[Reckoner]

Originally Posted by typhonsentra

No offense man, but this comes off as really arrogant. "I didn't misunderstand anything, it's the show's fault! I won't recheck the scenes people suggest either."

I'm not going to sit here and challenge my own opinion, if that is arrogant so be it.

Originally Posted by typhonsentra

They foreshadowed everything with Yasuko fine. Did you not catch the fact that she's a single pregnant teenage runaway before this episode or what? Because if you did, can you really not imagine how that'd be hard for her? Her relationship with her son is her whole life, him yelling at her and running off left her very hurt.

Single pregnant teenager? Check. That's not what I am talking about. Yasuko freaking out on Ryuji when he saw him working was just too uncharacteristic. In the show we have only seen a very happy woman, who showed no real signs of any angst. But all of a sudden, this woman changes and becomes angry, fearful, and hysterical? The character is poorly constructed. Minorin in comparison had her emotions gradually layed out before us. At first she was the happy extrovert that we slowly realized actually internalized a lot of her negative emotions. Yasuko? Nothing. She was thrown on us like Hurricane Katrina.

Originally Posted by typhonsentra

The entire point of the trip to the grandparent's house was to have Ryuuji do something for his mom. Remember his words on the bridge about him wondering why his mom won't let him help her and how that makes him feel like a burden? This is him doing that big thing to help her, helping her reconcile with her parents, having a baaah sweet conversation and going home together. I didn't have any problem with this because he really does. Also, his problem wasn't so much wanting to support his mother financially so much as him not wanting to be a burden on her financially and physically (Exhaustion from overworking). Differing from the novel, I don't think we're given any indication that Ryuuji will pursue college at this point (He filled out his form saying he wants to pursue work, I can't remember if he changed it though). Either way though, it doesn't really matter.

I do think it matters. It is the source of the entire argument between him and Yasuko. He wants to work to help her, but she wants him to go to college so he can reach better goals. Helping his mother a little bit did not really resolve the issue. Also, they swept by this moment in the anime so fast, there was literally zero time to feel the moment, so to speak.

Originally Posted by typhonsentra

Kitamura's going to America to be with Sumire, Yasuko's reconciled with her parents, Inko-chan said his name, Ami's accepted Ryuuji as a friend, Minori's fulfilling her dream in pursuing softball, Noto finally made a move on Maya. What side character are you talking about?

Only two characters I mentioned were Minorin and Ami. I did not believe that Ami's woes were that she could not accept Ryuji as a friend necessarily. She said it was about someone understanding her, and she finally realized that this did not need to be a relationship of love. However, like I said, she just graduated so that person is gone. She does not have the luxury of Ryuji's presence like Taiga. Does she want to continue being a model? Are her feelings of loneliness truly gone? I just thought they left us hanging here with these two characters, where they also left us hanging with Ryuji and Taiga.