[Slick_rick]

Originally Posted by Arturro

I don't think Rei Miyamoto is a bitch, but I don't buying she is in love with Takashi (same with manga). Rei truly loves Hisashi. She didn't date Hishashi because Takashi was indecisive, like some people here, or Wikipedia, states, but because she loved him. IMHO the fact that female protagonist doesn't return feelings of male protagonist in survival manga/anime makes plot even more interesting. My favorite characters are Saeko and Kohta, but I like Takashi because of how he is reacting to his love problems.
Because of anti-spoiler policy I could only prove it with parts from Episode 1.:
1. Around 4:07 minute of episode:
Takashi: "Why did you flunk? You're an A student"
Rei: "You wouldn't understand"
As we see, Rei has, to Takashi surprise, problems in school. We don't know why, but we know Rei refused to talk about it to Takashi. What is means? Rei doesn't trust Takashi enough to talk to him about her problems.
2. 4:20 - we see Rei and Hisashi on the street, Rei is obviously happy with Hisashi.
3. 5:30:
Rei: "Takashi... I did have feelings for you back then... But you didn't return them."
Famous proof that Rei is dating Hisashi because of Takashi indecisiveness. In my book confession is a very decisive action, he just was too late. As Rei herself said - she had feelings for him then, it means she doesn't have it now.
4. 21:40 (Rei and Takashi speaking after Hisashi second death)
Rei: "I didn't want you to save me. I didn't want to see Hisashi like this. If this is how I'm going to live on, I'd rather have him bite me!"
Rei is shocked and scared, she is talking words, she would never said otherwise. It doesn't means those words are untrue, a contrary - shocked people tends to say what they feel, not caring about social rules. When Hisashi died, she feel like her life ended too. She would rather die with Hisashi than live on (with Takashi). Those are her feelings.
5. 22:00:
Rei: "That's how it is. You never liked him, right? Because he's my boyfriend, right?!"
Again, scared and shocked, a words she would never said under other conditions. And again - she said what she thought at that moment. She believe Takashi killed Hishashi because of jealousy (I highly suggest to compare that scene with manga). It's just another proof how much Rei loves and cares about Hishashi.
Yes, she said she's sorry when he tried to leave, and started crying. IMHO she did it because she was scared to be left alone, not because she suddenly found a deep feelings for Takashi in her heart.

If any Rei fan and a manga reader wants to proof I'm wrong, please PM me a scene (chapter and page) where Rei has shown same level of caring about Takashi.

Is there any chance for a dedicated forum for HotD? Both anime and manga threads are rather popular, there is a lots of HotD related merchandise, people would love to have character dedicated threads.

I don't believe proving she liked Hishashi disproves she also has feelings for Takashi. I think its quite clear she did have feelings for Hishashi. I mean from what we see he was a pretty upstanding guy. I can certainly see what she would see in a guy like that. It seems that Rei and Takashi had problems communicating. She told him at one point that she'd didn't understand what he thinks. They seemed to have both hesistated to get into a relationship and was waiting on the other. Maybe Hishashi made it clear that he liked her and wanted to go out and she seeing no signs from Takashi decided to pursue a relationship with him. I don't think she's wrong for doing that personally. A pinky swear is certainly not a life long contract especially if the guy doesn't take it upon himself to solidify it. I think if she didn't like Hishashi I'd find her a bad person since she'd only have been using him. All in all though that doesn't mean she doesn't love Takashi also. If he pursued her I don't doubt he'd have won her over but he'd didn't. He only sulked around and kept it to himself. I think there was equal blame to go around for why they didn't get together.

I also wouldn't take her actions in the end in such a cynical manner. She probably didn't want to be left alone but also I think she at the same time she didn't want Takashi to die in the same way that Hishashi died either. That was already traumatizing enough without seeing another person you love die.

I honestly like Rei. She's probably my favorite so far. I think she has a fairly understandable reactions so far to the situations she's been thrown in. Not idealized ones but much more closer to realism when a teenage girl is thrown in to such chaos. She has depth, well as much as you'll find in this kind of show anyway. A lot of hate will probably get thrown her way because she was the one who took action to move on when he decided take no action. It was bound to happen since neither seemed willing to conform their relationship. People are very likely to take option number 2 in that situation which she seemed to have done.