(CR) Orange (TV series)

[Haak]

I swear to God, watching Kakeru and Naho interact and still believe that they don't know the other likes them is so infuriating that I half wish both of them get hit by a truck...

[frivolity]

Originally Posted by Haak

I swear to God, watching Kakeru and Naho interact and still believe that they don't know the other likes them is so infuriating that I half wish both of them get hit by a truck...

Be careful what you wish for...

[Gan_HOPE326]

Originally Posted by Kanon

As I suspected, Naho monumentally fucked up right from the start by inviting Kakeru. We'll never know for sure (and this is what hurts Kakeru the most) but it's possible Kakeru's mother wouldn't have killed herself if Naho had followed the letter's advice.

Frankly, it's Future!Naho who fucked up there. If it's that important, literally the ONE thing the entire plan hinges on, you don't just leave it vague, you stress what are the consequences of failing there. Because Naho will realise/learn it anyway later, so it's not even about sparing her regret if she failed through no fault of her own. The only reason why it was written the way it was is so the show wouldn't end at episode 1, basically.

[Sides]

Oh wow, after this episode I have no sympathy with Kakeru at all. People blaming present/future Naho, Sawa or others are insane. It was all Kakeru's fault from the beginning, for not telling them that he has to take is mom to the hospital. If anything, I want to be the truck driver to rolls him over now.

[Stark700]

Episode 6:

My favorite part is when Naho's friends told off Kakeru's ex when she tried to bully Naho again..this week.

Also, I really like how they transit between the present and future timeline to reflect ongoing events during the plot to make it more clear. The ending though...that confession from Naho had emotions in it. Plenty of them.

[AB079]

Jesus man, this episode went right into the feels.

Suwa is the real bro, he unsderstand what is going on and want to do something about Kakeru even if that means letting go the girl he likes. That confession was literally amazing, you can see how Kakeru's feelings were 100% real and how that added some warm to his life.

[Incest Emblem]

I think future Suwa knew that the reason he was reluctant to encourage Kakeru and Naho in the past was that he liked Naho. But he either could not bring himself to put that in writing, or he suspected that putting it in writing would reduce present Suwa's motivations--even if just subconsciously.

This episode makes it seem like the present timeline will end up with SuwaxKakeru rather than NahoxKakeru. >_>

[zeross87]

i'm glad suwa was here to save the mess, i don't think naho alone would have done it.

so now they are officially going out i hope, and i was glad this bitchy ex got put to her place !

with the two other female overhearing them at the door, i wonder if suwa told them about the letter or if he just will pass that as "naho told me about his mother and i had the intuition he was blaming himself" ?

I think future Suwa knew that the reason he was reluctant to encourage Kakeru and Naho in the past was that he liked Naho. But he either could not bring himself to put that in writing, or he suspected that putting it in writing would reduce present Suwa's motivations--even if just subconsciously.

i noticed that the letters never ever mentioned that naho and suwa are married

[Arya]

Originally Posted by Incest Emblem

This episode makes it seem like the present timeline will end up with SuwaxKakeru rather than NahoxKakeru. >_>

aha, yeah, and he deserved it, I have to say this episode Suwa completely outshined Naho. Thankfully for Kakeru that he is around.

[SeijiSensei]

Naho is an incredibly annoying character. Frankly I don't really understand what Kakeru sees in her other than being cute. Until the final scene, every time she could move things along between them she freezes up. I suppose we should be happy that she has found the courage to declare her feelings for Kakeru, but it would never have happened without Suwa and the other girls to push her along.

I feel sorry for Suwa, not to mention that he is a much more appealing guy than Kakeru. Perhaps Naho doesn't see this because their relationship has lasted so long, but every time Suwa pushes them together, he's probably hurting a bit more inside.

Senpai at least shows some spunk. Naho could learn a thing or two from her. It's too bad Senpai is depicted as a villain since it narrows her character so much.

[Wandering Soul]

Suwa is a true bro. His feelings for Naho may have been what prevented his future self from helping Kakeru the first time around, but this time his present self more than made for that. It honestly seems like he was more important in helping Kakeru than Naho in this episode.

[IceHism]

Wow. Suwa is so great. He is like the only one moving the story at this point. Naho is so annoying and Im quite a bit sad that she doesn't really seem to do anything without anyone telling her to. Why does it seem like it's so hard to write a shoujo with a competent female protagonist.

[Yamada II]

Episode 7

Oh my goodness this episode sure packed a punch. Amazing scenes here.

Suwa and Naho exchange information but the two more or less know the same things. Suwa only has further orders to make Naho happy as opposed to Naho's orders to only look over Kakeru. Future Suwa knew that Naho was in love with Kakeru and doesn't want his 16 year old self see another heartbroken sobbing Naho. The future Suwa couldn't do all this because he couldn't set aside his feelings for Naho and he ended up getting a crying sad Naho. He doesn't want that to happen again and he knows that his 16 year old version will understand. And now with Naho and Suwa having the same goal of saving Kakeru, there is some teamwork going on.

And it's Kakeru's birthday, the birthday the future group couldn't celebrate. Suwa gets Kakeru to tell when his birthday is and then everyone, one by one, asks him what he wants as a present. And Suwa asks Kakeru in the end and Kakeru jokingly says that he wants flowers which he'll give to Naho. And Suwa gives him flowers which results in a gay like scene where a dude is giving another dude flowers while the reciever is somewhat blushing. This was done to give Kakeru a push. Naho has been pushed by Suwa to not run away and Naho pushed herself to not run away too. Now it's time to push Kakeru to not run away and confess his feelings so that Naho gets to know that her feelings aren't one sided. And this is something the future Naho didn't know even till the time she sent the letter. Now Naho has to reply back to Kakeru and Suwa is pushing her so that she gets it done before it's too late.

And then the 23rd of September approaches which happens to be the date when Kakeru tries to kill himself with a towel. Kakeru meets his old friends and the topic of his mother comes up. Suwa and Naho have to prevent that from happening and they directly confront Kakeru and tell him to talk to them about his troubles. They don't want to stay as if everything's fine in the world when that's clearly not the case. The mission is to make Kakeru not want to die. He has thought of dying a lot because he believes it's his fault his mother died. Naho and Kakeru have to remove that guilty feeling from him and also tell him that he is needed and that there will be people sad and whatnot if he dies. And this becomes the perfect situation for Naho to give Kakeru's confession a reply. And god damn this entire scene packed a punch. Suwa had two reasons for crying, one, he was crying with Kakeru like Naho, two, the girl he likes is now completely out of reach and there's no way for him to be with her unless Kakeru dies. I hope he doesn't give in and stop helping Kakeru or something. But Suwa isn't that kind of a guy anyway so no worries.

One thing we get to see here is what the future Naho experienced. She had Valentine's day chocolates for Kakeru and wanted to give it to him but she couldn't. If she had given him those chocolates it could have at the very least delay his death. The future Naho wants herself to not run away and with Naho's reply to Kakeru's feelings, the chances of Kakeru killing himself have decreased. Naho is now Kakeru's emotional support and she will be playing important roles in reliving Kakeru's emotional pain and stopping him from even considering death as an option in any case. Suwa will also be playing that role but to a much lesser extent as he will leave things to Naho and support her from the shadows.

We haven't seen exactly how previous events played out originally for future Naho, now we have seen how the Valentine's day event originally played out so now we can see what changes Naho and Suwa's actions have caused with respect to either that event happening and playing out differently or that event being avoided completely.

Now to see if Kakeru meets up with his friends and if he does will the following event take place or does it get avoided. Naho and Suwa will have to keep a good eye on Kakeru if he goes to meet his friends.

[Arya]

Originally Posted by Wandering Soul

It honestly seems like he was more important in helping Kakeru than Naho in this episode.

What it seems to me is that Naho never really got what's going on. Not fully. I don't know if it's due to her being romantically involved or its just her being very far from the bright ones of the school. I don't know what may really help Kakeru, but I know what won't help him. And love is not a cure in this case. So I'm so grateful that Suwa finally stepped in addressing the elephant in the room. Suwa approach may not be the solution, but it's a shot in the right direction when instead Naho lost herself along the road.
I dunno, but Suwa's hug was really powerful so seeing Naho still there felt like ah, so are you there too? kind of feeling.

Mixed feelings regarding the bouquet detail, if we look at it from Suwa perspective it's a bit unfair both from a personal point of view between Kakeru and him than in terms of narrative, a bit too unsubtle and straight as a metaphor (those that I usually take in reverse).

[Kanon]

Suwa is definitely one of the greatest bros you could wish for. He's putting his feelings for Naho aside in order to help his friend. That scene where he confronted Kakeru about his suicidal thoughts was wonderful. He did everything right in this episode IMO.

Naho has progressed quite a bit since the first episode, but it wasn't enough yet. She couldn't have done what Suwa did. It seems witnessing that made her realize she should stop caring about what other people think and simply do what she thinks is best.

[ahelo]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

So basically Kakeru was a freaking jerk. If you wanted to kill yourself why drag some poor truck driver into it? Can you imagine the psychological damage that guy has had to put up with? Especially since it was reported as an accident.

Originally Posted by Sides

Oh wow, after this episode I have no sympathy with Kakeru at all. People blaming present/future Naho, Sawa or others are insane. It was all Kakeru's fault from the beginning, for not telling them that he has to take is mom to the hospital. If anything, I want to be the truck driver to rolls him over now.

This is why Orange is such an important manga/anime to me. I don't know if FlareKnight or Sides's comment here was meant to be a joke/satire (i doubt) but I really take quite a huge offense with what he/she just said.

As someone who has a lot of people dear to me suffering mental health problems like depression/anxiety and having suicidal tendencies, the way Kakeru's acting here in the anime is very realistic (probably the most realistic and on-point I've ever seen in anime). For people commenting that Kakeru is a jerk or that he should just grow up/slap himself in the face or whatever, you guys are the ones that need more understanding because what's going on in Kakeru's head is something you will never understand unless you actually tried empathizing with him. I personally hope that people who watch this anime go past the whole shipping/romance plot and see how this anime is tackling mental health.

[Sides]

Originally Posted by ahelo

As someone who has a lot of people dear to me suffering mental health problems like depression/anxiety and having suicidal tendencies, the way Kakeru's acting here in the anime is very realistic (probably the most realistic and on-point I've ever seen in anime). For people commenting that Kakeru is a jerk or that he should just grow up/slap himself in the face or whatever, you guys are the ones that need more understanding because what's going on in Kakeru's head is something you will never understand unless you actually tried empathizing with him. I personally hope that people who watch this anime go past the whole shipping/romance plot and see how this anime is tackling mental health.

I never said that, I said I will be willing to give him a hand to off himself. Furthermore i posted that he is the cause of problem. First for ditching his mom, second causing his friends to put him into the centre of everything (even after death), thirdly maybe even causing the truck driver to become a mental wreck.
Everyone has the right to sort out their feelings and what not in their own manner. And frankly speaking, in my opinion, suicide is a valid option. I opped for drugs, friend of mine for cutting herself, and a few former classmates of mine took up drinking and hard drugs. In my books everything is allowed. Everyone I know has mental issues it is just people tackle it in different way. And i just don't think Kakeru as a person is anything new. But what is interesting about this anime is his friend sacrifing everything to keep him alive(happy or not), not really about tackling mental issues.
My main issue with Kakeru is, i just don't respect people for not keeping their word, that is all.

[Cloudedmind]

Kakeru ditching his mom is not the problem, and Kakeru didn't ask either Naho or Suwa for their help. Naho and Suwa are acting according to their own desires, because of what they know from the letters. Trying to blame Kakeru for all this is just misguided and clearly missing the point of that whole conversation at the end of the episode. If every parent killed themselves because their kid broke a promise or blew them off the human race would have died off a long time ago. Kakeru's mother clearly had her own problems that she needed to get help with. It's regrettable, but his mothers actions are her own. Even if Kakeru had kept his promise she still may have killed herself later. You can't watch someone 24/7, and if someone truly wants to kill them self they will find a way to do it. Hell a 13 year old boy just hung himself in his families basement over bullying. Hopefully, Kakeru's story doesn't also end in tragedy.

[DMurphy]

You can't hold a sixteen year old responsible for a grown adult's decisions, especially when that adult is their parent. It was never Kakeru's responsibility to look after his mother - and, I mean, that doesn't mean it's his mother's fault, since she was clearly very ill, but it's not Kakeru's fault either.

[BakaOnna]

To add onto the points from above, I thought it was pretty clear that the mom suffered from depression herself. So even if Kakeru kept his promise, it doesn't mean she wouldn't try another time.

This series has been great so far but I wish it hadn't focused the first half so much on the romance and love triangle. Now that I think I know where the plot is headed, I hope it focuses more on the friendship between Kakeru and how they try to help him. This is definitely one of the few pieces of media (not just anime) that handles depression and suicide in a mature and realistic manner. IMO, that last scene with Suwa and Kakeru is seriously one of the most powerful scenes I've seen in an anime.