[Vena]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

But from all the recent clues it's now easier to guess, at least where Amata is concerned.

They spelled it out for us, for Mikono as far as Amata is concerned. Which is what has been making this drag so noticeable and annoying. Read on.

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

She said "There's something I need to tell you. [I can't tell you now, but] I'll definitely tell you when I come back." And while we don't know what exactly she wants to tell him (for all we know she could dump him for whatever reason), the situation has certain overtones that are kind of hard to ignore.

That's my point. We know, to within a hair's breath, what she has to say to him. As I said above, she and the ShuShu feelings-explaining-plot-tool spelled it out for us moments after the scene concluded. Which is just facepalm worthy. Why? Because there's almost no *suspense* left to amuse and distract the audience.

It is a countdown to a countdown that we've been counting down on since the first episode. Its just blatant padding out of the drama angle such that Kagura has time to be a character again, Zessica's pure love can get resolved either by her death or death (let's be honest here, they're going for her dying or something just as bad). They added the scene just to remind the audience that, you know, Mikono loves Amata... just as the episode prior to it took the time to remind us that Mikono and Cayenne were siblings with *surprise dad*.

If you write something in a convincing manner, you don't need to *remind* the audience about it.

(Of note, this is under the assumption that they are playing this straight. Deconstruction tend to look sloppy until resolved.)

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Again, Mikono could've benefited a lot by getting more attention from the writers (seriously, Zessica got how much screentime doing nothing but wangsting her heart out in the most blatant ways, while Mikono got nothing), but I think things are starting to get more clear. Though it seems they planned the "Shushu revelation" to be a surprise of sorts (otherwise why do it this way?).

Neither character has benefited from the recent screen time they've been hit with; Mikono's screen time justifications have been contrived (surprise dad) and the "I'm going to find Fudo!" build up led to a montage and if I was supposed to be impressed by her perseverance to go around a city, riding on public transport, asking people if they'd seen him... I wasn't, Zessica's screen time has seemingly sadistic for the sake of moar pity.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

In fairness, I think I know what Okada is aiming for here.

I think that this is Mikono's way of basically telling the audience "I'm going to romantically confess to Amata next time I see him". Either that, or "I'm going to force the romance issue with Amata, and make him confess to me."

I'll be pretty shocked if that's not the implied meaning behind what she said to Amata. It's basically a wink from Okada to Amata/Mikono fans.

My issue isn't on the meaning, we all seem to have reached the same conclusion as to the meaning, its the method and reason about why they went about it in this way. Reason being? Pad out the conclusion of the drama to be able to wrap up the loose ends with Kagura and Zessica. Why? Because they wrote them so poorly that they have no way to resolve those side issues without very *obviously* staggering out the romantic plot to allot time for this to be done.

Aside from that, it just plain unrealistic and annoying to me. IF she likes him, why the hell can she not just say it? Why does she need to goad Amata into confessing or delay her own confession if she knows what she's going to say? As I said before, she wasn't going to find Kagura so that *issue* is of no concern, and the scene that follows very clearly states where Mikono stands on her feelings towards Amata. So... why?

This just begs the thought of plot contrivance if not for the simple reason that, in any real situation and given their circumstances, Amata may well go off and die or not return. Its a war. They just lost a comrade. What does Mikono think her teammates, who she explicitly differentiates herself from, are going to do? Sit around in the safety of their rooms, picking their noses, until she triumphantly returns with Fudo? There was a good chance this past episode that Amata may well have been entrapped by his mother and Izumo's words. Izumo, as he demonstrated, could have easily grounded Amata indefinitely and even had him killed. It's all just crap if we're meant to be taking this straight.

If nothing else, Mikono's actions are getting a textbook juxtaposition treatment from Zessica who's actually shown giving a damn.