|
I think there's a nice dichotomy between the way episode 9 shows Haru at his best, and the way that episode 10 shows Haru at his worst and his ugliest. Particularly, I'm glad that the show is willing to make Haru genuinely controversial at times, unlike some anime where a rough-around-the-edges character is given lip service as being a 'bad boy,' but never does anything worse than make the occasional snide remark, unfailingly doing the right thing in every situation and never acting in a way that might lose the support of the audience. One of the main points of the story is seeing Shizuku save him from a very dark place, and I think it's great that Haru's anger and bitterness and paranoia manifests itself in ways that are legitimately loathsome at times and make the viewer uncomfortable or develop mixed feelings towards him, rather than the author playing it completely safe and never crossing the line beyond 'lovable rogue' territory. Haru has the later stages of the story after he's started to heal emotionally to be a rational, considerate, well-adjusted person. In the meantime, I want the darkness inside him to be palpable and to be put through the wringer, because Haru's personal journey will be all the more fulfilling if we're made to feel the bumps ourselves as he goes down that road, and we'll be all the happier for Haru's leaving behind the dark place he's been stuck for most of his life if we're forced to spend some time in there as well.
And even though so much focus is put on how scary Haru is whenever he gets angry (which of course he is), Shizuku just might be his equal. For as detached and dispassioned as Shizuku's normal day-to-day persona is, she has really intense emotions whenever she gets worked up... I'd probably try to pick at her if I was Haru just because she's sexy when she gets mad.
|