Isshuukan Friends – 03-04
Kaori is not amused.
Here comes the drama at long last. All things considered, it’s not too bad.
Yuuki’s Problems
At least they made up.
I know Kaori’s struggle to make friends is a main focus of Isshuukan Friends, but there is definitely much to be said about Yuuki’s own grasp on the matter of friendship. It’s painfully obvious that the guy wants to be more than just friends with Kaori, and the fact that he catches himself every now and then letting slip this desire suggests that he is at least conscious of these different feelings. But the big problem is he doesn’t seem to understand that there is a difference between platonic and romantic attraction. Watching him get jealous of Kaori’s new relationship with Shougo was already excruciating thanks to his possessive and over-reactive behavior. But for him to continue to chalk that up as mere friendship made me want to smack the guy. Friends don’t tell friends not to talk about other friends. He desperately needs to recognize that his feelings of jealousy stem from a romantic attraction to Kaori. Once that’s done, he needs to work on giving her some space.
Opening Up
Shougo calls it as he sees it.
But that’s enough about Yuuki being irritating. Let’s talk about Kaori’s progress on making friends instead. As mentioned, she’s managed to forge a friendship of sorts with Yuuki’s bff Shougo. I guess technically it doesn’t count since she doesn’t forget about him each week, but they talk and he looks out for her so they might as well “officially” be friends. If his dealing with the gossiping girls isn’t evidence enough, I don’t know what is. Personally I thought it was about time she started interacting with more people since Yuuki has his own problems, so this was a welcome development. Shougo might be a bit blunt, but he should make a very valuable addition to her growing collection of friends since he is able to keep a firm and level-headed grasp on the situation at all times and we can’t count on Kaori herself or Yuuki to do the same.
Thankfully these girls aren’t too bad.
Beyond the topic of friends, I’m liking how Kaori is starting to become more confident socially albeit only after some encouragement from Shougo. While the class’s general opinion of her might be slightly negative at this point, I see a lot of potential for things to turn around and for Kaori to become more socially accepted. She just needs to start being more proactive about standing up for herself and communicating with others on her own. I for one am certainly more interested in seeing her break out of her shell of isolation than watching her and Yuuki figure out their feelings for each other.
It looks like next week Kaori will again make more friends; this time a female. I know I said earlier that Shougo definitely qualifies as one in spite of her persisting memory of him. But he’s kind of a more stand-off-ish guy so it will be interesting to see how Kaori interacts with someone who will hopefully fit the role of a more traditional friend.
This will be good for Kaori.
About Sumairii
POWUH: iLurker with 19 comments
This is such a cute series. Show ▼
Yuuki’s way too easily stressed out over another friend being added to the circle, especially when he added said friend himself. It’s understandable that he’s a bit distressed that he put the effort in and his friend is getting all of the lingering attention, but he’s dragging poor Kaori in his doom-and-gloom attitude.
Still, he’s persistent and I hope they’ll grow to be amazing friends. To be honest, I can’t support them actually fully getting together, but I’d love nothing less than for them to grow a deep and caring friendship with each other.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I think he’ll get out of the gloomy attitude once he gets how it’s all supposed to work. Teenage jealousy is one thing, but then they add Kaori’s memory wrinkle to it. Poor guy can’t tell up from down.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Hase’s got a very authentic attitude, because it’s hard when you’re doing something and you get no credit for it (even if that’s by agreement), and then someone else DOES get credit for it. And he might know in his head that Kaori not remembering him means he’s more important than Shougo, but it’s hard to think about that when she wants to talk about him.
I really do still like that this show isn’t hitting the maudlin hard. There’s a little bit, as you’d expect with something this moe, but it’s not the heart-wrenching experience that I was expecting at the beginning of the season.