[Mykas]

[QUOTE]Risking a knife to the gut to preserve a stranger's pocket change isn't the same as being the moral support of a kid you actually know personally. If the father could bring in his lawyer, I don't see why Rin couldn't have her teacher.QUOTE]

Actually my point was there was no violent crime no risk of a knife, that would have been out of character. Ignoring someone elses trouble was in character. As for why she couldn't bring her teacher? as I pointed out, to them children's opions have no value at all. There may be some in Asian culture that would value the opinion of a child but they are the exception not the rule. Parents often arrange marriages, decide carreer paths and basicly rule childrens lives even today, if you look at many manga you can see the situation of adults still living with thier parents especially females long past the time we would consider normal in the west. For Aoki to go to the meeting was extremely intrusive, for him to have actually had the gall to ask what Rin thought was over the top by thier cultural standards. (Please keep in mind this is based on what I have seen and experienced, I didn't grow up with it and I am not a sociologist who is an expert these are just observations) I think instead of personalizing the story and criticizing the characters we disagree with we should step back and take a look at why the characters did what they did.
I remember my first shock in manga was reading a story where a pair of parents had both left behind thier teenage daughter to fend for herself because they had gotten remaried and she was inconvenient to them, and yet both parents still wielded tremendous power over the girl and her behavior. It seemed that the only value children had for the parents was what good they could produce for them and in that way the children were much the same as a chair or a tv set to be used when convenient and to sit silently doing nothing when not needed.
Btw please don't think these are my personal views just my observations and understanding of the way things work in east Asia.