“I will never forget”
Impression:
This was a really good episode that was able to shed Old-Banri in a whole new light. Up till now I found him extremely annoying, but he showed us that he can be dependable when he puts his mind to it. In the past, when Linda told him about how her brother’s fiancée was having an affair and wasn’t sure what to do, he was right there, ready to be her support. After Linda had made up her mind to collect evidence, the two of them did so only for her to end up deleting the evidence and getting overwhelmed about whether confronting her brother’s fiancée was the right thing to do. Old-Banri had told her, “I’ll always be listening for your voice. When the rain falls, when the wind blows, when the flowers scatter, when the shadows loom. In every sign, I’ll search for your voice.” And it that exact moment that Old Banri deeply regrets having not told her that he loved her.
The feels bomb then dropped when Linda repeated the exact same thing Banri had told her as a piece of advice how to be there for Kaga. I wonder if this was perhaps the trigger that summoned Old-Banri by the end of the episode because despite the fact that we knew it was going to happen sooner or later, it still felt out of blue how Old-Banri suddenly found himself back in his body. Now that he is back in his body, I eagerly await to see how how everything will unfold. Will he and Present-Banri share the body, or will one try to overpower the other which will result an internal conflict.
I am under the impression that Linda’s brother did end up marrying his fiancée, and given to how she spoken about having seen her brother among other things tells me she ended up seeing the affair activity again. The reason why is because it would parallel in a heart wrenching way of what has changed. Old-Banri had promised her that he will never forget what they had witnessed, and that because of that she doesn’t need to shoulder to secret on her own. So naturally it hurt like a bitch when Present-Banri was surprised to hear that she had an older brother.
Frankly speaking, I was quite thrilled with how little screen-time Kaga had today (mostly because we have finally been given a break from the over the top fluffy sessions that makes me want to vomit). I find Kaga’s character to be quite distasteful. No I don’t hate her, but one of the things I don’t like about her is that I have to question her sincerity when it comes down to being in love with Banri. I am not going to say that it’s stupid to believe that she isin love with Banri (whether she consciously realizes it or not), but I simply can’t agree. I don’t feel it. For me, there’s nothing, just… a void, waiting to be filled up with something It’s quite accurate though since Kaga is clingy, desperate to have a companion and to be loved. So naturally it bothered me when she started questioning Banri’s love for her and whether he will continue to in the future. The only thing that got me questioning her behaviour this week was perhaps she may have overheard Banri’s chitchat with Linda on the balcony which is may be the reason why she has been feeling anxious. Right after that she and Banri shared their first kiss and I didn’t even care. No ew, no yay, just nothing. Right now, rather than over the top fluffy romantic ambitions aside, what I would love to see over the course of the show is Kaga growing as a character. As I mentioned a few episodes back, Kaga doesn’t truely love herself. She feels that she is nothing without another. Right now she is using Banri as she had done with Mitsuo to fill in that void of self esteem.
It is great to see the development on Old-Banri’s part coming into play, as well as learning more about his character. I am kind of hoping that Old-Banri will stick around, but we don’t know whether if he falls asleep again, or hits his head that the Present-Banri will return. Either way it’s going to be quite messy with two individual souls who are both in love and have no intentions of backing down.
In the end, it is hard to say which Banri I am rooting for. Either they both exist duel personality style, merge together, or one will disappear forever.
