, which could account for his “presense”…or will that make his sound too cool…which he totally isn’t – totally isn’t cool at at all. I don’t think the other characters were dumbed down in the manga; I mean that’s not even possible, they’re not the brightest tools in the drawer to being with, any dumber and this would be The Revenge of Earthworm-kun…which doesn’t sound bad.