[Haak]

Originally Posted by Ice Block

People seem to be forgetting one important scene from that episode:

Hinata was clearly denying his disappearance -- he didn't want to go yet (and he was even slightly nervous about it), so the assumption that he got caught up in the moment pretty much holds true. And, there is also no guarantee that he would have had actually disappeared if Yui hadn't interfered.

Well yeah...

Originally Posted by Haak

Yeah that's pretty much what i was gonna say. Ahn Minh says that their 'caught in the moment' doesn't really count as what they really think. That may be true in real life but that's not what the tone of the show is suggesting. And what the tone of show is suggesting is what we should use as indicators to characters motivations, rather than our own beliefs.

Originally Posted by Haak

And I think that's exactly what Iwasawa's case was implying. Lot's of exposition are given as 'just one case'. But it's still exposition. And hey, Otonashi made the same assumptions. That's practically as good as Jun Meada himself saying it's the assumption we're supposed to make.

Originally Posted by Haak

All that drama about Otonashi not wanting him to disappear. The sad piano solo. Hinata looking like he's reaching for the light. All that drama for nothing?

That's what we were discussing.

For the last point, Jun Meada clealy wanted us to believe that this was a serious situation and that Hinata would've disappeared. Perhaps there is a possibility that he wouldn't have but I think that's completely contradictory to what the writer wants us to believe.

And about that I don't really see what you've said supports the belief that Hinata was just caught in the moment. It still seems to me that that moment was really Hinata's 'true self'.