[Kaoru Chujo]

"Comprendre, c'est pardonner." (To understand is to forgive -- Madame de Stael, Corinne, 1807).

As far as I'm concerned, everyone in this show has had good and sufficient reasons to act as they have. I like them all, from the inside. They're all human, like you and me. Or at least like me, lol.

Now that I've seen a Chinese sub, I realize that Ai actually was saying to Shin that she had "graduated" from him. And prior to that, she had thanked Noe for freeing her from Nobuse, and told her she had loved (past tense) Shin. Sure, that's not quite true. But I'd rather call it wishful thinking than a lie.

And Jun has had responsibility for his sister for years. He tries his best to make her happy, even though he can see she is not. He is even willing to go so far as to ask someone to go out with her, since he cannot do that himself, much as he would like to. Is this dangerous megalomania or a deep feeling of love and responsibility? Both.

Hiromi comes to this household in part because of her affection for Shin. But once there, she finds that she cannot touch him, and they are in two solitudes. She wants to break through, but like Jun, she knows she mustn't (even though she happens to be wrong about that). I find it very realistic that she would accept what her stepmother says as true and not ask her stepfather or anyone else. How do you broach such a shameful subject with someone, in an Asian or even an American household?

Shin is just a mother's boy in his mid-teens, our everyman. He does not know how to approach the girl of his dreams. He is manipulated by her, for what she thinks are good reasons, and by Jun, for the sake of Noe. And he actually does feel love for Noe -- just not love of anywhere near the same intensity as for Hiromi, for whom he has been nurturing love in his innocent heart for years.

But it is certainly true that the mild-mannered Shin and Hiromi end by causing huge upset and heartbreak to Noe and Jun, who seemed earlier to be so strong and self-sufficient.

The sibling/not thing may have been a cheap trick, but the characters remain deep and fascinating.