Innocent Love - comparisons and wishful thinking
I am ridiculously in love with Innocent Love and I have just figured out why - it's a Victorian sensation novel in drama form. Like something out of Wilkie Collins or Mary Elizabeth Braddon.
Let's see - we have two innocent, sweet-natured, selfless protagonists with (a) tragic backstory and (b) big secrets. Kanon's parents were killed and her brother has been jailed for their murder - that's both tragic backstory and a big secret she has to keep (or else she gets stared at, fired, etc. as tainted by association). Junya is someone whose parents died (and he had to be brought up in the church orphanage) and who has a girlfriend who's been in a coma for 3 years who he keeps hidden (and medically taken care of) in a room in his house and does not let strangers know about her. Yet they both remain very good people if odd.
We also have a number of sinister characters - there is Subaru, Junya's best friend who is secretly (as is love that dare not speak its name :P) in love with him. He also sees nothing wrong with trying to remove life support of coma girlfriend of the guy he's in love with. There is Kanon's creepy older brother who seems to harbor more than fraternal feelings for her and is capable of major violence. There is Secondary Girl who has the eyes of a serial killer - there is one scene where Junya tells her he thought comagirl smiled but the doc said she didn't - she is not the kind of person to smile for no reason (it's rather heartbreaking he is clinging to reading in personality into that empty husk) and Secondary Girl had the face of a serial killer! I wanted to yell at Junya to run far far away. I wouldn't be surprised if she chained him up in the basement and refused to let him out until he loved her her her and meanwhile fed him stew made out of Kyoka bones.
We have a number of big mysteries - who killed Kanon's parents and why, what was the relationship like between Junya and Kyoka the coma girlfriend before (why IS she in a coma?). We even have the sinister mysterious female figure - Kyoka herself - she is the one around whom the plot pivots and she is completely sinister in a way hard to describe.
So yes, very much a sensation novel (which I love). Let's hope that just as in those, virtue gets rewarded.
Here is what I want for an ending - Junya and Kanon get together. Kanon finally gets someone who knows her past but loves her and cares for her and with whom she is safe and who is not crazy/creepy/possessive over her a la Older Brother. (I wonder if part of the reason she glommed onto Junya so much is because she can tell he is incapable of hurting her - even if he does not love her, he is such a good person, I can never see him hurting her or playing with her heart). Junya gets to be loved back and not just to give and give - but to be in a mutual relationship. He goes back to composing so he can actually live and not just exist. They eventually have 2 kids and become the most adorable dorkiest parents ever and take them on picnics.
Subaru finds some nice guy to settle down with and forgets Junya. I don't care what happens to Secondary Girl as long as it doesn't involve her trying to drown Kanon in a vat of acid. Older Brother goes far far away - not to prison because then Kanon would have to visit him but to Argentina or South Africa or somewhere far far away. Or he can get shanked in prison, I don't care. Kyoka either finally dies or comes out of her coma, decides she doesn't want Junya anyway (she didn't seem to be world's best girlfriend) and hooks up with someone else or studies modelling or whatever...
The end.
Let's see - we have two innocent, sweet-natured, selfless protagonists with (a) tragic backstory and (b) big secrets. Kanon's parents were killed and her brother has been jailed for their murder - that's both tragic backstory and a big secret she has to keep (or else she gets stared at, fired, etc. as tainted by association). Junya is someone whose parents died (and he had to be brought up in the church orphanage) and who has a girlfriend who's been in a coma for 3 years who he keeps hidden (and medically taken care of) in a room in his house and does not let strangers know about her. Yet they both remain very good people if odd.
We also have a number of sinister characters - there is Subaru, Junya's best friend who is secretly (as is love that dare not speak its name :P) in love with him. He also sees nothing wrong with trying to remove life support of coma girlfriend of the guy he's in love with. There is Kanon's creepy older brother who seems to harbor more than fraternal feelings for her and is capable of major violence. There is Secondary Girl who has the eyes of a serial killer - there is one scene where Junya tells her he thought comagirl smiled but the doc said she didn't - she is not the kind of person to smile for no reason (it's rather heartbreaking he is clinging to reading in personality into that empty husk) and Secondary Girl had the face of a serial killer! I wanted to yell at Junya to run far far away. I wouldn't be surprised if she chained him up in the basement and refused to let him out until he loved her her her and meanwhile fed him stew made out of Kyoka bones.
We have a number of big mysteries - who killed Kanon's parents and why, what was the relationship like between Junya and Kyoka the coma girlfriend before (why IS she in a coma?). We even have the sinister mysterious female figure - Kyoka herself - she is the one around whom the plot pivots and she is completely sinister in a way hard to describe.
So yes, very much a sensation novel (which I love). Let's hope that just as in those, virtue gets rewarded.
Here is what I want for an ending - Junya and Kanon get together. Kanon finally gets someone who knows her past but loves her and cares for her and with whom she is safe and who is not crazy/creepy/possessive over her a la Older Brother. (I wonder if part of the reason she glommed onto Junya so much is because she can tell he is incapable of hurting her - even if he does not love her, he is such a good person, I can never see him hurting her or playing with her heart). Junya gets to be loved back and not just to give and give - but to be in a mutual relationship. He goes back to composing so he can actually live and not just exist. They eventually have 2 kids and become the most adorable dorkiest parents ever and take them on picnics.
Subaru finds some nice guy to settle down with and forgets Junya. I don't care what happens to Secondary Girl as long as it doesn't involve her trying to drown Kanon in a vat of acid. Older Brother goes far far away - not to prison because then Kanon would have to visit him but to Argentina or South Africa or somewhere far far away. Or he can get shanked in prison, I don't care. Kyoka either finally dies or comes out of her coma, decides she doesn't want Junya anyway (she didn't seem to be world's best girlfriend) and hooks up with someone else or studies modelling or whatever...
The end.