In one of the most emotional episodes of the series, Sawako takes on the rumor mongers and finds herself in physical danger. Unable to help her, Kazehaya can only wait in frustration for things to come to a resolution. Nothing is more vicious than a pack of teenage girls…
Life is filled with happiness and sadness for you cannot know one without the other. Kimi ni Todoke is at its best showing the ups and downs of trying to grow up through the turbulent years of high school while dealing with the amplified emotions of adolescence. Everything is more intense when you are young with nothing more intense than the hostility of others.
A brief flashback to Sawako’s childhood reveals the identity of the girl who gave her the nickname of Sadako. It was the result of an innocent slip of the tongue that often happens to little kids and no malice was meant. Back in the present, malice is clearly intended when our heroine finds herself backed against a wall.
Coming upon a crowd of students bunched outside the girls room, Kazehaya is incensed to hear the students talking about how Sadako was the spreader of the ugly rumors. His frustration boils over because there is nothing he can do to intervene and due to respecting Sawako’s desire to handle things herself. This wasn’t what he’d expected to happen after his pep talk to her.
His angry words do have an effect on two others. Chizuru and Ayane have arrived too and they rush to the restroom.
Inside, things have escalated into violence with Sawako thrown to the floor for daring to defend her friends. Oddly, she is depicted in chibi form which lessons the impact. I suspect this was deliberate due to the original manga frame being the same. Karuho Shiina is on record as viewing the characters like her own children and most likely didn’t want to draw a realistic version of innocent Sawako being hurt. I can’t blame her, since this moment was anger inducing.
Notice the smart phones raised above the divider being used to record what’s going on. Fights have always been viewed as entertainment by students and there is something really revolting about being willing to watch but not intervene. These days kids post videos of school fights for the world to see.
Once down, the bullied girl is verbally ripped to shreds for being the originator of the rumors. It takes awhile for the accusations to get through to her and when they finally register, she is incredulous. Someone else has set her up to be the villain.
Meanwhile, Ayane and Chizuru have arrived at the entrance to overhear what’s going on. The two girls who helped Sawako earlier with compiling grades are upset and don’t know what to do. Suffice it to say the rumored delinquent and school whore know what to do.
Physical and verbal abuse continue as accusations of falsely befriending Ayane and Chizuru to get close to Kazehaya fly. Besides, they aren’t really her friends either opines the ringleader. Sawako is then ordered to keep away from everyone or face the consequences.
Refusing to back down, Sawako gives the sweetest declaration of love for friends you’ll ever see in any medium. It’s a powerful scene made even more so by the slow motion intervention of the other two girls. As amazing as the manga was, the anime manages to be superior here to my surprise.
But it is that which follows that makes this episode truly great. There is a gratifying payoff as the nature of friendship is explained and bonds are cemented in stone between the three girls. Sawako has grown and is back on the right path out of her lonely life.
One hurdle has been overcome, but more are rising – possibly more challenging than any before.
Thoughts
Friends is an absolutely lovely installment in the story of Sawako and company. While the chibi moments are slightly overused, they are faithful to the source material. They don’t take enough away to matter because the story is so strong and believable.
While the romance is there (and moving at a snail’s pace), so much of the story is about friendship that it is as important as any matching up of boy and girl. Unlike so many shallow depictions of friendship in anime, Kimi ni Todoke is wonderful at showing what real ones are like. It is one of many things that make the show such a delight to watch.
On a highly technical note, my new monitor has revealed to me that some of the Blu-ray encoding is might be 1080i rather than 1080p. Interlacing is evident in some areas such as tears and moving hair and is most likely a result of varying resolutions of the materials composited into the final rendered image. That has more to do with the way anime is made versus movies and I’ll be keeping an eye out for it on other anime Blu-rays in the future.
The very fine combing won’t be noticed by most people especially when watching on a HDTV at normal viewing distances, so it isn’t anything to worry about
BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!
Poor Kazehaya is put through the wringer too. His relief and defense of Sawako don’t go unnoticed, but she is still fairly oblivious about the depth of his feelings. Worse yet, he now has to face sharing her with her friends and he is more than a little jealous. He ends up utterly deflated at the end.
Remember Sawako’s only friend from middle school? She’s also the one who accidentally gave her the nickname of Sadako. Her relief that Sawako has friends has a lot to do with guilt over that, I think.
Chizuru and Ayane teasing Sawako into declaring her love for them again rang true. It was cute watching the flustered girl be made to say “daisuke” again.
The aftermath of the failed bullying session was satisfying to watch. Kazehaya’s declaration that he’d never like a girl who acted like this devastated them, especially the heart broken ringleader. All her dreams of dating him are gone and she’s shattered.
Ah, the fair haired girl is back and sounding coldly calculating. She reeks of trouble brewing despite all those flowers shining around her. I just now noticed she looks like a girl out of a shounen harem or dating game anime.
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