O Maidens in Your Savage Season – 05 [Things That Changed Before We Knew It]

Um, okay. deep breath So, this show introduced a character who’s a walking red flag; a loud, wailing warning sign with the capability of turning any and every potential viewer away. And it somehow tries to humanize him in a way? The show tries to do the near impossible task of explaining his psychology to help us at least understand who he is as a person even if we cannot relate. Even though he is an out-and-out pedophile!! Does it succeed or should you stop watching now? Read on to find out!

We continue straight from last episode’s cliffhanger of sorts. But it all turns out to be much ado about nothing (expectedly). Izumi just wanted to talk about the things on his mind to Sugawara-san and he wanted to do that somewhere private; hence, they took the subway. She tells him how she feels that trains are like boxes carrying all these people: rich, poor, happy, lonely. All with the different lives they lead, united by the destination they are headed to. It’s quite a beautiful analogy. And I have got to say Sugawara-san is amazingly wise and mature for a 15-year old girl. There, she sees a man get up from his seat and get off at the next station. She grabs Izumi and ushers him along to rush after him. They eventually encounter each other and even though the exchange is brief, you could feel the emotions and the fact that they were once part of each other’s pasts, expressed through cold glances, shaking voices and blushed cheeks.

He is introduced as Saegusa, a dance teacher under whom Sugawara-san served as a protege in her younger years. He took a particular liking to her, not because he could see her untapped potential and exemplary talent. But because, to put it crudely, she was her type. Saegusa, you see, was into little girls. Their girly nature and pure innocence. Someone who you should hate right from the get-go. Someone who’s mere existence should be avoided. A tumor. But there was one thing that separated him from being completely irredeemable. He never touched Sugawara-san. Never laid a finger on her. Even when she wanted him to, he just turned her down. Which made her feel unwanted and rejected. But he had his reasons. He said that if he were to be physical with her, she would no longer be a girl. Having sex would change her. She would mature. She would then be a woman and would no longer possess her girly charms.

And I know, that is no justification for his demeanor or his proclivities, especially considering that he is a mentor to so many young girls. But it does let you see things from his perspective; messed up as that may be. I had a friend, who was a virgin up until recently. She was afraid of having sex, of the awkwardness and of not being good enough. Of being underwhelming for her partner. But she decided to fight her fears and get through with it. And it wasn’t horrible at all. It was quite a wholesome experience for her. All this time she was afraid of it for nothing. And that experience changed her. Made her more accepting of her body and confident in herself. And today, I look at her and I see that she isn’t the same person. She has matured, in the best way possible. This show deals with sex and how it affects us as people; both physically and psychologically. More specifically, it deals with how it affects girls. Not everyone will relate to everything. But you aren’t supposed to.

Meanwhile, we also dived further into the stories of Hongo-san and her continued struggle to figure out her way around hormones and sex drives; all for the sake of her artistic expression, of course. Sudo goes out on a date with Sugimoto-kun and it turns out to be kind of crappy with him being all proud and boastful about being the man and paying for his share though it only saved her a couple hundred yen. You could really see how she is struggling with dragging a relationship along when she has no feelings for her partner. And Kazusa, who has taken a narrative backseat for the past few weeks trying to figure out who Izumi really likes.

But the best moment of the episode really comes when Sonezaki-san goes to the school terrace to return Amagi his report, along with her critical review, obviously. Seeing him start reading it immediately, Sonezaki-san protests and the pages all fly astray. They get down to try and collect all of them and all of a sudden, one page catches Amagi’s eye. It’s the one on which he asked Sonezaki-san out. And she has written her response on it in red ink. It’s not a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’. It’s actually something so characteristic of a lonely girl, who has been ridiculed for her looks and who found her refuge among books and fictional characters because they don’t call her ugly. She replies in response to Amagi’s question: ‘If you would be so kind.’, which immediately made a teenage boy in his school uniform scream with happiness and a twenty-something girl watching it all happen to wipe her tears of joy. It was beautiful.

And if it isn’t clear enough by now, I would still strongly recommend that you continue watching to see this lovely cast of characters develop and even if some parts of the story are too dark and uncomfortable, it’s all being handled with utmost care. So much so, that I believe that the payoff at the end will be worth it.