Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Orange
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Saekirei
 Posts: 5 |
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You don't always end up with your first love. Sometimes bad things happen, sometimes a chance is missed and your life will be changed because of it. Sometimes people get together because it was the best choice at that time/circumstance, but that doesn't mean it's impossible for them to loved someone else or love someone new in the future. I think seeing it in terms of "She wants to change the past to be with Kakeru romantically" isn't what the show is saying. The show is making it pretty clear that Naho isn't writing the letters to just get together with Kakeru instead of Suwa, but to prevent his death. It just so happens to be that Naho is also in love with Kakeru when she has to save him. That doesn't mean that she regrets ending up with Suwa, or having a child with him. And it also doesn't necessarily mean that she will not end up with Suwa is Kakeru lives.
You must not be picking up on the absolute grief in Future!Suwa's eyes either. Why would you think he wouldn't want to also save Kakeru as well as Naho? Notice how close they are in highschool? Naho wasn't the only one hurt by Kakeru's death; they all suffered. We just are getting the most focus on Naho right now. [/b] |
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AholePony
 Posts: 330 Location: Arizona |
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All valid points. It's just if she wanted to save him her letter would just say "on x date he dies, please do Y to stop it." Instead, we have her making him bento and trying to stop him from accepting a confession. That being said, I also recognize that this story centers on regrets, I just wish her future self wasn't even married. I'd be able to be more emotionally invested that way. I still get the vibe that one of her regrets is her own current life and thus her own child and marriage. What this all leads me to, is currently I'm hoping for a bad end. I'm not wanting her to get her cake and eat it too.... and I'd rather feel hopeful watching this show but it's not letting me. At least the ED song is awesome. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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But that's exactly what the letter says, except that the situation is not as simple as you describe it. She's supposed to do all those thing to stop him from wanting to die. As for your concerns about her "getting her cake and eat it too", the whole "love triangle" business is not excatly my favourite part of the story, but it's handled decently enough IMO. |
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1117 Location: Puget Sound |
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Based on the manga, spoiler tagged because it hasn't been seen yet in the anime... spoiler[That's it in a nutshell - though the anime hasn't really made it clear yet, he wants to die because of his guilt over his mother's death. Stopping one attempt on one specific date won't be enough. Naho has to give him a reason to live.] |
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CtrlZED
Posts: 1 |
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I agree with you so much (get out of my mind!!). I see Kakeru as someone who is manipulative, he knows Naho is willing to sacrifice herself for the happiness of others, so what does he do? He starts asking for the 5am wake-up calls and hints that he wants lunches made. Another problem with this show is the unrealistic portrayal of depression and suicide, not everyone can be saved with love and nakama BS. |
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Valhern
 Posts: 916 |
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I really wanted to bang my head against the nearest wall during most of the first half of this episode. Not because Naho's actions are out of character or particularly frustrating, at least not her actions themselves. What actually frustrated me was Ueda-senpai's role. Like, the resolution of this was fairly obvious, and for some reason I can't help but think that Ueda was way too unimportant. I didn't care that she was going to get dumped at some point, her whole role until now (and I fear that's going to be the last we see of her) was being an uninteresting threat for Naho, and for her being so underdeveloped, she is apparently too important. In my opinion, a different group of friends (like, say, the football team and their female manager) would have done the same work without looking so overdramatic and putting so much into only one character. Also it bothered me from the start why exactly he said yes if he had so many doubts and told Naho in the most roundabout way possible.
What I did really like about this episode was some direction ideas. There was this REALLY good one in which Suwa looks at Naho when the topic about Kakeru going out with Ueda is brought up, it's subtle yet I love it how it shows his care for her. Then there is Kakeru always speaking with very low and uninterested voice when talking with Ueda, and having a very unamused expression. I still don't get the meaning of the frog imagery but I suppose it's some japanese folklore like the butterfly? I don't know, but it was interesting. The only bad thing in direction was this part in which someone is playing softball and they use like 5 still shots with black cutouts? Very confusing. It resembled a bit more Episode 2, in tone and resolution, so I kinda liked it. Already mentioned my main problem with this mini arc, and in this episode in particular it was weird how Suwa and everyone knew what happened a floor above? I mean it was a good pep talk but it came out of the left field in my opinion. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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I agree with AholePony, the story is gonna need to do one HELL of a job resolving the "love triangle" in order to not really tick me off. Suwa clearly loves Naho, but everything in the "present" and "future" is painting both Kakeru and Naho as (in their own ways) very selfish and self-centered and Suwa as something of a martyr. If it wasn't for the TEN year time dilation I'd assume the child is Kakeru's with how Suwa cut-off that conversation REALLY fast. I agree that the story would be better served if Naho & Suwa were simply "dating" rather than married with a child. Because then a "what if" story is more wistful rather than just feeling "desperate housewife" tacky. Also, what time period is the "present" supposed to be in? At the beginning I assumed the "future" is theoretically right now, and the "10 years ago" was in the past. But the phones keep ripping me out of that since smartphones were not that prevalent (ESPECIALLY in Japan) 10 years ago. |
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Valhern
Posts: 916 |
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There are two possibilities: 1) The anime "modernized" the phones, this is something done with Parasyte (they actually change books for internet and stuff like that) or Hunter x Hunter (in the manga everybody has flip phones and in the 2011 adaptation everyone has smartphones), so it's not that weird 2) The present is in the 2010s, if I'm not wrong this manga is very recent so it's not that far off. Either that or the author didn't take into account the time setting as particularly important for the story, since I see no particular difference between present and future, which goes to show the lack of sci-fi exploration to it. |
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1117 Location: Puget Sound |
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The manga ran from 2012-2015, so I always assumed the "present" is (more-or-less) "now". |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Let me ask another way, is the "present" supposed to be the adult selves, or the high school? |
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lys
 Posts: 1011 Location: mitten-state |
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Present (contemporary to right now) is high school. The future adult selves exist in what would be our future if they were real people.
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Seishin Jinrou
 Posts: 29 |
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If she is trying to use time travel to set her past self up with Kakeru, then yes I would consider that cheating on her husband, and not really caring very much at all about him, his feelings, or their son who may no longer exist if she gets here way. However, the end of this episode made me wonder if it isn't possible that Kakeru actually doesn't like Naho in that way? Maybe in the end he will wind up with one of the other girls (or even, boys!) in their group instead.
Preventing someone's suicide, especailly one back up by severe trauma of living with his codependant, insane mother who committed suicide because he stayed after school one day, is not something easy and simple. Maybe Naho can't even do it all on her own. I realize that this isn't a show that's likely going to dark places (unlike Erased,) though. |
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1117 Location: Puget Sound |
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That's how it seems to me too. |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2272 Location: Online Terminal |
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Yes. I think in the movie, "Present" 2015 and future is 2025. |
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Sakurie
Posts: 19 |
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That's what I'm thinking too. I also think he's kinda using her with the lunch and wake up calls (especially how he got disappointed that she said you got a girlfriend so I shouldn't do that etc) or more taking advantage of the fact he knows she likes him. I'm still enjoying the series however but I'm defiantly team Suwa at this point lol. |
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