White Album 2 – 10
She probably feels like this animal now
We’ve been waiting for things to come to a head, and it looks like they finally do this week, at least as far as Kazusa’s feelings.
Nice Job Breaking It
What are you doing, dumbass?
So what did we think was the worst case last week? Yeah, exactly what happened. And making it worse, Setsuna knew everything that was going on with everyone else: her family was out of town, and Kazusa wasn’t going to be there. I kinda wonder why she persisted in the fiction that there was going to be more of a party? Is it because Haruki’s been so square about being with her? I wouldn’t think so, given that he was smooching with her, but maybe she was just trying to put him at ease. But the end result is that Setsuna’s made a nice dinner for the two of them and has gotten stood up.
Someone can’t take a hint
And what’s Haruki doing? Going to Narita to meet Kazusa. But what makes it worse is that he doesn’t get it. Setsuna has known that Kazusa is in love with Haruki the whole time, and had even encouraged her to put up a fight. But we don’t really know if Setsuna had been pushing the ‘three of us’ message recently, or if she and Kazusa have been talking about their feelings for Haruki. It’s possible that they have, and that Setsuna has been fully aware of Kazusa’s pulling back from Haruki. She certainly has been in touch with her, and probably knows that Kazusa won’t talk to Haruki.
The truth comes out
Either way, Haruki finds out from Youko that Kazusa is flying back, and also that Kazusa is moving to Europe. And in the course of trying to push her to tell Setsuna (which he doesn’t really know if she’s told her or not), he finally forces Kazusa to tell him her true feelings for him, and that she gets her heart ripped out every time she sses him. This really represents the most idiotically tenacious that Haruki’s been, and while it is pretty much in character for him, it’s also difficult to watch, because he’s pretty far outside the boundaries of what ‘normal’ people would do. Maybe we have a lot more information than he does, although I don’t think so. I really think it’s just a case of Haruki being that kind of person who just picks and picks and picks at a scab until it gets infected. And honestly, that’s not an admirable trait.
Left out
Standard Backstory
Catch time
I really don’t know if half the episode needed to be devoted to establishing Kazusa’s bonafides in being in love with Haruki. I think the show has well established her feelings, and so going back in time to a pretty formulaic backstory just seemed like a bit of a waste. Yes, Haruki bugged her. Yes, Haruki rubs people the wrong way. Yes, Haruki became the person who showed interest in her. And yes, Kazusa finally realizes that she likes him, and despite being told to not bother him, decides to try to get to know him more. I kind of doubt we’ll go back to that backstory, which ended this episode in summer, when the story picked up in October at the beginning of the series, since there didn’t seem to be too much left to cover. But really, I don’t know that it was necessary to do this much. It’s not going to change anyone from a Setsuna fan to a Kazusa fan. And it doesn’t change the fact that Haruki’s now busted everything up.
Kazusa makes her move
So Haruki pushed and prodded and picked, and now he’s probably broken it. Forcing Kazusa to confront her feelings every time she sees him, not allowing her to disengage, and putting her in the position of hurting her best friend, that’s just bad news. And if he thought that she couldn’t stand him, why did he persist in bugging her? Because he’s pretty much a jerk when he doesn’t get his way. I don’t know if there’s another way to put it. We could say he’s ‘tenacious’, or ‘dedicated’, but there comes a point where you should see some signs, and there’s also a point where you should either focus on your girlfriend or break it off. And I think he’s definitely reached that point when he’s gotta call Setsuna to break her birthday date to go after another girl.
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!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
The boy wants everything.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
“And I want it now!”
(btw, I love John Deacon, but I think it’s funny that they give him a microphone in videos, since he never sang any backup)
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…but it still has vocals by Dr. May.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
And Roger Taylor. I just find John Deacon a very interesting figure. He wrote perhaps the two most recognizable bass riffs ever, didn’t write much else, and gladly walked away from music when he felt it was time to.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
BB’s comment below spurred me to think about what Haruki said, and I realized that Haruki’s stubbornness and selfishness goes beyond what I thought before and right into what you said. He thought Kazusa *didn’t like him*, yet he still tried to win her heart, because he liked her, when he already had a girlfriend! He even outright says his motivation is to try to make her have feelings for him. Truly, that’s wanting it all.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It goes to show. You can’t have the cake and eat it, too. It simply can’t work.
POWUH: iLurker with 15 comments
Frankly, I simply _want_ the Kazusa flashback. Could we have gone without it? Probably, since we can piece things together in our imagination. But I simply don’t WANT to. I want to see it from her first-person perspective. Because I’m pretty sure we’ll get at least one important new insight which will have a MAJOR impact on how we judge the behavior of the characters.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 104 comments
I really enjoyed that flashback and the only thing I could slightly complain about is that it might’ve been better told in previous episodes as not to take much impact from Kazusa’s confession.
Personally,I don’t even want to judge the characters’s behavior.Sure,I could be pointing fingers left & right but I believe that would take away from the overall enjoyment of this great show,at least for me.Watching these likeable yet realistically flawed characters experience love blindly,without aid from any outsiders -be they friends or parental figures- is probably the main reason I like WA2 so much and of course,the fact that it’s presented in such a dignified manner also helps.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I enjoyed watching it. I just tend to think about ‘what could this time have been better spent on’, and in that calculation, frequently flashbacks come up short.
I’d agree that this would probably have had more impact earlier in the series. If the point was to show how much Kazusa cared for Haruki, and for how long, that information would have added to the empathy that the audience would have had throughout, seeing Haruki move away from her the way he did.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
If it continues, we might get something like that. But even if it continues from now, and we get an insight into how she feels, I don’t know why spend half of *this* episode on what they did, which didn’t have really anything new. I really felt like everything they presented here was already discussed or easily inferred.
I guess a lot of it is that I’m just not a big fan of flashbacks and rehashing / representation of information. I want it to be *significantly* new information, otherwise it feels like the time could be better spent actually presenting new information.
POWUH: iLurker with 2 comments
When I realized they were going into flashback mode I was so happy I screamed “Yes! Yes! YES!”
We saw Setsuna fall for Haruki in the first few eps. We saw Haruki fall for Touma. But until this flashback we never saw things from Touma’s side and boy what a treat it was.
I don’t understand why a lot of people think Haruki is a jerk for (1.) Not noticing Touma’s feelings and (2.) Giving up and acknowledging Setsuna’s feelings for him despite not being in love with her.
You see this happen in real life all the time and it wasn’t like Haruki had ZERO feelings for Setsuna (his little reactions to her frequent cute moments and the honest ones too gave this away).
Most people are too caught up in what they want to happen or what they think should happen but put them in the same circumstances and they wouldn’t come out looking spotless at all.
Also since when did a subtle romance become a battle shounen? What’s with all this “I want Setsuna/Touma to win?”
Pretty silly.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I’ve tried to keep reminding people that Haruki really does have feelings for Setsuna throughout. Even if he has a crush on Kazusa, it’s still possible to have a crush on or even love Setsuna.
I think Haruki’s just in general kind of a jerk. He’s a very stand-up, straight shooting jerk, but it’s pretty uncontroversial to say that he rubs people the wrong way, and that his tenacious nature can hurt feelings in ways that most people would avoid. I do think that Haruki should have been a little more perceptive in noticing what Kazusa thinks, and I think the reason he doesn’t is because he focuses on what he’s going to say too much, especially with Kazusa. Ironically, I think that with Setsuna, her way of dealing with his bull-headedness works extremely well, in that she deflects it, accepts it, and still gets him to change, rather than just fighting him.
POWUH: iLurker with 2 comments
PS speaking in general about the whole “warring love interests” situation (not calling any posters here silly).
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Wanting Kazusa when he already has Setsuna. Haruki is pulling a Tada Banri. He does deserve some chastisement. This whole time, he never considered Kazusa’s feelings so he has no say in what she has planned for herself.
Though the flashback was somewhat necessary, I wasn’t fond of being reminded of how abrasive Haruki was, pushing his views and expectations on others. I mean, it’s their lives. Leave them to their choices. The only thing that would be acceptable is making suggestions.
POWUH: iLurker with 15 comments
Guys, I’m sure that we’ll get more drama than we want in the remaining episodes. I don’t mind at all having the current slice of cake delivered to us in 2 halves. Otherwise we’ll get a drama overload in the remaining time. Just like good action movies inject breaks from the action to enable the viewer to relax again.
Personally, I really like how the show managed to present the show in this way – it allows the viewer to see things develop from one perspective, in context. First it was Setsuna, now it’s Kazusa. And lord knows that I’m curious what’s going on inside her head.