Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo: Shiina Mashiro is a Hobo

Yahallo~

Happy New Year! After a very long hiatus, I am kicking off the New Year with an angry rant leveled at Shiina Mashiro from the anime Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo! What a great way to start the year!

First and foremost, I’m sorry for the title, I just wanted to hurl a random insult at Shiina and I wanted to make it rhyme, so…yeah. Also, I won’t be giving too much context for my rant because I’m lazy like that, and plus this anime is four years old so nobody’s gonna be reading this anyway. I know, I’m doing a great job being relevant

Today’s target of my distaste

As I write this, I have watched up to Episode 13 of the anime, and I am writing this post in response to a lot of comments that I found about the episode. So many people were trashing on Sorata, the main character of the series, for getting angry and yelling at Mashiro-chan. They were all butt-hurt and triggered that their favorite shy, panty-less waifu was being yelled at by this ‘dense, brain-dead idiot’ of a protagonist. But I disagreed with them (Nanami is obviously best girl and anyone who disagrees with my opinion is objectively wrong) and this post is basically me trashing on their opinions. So yeah!

So let’s start by actually taking a look at the grievous offenses committed by our protagonist. He yelled at her to go work on her manga when she wanted to learn how to cook, and he yelled at her when she ran away from a Christmas party without telling anyone. In both cases, I believe that Sorata’s anger is very normal—as a matter of fact, I’m surprised he didn’t get pissed off at Mashiro way earlier.

In the first case, Sorata had just received a letter rejecting his game proposal. He was frustrated with his rejection, as he had put a lot of hard work and effort into his game proposal, and he was fairly confident that his proposal would be accepted this time around. Immediately after suffering this rejection, he is approached by Mashiro in an apron. Seeing Mashiro, who was successful in getting her manga to debut on the first try, spending time on something other than perfecting her manga, frustrates Sorata. He spent all of his free time and effort on his video game proposal, yet still failed. He lashed out at Mashiro, telling her to go back to working on her manga.

Now obviously this is unjustified. Mashiro can do whatever she wants to, and a normal person usually wouldn’t even take out their anger on a friend in such an unreasonable manner. Getting mad at a friend for wanting to learn how to cook is…not really something that happens between friends. So why does Sorata get angry at Mashiro? I think this stems from the unique relationship Sorata has with Mashiro—their relationship is less of a friendship, and more of a parent-child relationship. Sorata literally takes care of Mashiro as if she were a five year old. This probably caused him to subconsciously feel as if he had more control and responsibility for her actions than a friend would have, resulting in the freak out over a tiny cut on Mashiro’s finger and also reprimanding her for not working hard enough.

But ultimately, I would say Sorata was unjustified here. However, I think anybody watching the show should have been expecting Sorata to blow up at Mashiro at some point. In fact, if anybody were in Sorata’s shoes, they probably would have gotten fed up with her way earlier. This is because Mashiro is disgustingly spoiled. She has no awareness of the people around her and lives her life as if she expects somebody like Sorata or Nanami to come along and tell her what underwear to put on. She expects people like Rita to be her friend when she doesn’t give them anything in return. Like really, what reason do any of the characters have to help Mashiro? They’re all very kind people, but their kindness goes unnoticed in the eyes of Mashiro.

Mashiro only really begins to change because once she falls in love with Sorata. She did nothing whatsoever for Nanami when she was taking care of her while working towards her dreams, but when it came to Sorata, all of a sudden Mashiro was out buying good luck charms and getting dressed by herself (what an amazing feat). Of course, she was still heavily dependent on Sorata for taking care of her and teaching her to cook, and as a matter of fact, she also became emotionally dependent on Sorata, feeling upset when she didn’t have his approval. This dependence was straight up unhealthy for both Sorata, who was further burdened, and Mashiro, who was upset by Sorata’s anger.

I think most people would be pretty annoyed if they were suddenly forced to care for a child that they don’t even know. Sorata took on the burden of helping Mashiro do simple tasks in her life, all the while trying to pursue his own goals. To rub salt in his wounds, Mashiro, who is helpless without him, succeeds, while he fails.

Anyways, Mashiro does seem to be gaining awareness, and hopefully, she’ll become less of a burden to the other characters over the course of the series, but I truly think that Mashiro’s relationship with Sorata is pretty terrible for Sorata, and I don’t think they are a good couple at all. In comparison, Nanami shares Sorata’s kindness, support each other through their problems, and have healthy conversations. I think their relationship would be a lot better and cuter than Sorata being with Mashiro.

Anyway, that’s it for this post! Thanks for reading, WhoAmI, signing off.

Please Stand Clear of the Doors

It started on bus sixty-three,
A millimeters width twixt you and me.
The after-school sun in your hair,
The screen which attracted your stare—
Woah, did the bus just run that light?

Beneath Dreem Station, we waited,
And anxiously contemplated
Our terminal stations and look
Back upon the transfers we took.
My two hour commute sure went by fast.

Footsteps raced through the station’s floors;
The train began to close its doors.
I held them open, but in vain;
‘Cause on that platform you remain
Another thing I lost when I left school.

“Please stand clear of the doors.”
…
“Please stand clear of the doors.”
…
“Next station is Attult, Attult Station.”

As I’m carried into darkness,
The scenery seems more lifeless.
Tunneled-vision creases my face,
My black backpack’s now a briefcase,
And every time I come back home I’m missing even more.

This poem is about growing up. I’ve decided to break down what I’ve done in this poem for you guys!
The ‘bus sixty-three’ probably won’t make too much sense to you all, because it is a direct reference to a bus near my school. But the major theme in this poem is about growing up and how becoming an adult often leads to losing and giving up on many things, including friends.
I depicted this through the narrator leaving school, their backpack changing into a briefcase, and being unable to get on the same train as their friend/love interest (however you want to spin it is fine, it’s not too important). The narrator’s commute is a metaphor for the “path” the narrator is taking for his future, and terminal station is a metaphor for the destination (kinda).
Also notice how the narrator is leaving Dreem Station and heading towards Attult Station (leaving their dreams behind as they become an adult).
I also try and depict that the narrator is uncomfortable with the speed at which they are becoming an adult. Because the narrator’s commute is a metaphor for their path to adulthood, they are surprised when the bus doesn’t stop when they expect it to, and the speed at which they are taken away from the freedom the had as youth.

I don’t mean to say that adult life sucks and is all gloom and doom (I’m sure there are things one gains as an adult), but I overall just wanted to write about how growing up often results in the need to give up on certain dreams to make ends meet.

Once again, thanks for reading!

AAAAA: Oregairu Analysis – Once Bitten, Twice Shy, Her Kindness Must Be A Lie

If the truth is a cruel mistress, then a lie must be a nice girl.

Hikigaya Hachiman

Kokoro Surechigau – put it on loop.

Youth. It is time when young teens experience and are forced to deal with a variety of emotions and situations thrust unto them. Their awareness grows, their relationships change…

It is a turbulent place where we each look for something to grab on to. Friends, hobbies, aspirations…no matter what it is we find, there are bound to be times when the ledges give out beneath our feet. There are times that we decide to let go of one handhold to hold onto another. And there are times that we refuse to move from the ones we are holding onto.

I think that Hikigaya Hachiman’s iconic “I hate nice girls” speech stems from such a situation. He rejects Yuigahama’s friendship in order to stay true to the person he established himself as and his rejection of superficial relationships. Thus, in the final scene in episode 5, Hikigaya cuts off his relationship with Yuigahama, under the pretense that she was being kind to him out of pity and that Hikigaya did not want such a relationship.

This was one of the most important scenes in the story, as it showed how Hikigaya afraid of kindness and friendship. Using this scene, I will be exploring Hikigaya’s personality and his ideals at this point in the series.

Hikigaya’s Misunderstanding

Before we explore further, let’s talk about context. The monologue takes place soon after Hikigaya learns from his sister that Yuigahama was the owner of the dog he had saved on the first day of school. Sable, Yuigahama’s dog, was nearly run over by a limousine but Hikigaya protected the dog, getting injured in the process.

Having learned this, Hikigaya connected the incident with Yuigahama’s kindness towards him. Due to his injury, Hikigaya missed the first two weeks of school and was unable to fit into the class. He believed that Yuigahama had only befriended him because she felt that she was responsible for Hikigaya’s lack of friends.

At least, that is what Hikigaya believes Yuigahama’s motivation is.

We don’t actually know why Yuigahama decided to befriend Hikigaya. It was likely a multitude of reasons, and Hikigaya might be right, to some extent. However, it is hinted that Yuigahama may actually have romantic feelings for Hikigaya. In the very first episode of the show, we saw that Yuigahama wanted to make cookies for ‘someone’. We never found out who this person was exactly, but we do see her give heart-shaped cookies to Hikigaya. Moreover, in Episode 6, Yuigahama hints that she has another batch of cookies she wanted to give to him. Maybe I’m grasping at straws here, but at the very least, it hints that Yuigahama thinks of Hikigaya as a friend. Or maybe she was trying to poison him.

Well, the show is quite subtle about these kinds of things. But ultimately my point here is this: I don’t think Yuigahama was kind to Hikigaya simply because she felt guilty or because she felt like she owed him something, but rather, she thought of him as a friend.

And So I Will Forever Hate Nice Girls

I hate nice girls.

Just exchanging pleasantries with them makes me curious, and texting each other makes me feel restless. If I get a call, for the rest of the day, I keep checking my call history with a stupid grin on my face. But I know the truth. They’re just being nice. Anyone nice to me is nice to others too. But I always find myself on the verge of forgetting that. If the truth is a cruel mistress, then a lie must be a nice girl. And so, niceness is a lie. I would always hold expectations. I would always misunderstand. At some point, I stopped hoping. An experienced loner never falls for the same trap twice. A lone warrior, surviving hundreds of battles. When it comes to losing, I’m the strongest. That’s why, no matter what happens, I will always hate nice girls.

Hikigaya Hachiman

This monologue tells us a lot of things about Hikigaya; it further develops what we already know about him, and shows us the experiences that made the Hikigaya we now know.

In the past, Hikigaya appears to have fallen victim to his own delusions. A ‘nice girl’ talked to him, or called him, and he immediately became unable to control his excitement. Even if he knew it was nothing to be excited over, he still held onto that hope, that maybe that girl really did like him, that her kindness was more than pity.

To Hikigaya, hope was something he held onto and it betrayed him. Hope is a source of motivation, but also the mastermind behind delusion and desperation.

And Hikigaya, after seeing his belief in that hope fail over, and over, and over again, became afraid to hope that he would make any real friends. That is why Hikigaya gave up on others, and became a loner. That way, Hikigaya would only rely on himself (and his trusty imouto, Komachi). Believing in others was too unreliable—that is the conclusion I believe Hikigaya came to.

Thus, Hikigaya hates nice girls, although to no fault of the girls themselves. It is simply that their kindness gives Hikigaya hope, and Hikigaya has experienced this hope be crushed many times. Hikigaya doesn’t want to be hurt again, and so he is afraid of hoping that he’ll be liked by a girl. So instead, he slowly builds a new way of living in which he convinces himself that he doesn’t want friendships, love, or any kind of relationship with others.

And yet Yuigahama continues to talk to him, wait for him, and even try to help him to interact with others. Yuigahama, to Hikigaya, might be a little like an apple to Tantalus (a Greek mythological character). Having failed to reach the apple for as long as he has tried, he firmly believes that it is hopeless. Yet the apple dangles a mere centimeter away from his fingertips, as if mocking him. Telling him to hope, inconsiderate of the pain he’s felt, and the wall he erected around his heart through his experiences. It must be frustratingly annoying for him.

If the truth is a cruel mistress, then a lie must be a nice girl.

Hikigaya Hachiman

This one line, one of my favorite quotes of all time, sums it up. That girl’s kindness is not kindness, because she is acts that way with everyone. She’s not acting this way because of who I am, she’s acting this way because of who she is. I’m sure that’s the kind of idea behind this quote.

I love this scene because it simply shares so much about Hikigaya, gives him so much depth, complexity, and relatability (is this a word?). Oregairu is ultimately a story about a jaded, cynical loner who slowly warms up to his peers around him. It’s a story about the difficulties and the small things that affect the nuances of a relationship. It’s a meditation on what it means to be a genuine friend. This scene is ultimately the first scene in which we can catch a glimpse of all of this, and so I like to think of the end of Episode 5 as the thesis of the entire series.

Not to mention the soundtrack (I put it at the top of the post) describes that lonely, melancholy feeling perfectly.

It is probably one of the only reasons I didn’t drop this anime during my first watch through, and it while I didn’t understand it all when I first watched it seven or so months ago, as I finished the anime, and then read it from the beginning in the light novels, I found that this scene really resonated with me, and helped me organize and understand some of my own feelings.

And that just about concludes my analysis.

I’ve now come to really love Oregairu for its naturalistic depictions of relationships between teenagers, and its meditations on friendship, dependence, aspirations, and various other things, all of which resonate strongly with me.

That’s it for today, and sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been busy this summer, and I also worked really hard on this analysis to make it more suited to the kind of content I wanted to post on this blog. But ultimately it was my own laziness that I haven’t posted. Gomen’nasai! I hope it was enjoyable to read! Thanks for your time.

WhoAmI, signing off.

P.S. Not set in stone, but I recently watched Madoka Magica and K-On, so I might review those sometime?

P.P.S. I am keeping up with the current season, and it’s a pretty good season so far. I’m keeping up with Vinland Saga, Dr. Stone, Fire Force, El-Melloi, and I might watch Given too. I’m also watching Demon Slayer from last season. I’ve gotta say, that last episode of Demon Slayer was amazing!

The Curse of Caliburn

Above the fateful fields birds sing
About a deadly jousting ring.
For there you set a crown of gold
Upon the boy fifteen years old.
To him you promised victories,
Drenched in blood of his enemies.
His scrawny shoulders seemed to sag
Beneath his kingdom’s gold-red flag.

And yet you had the gall to break
And put his ill-fated life at stake.
Have you no honor as a blade,
To leave your greatest friend disgraced,
His iron helmet bent and raced,
And force the warlock’s hand in aid?

When you broke, he gave thankful words,
But ‘gainst scores of traitorous swords
At Camlann, he could only spurn
That cruel, stone-drawn blade, Caliburn.
And birds across those fields still sing
Of sword who cursed a life with king.

Hey, I haven’t posted in a while, but here’s a poem based of Arthurian legend. Of course, the theme was inspired by the story of Fate/stay night, although the lore I use is based off of Le Morte d’Arthur written by Sir Thomas Mallory. I hope you liked it.

Thanks to Winter

Once a friend brought me to a small, flowing stream
Down the mountain, to caress the red-orange hills
Upon which we frolicked, our toes dipped into the gleam
Of Summer’s last light before the coming of Autumn’s chills.

The water slipped between my fingers, carrying time away
So fast, that my friend was gone and out came a night
So bright, that even if Betelgeuse exploded that day
He wouldn’t outshine the brilliance of Spica’s light.

Not my tongue nor throat, but my heart thirsted for a drink,
So I cupped my palms and brought the water to my lips,
But Tantalus cursed me, and before the eye could blink
Not a droplet glistened upon my fingertips.

The next day, I returned to that hilltop stream, to forget
the deluged mind with thoughts of peace and paradise.
Even as the last red fell, not knowing I would regret
Those trips until—until her flow died in ice.

At last, Winter’s choking grasp held the water still,
And slowed Time’s travel with swamps of snow so deep
I was barred behind the foggy window sill,
And even the stars forsook me in their sleep.

So it was thanks to Winter that I found myself again
Upon that dark, melancholy permafrost—
A cold snap on blue fingers to seize that foolish man
Who himself by that aimless happiness lost.

So though the stream runs crisply in the touch of Spring,
It is thanks to Winter that my visits feel so hollow
And thanks to Winter that I work for my tomorrow
Instead of listening to a hill-top river sing.

Though my failure still weighs upon my mind from time to time,
For pulling me from that stage, I give my utmost thanks to Winter.

Thanks for reading! I’ve been a little unmotivated recently, which is why it took me a while to get this one out, and I can’t promise I’ll return to weekly posting, but I want to make my posts more interesting and of higher quality, so that’s what I’ll be working on! Thanks again! WhoAmI, signing off!

Kaimetsu no Yaiba First Impressions!

Previously, on this blog…

I’ll put out a first impressions post for Kaimetsu no Yaiba tomorrow, so until then!

WhoAmI

That, was on Saturday. Today, is Thursday, and I’ve finally decided to give my long overdue first impressions of Kaimetsu no Yaiba! Yaaaay.

Anyways, my first impression of this show is that it feels super shounen-y. By this I mean there seems to be an overwhelming amount of monologue and dialogue that just seems to drag on, and on, and on…….

Random screencap to make this post less boring. Btw, is this guy CG cause he looks really CG. His eyes are also very dead.

There’s just so much exposition on the protagonists thoughts straight in the middle of the action, and it just feels really awkward watching a fight scene move so slowly because the main character is just monolguing the whole time.

And I mean…I guess its fine, since its shounen…? I mean, I’m pretty sure Naruto and One Piece did the same thing, and I somehow wasn’t bothered when I watched those…I guess my tolerance to filler dialogue really went down. But well, the dialogue wasn’t meaningless or anything—it just felt like there was a lot.

Other than that, the animation is quite solid, although I’m still not a fan of the character designs, since all the characters look really short for some reason, which feels kind of weird. But ufotable’s animation is really good.

The plot seems like it’ll be going in a shounen-like direction, with our protagonist getting a mentor figure soon, and a few adventures are probably planned, along with some additional friends to add to the group…

Conclusion: Feels very shounen, but looks really good.

At the moment, I can’t really say I’m too excited for this one, but hopefully this anime turns out to be a blast.

WhoAmI, signing off.

Spring 2019 – Will I Be Watching?

Yes, I will be watching! However, because last season didn’t work out too well for me, since I fell behind on all the shows I was watching once my school homework starting piling up, I’ve decided to lessen my anime load this season. I didn’t really find any of the next season’s anime to be particularly interesting either. I’ll definitely be watching Kimetsu no Yaiba, mainly cause ufotable is awesome, but also because it seems pretty interesting. A lot of people are comparing it to Dororo…and I’m not quite sure why, although I guess the premise is somewhat similar?

Another really awesome thing about Kimetsu no Yaiba is that the OP is by LiSA, and based on what I’ve heard from the trailer, I think I’m going to really like this song.

I’m not too keen on the character designs at the moment, but the animation looks very promising.

Other than Kaimetsu no Yaiba, I’ll follow Dororo and Shield Hero and the other leftovers from the last season. I might also take a look at One Punch Man season 2, but other than that, I’m not going to be watching many seasonals. I do want to work a bit on my growing to-watch list, though, so I’ll still be watching lots of anime.

I’ll put out a first impressions post for Kaimetsu no Yaiba tomorrow, so until then!

WhoAmI, signing off.