[Kaoru Chujo]

Good point about the personal involvement creeping up to Bokura ga Ita intensity, Guardian Enzo. If you shouted at Yano when he left, you'll be screaming "wtf" at him in volume 12 of the manga. In True Tears, it is striking how our hopes for the various girls are shifting and shifting. I think there are more shifts to come, as we watch these poor deer squirm in the emotional headlights.

I think the Shin-Ai-Nobuse confession scene suggested that Aiko would not have accepted Nobuse without Shin's relentless recommendation. Whether he had to be there for it to happen, I don't know, but I think so.

I just rewatched episode one, and it seemed to me that when Shin barged into the washroom, Hiromi apologized for some combination of being his sister (and therefore unable to respond to him as she would like), and of being a nuisance in the household.

And I am definitely more understanding of Shinmother right now. Like Aiko and Shin, she is not dealing with her situation in the best possible way, but she is under great emotional pressure. Just imagine living with your husband and the son you dote on, and then this girl who is a living embodiment of your husband's rejection of you is brought in. And on top of that, she is sucking away both your son's and your husband's affection. That business of opening the envelope in ep1 was normal old-fashioned parenting. It just happens that Shinfather is somewhat more modern in his attitudes. Her realtionship with Shin may be excessively close because her relationship with his father is excessively distant. They get along, but perhaps that early infidelity poisoned everything for her, so there is no real joy in her life -- except for her son, who is now distancing himself.

As for whether she was telling the truth, her surprise that Hiromi remembered did seem odd. There's more story there. But telling this girl that your husband was unfaithful to you is not something anyone would want to do, unless it was inescapably true, so I'm still thinking it's true, pending further evidence.

And it will be interesting to see if Jun asks Hiromi out again, and if she accepts. I thought her "yappari...." that he cut off with asking her to tell Shin to get busy with Noe, was going to be something like "yappari [as I expected]...we really aren't suited for each other."

By the way, one possible indication of a Noe ending is her introduction in episode one: very grand, with dramatic music and a dramatic pose, high in the tree, with the light behind her. Just what you would do for a heroine. Also with the end of the episode, with her on the seawall as a watercolor still and the theme coming up. But recent events have been all Shin-Hiromi and not much Noe. He even tells her to stay away.

But it's only episode six of thirteen, so there's lots of time for a reconciliation. There is also lots of time for Hiromi to cease being Shin's sister -- but maybe not time for Ai-chan to confess and Shin to get over her apparent fickleness. I'm afraid I can't take Nobuse seriously as a partner, so I'm not very enthusiastic about Ai "realizing" she really likes him and them getting back together.

I'm expecting these various limitations -- being Shin's sister, actually loving Shin instead of Nobuse, being Noe's brother, etc. -- are not going to go away, and the characters are going to have to find ways of reconciling with them, through a combination of tears and new partners. We'll see.