Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo
You are depending for that opinion on what I think may be a mistranslation in the sub. Because so many people seem to think this is what it means, I did a bit of checking in the last two 2channel threads, and the only two mentions there talk about going to school. One praises the script construction by pointing out that the final scene repeats this idea from the first scene, where she said she wouldn't want to go.
|
You know, the more I think about it, the more sense this makes as really the only way to interpret the script. The comment about the parallelism is an extremely good observation that's easy to miss at first glance. If you put the episode on the whole in the context of that parallelism, the development becomes quite clear:
Sora and Haruka arrive in a new town. Haruka wants to make the best of things, but Sora has little interest in the outside world and remains focused only on Haruka. However, Sora comes to realize that Haruka is slipping away from her grasp as he becomes more involved with school and the people around him. No matter how much she fantasizes about getting close to him, he doesn't see her that way, and he reminds her that they need to make things work. So she finally realizes that she needs to inject herself into Haruka's world before he slips away from her entirely. Thus, by the end of the episode, she's resolved that she needs to go to school with Haruka now before it's too late. And given her "lack of social graces", it wouldn't be unlike her to expect Haruka to measure her right there and then so she doesn't waste another moment (though it surely could have waited 'till morning).
That isn't to say that the way it's presented isn't suggestive, but so were a lot of scenes in the anime. As you say, the anime's certainly very "erotic" in its presentation.
So yeah, of course we could be mistaken, but it just makes too much sense, I think. I'm sold on this theory.
Edit: As I watch the episode again, I notice more parallelism that I missed the first time. When he meets with Nao's parents, the mother is the one who makes the "can you make it with just the two of you?" comment (they even drew attention to it) that later comes back around in Haruka's comment to Sora about "doing our best since it's just the two of us".
I also noticed that, rather importantly, Nao was "hugging" Haruka on the bike in the same exact position that Sora had been shown earlier, and that was the exact thing that Sora saw. And when they first got the bike Haruka had said to Sora "this is your seat". All the more reason for her to realize that she doesn't have Haruka all to herself.
Haruka also tells Nao, when he drops her off at home after the accident, "tomorrow do you want to go together?" (referring to school), and this actually ties to Sora's line at the end of the episode "I want to go!" The same verb is used in both cases.
So yeah, this script... at first glance it seems chaotic, but it's actually extremely carefully constructed. Wow.