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Gina Szanboti
Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11431
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 2:15 pm
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One-Eye wrote: | what did he think was going to happen when they graduated? I mean he was going to go off to college and obviously Sentaro wasn't or did he think that Sentaro was going to follow him and they'd shack up and continue their bromance? |
There a huge difference between going separate ways after saying good-bye with the option of keeping in touch afterward, and disappearing without a word with no one knowing what became of you.
yuna49 wrote: | Yurika had some gumption, but I found it unbelieveable that she had stayed with Jun for eight years. There was nothing in their relationship that suggested it had much staying power. She wanted to escape her constricting life, and he wanted...., well I'm not sure what he wanted. He didn't seem to be shopping for a wife. Two lustful young people, one of whom was just sixteen and the other a twenty-something "player," run off together then build a deep and lasting relationship. It's just not plausible. |
While it's surprising, I didn't find that part so hard to believe. Arranged marriages do tend to work, and in a culture where that's a normal way to go about it, I think people have different expectations going into marriage. In a sense, this was a sort of an arranged marriage, in that they both were together for reasons other than love, with their families influencing the decision, albeit 180° from what their families would have chosen.
Once they went against their families, they didn't really have a lot of other choices besides utterly self-destructive ones. After running off and being disowned, what other respectable matches did they have to look forward to if they tired of this one? Once they cast themselves adrift from their culture's expectations, I don't think they'd lightly abandon the lifeboat of their relationship for passing driftwood just because they'd gotten bored with the company. Does that make sense?
There is also the bond of uniting against a common enemy, in this case the strong motivation to make it work to prove to everyone that it wasn't a whim or mistake (even if it was both).
One-Eye wrote: |
Sorry I've never spoiler[held my best friend of 25 years tightly to my chest and told him to go ahead and cry. Maybe Japanese high school boys are different or maybe I'm too old and come from a different century, but all of the emoting struck me as a little too much at times. |
If anime and live action movies are to be believed, it's not just high school boys.
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yuna49
Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 7:22 pm
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Gina Szanboti wrote: | Does that make sense? |
Boy I hate having extended arguments inside spoiler tags. I generally hold to the notion that if the show has ended spoiler tags aren't warranted. Nevertheless,
First off, you seem to think that they are married. What evidence do we have for that? Because Yurika is pregnant? Perhaps the child is illegitimate. That it's 1966 and good boys and girls get married? Good girls would marry someone their parents approve of. I find it hard to imagine a situation where Yurika's father, in particular, would have ever approved of her marrying Jun.
Even if I give you the benefit of the doubt, I just don't see things working out the way you described. First, what are these two doing to earn a living? Given what we've seen of Yurika's work as an artist, I don't see her career bringing home the bacon. Jun was ready to run off and become a communist agitator. Maybe he's blowing horn in a few gigs from time to time. Neither one of them seemed prepared for an adult life together when they run off to Tokyo.
Gina:
There is also the bond of uniting against a common enemy, in this case the strong motivation to make it work to prove to everyone that it wasn't a whim or mistake (even if it was both).
I don't really buy this either. This theory assumes that they have managed to build their life together in the face of their parents' opposition. (Well, we don't really know about Jun's parents, so lets limit it to Yurika's parents' opposition.) Given their dim financial prospects without parental support that seems unlikely to me. I found this whole part of the story pure romanticization in rather sharp contrast to the rest of the show..
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Gina Szanboti
Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11431
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 7:50 pm
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I agree about the spoiler tags once the first comments make it clear which episode is being discussed so people know when to quit reading, and once the series has ended, but I've been chewed out for it enough that I just tag everything now because I've given up trying to tell what other people consider to be spoilers.
I didn't think they got married either until the series confirmed that they eloped, so I took that at face value rather than thinking the characters misunderstood. Unless eloped just means run off together rather than run off to get married. I'm not sure it matters either way.
There are lots of ways to make a meager living and it's not hard to imagine they found one. Starving artists have families too. Even alone, Jun would have had to do something besides being a firebrand activist. Maybe their communist community helped each other out. Maybe Yuriko's mom was secretly sending money. Maybe someone in Jun's family was, even though they publicly disowned him.
I just didn't see it as so implausible, since people manage under impossible circumstances every day in ways I just can't fathom. Hell, I don't know how anyone survives just moving to New York. And I've known people who impulsively leapt into ill-advised relationships that I expected to crumble in a few months last decades. It doesn't always end in disaster. :D
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One-Eye
Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 2261
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 8:09 pm
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Gina Szanboti wrote: |
One-Eye wrote: | what did he think was going to happen when they graduated? I mean he was going to go off to college and obviously Sentaro wasn't or did he think that Sentaro was going to follow him and they'd shack up and continue their bromance? |
There a huge difference between going separate ways after saying good-bye with the option of keeping in touch afterward, and disappearing without a word with no one knowing what became of you. |
And we know pretty much how he would have dealt with graduation if Sentaro had not disappeared based on the show, which is probably not that differently. He would have still been moody if his best bro wasn't around or jealous if Sentaro was paying attention to some other guy. He also acts like he's the only one hurting. As I said in spite of his intelligence I found it a bit immature and selfish on his part. Instead of trying to help Sentaro's family or Ritsuko deal with this he just goes back into his moody shell.
Quote: |
One-Eye wrote: | Sorry I've never held my best friend of 25 years tightly to my chest and told him to go ahead and cry. Maybe Japanese high school boys are different or maybe I'm too old and come from a different century, but all of the emoting struck me as a little too much at times. |
If anime and live action movies are to be believed, it's not just high school boys. |
LOL, maybe its just a play towards the Josei demographic or a bone thrown out to fujoshi or maybe times have changed, but some of the old Japanese guys I used to know would have just shook their heads at Kaoru's behavior.
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infiltration.cru
Joined: 28 Jan 2012
Posts: 321
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Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 3:07 am
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In regard to several posts on this page:
I don't know why it is so hard to believe that Yurika and Jun are still in a relationship. I have heard of couples and individuals easily surviving under circumstances that are apparently completely out of this world for you guys if you find this hard to stomach. This series didn't really portray anything that was really unrealistic. Sometimes, that's how the real life works and I think that measuring characters like these with "normal everyday"- standards in mind is not really working.
Also, the fact that Kaoru is behaving immature and naive in terms of relating to other people is kind of part of his character. I certainly enjoyed the imperfections of every character as they made them so much more relatable.
I also think that these characters don't have to cater to our perfect idea of how a human being is supposed to be.
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Riddley
Joined: 14 May 2011
Posts: 536
Location: Ireland
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Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 3:46 am
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I agree with the previous point about Kaoru. I thought that as well and I think the backstory for agrees with the interpretation that he's just that way due to how he grew up. Look at his outburst at Sen during the trip to the beach as example.
I personally think all of the characters were portrayed well. I do think the story was rushed a bit and it could have done for at least another few episodes.
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infiltration.cru
Joined: 28 Jan 2012
Posts: 321
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Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 4:06 am
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Yeah, it's a shame that 15-16 episode runs are so uncommon since it would have given this series a little more breathing room. If nothing else, I simply would have loved to see more of these characters that I have become so enamoured with.
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Veers
Joined: 31 Oct 2008
Posts: 1197
Location: Texas
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 1:01 pm
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Honestly, episodes 10 and 11 really felt like a slog to me. Seemed to lose some steam, and then suddenly car accident, the most underused plot element ever! and everyone gets depressed and unrealistically over-emotional and Kaoru relapses into his bad attitude and destroys a lot of what the show had built up and Ritsuko stays two-dimensional and yadayada which... well, people do that so I can't fault it for being unbelievable, but that all took effort to get through for me, where the show hadn't before and I didn't really like it.
Still, in the end, I think it was worth it; I like the note hurr hurr the show ended on, though the timeskip meant several things remained unresolved that kind of left a sour taste and in a way it was a bit too convenient. Good show, but not great.
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Pixelationist
Joined: 12 Jun 2012
Posts: 111
Location: London, UK
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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 2:27 pm
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Completely agree about the end. I loved it all the way up until the accident, the biggest storytelling facepalm moment in recent memory. When they were all happy practicing my favourite things in the previous ep it was obviously foreshadowing something bad, I almost couldn't bare to jump to the next ep.
Over all still good, almost perfect up till the end in fact. We still don't get enough shows like this so I'll take what I can get. Here's hoping that Notamina isn't going down the toilet as everyone has been naysaying of late.
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dtm42
Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 7:29 pm
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This series was a disappointment. I still liked it overall, gave it a rating of Good, but it grates on me that there was so much that was done either poorly or not at all. Ritsuko was a huge problem right throughout the show. Yurika and Jun weren't utilised as well as they should have been, and neither were Kaoru's extended family. Apart from the jam sessions (which were of great quality) the much-vaunted music was kind of meh. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, but for a show based around music it was a big let-down. The ending lacked closure on several fronts, like with Sentaro with his family. It's like the show needed at least half-an-episode more to wrap things up, but we didn't get it,
Worst of all, the emotional aspect was poorly handled and frankly AWOL on many occasions. There would be a huge event (a kiss, a fight, someone running away), and then a several-month timeskip. It happened not once or twice but obnoxiously frequently. It made the emotional tone of the series extremely disjointed and prevented us from seeing the immediate aftermath of all the highs and lows. It's hard to really care about a couple who have publicly confessed their love when BAM, three month timeskip. It is cowardly directing and cowardly writing from production staff who not only know better but ARE better than that.
Like I said before, the overall quality of the series is good, just. Is it great? Unfortunately no. It promised to be in the first episode however the more I watched the more frustrated I got. And it isn't a case of overly-high expectations on my part. Those were some really basic writing and narrative mistakes that you wouldn't put up from any team, let alone this high-profile one. Would I recommend this show? Yes, yes I would. But I would recommend it as the fairly good show it actually is rather than the great show it might have been.
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HaruhiToy
Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:05 am
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dtm42 wrote: | The ending lacked closure on several fronts, like with Sentaro with his family. |
I have to agree that all left me frustrated. It seems that Sentaro's step-father was finally trying to reconcile with him and then he just disappears the next day.
Kaoru seems to decide to just stop growing when Sentaro leaves, reverting to what he was which was an introverted stellar student that becomes a doctor. At least he seems to have outgrown his psychosomatic anxiety he started the show with. But he remains totally oblivious to Yurika's apparent willingness to restart their relationship. For her part, she must have had her reasons but she made the mistake of a lifetime when she rejected him and failed in making a second chance happened.
So overall I really enjoyed the series and give it high marks. It had a lot of elements you don't normally see in anime and missed many you see too much of (such a relief not to have cell phones!) so that is what I appreciate about it.
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