2012-09-02, 08:14 | Link #1785 |
Me, An Intellectual
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: UK
Age: 33
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Very good episode. I'm glad they finally gave a bit more weight Aoki's character. Just as I expected, their romance would actually be developed and he wouldn't remain superficial. Loled hard at the hunger frenzy.
The next episode definitely looks promising.
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2012-09-02, 11:39 | Link #1787 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
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The hardest part is when you are trying so hard to ignore your own feelings and Once you realized and acknowledge them there is no turning back.
Too bad for Inaba cause in her case she can't stop her feelings because she realizes and acknowledge them and because of that she will automatically act upon them because her desire is unleashed. |
2012-09-02, 15:50 | Link #1793 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: UK
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Hmm, can't really say I know what to think of the latest episode. What took 3 episodes to break the group apart took 1 episode to bring 4 back together. Just seemed simple, which isn't necessarily bad, just doesn't really make me feel anything. Solving Yui's problem by 'determination' seems like a cop out excuse too.
At least it was presented nice and it overall was light-hearted. So in those terms it was an easy watch. Then Go vs Inaba was nice too, although, if all of this was just for a love triangle, that's a 'meh' reason. Come to think of it, HeartSeed interfered at the end of the last arc to seemingly bring Iori and Taichi together, and now to bring out more love. Maybe he's just a romantic at heart. As for the next episode, well, it's a love triangle drama with characters where we don't really know why they like one another in the first place. The only thing I'm interested in seeing is how quickly Taichi shuts Inaba down, or if he goes the harem route. Let's see if they can do it anywhere near as well as True Tears did. Pfft, when has anime ever used the most logical outcome?!?!
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2012-09-02, 17:28 | Link #1794 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Taichi has the most focus next to Inaba this arc simply by association with Inaba and Iori. Regardless, I wonder if the Unleashed Desires will go off often in the final episode of this arc. Despite being the gimmick this season, it ended up not being that big a deal, and the hardships came about more just from the 'threat' of it, not it actually happening.
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2012-09-02, 20:11 | Link #1795 | |
Romanticist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Age: 33
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Whatever the case, I'm not exactly sold on Taichi's solution of "the desire to not hurt someone overriding the desire to hit someone" since that implies the ego having to subdue the id element of the self. Wasn't the impairment of the ego the very point of the conflict in the first place? It struck me as too simplistic given the premise of the arc, but whatever. Anyway, I'm enjoying the progress so far. I didn't even mind Heartseed's interference here. I just don't think I can stand another episode of moping and self-pity. From the looks of it, this arc will be going by Jungian view of recovery, which would be self-acceptance. Kinda strange given how Freudian everything has been so far.
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2012-09-02, 20:30 | Link #1796 | |
Guess what time it is?
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Age: 38
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I too thought that the point of the gimmick was that the id would be completely uninhibited by other conflicting desires or reasoning. But I guess putting her in danger of hurting someone is way better than leaving her in her room to deteriorate further. However I can't tell if that was a deliberate choice on the boys' part, or if they really believe their own analysis. |
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2012-09-03, 06:27 | Link #1798 | ||
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2012
Age: 31
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The way I saw it, it's not that Yui would overcome her impulse by sheer will alone, but she wouldn't feel the need to do it in the first place. Kinda like when you're arguing with someone dear to you, no matter how angry towards them you get you wouldn't want to beat them up, kill them or something else that's completely out of line. Yui didn't get her desire to beat up guys unleashed, but her desire to protect the girls they were picking on. The desire itself to hit guys isn't something she finds enjoyable because she isn't a violent person at heart. The circumstances are what made the desire justifiable at the time and strong enough to be unleashed. That's not like hunger, sexual desire or sleep, where you can say something like "Screw that, I'm gonna eat until I explode" because the current enjoyment makes you blind to the consequences. Yui wouldn't like the experience of beating up an innocent person, and I'm guessing the same goes for Aoki, who knows he wouldn't enjoy raping and traumatizing a girl he likes. Since the idea itself isn't that appealing, it's probably harder for such a desire to reach any kind of intensity. The situation is easier for them than it is for Inaba, who's in conflict with what she really wants to do and what she rationally knows she shouldn't do. Unlike Yui and Aoki, who know they wouldn't enjoy the process of abusing someone, Inaba is in a situation where she strongly feels that she wants to take Taichi for herself, but she has to rationally remind herself that the consequences would be bad for her friendship with Iori and possibly Taichi as well. It's even worse if she doesn't know whether she stands a chance with Taichi since that gives her a bit of dangerous hope. She's in an unfortunate situation where the reward for good behavior (the status quo, the current good relations with her friends), although positive, isn't as emotionally intense as the reward for what she thinks is bad behavior. |
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2012-09-03, 06:51 | Link #1799 | |
Romanticist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Age: 33
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But I think I get it, which is why they resorted to such a vague term as "desire" or whatever the original Japanese audio uses. It just strikes me as a bit of a cop out. No matter what perspective I take, I just can't see "not wanting to hurt others" counting as a genuine desire since it seems to be more of a conscious thing than an unconscious thing to me, especially since the "release of desire" that they go through definitely involves shutting down the victim's conscious regulatory functions for its entire duration.
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2012-09-03, 08:29 | Link #1800 |
Senior Member
Author
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I think that Blonto's point, and also one that the boys were making, is that a stronger "not" desire can negate a weaker "want" one.
Aoki wouldn't refrain from trying to sexually force himself on Yui just because of ego-based control mechanisms. He'd also refrain from it since his desire to not harm Yui is stronger than his desire to have sex with her. I think one of the central ideas of this arc is that id-based desires aren't just things that you want for yourself at a direct level (food, sex, sleep, etc...) but also things that you want for others that satisfies you at a more indirect level (i.e. Taichi not wanting to see Yui in pain, Aoki not wanting to see her get hurt by him, etc...). So the boys are basically arguing to Yui that her clearly very strong desire to not hurt others through violence would override most violent desires that may arise within her. Anyway, I thought this was a pretty good episode even though I had a couple issues with it (mainly just a matter of me usually not liking KC's particular brand of humor). I really liked the Heartseed/Inaba scene, and I love how it will hopefully lead into the love triangle coming to a head. In my view, the love triangle is now the most interesting element of this anime, so I'm really looking forward to seeing it play out. I also think that I "get" what's going on with the characters, and I do find myself largely liking the characters and finding them increasingly interesting. I think that the most salient point in all of these apologies actually isn't all the philosophy and psychology that went into it, but rather the basic fact that these five friends like spending time with one another and they want to work through the situation in order to truly be friends again. At that level, the scenes in this episode were heartwarming. With Taichi in particular, I think Iori basically nailed it - He was becoming too full of himself. For that reason, he needed some more humility, and so him engaging in some self-depreciating commentary/apologizing was probably for the best (regardless of how accurate that commentary is). I think the point here is that Taichi shouldn't see himself as this grand selfless hero, because then he becomes too judgmental towards his friends (as we saw with his words towards Inaba and Aoki during this arc). Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next Kokoro Connect episode! I really want to see how Iori will react if/when she finds out that Inaba also has a major crush on Taichi.
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Tags |
body swapping, comedy, drama, romance, shounen, slice of life |
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