Eden of the East - Episode 5 Discussion / Poll

[Cal-Reflector]

For many here, Saki has turned into the Mayama of this series, and Oosugi is Ayu, which is completely ironic and fascinating.

In the best of best case scenarios, wee-wee slice lady ends up with Oosugi at the end of eleven episodes: She plans first on toying with him, then decides to keep him around for her amusement, finally developing empathy and genuine emotions for the plain, average kid who is so down on his luck. Yeah.

It'd be a great twist, especially since the producers have all of us writing Oosugi's eulogy.

[JiggleJiggle]

OOORRR....

akira dies saving the world and ohsugi comforts saki and they end up together...

but i don't want that to happen!!! ToT

[sikvod00]

With only 6 more episodes to go, I'll eat my own manhood if Oosugi has a meaningful role after the next episode. Seems to me he's just a pity character.

[Tale]

Reading some posts here, I felt bit surprised by the fact that there are many people who feel sympathy/antipathy to a certain characters. Some of you treat characters as if someone they knew and even become judgmental to him/her although they probably have their roles in context of the theme development in the work. To some extent, this probably means a success of the work, though.

[Amber.Dawn]

Originally Posted by Tale

Reading some posts here, I felt bit surprised by the fact that there are many people who feel sympathy/antipathy to a certain characters. Some of you treat characters as if someone they knew and even become judgmental to him/her although they probably have their roles in context of the theme development in the work. To some extent, this probably means a success of the work, though.

Yep. For people to be able to relate/feel sympathy, etc towards characters in a show means that the plot and characters have been done well.

[hamstar]

Originally Posted by Amber.Dawn

Yep. For people to be able to relate/feel sympathy, etc towards characters in a show means that the plot and characters have been done well.

yeah i agree realistic/believable characters equals good characters

[Starry Dust]

Originally Posted by JiggleJiggle

OOORRR....

akira dies saving the world and ohsugi comforts saki and they end up together...

but i don't want that to happen!!! ToT

I'm going to laugh if that happens
But we'll just have to wait and see if Oosugi makes it out alive first.

Or it'll be one of those endings where Saki waits for her dear Akira to come back over time ( like Chrono Crusade ) but more...happy-like.

What I see wrong in Saki/Oosugi's relationship is the lack of proper communication. It's obvious they won't ever make a great couple but just for being "friends", their communication sucks.

They're both so oblivious
It amuses me ( then again I'm oblivious myself...)

They may want to work out on that if they bother to ever interact again next time. At least Saki was aware enough to call him back instead of never doing it. When you're in emotional turmoil, you can't think for everything.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Cal-Reflector

In the best of best case scenarios, wee-wee slice lady ends up with Oosugi at the end of eleven episodes: She plans first on toying with him, then decides to keep him around for her amusement, finally developing empathy and genuine emotions for the plain, average kid who is so down on his luck. Yeah.

It'd be a great twist, especially since the producers have all of us writing Oosugi's eulogy.

That would be pretty damn awful.

[MeoTwister5]

Originally Posted by Haak

That would be pretty damn awful.

If not downright sadistic.

[izmosmolnar]

I can easily imagine the scene where someone is going to take advantage of Oosugi by making him to confront Akira (and probably even Saki) one way or another. I'm not entirely convinced that would be #11, but she is a likely candidate to do that for now.
#11 possibly knows, or she may find out Saki is important to Akira, since she's following Akira's purchase history and she can certainly see "#9 investigated the location of the girl from yesterday. Price 220000 yen" (or something similar). If she is indeed going to "kidnap" Oosugi and not the gentleman across the street, she might listen to the reason of Oosugi's Sorrow, and if she's a bit clever she could connect the dots together and ehm... "persuade", or "threaten", or "pressure" (let's not think of her method ) ... him to undermine Akira (or his relation with Saki).
(In a nutshell a fancy love triangle as I said few pages earlier).

Edit: Also another thing. Did anyone else found it weird, how Oosugi's friend doesn't escort him home? The latter was clearly drunk already in the middle of the dinner, did his friend expected he can casually walk home after being heartbroken and intoxicated to that level?
What an ungrateful kind of friend he could be really! Oosugi spent on him ~40.000 Yen worth of dinner, and he left (?) earlier than Oosugi, who paid for his share? Or is that normal in Japan, and they really used to be that ungrateful?

[Haak]

Originally Posted by izmosmolnar

I
Edit: Also another thing. Did anyone else found it weird, how Oosugi's friend doesn't escort him home? The latter was clearly drunk already in the middle of the dinner, did his friend expected he can casually walk home after being heartbroken and intoxicated to that level?
What an ungrateful kind of friend he could be really! Oosugi spent on him ~40.000 Yen worth of dinner, and he left (?) earlier than Oosugi, who paid for his share? Or is that normal in Japan, and they really used to be that ungrateful?

Yeah, I found that really weird too. I was thinking that maybe ohsugi and rejected the offer and insisted on going on his own. But still...

[Jan-Poo]

that guy wasn't happy about being dragged there in the first place. Even if osugi was paying and all, even if osugi was clearly hurt and needed support. I think he just took the first chance to run away. He didn't seem to care about osugi at all. This both shows how shallow is that character and also how miserable osugi is for not having any real friend to count on, at the point he has to drag his weakwilled underclassman to a restaurant to have someone to talk to.

[izmosmolnar]

Still. It's pretty shameful. I couldn't look in the mirror in his place, if I were to leave an "acquaintance" (hell even if I would dislike him) behind, when he paid for my own share of a high class restaurant bill, plus said "acquaintance" was obviously deliriously drunk as a skunk due to his heart being broken. It feels irresponsible to leave him to find his way home on his own.
He didn't seemed like a particularly "evil", unscrupulous, unprincipled character to do that.

[Kaoru Chujo]

I think the underclassman was embarrassed to be out on a "date" with a guy. Even knowing Oosugi as he did, he had some feeling that Oosugi might be coming on to him. And then he was embarrassed for having spoken so loudly. So he probably left first. But yeah, at first I found it odd that Oosugi was alone coming out of the restaurant.

I don't think Oosugi is being played for pity as much as he is being played for laughs. His rosy cheeks, and his weird gait coming up happily to his assignation were like signs of his total uncoolness. As was his drunkenness. I'm not blaming him, just saying what I think the animators were aiming for.

Great analogy from Cal-Reflector: Saki=Mayama, Oosugi=Ayu. They are not the same people, but the relationships are similar. (Characters from Honey & Clover, for anyone who doesn't know.)

In any case, "widow" Saki ending up with Oosugi is my greatest fear, for her sake.

[fedor mma]

Another great episode.I was laughing at poor Oosugi trying to woo Saki.He is not gonna stand much of a chance with Akira around,Akira is just too smooth.Its been a while since ive seen a male character in anime just kiss the girl he likes without any hesitation or stuttering love confessions.

[Jan-Poo]

Actually that guy wasn't just an acquaintance. He's one of the club and he can be seen in one of the photo on Saki's cellphone in the first episode. He was also inside the car on episode 2.

about saki she might end up as a "widow" but i doubt she'll end up with osugi.

[izmosmolnar]

Is going to a restaurant with a guy so embarassing? It's not like someone might label him gay just because he's sitting with a guy at the same table . I don't understand why he has to feel embarassed about it really. It's possible Oosugi's behaviour embarassed him, but escaping from him, like he doesn't give a crap about him, is just ...sounds lame for me somehow. (I admit, it's possible he's a "worrywart", and he thought Oosugi might gets into a fight with him, but he didn't even tried to cheer him up, or tried to be sympathetic towards him)
And also as Jan-poo said he's more than just an acquaintance, since they are members of the same club. I still feel it unreasonably inconsiderate (or even "ill-willed"), if he left early and left Oosugi to deal with how he finds his way home while being entirely wasted.

However we can't be 100% sure he indeed left Oosugi alone. It's possible the creators are "trolling" us and in actuality the reason Oosugi sits down on the stairs by the restaurant (aside of being hammered) is to wait for him, because he went on the toilet. I would find it funny next week, but I have my doubts about that for now.

[Jan-Poo]

Is going to a restaurant with a guy so embarassing?

We are talking about a society where a kiss on a cheek is a declaration of love. I agree with Kaoru, that guy is embarrassed because he thinks its awkward for two guys to dine in that classy restaurant. All the other costumers are either alone or paired with someone of the opposite sex. I think he is also embarrassed for being in a place where he doesn't belong, seeing how the others are dressed so elegantly.
I find funny how he blatantly says: "I don't want to be anything more than your junior", as if he was really thinking that osugi turned gay or something XD

[izmosmolnar]

Strange, I didn't know Japan used to be that "prude" or "puritan". I even thought they used to go out to eat with (male) people like bosses and supervisors on fridays and the weekends.

Anyway, not like I want to nitpick with any of you, but if the japanese indeed consider two guy going to a posh Restaurant as "gayish", than Oosugi could have been more clever and simply go to a Bar/Pub, or something to get pissed and forget about Saki. Did he paid the Restaurant bill in advance,and that's why he so stubbornly and vainly insisted on the Restaurant than?
I know his heartbroken state makes him to behave unreasonable, but if they would label him gay for going to a restaurant with a male friend, a pub could have been like 10x better choice to be frank.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by izmosmolnar

I know his heartbroken state makes him to behave unreasonable, but if they would label him gay for going to a restaurant with a male friend, a pub could have been like 10x better choice to be frank.

I just don't think he cared anymore.