Leaving aside the politics for a while, I did think this episode was much better written then some of the previous ones. For one, Pinion came off as something other than just a giant walking dick. He demonstrated a bit of humility and I enjoyed his back and forth with the dark skinned girl. I did find it rather weird that the criteria for whether he was allowed handle futuristic space lasers was whether he poked a future Rubik’s Cube with a stick or not. I wonder what the selection process is for hiring chief of engineering. They probably put the candidate in a room with a banana hanging just out of reach and a stick on the ground.

I also liked some of the conversations between Ledo and his new commander and them explaining their various positions on how they approached the natives. The captain probably killed a person or two and demonstrated the awesome power of his godlike robot. Ledo’s first actions upon hopping out of the robot was to kidnap a girl and hit her in the bum with a pistol. All right, so maybe you get one tumblr post about how this is yet another example of misogyny in the postal service, but you don’t get a Stalinist Regime born out of it, no matter what your Reddit-stalking, mens’ rights activist might say.

Oh yeah, Stalinist regime. I thought Psycho Pass was a bit overt with its themes, but that’s the king of subtlety next to evil religious group serves ridiculously posh meal to upper class as denoted by their ability to poke a cube with a stick. Somehow Sibyl reading your brain scans to determine what job you should be in came off as way easier to swallow a simple magic puzzle test then throwing luxuries at you. Sibyl presented a weirdly compelling argument why it should and could be implemented next to what we had now, and you had to really get to the core of what was important about self-determination to work out your standings on the subject. The author’s position on the subject was obvious from the get-go, but by making the alternative this psychopathic wannabe vigilante, it made you figure out for yourself what about liberalism was important.

Gargantia on the other hand presents the issue in a much more black-and-white manner. I appreciate more anime trying to tackle some of these much broader philosophical and politics concepts. Can’t think of the last one we got that wasn’t Butch Gen and was quite as obvious about this. Probably Eden of the East? That show had someone ‘saving the country’ by packing up all the NEETs, stripping them naked and carting them off to Dubai. That’s practically the famous Jonathan Swift ‘A Modest Proposal – Eat the Poor’ analogy. I just wish Gargantia was better at it. I mean, they end the episode by saying they’re going to destroy the happy wonderful capitalist society? I dunno, maybe this is what happens when you get different people to write every episode.

An easy way to win me over: make your backgrounds look like impressionist hell. It’s really not difficult to please me visually at all.

The end result of that ride to the police station is a bit curious to me. I’m surprised the rumors didn’t spread like wildfire afterward. Surely someone who works at the station must have a kid who would have heard something vague about what happened that night? Nobody but Saeki’s friend seemed to have any idea that anything happened. The fact that there’s such a tight lid on Saeki going missing seems kind of crazy to me! It doesn’t exactly make everyone involved feel any better about what happened, but still.

Also, it seems that Kasuga and Saeki have broken things off amicably, but I bet that doesn’t last once Saeki gets a whiff of Kasuga warming up more to Nakamura. That jealousy should flare up mighty hard. We all want what we can’t have, right? It seems incredible that Saeki could still be jealous of anyone getting close to Kasuga after the night they had, but people have been jealous about way dumber things. If Saeki hops on the jealousy train, and the rumor mill still doesn’t go batshit bonkers, then I will most definitely call bullshit.

Back to Kasuga’s dream. I enjoy the super heavy-handed visualization of all the shit weighing him down. For an adult, the night Kasuga had would be pretty embarrassing. It’s safe to say you didn’t have a hot night out if you get picked up by the cops. But as long as nothing major occurred, the aftermath would mostly be, “Wow, that was really stupid. Hope I don’t do that again!” And they’d go on with their lives because they’re old and experienced enough to keep it in perspective. For Kasuga The Middle Schooler, however, this is basically The Worst Night Ever. Saeki and Nakamura both found out he is a fraud. He made his parents incredibly upset; they’re sad and stuff because of him. And, worst of all, he’s dragged back to the town he hates, more convinced than ever that he’ll never escape its vile clutches.

Is it any wonder, then, that the visuals of Kasuga’s dream are so overwrought? He’s literally walking through his town as it morphs into some industrial hell from Hideaki Anno’s nightmares while the flowers of evil sprout and watch him all around. It’s bad, but it’s surely not that bad, right?? Well, it’s technically probably the worst thing to happen to Kasuga in his entire life, so yeah, in that context, it is that bad. He can’t conceive of any context in which things could possibly get worse. Thus . . . this. The sheer moroseness of Kasuga’s dream is almost adorable in its own way. The flowers swirling in the air while Nakamura berates Kasuga one last time in his dream is the cherry on top.

So then Kasuga has a change of heart. I’m sure it will go swell. Nakamura will be totally accepting of him and they’ll be friends and stuff and live happily ever after. The end. That’s obviously how Kasuga would prefer it to go, but his play at savior will likely not be that smooth. He’s trying to help himself as much as he’s trying to help her. Nakamura would be able to sniff out that bullshit pretty quickly, I imagine. Would it actually matter to her? I dunno. She’s definitely not going to welcome Kasuga with open arms, though, that’s for damn sure. At least not right away. Maybe it would be different if they had a bit of fun.

More worrying: Kasuga has left his beloved Baudelaire broken and betrayed. What despair! What despair!

Just look into lovely Neferpitou’s eyes and everything will be all right. Take a few minutes to stare. I don’t mind.

Now we have the answer to Colt’s question of how you get a dysfunctional group of individualistic Ants to work together for a common cause: You present them with someone who is so stupefyingly powerful that they have no choice but to get in line and take orders. It’s definitely a great way to debut the Queen’s Royal Guard. We see the individualism of humans surface in another way here — the desire to stay alive at all costs. Rammot recognizes immediately that Neferpitou is far stronger than he could hope to be; therefore, it’s in his best interests to bow down. His designs to be king were so short lived.

Likewise, Leol recognizes that Kite holds superior strength, so he retreats. Most series would denigrate Leol for being a coward and not standing up to fight, but Kite almost seems to regard Leol with a measure of respect for being smart enough to back down when fighting would be a fruitless effort. An enemy who knows their limits and weaknesses is surely someone who will one day be dangerous. I imagine Kite would have cut Leol down right there if finding the Chimera Ant nest weren’t a more important goal at the moment; honor is a virtue that stands in the way of survival on this land.

One last word on Leol: I found it pretty interesting that he retains his memories as a lion. In fact, he seems to identify more as a lion than anything else. Leol’s human qualities serve mainly to enhance his qualities as a lion; i.e., the ability to learn and get stronger instead of relying purely upon instinct. It’s another way of showing how individualized these stronger Chimera Ants are.

I’ve avoided the elephant in the room just long enough. How about this scene, huh?! Good lord! I can sense a cheeky bit of dark humor with the setup of this shot making the room appear like a surgeon’s table with the light above and Pokkle laying back on the stone slab while Neferpitou pokes at Pokkle’s brain. It’s a horrifying scene, but as a horror fan, I couldn’t help but be a bit gleeful about it. The idea that you could directly pick at someone’s brain and manipulate them seems to me borrowed from one of the scores of B-movie horror flicks featuring mad scientists performing ghastly experiments and playing god. Nobody can really do this, but the idea that it could happen is what’s frightening. And wouldn’t it happen in a place such as this, with what seems like an unknowing, uncaring deity shining light down from above in this horrible hell?

The scene unfolds on the precipice of what is probably acceptable in a children’s show. The very idea is probably already beyond what’s acceptable; however, what’s shown is left more to the imagination than anything else. There’s never a clear shot of Neferpitou waggling Pokkle’s brain matter — there always seems to be a convenient shadow cast by his forearms. The main hint about what is going on is from Neferpitou reading about the brain and deciding to jump right in and see what presents itself. It’s quite the twisted example of how unnerving our own qualities can be when turned on us. What does Neferpitou show here if not curiosity? It’s just that we’re the experiments now; we’re the subjects of another creature expanding its knowledge. It’s but a small step to being pinned on someone’s scrapbook.

I also love the scene with Rammot and Neferpitou discovering their respective Nen alignments via water divination. It’s a dark mirror of when Gon and Killua once upon a time did the same with Wing. Such surprise, wonder and glee! But for us it’s also chilling. I enjoy the way this scene plays with the emotions of the audience. But I also got a chuckle out of the basic breakdown of the Ants’ plan to introduce Nen to the others: “So … we just hit each other a lot? Is that cool?” “Sure, go knock yourselves out.” (Or should that be nyaack yourselves out?)

Anyway, I for one welcome our new cat-ant overlords.

Context has always been somewhat of an issue for Shingeki no Kyojin. While it’s extremely competent, entire stretches of episodes can zoom by with dramatic moments that elicit more laughs than empathy, due to a lack of attachment to the goings on. To remedy this, the series takes this episode to dissect its entire reason for existing, and lays its still-bleeding innards in front of the characters to examine. It reminds us that humanity is the underdog protagonist in an 80’s sports film that overcomes all adversity, except the rival rich kid team is several times their size and has an insatiable lust for eating people, and the adversity needing to be overcome is being eaten.

There seems to be a general pattern in this show as to the behavior of the soldiers, and it’s gotten a bit wearisome. First comes panic, then despair, then some brave soul pulls them out of their own weeping asses to (wo)man up and fight back the titans, usually accompanied by a soaring orchestral piece. Not that the end result isn’t always spectacular, but the setup has been relatively unchanged since the very first episode, albeit sped along to assuage the feeling of déjà vu. The series has always struggled with maintaining the weight of its situations, and nothing, short of having a fiery speech delivered by Dot Pixis, would have changed that.

Luckily, the brave soul giving the speech in this episode is indeed Dot fucking Pixis, a man so magnificent that his voice carries to a panicked crowd from the top of a huge fucking wall, a voice oozing with enough gravitas to conjure the series’ best tracks from the ether, and aurally skullfuck the meek and frightened sheep into frenzied action. He lays every cold, hard fact on the table and doesn’t shy away from the truth, contextualizing elements and plot points that started to feel stretched to the breaking point by neglect; this is the first time that I didn’t feel a noticeable clunk as the tone switched gears. Maybe it’s the shift to a larger scale than Eren and his immediate social circle, or maybe it’s because Dot Pixis was the missing magical ingredient in an already tasty dish, but something about this felt fluid in a way that hasn’t quite been achieved before.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Araki knew it was going to be another episode of yelling exposition, so he decided to at least use it as an opportunity to push the best that the soundtrack had to offer onto the audience. Every critical thought that dared to crop up was instantly supplanted by admiration for the sound direction, because holy fuck on a fuckbiscuit this is probably the best that the series has so far, and I’ll probably buy the soundtrack just because of its use here. While far from understated, it’s woven well into each scene to give the simmering tension just that much more of a push while Pixis bombards the crowd with aural testosterone shots.

I think that Shingeki no Kyojin has found just the right way to pad the moments between fights when Eren’s growth (pardon the pun) isn’t in need of developing: Dot Pixis screaming an inspirational speech with the backing of thunderous war drums, and Eren burning away the show’s budget in fluid movement gear sequences. Granted, Eren’s sudden endeavor to redecorate a roof with Mikasa’s innards was pretty fucking abrupt, but at least it beats ending the episode with Eren becoming Skeletor.

My little manga break is over. I’d say it was a fairly big success because I came out thinking that maybe manga is not so bad after all, unlike my stint with visual novels. I’ll still be checking out some of the other manga recommended to me and possibly review them. I’m slowly making my through 7 Seeds and enjoying it quite a bit, and I believe Shinmaru is continuing his Jojo’s manga trawl. However it will be at a much slower pace and won’t be the main focus anymore. Besides, I need to get back to these yearly posts because I want to round off last decade before the 2010′s finish.

So as I did with 2002 and 2001, I’m looking for recommendations for what anime to watch from 2003. Wikipedia’s list is probably the easiest to browse. Same rules apply as last time. Don’t recommend anything too long (so no…errr, Zatch Bell, since that seems to be the only 60+ episode anime from that year). Don’t recommend any sequels (besides, I’ve already rewatched Fumoffu). Don’t go for the stupidly obvious (so no Full Metal Alchemist). Try to recommend stuff that you think I will actually like and haven’t already seen, but don’t worry about those points too much. When in doubt, just recommend anyway because it’s always interesting seeing what people still hold up as being good from that year.

‘Alexander the Great as written by the author of Parasyte’ was my entire knowledge of Historie going in. In my mind I had the image of Rider from Fate/Zero stabbing parasitic aliens that eat your face with his spear, but sadly twas not the reality. Historie is actually about a secretary of Alexander the Great, an orphan who goes on many adventures before becoming Alexander’s aid.

At least, that’s what the back of the books promise. There are seven volumes out and Alexander is still a kid and hasn’t recruited any secretaries yet. This might sound like the plot moves really slowly, but that isn’t really the case. Heck, sometimes it glosses over seemingly massive plot twists in barely any time at all. In one scene the main character has been sold as a slave on a ship, but the slaves kill their boss and taken over the ship. However in the space of two pages the author goes “and then the ship sank”, a turn I thought deserved a little bit more exploration than just a two bloody pages.

The problem with Historie is it feels very aimless. The main character references the Odyssey and how much he likes the character of Odysseus because, unlike the other war heroes who get by on sheer brute strength, Odysseus wins battles using his brain. The story does appear to be following an Odyssey-esque tale, following our main character as he thinks his way out of the situations he finds himself in. The main character is rather likable because of how much cleverer he is than everyone around him and the audacity of some of the stunts he pulls off. The story does seem to forget random other parts of his personality that I thought were going to be a big part of his story. The start introduced this idea of his struggling with his barbarian upbringing and possibly savage inner side, but the next several volumes don’t bring that side of him up again.

The main story also doesn’t seem to be able to focus on a particular side of the main character. The earlier volumes are about his barbarian upbringing and wild side. Then he goes into the Odysseus tales of valour through intellect shtick. Half of the time though things just happen to him. Sold to slavers, picked up by Macedonian King, making toys for mentally disabled kids. It all just falls into his lap with no input on his part, which I don’t feel makes a good use of the traits they were supposedly developing. Plus the latest volumes seem to have forgotten he exists entirely and have focused exclusively on Alexander, now that they’ve finally introduced this king of kings.

It’s not that Alexander’s story isn’t interesting in itself. The writing in Historie is generally very good. I just wish the author would sit down and decide what it was he wanted to this story to be about. Parasyte had a laser sharp focus with what it wanted its story to tell. Historie feels like a bunch of Ancient Greek history thrown together into a pot. Also in comparison to Parasyte, I’m starting to realise the author doesn’t have the greatest art. Parasyte was able to hide that with its bizarre and imaginative body horror. Historie is gory, but it doesn’t define the story the same way it does in Parasyte. In fact, I’m not sure what it is that defines Historie, beyond the whole Ancient Greece setting, which is exactly the problem. It’s a very well written manga. I’m just not sure what it’s writing about.

But yes, this episode was half Pinion waving his dick over the radio and going “yoohoo aren’t you all jealous of what this suction pump I bought from an ad on jlist did for me wooh” and doing the windmill, and half Ledo falling around the ship as though Chamber has been spiking his nutrient supplements.

I can’t say I was feeling Ledo’s emotional breakdown the same way I felt Akane’s breakdown in Psycho Pass. I think it’s because I’m impatient and would just like Ledo to get on with his life. When Akane’s life force was shattered, you saw her be broken, but by the next time we saw her she was girding her loins and getting back into action. She wasn’t suffering from sea legs and pulling orz poses. I was siding with Chamber before he even began his speech.

I did really enjoy that spiel from Chamber about the fundamental differences between them and the space snails (I could just remember how to spell Hideoooze, or I could just keep calling them space snails, which is way easier). Often with sci-fi alien races, they’re basically just the equilivant of a nation of humans or a certain political leaning of humans. These aliens are the Space Imperialists, while those are the Space Capitalists. The space snails are truly alien in every way from humans, ironic considering their beginnings. It’s interesting to consider what happens we lose our desire to augment our lives to compensate for our bodies inabilities. My first thought with that was wouldn’t people still want art? Even if everything we physically want is provided, mental stimulus is subjective. However if you consider for a second what art is, it’s a person’s vision transcribed via a medium. If all communication is instant and perfect, there is theoretically no need for art.

As for Gargantia as a whole, I’m not sure if you guys are feeling the same way, but I’m just not as jazzed about it as I was at the start. The terrible middle portion of the show really soured my opinion on the themes it was building up, and these latest episodes haven’t been able to get me hyped up again. The characters are just really uninteresting. If they were supposed to be building up Pinion as being some kind of antagonist, then they’ve done a crap job because I feel only mild dislike towards him and his dick-waving. The female characters are complete jokes, in particular Amy who is just that goddamn genki girl archetype. I’m not invested in events anymore, and all that’s really keeping my attention is the sci-fi folklore stuff that’s basically just Chamber reading the Mass Effect codex out loud. And on some level I’m kinda cool with that, because I love me some high sci-fi, but an engaging story it does not make.

I was all set to have the finish to Gon’s battle as the highlight of this post, and then Kite had to upstage him by turning the forest into Silent Hill and carving the Chimera Ants like cake. If this and Kite’s boomstick are the bad rolls, then I’d hate to see what the good roll is! (That is a lie, of course. I am giddy at the thought of Kite murdering hordes of Chimera Ants with some crazy weapon. Fuck those bugs.)

Like Kite, however, I fear the days of easy Ant slaughter are coming to a close. The deadly premonition bugging Kite is not to be ignored; clearly, we already know about Rammot getting the Nen power-up, with Colt potentially following in his footsteps. (Also, things will not be well for poor Pokkle, either. I assume he will still be among the living when the Chimera Ants experiment on him. Not the greatest fate in the world.) There’s also the tiger Chimera Ant and his posse. This episode does reveal a bit more information that could cause problems, however: Namely, between the Squadron Leaders and the Queen there exists one more level in the hierarchy — the Royal Guard. We haven’t seen any of them yet, but they’re definitely coming eventually. It’s a safe bet that even a Nen-powered Rammot would be, well, an ant to them.

So, yes, the Chimera Ants are preparing many obstacles for Kite and company. The main hope, as Kite says, is that the infusion of individuality stemming from the use of humans as genetic bases has splintered the Chimera Ants. There are so many groups doing what they want whenever they want. Imagine if they were all organized and could exploit the Nen power-ups to the fullest extent? They would be a frightening, unstoppable foe. The arrogance that led that big group of Ants to challenge Gon and Killua one-on-one before Kite slaughtered them all is the thinking that is leading to their downfall at the moment. That won’t last forever, though.

One thing I am really enjoying about the Chimera Ant right now is how every little detail feeds into Kite’s worry that he, Gon and Killua should carry themselves with caution. That paranoia is definitely carrying over to me. For instance, my first thought upon seeing this scene and the scene with the government officials that proceeded that was not, “NETERO!!!!!” (though I did think that later), but instead, “Holy shit, those bugs totally have to be spies for the Chimera Ants!” There’s just way too much focus on them in every scene, though that did get me briefly wondering if that’s what we’re supposed to think, and that they’re actually innocuous bugs. After all, they’re in all likelihood quite far away from the Chimera Ant colony. That whole thought process just results in a cycle that doesn’t resolve itself. Those bugs were all around for some juicy details, however. Should the Chimera Ants suddenly figure out who else is coming after them and that their foes know details about their organizational structure, then we know who to blame.

You see how that works, though. Kite is not taking anything in stride, so I am not taking anything in stride, either. Even what seems like satisfactory words and actions from Gon — who proves that he is ready, willing and able to kill Chimera Ants even though he is not really a killer by nature — are taken with worry by Kite. Gon has an easy time killing the Chimera Ants who live without honor; however, what of those who do? Would Gon kill Colt as easily as he does the others? Maybe. Maybe not. The question of killing often seems to dog shonen protagonists, but here there’s a frankness to it that makes it all the more compelling and nervewracking.

I can’t close this post without at least paying some lip service to this. Holy crap. Killua’s precision in battle is impressive as always; I love the way he attacks the same spot again and again until it weakens just enough that he can exploit it. (It reminds me of one of the stories in the Golgo 13 anime, where Golgo snipes the same spot of bulletproof glass several times so that it weakens just enough for him to sneak a final bullet in and execute his target.) Gon’s insane strength will more often lead to more exploits that are impressive and frightening, though. I mean, he fucking crushes this Chimera Ant! Good lord! Enhancers are truly frightening Nen-users. Somewhere Uvogin’s spirit is sighing about the fact that he isn’t getting the opportunity to crush a horde of Chimera Ants.

Thinking up titles for these less than titanic Titan posts is always a difficult prospect. I’m always torn between going for the puns (always go for the puns when you can) and going for something that I found notable about the episode. In lieu of either (no good Armin puns; other people sucked), this week’s hastily cobbled together title is brought to you by a daylong Slayer binge, which is a viable source of post titles for any episode, now that I give it some thought.

The circumstances surrounding Eren’s power are kind of interesting, now that some time’s been given to explore just what sets them off. Since he can only summon a titan form conducive to his desire at time of summoning, and has to go to some effort to maintain it, there’s a definite learning curve to him getting just what he needs at just the right time. There’s fertile ground for development of all kinds, from Eren learning to control his impulses for just the right titan, to him feeling ostracized even after being begrudgingly spared from a messy death by cannonball. Hell, there may be some fun things done with him slowly losing his humanity or even life, if the show’s feeling particularly daring. While none of these choices are all that daring or explorative of deep, new concepts, they’ll still be interesting to see filtered through Shingeki no Kyojin’s lens of titan murder and people eating. At worst it’ll have Eren punch other titans to death in a satisfyingly visceral fashion, which is hardly bad thing. The only way I could be really disappointed is if nothing comes of it, and Eren just spends the next several episode whinging at things.

However, this isn’t Eren’s episode—in fact, his whole “my journey’s going to be dangerous, so don’t come with me” shtick is downright tiresome, as is Mikasa’s fanatical devotion to protecting him. It’s unquestionably Armin’s chance to prove less of a burden than the other characters give him credit for. For being such an integral character, Armin hasn’t exactly been given enough room to be characterized as anything other than a sniveling, abnormally smart waste of space. Much of the show up to this point could have had him replaced with bizarrely specific fortune cookies that dispensed titan survival advice, and it wouldn’t have felt very different.

It’s taken awhile for him to grow into his part, but here he is, probably the most sympathetic character developed so far. While I’m apparently one of the few that thinks Eren’s perfectly alright, mostly because everybody else seems intent on reminding him that he’s functionally useless without fellow soldiers to tether down his recklessness, it’s Armin that comes blazing out of nowhere, saving Eren and Mikasa from the rash decisions of a superior officer. His quick thinking, coupled with a drive to protect the two, provide an outlet for the plot to abuse his diplomatic nature that’s been suffering from neglect as of late. Unfortunately, the actual dialogue is similar to last episode, with Armin yelling at Raccoon Eyes, who in turn denies Armin’s points through more yelling; shouting one’s points can only happen so much before it starts to feel forced. Still, it does show Armin asserting himself, which is proof that he does have it in him to be kind of fucking cool and not just an insecure wreck of a person.

Finally, there’s Pixis, who I’m hoping will become a mainstay as the show continues. With the façade of a perpetual smirk and offhanded comments about female titans, my money’s on him being somehow revealed as a titan at some point, since my wildest predictions for the season have been proven mostly right so far, and it wouldn’t hurt to go for “awesomely dumb plot progression bingo”. Still, if there’s somebody that I’d want to be a titan just because, it’d be him.

I don’t know how to end this post in a way that can properly express my satisfaction at Armin finally being given a chance to shine with the poise and dignity of a soldier, so here he is in a school uniform.

This is the look your waifu gives you at the end of every day.

This series is very good at a great many things, but there’s one thing in particular it excels at: that perfect cutting moment of awkwardness leading to horrified laughter. There’s much rawness and emotion in this episode, but it’s the very end that hit me most deeply. During Saeki and Kasuga’s argument, Nakamura remarks on how pathetic everything is. It is a horrible stroke of irony, then, that she’s center stage in the final pathetic moment of the episode: After Kasuga refuses to choose sides and reveals his nothingness, Nakamura can do nothing but be intensely disappointed and attempt to run away from the police when they arrive to round the kids up. That scream when she trips and is taken in by the cop? Horrifying. Even Nakamura is not immune to the stifling nature of this everytown.

I’m usually loathe to use another screenshot so quickly, but Jesus, the awkwardness of this ride combined with the ED. It’s just too fucking much. It’s like the opposite of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure — it’s a crushing march toward doom. It is remarkable how leaden with doom and thrill most events in Flowers of Evil are when what these kids are actually doing is rather unremarkable. Such is the power of a presentation that understands how huge these events are to people who have experienced very little in their lives. For most people at that age, the town they live in is their entire world. I know I knew town I lived in front and back, but outside of that? Everything might as well have been a different planet. The world beyond, so different and full of magic . . . and me never able to get there. Now I can drive and fly and ride the train wherever I want because I am An Adult! Hoorah!

And, heh, don’t think I didn’t notice that Saeki/clean and Nakamura/dirty imagery, you cheeky little show, you. Saeki, though . . . it’s more clear by the episode that she represents how weird and fucked up this pure, clean view of romance is. It’s totally OK for Kasuga to take Saeki’s gym clothes if he does it for TRUE LOVE~~~~ It’s probably for the best that this whole thing falls apart so that Saeki can look back on this after a decade and be like, “Wow, did I actually think that?? Kids are dumb.” Then again, with three episodes remain, I somehow doubt that everything will be peachy keen and squeaky clean from here on out. This is a humiliating event for everyone involved, and because this is a small town, rumors will no doubt spread like wildfire. The fallout at school will be something to see, that’s for sure.

Going back to this scene, though, I’m cool with the decision to toss away all manner of subtlety in favor of full-on emotional rawness. Stripping Kasuga down to his core is a rather obvious metaphor, but how else could this tug of war conclude when Nakamura has been tearing down Kasuga’s walls this entire time? It is only when stripped of any social pretense that Kasuga can admit that he is not the person either Saeki or Nakamura wants. He reads Baudelaire but doesn’t truly understand him (unsurprising considering his age and actions throughout the series), and neither is he someone with the strength to rebel in total against society. Kasuga is just a dopey, ordinary boy in denial that he is ordinary, which, ironically enough, makes him all the more ordinary.

Ordinary isn’t what Nakamura wants; the kind of ordinary Kasuga represents isn’t what Saeki wants. Poor kid just can’t win.