Monthly Archives: July 2011

Kimi ni Todoke 2 – Episodes 7 – 9

By | July 3, 2011 at 11:34 am | No Comments

Sawako finally gets the courage to confess to Kazehaya, but they’re interrupted before Kazehaya can (verbally) respond, and even though they shared a nice embrace, Sawako is still under the impression that Kazehaya only likes her as a friend.  However, some encouragement from Pin while working on cultural festival stuff encourages her to talk to him again.

Is our long Kimi ni Todoke Nightmare finally over?

Is our long Kimi ni Todoke Nightmare finally over?

Kent still tries to interfere some, I think partly to clean up the mess he made. His first attempt doesn’t go so well, telling Sawako in front of half the school that he thinks Kazehaya likes her, but his second attempt during the cultural festival is a bit more productive, finally convincing Sawako to admit her feelings to Kazehaya. However, the confusion over who thought who rejected whom before still leads to problems as, I’m sure Kazehaya thinks things are settled since he thinks Sawako rejected him then came back around while Sawako thinks Kazehaya rejected her but still hasn’t changed his mind.  Hopefully Kazehaya will reaffirm his feelings when the two meet up, presumably at the start of the next episode.

We saw Kurumi for the first real time in a while in these episodes, though she seems pretty resigned to the fact that Sawako and Kazehaya will eventually get together, despite their current confusion.  I’m not really sure we’ll be seeing very much of her from now on since she appears to have given up trying to sabotage their relationship.  Kent, meanwhile, seems to be about out of it too. He’s done about all he can do and it’s really up to Sawako and Kazehaya to finish things off at this point.

With one set of episodes left, I have to say at this point, this season has felt somewhat redundant.  I thought we had gone through much of this already in the last season, and I figured the two were “together” at the Christmas festival, but they ended up having to get distant and go through the whole exercise again.  This might be more interesting if this was the first season instead of the 2nd season. I was hoping this was going to be more about them trying to work through their relationship instead of still trying to start it in the first place.

Kimi ni Todoke 2 – Episodes 4 – 6

By | July 2, 2011 at 11:53 am | No Comments

Kent starts sticking his nose into matters that he shouldn’t be. First he tells Kazehaya that he thinks he’s doing more harm that good with Sawako, saying that if other girls think he’s paying special attention to Sawako, they may become jealous and she’ll stop fitting in.  He then goes and tells Sawako that Kazehaya was just being nice to her because she was looking down and outcast and that she should think about finding someone else. Someone such as himself.

Sawako thinks she got rejected...thanks to Kent

Sawako thinks she got rejected...thanks to Kent

Given his reaction after the events where Kazehaya confessed, it seems like Kent was saying that he was saying because he misunderstood the situation and was trying too hard to help, and not out of  malice, though it could have certainly been viewed that way if he didn’t seem to realize he had made a mistake.

And with Kazehaya, for someone who is as impatient as he is, he seems to take one fewer step than he should when it comes to Sawako.  He appears content to leave it as it is when Sawako thinks he’s just saying he is friends with her instead of correcting her belief right then, and then later he assumes that Sawako just likes him as a friend instead of making sure that it isn’t more.  After that and Kent’s interference, I”m not sure I can really fault Sawako all that much in all of this. She was already confused, then Kent persuaded her that Kazehaya really didn’t like her, so that when he confessed, she didn’t believe that he was saying what he was really saying.

After Yoshida’s speech to her at the end of episode 6, maybe Sawako will finally clear things up, or Kazehaya will decide on his own to clear things up, and they’ll FINALLY start going out, but we’ll have to see. Knowing them, they’ll let things fester like this for a while longer before sorting things out. However, whenever they do sort it out, one does have to wonder if Kent’s concern that some of the other girls will turn on her will come true.  We already saw one set calling her garden “weird” and I can see someone going after her herb garden, especially if something weird happens during the class’s “black magic cafe.”

Wandering Son – Episodes 10 & 11 [END]

By | July 1, 2011 at 12:18 pm | No Comments

The Nitori’s have a family meeting where the parents initially try to put the blame on Maho for dressing Shuichi up when they were little, though their father seems a bit more understanding than their mother. Meanwhile, neither Shuichi or Maho go back to school the next day.  Yoshino tells Sasa about the incident, and is kind of in awe of Shuichi never flinching when he was confronted by his teacher over wearing the uniform. Not only that, but Yoshino and Chizuru start getting harassed for their previous dress up experiences as well.  Despite this, Shuichi’s class decides to do another genderbending play for the next cultural festival

Stepping Out into the World

Stepping Out into the World

It was kind of sad see Momoko not only being the least understanding of Shuichi’s friends, but she remained sour for the rest of the season whenever it came to Shuichi, or even Yoshino really for that matter.  Meanwhile, Doi, while still kind of his old self, such as by telling Shuichi he was an idiot for dressing up when he was the one who suggested it, seems to have turned over a new leaf to an extent, such as helping out with the play, and being genuinely upset when Shuichi told him off.

I’m glad we saw a bit more of Saori in the last episode since she had fallen off the face of the planet it seemed for a while, and while she still seems to have feelings for Shuichi, she seems to have accepted the fact that he doesn’t return them.  Meanwhile, I guess not unexpectedly Anna broke up with Shuichi, though in the last episode Shuichi still states his feelings for her.  The status of any of Shuichi’s romantic relationships seem up in the air, though.  I originally thought that him getting with Yoshino was a foregone conclusion, but there doesn’t seem to be anything going on there since he started going out with Anna.  I thought he would kind of strengthen his feelings for Yoshino and vice versa after that, but it seems like Shuichi is genuinely over Yoshino and Yoshino, while I think perhaps jealous at first, seemed fine with him going with Anna.

This series, in the end, was about Shuichi being unsure and shy about who he is, but ultimately coming to terms with it, and not being afraid of it, even if he decided not to go out of his way to show it after the school incident. I think the show has come under some criticism for being too unrealistic, especially when it comes to how understanding Shuichi’s friends are, but I’m not sure that’s the case. Most of Shuichi’s friends were either into cross-dressing or at least flirted with the idea beforehand – really Sasa is the only one who didn’t – and when they met Chizuru, Shuichi was drawn to her because she came to school in a boy’s uniform herself, and Momoko just kind of came along for the ride at that point.  Meanwhile, the reactions of Shuichi’s classmates when he came to the school as a girl are so negative that he basically has to spend a whole semester doing his classes in the nurse’s office.  I almost found it interesting that, due to who was in what class, Sasa really became Shuichi’s primary defender in the last couple of episodes, though there isn’t any hint that their relationship is anything but strictly platonic.

Unfortunately, the series has mostly caught up to where the manga is, though the start of the series started at volume 5, which seems to be unusual.  I think this series is definitely worthy enough of having a sequel, but it’s either going to have to go it’s own way, or wait several years for the manga to get far enough ahead again to do that. I think Wandering Son is a series for those with a particular taste; it certainly is drama-centered. However, for those who like drama series and thought-provoking series, I think that this turned out to be a pretty good little series.

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