Jitsu wa Watashi wa – 10
The lengths that everyone will go to to help the others
Oh secrets, you start keeping one, all of a sudden there are more and more and more to deal with.
Expanding Friends
Asahi’s acting weird again
When you’re focusing on one thing you’re uncomfortable about, you don’t have time to worry about being uncomfortable in other ways. The idea that Youko would go along with Asahi, Okada, Shimada, and Sakurada to a cake buffet is one of those situations that you have a hard time imagining one girl going to, but apart from Shima’s so-far-harmlessly pervy tendencies, there’s really no issue with those guys. And Oka and Sakura make it clear to Youko that they’re happy with Asahi trying hard to be with her, whatever it is that he’s doing for her. There are the usual gags about Youko’s fangs and wings, but as always they’re played pretty well. I particularly like the way that Oka covers for Asahi “When is he ever NOT acting weird?”
THIS is how you bro, bro.
There’s Always Trouble with Megane
She just can’t look Asahi straight in the eyes without them
I was wondering if they were going to incorporate Mikan more into the group, and this episode really moved toward that by having her glasses stolen by Akane, who isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But the chase and the catch aren’t the important part, it’s what comes after, when Nagisa overhears Mikan talking to her glasses. I don’t exactly know why she explains to Nagisa, but I would imagine it’s similar to the reasons that Youko and Nagisa aren’t exactly unhappy with Asahi knowing their secrets. And Mikan seems to at least appreciate telling Nagisa. And that’s when Nagisa puts it all together, with her “You like Asahi, too? Wait, ‘too’?”
Nagisa makes a realization
And everyone heard the words come from Nagisa’s direction. They weren’t wrong. Nagisa’s had a hard time admitting to herself how much she likes Asahi, but she’s also really worked hard to deny it because she knows where Asahi’s heart lies. But for the others, hearing the words may galvanize them into action, even Youko, who has the same conflict between her internal thoughts and what she ‘knows’.
Youko also feels something she didn’t realize
Terrific Characters
“What’d you go and tell her for!”
I want to take some time to really praise this show. The biggest key to how great I think it is is the wonderful characterization they have for not just Asahi and Youko, but all of the characters in the show. They really did do a great job building them, and it also shows that it doesn’t take a whole lot of time to build characters for a show. You just need to have personalities that the viewers can get to know. Prior to this episode, and outside of the one episode focusing on her, Mikan has been in a few convenient scenes, but she’s never been played overly much to a trope. So she can do things like be the person who finds Chibi-Aizawa and thinks it’s a figure, or she can be the person who finds Akane and wants to find out the truth, or she can be the insider outsider who realizes how much Asahi and Youko get along. I was really afraid she was going to be the wacky character they couldn’t get rid of (like, unfortunately, they’ve made Anna in Shimoseka), but because of their restraint, because they haven’t made her be a crazy person pursuing Asahi, now whenever Mikan comes on the screen, she’s a welcome presence.
Shiho is mostly for jokes, but I think it’s good that way
Similarly with Nagisa, they’re playing the “wish it would work out for me, but it probably won’t” card perfectly as well. She hasn’t let her ‘loss’ regarding the feelings that she only slightly acknowledges for Asahi get in the way of a friendship she knows that she likes to have. There’s just that slight twinge that the rest of us, as outside observers, can see, like the boy on the school bus looking at his best friend sitting next to the girl he wishes was sitting next to him instead. And of course now that “she” has confessed, she’s going to have to deny those feelings, because she knows that’s not what any of the others want, but I think her position as the trusted friend for both Youko and now Mikan is going to be what allows her to clear it up with them.
Did I just say that?
To me it shows you don’t need complicated personalities and reasons and backstories to make nuanced relatable characters. But one thing that I think really does help is the amount of variation they can show with the reactions. Because there’s such range of emotion, we can understand what the characters feel by looking at them, plainly and clearly. Once again, kudos to the animators and character designers for giving us such a well-developed space to watch the show in.
I may end up just doing an entire post of Nagisa reaction shots…
There are a couple other things that I really like about the show. One is that the secrets are spread out. Asahi and Youko know more of them, but they don’t know about Mikan. Nagisa and Mikan don’t know about Akane and Shiho. And noone gives up another person’s secret, even if they know there are secrets on both sides. Maybe they’ll eventually all share them, and be able to revel in the friendship of shared knowledge, but for now, they’re all trying hard, maybe too hard, to not betray anyone else. The other thing that I think is amusing is that the BGM for when something goes wrong starts off like the Super Mario Brothers Game Over sound, an association that cracks me up.
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: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
The lengths that everyone will go to to help the others.
Actually, they’re just practising for the derp-faced edition of Swan Lake.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
It’s a good thing that Mikan doesn’t have a Tsugumomo level tsukumogami, or else there would be a knock-down-drag-out fight. As it stands, those glasses are perfectly suited to revealing two sides of the Love Pattern (rectangle just sounds odd…).
But honestly, isn’t Nagisa’s love entering mermaid tragedy levels of…well, not tragedy, but…complications. She’s hilarious as Tiny Class President, but would that be enough?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t know if it’s tragic at all. Does The Cars’ My Best Friend’s Girl rise to the level of tragedy?
Now complications, I would imagine the choice to make it Nagisa that has ‘confessed’ is influenced by her inability to make herself clear to others, despite talking a lot. She just never says the things that she meant. But with a couple episodes left to go (I think), it’s certain that they’ll mostly work through this, but hopefully Youko doesn’t pull back from Asahi too much.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
It would be a tragedy to play Every Breath You Take at a wedding….but so many have….
But, unless I watched the episode wrong, where will Mikan’s feelings come in? Her glasses were confessing her feelings, not Nagisa’s. Coincidence being a funny thing…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Mikan’s feelings will come in when Asahi and Youko learn of the specialness of Mikan’s glasses. Because either Nagisa has to admit her feelings out loud, when she’s been denying that any such feeling exists, or Mikan needs to spill the secret of the glasses. And I think they’ve developed Mikan’s character in such a way that she will admit it, even though she’s embarrassed about it.
And to an extent, I think Nagisa’s been absolutely correct to say that “It’s not like that.” Asahi doesn’t dislike Nagisa, and Nagisa may have a fairly nebulous desire to be with Asahi, but they both realize that the one Asahi really wants to be with is Youko, and Nagisa knows that Youko really wants to be with Asahi. As do Mikan, Oka, Akane, Sakura, and Shiho.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…I’ve come to love Nagisa more. I know she’s not OTP. But….