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Originally Posted by Kazu-kun
I think the sacrifice is cool. I think the lack of self-reflection and guilt from his part isn't cool at all.
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Ok, now I see what you're saying. Yes, Kanba (and the narrative as a whole) probably would have benefited from a moment of Kanba saying "I was right to want to save Himari, but I've been going about this the wrong way all along. I can not sacrifice others in order to save Himari. I must make my own sacrifice, as I did when I gave half the Penguin Drum to Shouma".
Yes, Kanba could have used an Ebenezer Scrooge-esque moment of deep self-reflection, to use a familiar reference for this time of year.
This is a fair criticism on your part, as it leaves the themes of the story a bit murkier than perhaps they should be.
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And it was needed, because love alone can not redeem you unless you realize how fucked up you have been and accept that redemption. This is shown with Yuri and Tabuki, which found redemption only when they finally realized how fucked up they have been, even though they had Momoka's love since a long time ago.
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Right. Very good points.
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No problem at all. I fact I think in agree with pretty much everything you said there. I just think the way it was portrayed wasn't all that well thought out, and the themes suffered for it.
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Yeah, you're right, the execution could have been better. I'm glad we're not as far apart here as I had first thought.
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But the problem is that this was portrayed through a pretty cheap gimmick. Ikuhara shows us how happy post-sacrifice Ringo and Himari are, but the catch is that they don't have memories. It's a magical solution. After all, would they still be happy if they knew what Shouma and Kanba did? The answer to that is what validates the sacrifice, what gives it meaning. Yet, we don't have that answer. We only have magic tricks. And Ikuhara is trying sell us the idea that self-sacrifice is inherently good using that cheap magic trick.
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You're right. It is a magical solution. And I know that was something you were hoping/expecting that the anime would avoid.
I'm not sure how I feel about this aspect yet. I do see where you're coming from on it, though.