His and Her Circumstances – 11/11.5/12 [At the End of the First Semester/At the Beginning of Summer Break/The Location of Happiness] – Throwback Thursday

Welcome to the (almost) halfway point of His and Her Circumstances! This week sees us transition into a new arc, both for the show and the lead relationship. There’s a shocking amount to talk about this week so lets jump right into it!

Starting off, I need to gush a bit about how good Circumstances looked this week. It was mostly back-loaded into the 2nd half of episode 11, sure. But that 2nd half was an absolute joy. The eye catches, the expressiveness, the sheer amount of personality packed into each and every scene. From Tsubasa being a gremlin to Aya and Tsubaki being absolute terrors. That entire scene in the restaurant as they keep feeding Tsubasa more and more and more spoons. I’ve seen that scene, with no context, for years! And I never knew where it was from until today. It’s incredible how quickly Circumstances can go from well directed but barely animated to some of the best and most expressive character work I’ve ever seen. Makes me really concerned for just how far this show falls, based on what people have told me about the 2nd half.

Getting into the actual episodes, first up we have the first half of episode 11, “At the End of the First Semester”. In case you hadn’t figured it out, this one is another split episode as we transition into a new arc. This first one is basically about removing Arima from the story for a bit, setting how that he’s going to be busy because of prior obligations. Narratively, this is fine. It frees up Miyazawa to interact with her new cast of friends and… rivals (?) without Arima’s influence. It basically lets Circumstances explore their friendship troubles without worrying about the overarching larger romance. While some might be disappointed by this, Circumstances is a romance after all, I think it’s important to let our leads breathe a bit. Remind us they are people outside of the relationship as well, so we can better appreciate when they are together.

That isn’t to say that Circumstances is abandoning the romance during this though. It’s more like Circumstances is setting us up to look at it through the lends of other relationships. Take how our leads separate for instance. Like they say, they have spent basically every day together at school since becoming a couple. They’ve never really had to be apart, nor share the attention. So what happens now when the honeymoon phase ends? When they start interacting with their friends more and have less time for each other, or even have to separate for large periods of time? How will they feel when they return? These are the questions Circumstances seems to be trying to explore in this arc as it focuses in on their other relationships outside of their romance.

Before moving on to the 2nd half though, I want to give Circumstances some credit for, once again, dodging drama. As is becoming the norm, Circumstances skillfully maneuvered around some bullshit highschool drama that could have gone on for episodes, instead allowing the show to focus on the real struggles of romance rather than some communication bullshit. I am of course talking about Arima using the start of this separation to reaffirm his feelings for Miyazawa. He doesn’t leave anything unsaid, doesn’t let any miscommunication linger between them for months. He just comes out and says it directly, I want to be closer to you, and moves right on up to… Base 1.5? 1.8? By god, one way or another we will be making this homerun! Jokes aside, I really liked this. It’s heading off any annoying drama when they get back together after summer break, which is great.

This brings us to episode 11, part 2, “At the Beginning of Summer Break”. Where the first half wrapped up the last arc and cut Arima out of the story, this half sets up what is to come. It refocuses and reintroduces us to Miyazawa’s friends, really dialing in on their relationships and personalities. Prior to this they were really just names and faces that appeared tangentially connected to Tsubasa. But now Circumstances is giving them room to become their own characters. It’s not bad! There’s only one bit about this that confuses me: Maho showed up. I really, truly, cannot understand why Circumstances is pushing her so much. She still has yet to show any remorse or take any action on her side to apologize for it all. Luckily one person at least showed some righteous anger, but I still can’t forget what she did prior to this.

As for their relationships themselves, those were all cute. Nothing terribly deep, but we got to see more about how their group functions. How Tsubasa is really more of a mascot than any sort of leader, the pranksters, the living saint, etc. There were some strong personalities in there and I look forward to their inclusion in any future arcs. Meanwhile for Tsubasa herself, there’s a lot more going on under the hood. She was presented initially as this spoiled little girl, and she still is to some degree. But we learn that she also has a lot more going on at home. Her mother is dead, her father is looking to get remarried, etc. She’s struggling to hold on to any sort of normalcy she has, only to find that even Arima got taken from her. Its stuff like this that makes me more understanding of her actions prior.

Next up we have episode 12, “The Location of Happiness”, where we dive head first into Tsubasa’s home troubles. The long and short of it is, as I said above, that she is an only child with a single parent who has been doing his best to raise her alone. And during this time, Tsubasa came to love her father a great deal. Nice right? But that love has sort of turned into obsession. Into a stubborn refusal to share, without any consideration for their own happiness. We saw this exact same thing transpire with Arima for a bit, before she came to accept Miyazawa. But the issue is that its much harder to accept that with your father. It starts to feel like you are losing them, that you won’t be able to spend as much time with them, etc. It’s a surprisingly real problem for her to have.

While this is all very serious for Tsubasa, the big thing I got out it was how it mirrors Arima. How Circumstances is using Tsubasa to tell us about him despite him not even being in the story at the moment. All the while fleshing her out on her own. Thsi feeling of isolation and separation, of familial dependence and not being able to connect with anyone. It explains so much as to why he was so open and friendly with her when he wasn’t with anyone else. And why she was so upset when she returned only to find he wasn’t hers anymore. They were two of a kind, and while that wasn’t love it was good enough for her. And then she lost it. And now she’s about to lose it with her dad to. It’s bittersweet, and Circumstances does a great job setting it up.

But that’s all it’s done. Set it up. Now it’s up to Circumstances to actually do something with it. We got a few inklings of that as Tsubasa’s dad came over and they had their confrontation. Circumstances certainly didn’t hold back with Tsubasa’s treatment of the prospective step-mom, nor with the father’s at her insulting her. They both said, and did, some things they will no doubt regret. Even more so after having seen the happy Miyazawa family and how close they are. But the real value of this arc, for me, is going to come from how it handles the reconciliation. Of how Tsubasa comes around and comes to accept her father being happy might mean more people than just her in his life. If it can pull that off, if it can make me truly believe and connect with what is happening, then it will be great.

And from the looks of things, part of how its going to do that involves the stepmoms own son, Kazuma. The ending lines of the episode implied that he was going to be the one to break her out of his funk. And from what little we’ve seen, I can believe it! His feelings towards his mother are the complete opposite of Tsubasa’s. She thinks only of herself, of how she wants him and how she might be a burden to him. But Kazuma seems focused much more on his mothers own happiness. Possibly to an extent of giving up his own happiness, but we will have to wait and see. I’m expecting them to sort of help each other out. Him to give her another connection, a loving sibling, and teach her a better relationship with her father while she maybe helps him out academically? Only time will tell.

So yeah, all in all I think these were some decent episodes. Maho’s continued presence definitely sours it a bit for me, at least until she actually apologizes or something, but the shift in focus to Miyazawa’s platonic relationships is a nice change of pace while still being relevant to the larger romantic plot. I’m invested in what’s happening with Tsubasa, I care about her well being and her family. I really hope that Circumstances is able to give her a satisfactory arc. From there’s its just a question of what Circumstances will do after. What kind of arc will come next, just how far is it going to take Arima and Miyazawa’s relationship? The only knowledge I have is that the manga finished in 2005 so this probably isn’t a complete adaptation. As sad as that is though, we should still be able to get something satisfying… right?

P.S. I’m pretty sure that volleyball friend is a lesbian. Just sayin.