The list of unsupportive and abusive parents grows even longer with this episode, as Nao, Mitsue, and Yuta’s mothers join a handful of others in stifling their children’s self-expression. Yuta’s situation is the big one, given both the story and major themes on display this week, but we can start with Nao, as the mystery caller from the previous post-credits scene ends up being his mother. I was expecting the culprit to be either Toma’s mom or Maki’s dad – the former in a misguided attempt to reduce the burden on her son, or the latter as a means of sabotaging Maki’s friendships. Instead, Nao’s mom is a typical achievement chaser, pushing cram school onto her clearly uninterested child and telling him to quit that lousy sports team, already. She’s so locked into her own perspective that she asks her preteen son, “How could a barbecue be any fun when you can’t drink alcohol?”
Hoshiai no Sora allows Nao to talk back, at least. Yuta doesn’t even get that opportunity, since his mother’s freakout is shoved into the newest post-ED segment, where he can’t get a word in edgewise. A great deal of this episode explores Yuta’s gender dysphoria, including his hesitant identification as non-binary, and later the thought that “I’m not sure I have it in me” to carry on living as a boy. That’s certainly interesting material, but I feel as though the script conflates this character work with the bag of girls’ clothes that his mom glimpses at the episode’s end. She finds her son in his sisters’ room holding the bag, and launches into a tirade that reads like a reaction to his private conversations with Maki. I’m sure she’s drawing from existing suspicions about Yuta’s orientation – she’s his parent, after all – but we haven’t seen or heard anything about his relationship with his mom before this point. As a viewer, I felt ambushed by the scene, and not in the way that was intended by its placement in the episode.
There are admirable qualities to this week’s main plot, which dresses Yuta and Maki in women’s clothing for a tennis-related scouting mission. For one thing, it’s not treated as a joke, which is already more restraint than most anime could muster, were they given a similar premise. It allows for the seamless introduction of Yuta’s sisters, who understand and support his non-conformity. During his conversations with Maki, we get a few details about Shou, the friend of Maki’s mother who we saw in episode 2, who happens to be a FTM trans man. Shou’s role in Maki’s upbringing explains some of his behavior throughout the show thus far, including his early detection of Yuta’s attraction to Toma, and his choice to wear a visor during his matches. I can understand why Akane wanted to put an empathetic character like Maki at the center of Hoshiai no Sora, but that empathy borders on magical at times. He dominates the conversation with Yuta, as well, rather than letting the queer character steer the scene about LGBTQ issues, which put a bad taste in my mouth.
Maki even inserts himself into Mitsue’s story near the end of the episode. I’ve been wondering what her deal is for quite a while, and we finally got to the heart of the matter this week; she wants to dedicate her life to art, but her family is both disapproving and unable to afford the sort of lessons that interest her. Mitsue’s gloominess and negativity stem from multiple sources, I’m sure, but being unable to pursue your passion due to your family situation will do a number on any middle schooler’s personality. So after tennis practice one evening, Maki asks whether she’s hungry, and when she asks why, he says, “Because you’re suffering.” Maybe it’s because I highly value naturalism in fiction (yes, even anime), but I had to turn my head away from the screen after that line. I much preferred Mitsue’s earlier discussion with Sakurai-sensei, which didn’t feature any such bold proclamations. She, along with many of the other troubled teens in this series, need an ally who will engage with them, rather than sense what’s troubling them and attempt to smooth it over. Hopefully Sakurai gets that chance before Maki swallows everyone’s problems.
While I enjoy about 80% of the show so far I’m kind of being put off by the constant drama everyone seems to be going through. I think it’s unnecessarily distracting when seemingly everyone has a shitty family. I’m even wondering if it’s a requirement for joining the soft tennis club at this point. They should have reduced the family drama to a few noteworthy characters and focused on them instead of giving each character monster parents. I doubt that each conflict will be resolved in a manner deserving of the show.
That aside this episode was rather nice. I liked that they managed to convey this serious topic without making it to awkward to watch. I think they did a good job with that.
I have to agree with you on Maki’s empathy levels approaching godly levels. I also think this could be a major problem for the show in the future, when everyones problems will be noticed and solved by Maki rather than the characters themselves. But we’ll see I guess.
As time passes, it feels more and more like an episode like this that does explore Japanese gender issues in a genuine, respectful manner (rather than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Disney moment) feels more and more like a distant memory.
Sad, because it’s one of the few things this series did really well on (and may have sadly contributed to its abrupt cancellation due to Akane wanting to explore heavier topics that these kinds of shows, and most anime in general, refuse to even glance at, especially in the planned second cour).