[monir]

I love reading these weekly episode discussion threads for this show. They attract some very intelligent posts every week. Yeah, I agree that the show has a few problem, but as I've come to accept that hardly any series is immune from the dreaded run to the conclusion, the most difficult portion/phase every story needs to go through. Lack of a solid run to the conclusion always seem to plague shows that, otherwise, have been pretty impressive through out. Sometime I feel a show could have done without 1 or 2 episodes than the predetermined episode count which can help tighten the pace to a fluid finish. In this case, however, the only episode I would take out for the most part is where NoexShin gets a whole episode after Shin's confession.

Yes, Shin's determination at pushing for a change does feel inconsistent where there are hardly any changes to account for, but I seem to be under the impression after reading a few response that Shin is promising to change the lives of others such as Noe/Hiromi. On the contrary, I think whatever changes he is calling forth and seemingly preparing himself to that mindset, is to bring change to his own life. I strongly believe that after watching episode 12 and the reiteration of the dialogues for the changes that needs to be there which he creepily utters to himself out loud while his mom/dad sleeps in the other room. <that was really creepy!> He seems to believe that he has gone-with-the-flow all his life. Everyone else decided for him or driven him toward on how he should channel his energy on anything he will need to do, i.e. Ai's confession to him and the subsequent kiss, having to go out with Noe as a consequence for a self-initiated blunder, Hiromi's kiss... aka.. her formal declaration to Shin about her love for him, his participation in the dance ceremony. Now he seems to be making a stand for himself, and to drive home the point that he is ready to decide for himself. He does not want to perform any more follow up act on decision made by others, or as one of you have pointed out.. he wants to be proactive rather than reactive... so he may have full control toward how he lives his life.

On that viewpoint I believe I understand why he chose not to move any further with Hiromi until he resolved the problems he created for himself and feels responsible for involving others such as Noe. I also think he is moving toward the right direction. If he went ahead with Hiromi without resolving the situation with Noe, he would just be following the same path his father probably had walked on which ultimately left his mother bitter whenever the subject of Hiromi's mother came to be in there lives. As one of you have already aptly pointed out, Hiromi is just like Shin's mother. Hiromi will maintain her nagging fear that she may eventually loose Shin to Noe if there is no resolution reached between Noe and Shin. I think that's why Shin is sidestepping Hiromi for the moment. He is doing all of this on his own choosing, just like Jibeta.

How that will play out? I've no clue, but Noe better not die.. or bloods will flow.

Originally Posted by whitemoon

What would that be *_*?

A little bit of background on Shin's mother>father>Hiromi's-mom that would ultimately explain what really transpired in the past which, eventually, lead her to act toward Hiromi the way she did. We felt the past was important and might have been compared to the present love-triangle among Noe > Shin > Hiromi. The exploration of the past might have helped explain the changes in Shin's mom attitude toward Hiromi near the end which, otherwise, seemed abrupt.

Perhaps, there will be a parallelism drawn between these two respective love-triangles that would help draw a vague picture for those of us who wanted a bit of recollection on the past event. Perhaps....