'Tatta Hitotsu no Koi' Episode 5 picspam and a few comments
My right arm is killing me so I doubt I'll be as thorough as I'd like.
We left off last week at a particularly painful and tense moment:
Hiroto had run all over Yokohama to see Nao and explain that his mother lied and that he really wasn't seeing anyone else. Only Nao wasn't home, and so Hiroto waited out in the cold for her to return, and ends up meeting her mother and brother...sort of.
How much do I love Nao's mother for not even blinking at the poorly dressed and dirty young man standing in front of her - she immediately senses that he's important to Nao and she first invites him in and then sends them off to a cafe to talk. And then our OTP at the cafe are so hesitant and uncomfortable until Nao's hopes are revived and I LOVE how she offers him her two hands - that's how she takes and receives - with an open heart and with both her hands. Hiroto at first gives her one hand until he takes her hands in both his. I loved that so much. Really beautiful, and accompanied by them promising to get to know each other better and to stay together. Guuuh. What a committment! :)
Later, the friends' reaction to Kou and Yuuko dating is hilarious! Poor Ayuta - I really don't understand why such a great guy doesn't have a girlfriend - he is the most dateable of the three guys - he's kind and generous, thoughtful, sweet and good looking. He doesn't have the baggage Hiroto does and he's not even slightly goofy like Kou is. And he looks after everyone so beautifully! It doesn't make any sense. However, there is an unsettling Ayuta moment later, during the basketball game, in which it really looks like he has one of those zing! moments - are we supposed to think that Ayuta is falling for Nao also? Eeek.
It is interesting that Nao's father is as direct as she is - he doesn't beat around the bush, but he just tells her straight out that he had her boyfriend investigated, and I love her poor loyal heart for lying to her father about knowing that Hiroto's father committed suicide. We can see that she's unhappy to have found out this way, but I imagine there is a part of her that can understand why Hiroto would not have shared something so tragic with her quite yet.
I liked Hiroto trying to explain to Ren that he was going on a date and that dates were meant for two people (little brothers not included)...except his date ballooned into a group date, and it was wonderful. It was delightful to watch these five young people spending a day together and doing all the things that young people should do - it was very heartwarming, and it just made me dread what the future holds even more. They are giving us all these nice moments only so they can knock us down later on.
Stopping at the high school was a suprising affair and it ended up being so very touching. I feel like Nao just wants to swallow everything she possibly can about Hiroto - like she missed out on her own youth, I think she feels like she missed out on Hiroto's also and she wishes that she could have known him when he was younger so they could have had more time together. But Hiroto doesn't believe that she would have chosen him - he STILL persists in thinking that there would have been much cooler guys to whom she would have paid more attention. There's a sense of melancholy that hangs over the entire high school scene, because we can see how Hiroto feels he's missed out on so much that he would have liked to have done: his dream of playing baseball, going to college. Instead, he suffered the loss of his father and had to grow up too quickly and leave his youth behind. Like Nao, he's missing the things that should have been. Which is why this perfect day of five young people enjoying themselves together is even more poignant.
I love that Hiroto finally shares these two important things with Nao - his father's suicide, and his baseball dream. The whole scene with the two of them is just gorgeous - I love what Kame does in this scene because he infuses Hiroto with such peacefulness, longing, melancholy and also relief at sharing these things with Nao. His posture is so relaxed and open - he's stretched out on the ground, but he's also baring his soul to her and his posture reflects his state of mind perfectly. It's fitting that they should end with a kiss (and thank goodness, this looks more like a real kiss than the first one - I swear, Kame even parted his lips just a little! *grin*).
I just wanted to smack both Kou and Yuuko for being idiotic when Kou showed up waving like a goof while Yuuko ignored him. Koki did a great job with Kou, though, and I loved how he just collapsed in on himself, and he was just adorable later as both Nao and Ayuta look after him in his distress.
What to say about the rest of the episode? Hiroto faced his fears and agreed to meet her father - I love how he acknowledged that her family must be pretty worried about her! He's such a good person to understand these things and to do even the scary to make them feel more comfortable. I died laughing at the scene where Hiroto is trying to choose what to wear to dinner with Nao's family and he pulls of his pants to change and his mother walked in - soo cute! However, Hiroto needs to have a bit more common sense when it comes to dressing for dinner with the girlfriend's family - he had a button down shirt in his hands, yet he ends up wearing a grey hoodie over what looks like a wife-beater instead??? Ah, Hiroto...
And then there was the fight. I was so tense through this entire scene and I LOVED the first shot where Hiroto stands in front of Nao and faces their attackers, and then later when he shields her with his body on the ground and takes some vicious kicks. However, my heart squished for poor Kame when later as Hiroto leapt onto assface blondie, the guys's henchmen pulled him off and threw him to the pavement and poor Kame looked like he really fell hard and rolled. Ouch. Watching that fight reminded me again just how slight Kame really is when one of the guys put his arms around Hiroto's waist to pull him back and he almost looked like he could have wrapped his arms around Kame twice.
When Nao's brother told him to go, it was horrible. Poor Hiroto has just taken quite a beating, had quite a scare in that his darling girl was threatened by these thugs, and now he sees his future with her collapse in a heap. He probably feels so guilty because those guys never would have attacked her if not for him - he brought a dark part of his world into hers and she paid the price for it and could have been badly hurt. Hiroto really looked like a stray, unloved kitty who had been kicked too many times and was now being shooed off mercilessly. I loved the scene of him laying on his back on the slope while Nao comes running back to find him. Just beautiful.
Damn, my arm is in a lot of pain, so I'll end here, although I realize I didn't get to everything. One last comment - I thought the actor who plays Nao's brother was sort of cute before, but after this episode, and the strange pouty faces he was making in the beginning when he was all pissy about Hiroto...not so much with the cute. Now I just want to smack him repeatedly.
