[typhonsentra]

Originally Posted by Reckoner

I'm not going to sit here and challenge my own opinion, if that is arrogant so be it.

No, what I said was arrogant was the attitude that looking back at the scenes isn't necessary.

Single pregnant teenager? Check. That's not what I am talking about. Yasuko freaking out on Ryuji when he saw him working was just too uncharacteristic. In the show we have only seen a very happy woman, who showed no real signs of any angst. But all of a sudden, this woman changes and becomes angry, fearful, and hysterical? The character is poorly constructed. Minorin in comparison had her emotions gradually layed out before us. At first she was the happy extrovert that we slowly realized actually internalized a lot of her negative emotions. Yasuko? Nothing. She was thrown on us like Hurricane Katrina.

Are you talking about her calling Ryuuji a liar on the street after work or her running away from home? If it's the first, you really consider that a huge blow-up? She basically said (I wouldn't even call it yelling) that she's angry that they were going behind her back to do this and that he should be concentrating on his studies. If it's the latter, she's just childish and always have been. I don't see how that's out of character for her, especially since she has a history of running away when she thinks she's in trouble/has caused trouble.

She thinks she's looking out for his best interests by making sacrifices for him but Ryuuji doesn't see it that way and that's where the fight begins. Yes she's putting her own hopes for him above what he says he wants to/doesn't want to do (He did want to go to college, at least at some point in time) but that's normal for a parent, especially one with a child who excels at school.

I do think it matters. It is the source of the entire argument between him and Yasuko. He wants to work to help her, but she wants him to go to college so he can reach better goals. Helping his mother a little bit did not really resolve the issue. Also, they swept by this moment in the anime so fast, there was literally zero time to feel the moment, so to speak.

I think it's resolved because we see no indication that he's planning to go to college anymore. I'd like to point out though that Ryuuji isn't really looking to financially support her so much as he views going to college as too much of a burden on her. The reason he took the part time job in the show was because it was Yasuko's job and she was sick through that period.

Only two characters I mentioned were Minorin and Ami. I did not believe that Ami's woes were that she could not accept Ryuji as a friend necessarily. She said it was about someone understanding her, and she finally realized that this did not need to be a relationship of love. However, like I said, she just graduated so that person is gone. She does not have the luxury of Ryuji's presence like Taiga. Does she want to continue being a model? Are her feelings of loneliness truly gone? I just thought they left us hanging here with these two characters, where they also left us hanging with Ryuji and Taiga.

Her character isn't as needy as the novel version, that's the way I look at it. So long as their are people out there who care about her and can truly accept her that's enough for her and she can move on with her life. Is this her ideal situation? Probably not but she's happy and we saw nothing to indicate that she feels otherwise.

I'd like to see more on her too but I think they gave us enough information for what the story required, she had her scene where she made peace with her position in regards to Ryuuji and the group as a whole and that's all that can be said about it. What she does after graduation is up to her, maybe we'll get an OVA, which I'd like (But again, it's not necessary).