NO. I don’t like this third wheel development at all. Obviously, this romance is going to meet heaps of obstacles along the way, but it’s better not this. Suddenly, a side character having a creepy treatment, force the plot moving forward right before the two having a date together? One thing that upset me is how Ameagari makes it pretty clear about the conduct of this character Kase. He’s anything but nice. Plain and simple. He’s manipulated and dirty and annoying. No, Ameagari. You don’t brute-force the plot to squeeze out some drama like this, and you don’t make a guy evil so that we have to root for the main duo, ever. But for what it takes, Ameagari succeeds on making me worried for Tachibana and her forced date. Although received a clear signal from Tachibana, this dude keeps on pestering her to extend the date, including forcefully grabs her hand and later kisses her. Dirty little bastard! He even goes so far to say that the romance between her and Kondou will never work. And by his behaviour I’m sure that this creep will do his best to make his claim true, whatever it takes. I’ll be honest that I don’t like this Kase dude as a character and as a role in this story. Such a pity but I consider this as Ameagari’s first major misstep so far.
That date also serves as a parallel to Kondou and Tachibana’s date, as it happens in the goddamn same place, with the same sequences: horror zombie movie first (anyone noticed the same man in suit in front of their row?), then a sip of coffee and later a walk on a bridge. Such repetitiveness is meant to highlight the differences in Tachibara’s mood and the contrast between two dates. When she’s with Kondou, a “downfall of mankind” type of film suddenly becomes entrancing, coffee feels sweeter (well, literally) and the outside background is bathed with such pink and dreamy color palette. The time feels longer (like it’s stopped) and the linger for those moments feel much stronger. Kondou, on the other hand, thinks that the date would bore her so fast (wrong!) and there is a beautiful moment when he is again taken back to his youth self with his first black coffee experience before realizing that he was the only middle-aged man with a young girl in the shop. It sure is the taste of bittersweet youth. Last week, his excuses had always been about the reception of other people and Tachibana’s own well-being, but this time it’s all about his own feeling: that he would feel uneasy seeing her youthfulness because he can’t stand the fact that he isn’t young anymore. Pretty neat development here.
This episode is light on rain, but fear not since there are a whole leg fetishes going on here. Ameagari is excellent of underlining small body movements to convey the mood of the characters and in this episode, the focus on legs not only tell you the temporary state of mind a character is in, but also the distance (or lack thereof) between Tachibana and certain characters, signifies their intimacy. Ameagari still has its chops for sensitive visual storytelling, especially the sequence on the bridge takes my breath away for its beauty and moody atmosphere, but at the same time I consider this episode my least favorite episode so far, given that it opens to another conflict that I’m not fond of. Remember Ameagari, the drama works best when it comes from the struggles within the characters themselves, not from some outside creepy force that tries to blackmail AND then spill out their romance to everyone.
The post After the Rain – 04 [Gentle Rain] appeared first on Star Crossed Anime Blog.