Gosh, the romance tension sure escalated quickly, which for my money is for the better. This week we have Tachibana in both her lowest and highest (AKA entirely in her unstable mood), the 45-year-old clueless victim who tries his best to brake the relationship from going too far, and a coming date of the two at the end. The last part stands to me as the only sour (last) note to this extraordinary episode. You see, that “date” is obviously a plot device so that the two of them can spend more time together, and it breaks the established mood although by that point I was already invested in the two of them and their romance to let it pass. The factor that I appreciate the most out of this episode is of course, Kondou’s reactions to Tachibana’s confessions. Ameagari skates the thin ice in this sensitive issue but the show manages to pull it off with even more sensitive approach. The guy not only act like a normal 45-year-old guy would do, but he convinces her with many sounding, sensible reasons and appropriate actions. Responding straight to Tachibana about her confession, for one thing. Giving her two main reasons to reconsider her options, one of them because of the huge age-gap (which she couldn’t care less), and the other because of his own empty self (an empty middle-aged boy with no dream or hope – so much honesty here). The second reason is important here, he feels himself unfit for someone like Tachibana, whose life is just at the beginning of her stage, and she’s attractive on top of that.
But it’s the emptiness that seemingly bring the two together. That brings me back to the first half of this episode, Tachibana meeting the track club members. After seeing them enjoy running and making progress, she’s deeply frustrated and left. A brief montage of the events led to her injury further demonstrate the fact that 1) now that her track career is gone, Tachibana feels empty, thinking that she has hit the thick wall ahead. And 2) she meets Kondou in the exact time when she was at her lowest point, the moment really gets into her that she finds the spark in the man. Many could say that it’s unrealistic, but I totally believe that’s how young people fall in love, especially the love at first sight. That frustration from seeing her being left behind by the wheel of present and the track field which once made her special lead her to pursuits the love to Kondou AGAIN, in the rain (it sure rains like hell in Ameagari). And when the message is out there’s no holding back there, for both of them.
This third episode makes it the first time we entirely see the events play out from Kondou’s point of view. After he tries his best to avoid the love message from Tachinaba in every possible way he can think of: first seeing it as a formal compliment from the girl, then taking it as a dream, then as a prank (there are nice little sequences play out in his head there); he deals with her the best way anyone could. What really sells me is the way Ameagari displays his perspective in an insightful and subtle manner: we could see his nervousness through his drinking the can that had cigarette ash in (he experiences the true bitterness of that love, as some might say), or through him searching for cigarettes but couldn’t find it. His thoughts as well, are so personal but well-placed and honest. Despite all the “you should reconsider this” stuffs, I can see how her confessions affect him in a good way. He feels flattered by the thought of someone attracted to him, he feels young again (with the smart visual of him in his teen self), he feels love and being loved again. And honestly, what is wrong with two people falling in love?
My bottom line: this is the best episode not only for Ameagari, but I consider it the best of episode I’ve seen so far this Winter season. I’ve heard someone compare this to Wong Kar Wai’s romance films. While at first I thought this’s too early a game to make any concrete statement, with this episode I do feel a resemblance here, especially the way they develop well-grounded characters we care for and their mature love relationship.
Calling AOTS now. I can’t remember the last time I was so excited to follow a show from week to week.
It’s nice to see a relationship story where the relationship is more about the characters helping each other through their emotional problems; solid points for remembering what a relationship is, rather than just having it simply be there to develop a “fated” romance or to be able to invoke power of friendship BS. Now to see if they realize that character growth is what drives relationship growth, rather than trying to force it the other way around for the sake of pithy romance.
Yes, you said it. Usually rom-com shows forget the mot crucial area: developing two characters who actually care about. Then they have to work for it. Tachibana here doesn’t just wait for the chance to come, she takes her chance with her own hands. I love it.
It remains to be seen whether they help each other through the personal issues, but which the sensitive direction so far I have high hope they will go for that.
Why do these episodes feel so short?
I have to disagree about Tachibana being depressed and more importantly that she ran away from her mates because of that. I think she got upset because her friends wanted to visit her work place, which for her is currently an invasion into her sanctuary. She does not want them to realize she’s got a new thing going on and is afraid to “lose that place to them” or more literally share it with them. This is because the younger mates already took her spot in the club, so it naturally parallels and highlights her attachment to her work place, that by her belongs exclusively to her.
This is why I think she is not depressed – she found a substitute. A more personal and intimate one.
Then I agree on how Tachibana’s fixation on Kondo comes partly from her situation. I mean, you can almost feel how Tachibana’s boredom spurred her curiosity, which inadvertently got locked on the most clueless victim – Kondo the manager. But somehow it makes sense to me for her to be interested in someone with low self-esteem as it allows her to get close and take the initiative. Frankly, she does not appear to entirely know what she is doing and seems to base her behavior on the assumption that Kondo will keep submissively rejecting her, allowing her to use the relationship as a vessel for her ideal she continues to dream, i.e., she only considers one side of the relationship. I wonder what she would do if Kondo became attached and perhaps desired a (subtle) physical contact. As she is, I think she would pull back for a while, but came over and crave for more.
Forgot to mention about the details where the track girls wanted to “invade her little paradise”, but Tachibana did want to leave before that, to be exact right after the flashback. So I think my point still stands. But I agree with you over the rest. A question to you though, do you personally think they’re good for each other?
At this rate, I might stop watching it week to week and wait until it’s finished to marathon it because my fragile heart cannot wait that loooong.
– I see. Maybe I wasn’t watching carefully enough.
– I don’t know, you ask difficult questions and I’m biased (to see a happy ending). Honestly, if I (as Kondo) was even only a little older than her I’d still be careful – she is unstable and appears to unconsciously fixate on things to help her reject/avoid something else. It’s more that she has wounds than her wanting a relationship and that for me is a big deal.
We definitely must look at this from Kondo’s perspective and his only, which amounts to: “she is too young to be good for anyone and a child’s whims should not be taken seriously”.
What I think should happen is Kondo act like a proper adult and guide her through this. Accept her for now, smartly deflect, play along, but subtly redirect Tachibana’s focus. Turn the relationship into one of friendship and trust and make her realize (on her own) these things. At least that’s what I would (be initially trying) to do. What happens after that is up for them.
In real life I can imagine relationship like this, but the younger partner would have to be smarter than what Tachibana is showing here, someone craving for the wisdom of heart and mind. I can also picture it more easily if the older partner is a woman. Dunno. Reeks less of exploitation?
And we didn’t even bring up the subject of Tachibana being a mom! I’m glad the show is addressing this issue from the very 1st ep. I loved those bits with her and Yuuta! She was testing acting like a mom there!
– Pls do not stop covering this weekly! Else I go insane…
My apology for such obscure question, since I myself have no idea how to answer it. You did good.
If I were Kondo, I’d taken aback a bit because Tachibana is too aggressive. Nothing wrong with confession and wanting to hear the answer, of course, but the pace she’s taking here is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden.
She thinks his bad sides (Clumsy, low-self esteem) are cute, which for me is both good and bad. Bad because she seemingly overlooks those attributes, and if he don’t improve it can become an issue. Good because if she doesn’t mind it at first, chances that she just doesn’t mind about it at all.
But let’s stop ourselves from over-analyze here. I have the feeling the more we talk about this, the darker we arrive. 😀
Absolutely. Look forward to next week.
Seems to be because she doesn’t have a father,so she sees Kondou as a sort of stable figure.
That is an interesting perspective.