Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Stars Align [2019-10-26]
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Panino Manino
 Posts: 739 |
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#5
That student council president, Kaori. When she first appeared I disliked her because of what and the way she talked. Now it's revealed that she is some sort of "aristocrat" and I'm not a bit surprised... But the principal topic of today is Maki's father. Now that was revealed that Maki's mother knows that he is meeting her son and even hurting him I need to hear a few answers. Do you agree? How can it be that the police is still not involved? I know, I know, these situations are hard to denounce, I know. But it's hard to believe that this man is still walking this freely and accepts that Maki's mother is facilitating his abuses this much. Knowing all this much already you can't say that I know too little about the situation to critique the behaviors about this character. They could just call the police. They could catch him in the act. But no, lets instead make death threats. They're pushing their luck here. Even considering "public shame" and "dishonor" and any other very japanese society... And to makes this worse he ask for Toma's complete name and the kid gave it. Can I say that "it was obvious"? I can't help but start to imagine how he will use this information. This is derail hard and ugly, right? And by the way, continuing with the slightly uncalled dramas, Rintaro very suddenly stands up and info dumps his life story in a very "kojimaesque" way. Maki sitting to open up with Toma I can understand, this, was a bit surreal. |
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a_Bear_in_Bearcave
Posts: 511 Location: Poland |
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As I understood, Maki's mother doesn't have a restraining order against his dad, she requested one, but that doesn't mean she 'll have it soon - or the request can even turn out to be denied.
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Panino Manino
Posts: 739 |
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I need confirmation about this, how the laws really work there. Even more because:
Japan laws can be really f&ck3d, I remember hearing something about this concerning adoption. That's the reason adoption is such a huge problem there, even with the biological parents are certificated garbage, even when they neglecting, abusive, violent, even so, even they the child is separated from them in a institution they still have power to prevent that the child go live in a healthy household. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Yeah, I think Toma and Maki's plan to give the dad money and then threaten him was a terrible plan. What they really should have done was go to the police, including trying to make the injury that the teacher noticed earlier be documented. My response was them really being dumb teenagers that think they can solve something under their own power instead of using systems in place.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11354 |
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@ a_Bear_in_Bearcave: That was my understanding too. It's especially critical, given that he can find them so easily.
Adoption in Japan is a radically different animal from how it's viewed in the West. Something like 90% of all adoptions are of adult men in their 20s-30s, adopted to maintain a family business (even when that "family business" is a large corporation - I think the CEO of Suzuki is the 4th adopted son to hold that position) when no biological sons (or competent ones) are available. It seems the family register is thicker than blood. Other adults are adopted to get around laws against same-sex marriages. There are tens of thousands of children in institutions who need families, or even foster care, and yet there are only about 500 or so adoptions a year for them (compared to over 80,000 adoptions annually - ballpark figures - it's hard to find recent info since I don't know Japanese). So Rintaro should count himself extremely lucky. There have been some changes to adoption laws in the last couple of years, including "special adoptions" in which birth parents are required to give up their parental rights, but even so, the problem is still huge, especially given the damage being institutionalized from a very young age causes for a lifetime. In view of that, and stories we've already learned so far about these kids (Maki's ongoing abuse, Rintaro's adoption issues, Itsuki's mother's attack on him, whatever's going on with Toma, Kaori being used as the prize in her mother and grandmother's eternal war, whatever has alienated Mitsue from her family, and what I suspect is going to be something equally distressing when Sakurai-sensei's past "incident" is revealed), this is looking less like a sports anime and more an indictment of Japan's systemic lapses in caring for its children. Given that tennis is a sport where a ball is batted around back and forth among competing sides, it's not a bad metaphor, I guess. I too was alarmed when Toma gave out his full name. That's not going to end well... But I'm not sure going to the police would've done a lot for them. Given how bullying is swept under the rug and only the most extreme child abuse seems to warrant any action, it would probably have just made him more mad and more likely to seek retribution for inconveniencing him with the police. He almost certainly wouldn't have been arrested, being Maki's biological father and there being only a tennis racket broken so far. I did get a much-needed laugh out of it every time Toma hip-checked Sakurai-sensei right out of the frame whenever he tried to give a pep talk. (apropos of nothing, Toma's glasses make him look like the anime version of Mother's Basement's Geoff Thew  )
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Panino Manino
Posts: 739 |
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When he was without his glasses I was thinking, "who is this character? from were the came this suddenly?", then he put the glasses and I just couldn't believe! 
I think you solved this riddled. That's why there's so much drama with all characters. Now I can see this pattern. |
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ConnormonCat
Posts: 57 |
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I think the problem is Maki's mother doesn't know. I think she's acting with the impression Maki doesn't know. That she leaves the money out for Maki's dad, and he's supposed to take that and leave her and Maki alone. Problem is, Maki at some point found out, and tries to hid the money without her knowing. Same goes for his Dad beating him when he finds Maki hiding the money, Maki hides the bruises and doesn't tell anyone, so his Mum thinks its still working. As for Toma's and Maki's confrontation, a big part is that teenagers make dumb decisions with underdeveloped brains, but that's also consolidated by just how much an abusive figure can still control. Every moment of courage in that scene by the boys was followed by them shrieking back. The amount of children who ever come forward about abuse is sadly so low, and this is a big reason. Also it doesn't surprise me this was Toma's course of action. It continues to seem he's quite a violent person, barely just holding it in, without any sort of help. So he probably just went straight to a violent confrontation as a first solution. And this will have repercussions for our poor boys, I'm so scared 
(ALSO, yay standing up for manager, AND Mitsue continuing to be head over heals. She's so wonderful)> |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2607 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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You found the metaphor I was saving for a later review! Well, great minds and all that.
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I've begun to wonder whether the tone of this series reflects something about Akane Kazuki's own childhood. Of course, none of the material about him on the Internet tells us anything about his family life, but this story has a rather personal feeling about it. Haruka's parents in Noein were also divorced, though they had a much better relationship than we see in Stars Align. (I don't recall if we're told why Yuu lives alone with his mother, but I also don't recall anything suggesting she is a widow. There's no shrine to the father in their home, for instance.) Perhaps Akane is just presenting a disinterested view of how the Japanese authorities treat children and families, but it feels like the story has deeper roots than that. Gina's suggestion about the reason Maki didn't involve the police makes sense, but I wish it had been at least discussed and discarded. |
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NeedMoreCats
 Subscriber Posts: 319 Location: Westchester, NY |
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The problem I have with this is that it means that either his mom is leaving the apartment unlocked when she goes to work or she’s given the dad a key. Which is just all kinds of wrong. |
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Kaylee Smerbeck
Posts: 149 |
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She hasn't been approved for the order yet and has to placate him until it happens |
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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That scene bothered me, too. Last night's GeGeGe no Kitarou episode had a similar scene where Kitarou and Neko-musume entered an apartment just by opening the door. Do these scenes have any relationship to reality, perhaps because of Japan's low crime rate? |
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Doodleboy
Posts: 296 |
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Here's hoping the reason Mitsue always hangs out with the soft-tennis club is because she wants friends and not because of a bad home-life. Although with Stars Align it seems to be a thematic thread with all the characters. I like the garbage-gremlin.
Honestly now that all the dancers are properly credited and paid for their work the only real issue I have with the series is that it might be doing too much at once. We have one-cour we're almost half-way through and a bunch arcs and threads to move through. At worse it'd be a very wide show and not going very deep. But the writing has been solid enough so far. Even if it doesn't stick the landing it'd still be one of the better series this year for ambition alone. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11354 |
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Wasn't there a scene (forget which ep, which is why I'm asking) where her sister was ragging on her about being such an embarrassment, or did I import that from another series?
Hey, don't let that stop you!
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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The only home scene I remember of her was being in the dark drawing yuri, and saying boys were dumb for liking it so much. And the interactions with people outside of the tennis group have shown that she is ostracised by the other girls as an otaku. Mitsue has otherwise seemed inspired by the boys in drawing manga, that I wonder if she is going to eventually open up about her drawing. I don't remember anything about her family specifically, but she has seemed to be pretty into eating over Maki's place, or just his food, like she does not get a lot of home cooked meals, more than perhaps just a crush. Probably reading way into it though. She is kind of lowkey my favourite so far. |
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