Well this makes this the third episode straight to make me cry. No surprise there, as ever Episode 19, the stories just get more beautiful, richer and emotional to watch. This week focused on King and Kakeru, both embracing the loneliness. But what amazed me the most about this episode, was even though King was among some of the few characters who didn’t get a lot of air time throughout this show, his backstory and internal conflict was so relatable, that all it took was this one episode to truly connect with him. In fact, in many ways, as we learned about him, I felt like I was looking at a reflection of myself. Both of the struggles he faces, are something that hit close to home. King’s struggle of coping with his loneliness and his insecurities is something I can relate to. The difficulty, frustration and hopelessness you feel when no matter how sociable you try to be, no matter where you go, you still feels out of place, or you just don’t fit in. It’s something that has continuously persisted me throughout my entire life to the point I decided to embrace my loneliness rather than being caught up with it, which is ironically, the title of this episode.
But most importantly, I am so proud of King for what he has accomplished. He was able to calm down, and maintain his pace, and was only 30 seconds behind Sakaki. And that, is a quite a big deal, especially since it allowed Kakeru to close the gap between Kansei University and Tokyo Sports University even faster!) I also loved seeing the cuter side of King, where he had a brief fantasy of Haiji saying he would be staying for another year at Kansei University, and King actually wanted to do the same so they could run Hakone again. It just goes to show how much King has fallen in love with this team, and this event, it’s exactly the kind of excitement and joy he had been hoping once he started his college life. Better yet, he feels like something is expected of him. When he’s running, he doesn’t need to put on an act, and Hakone isn’t just Haiji’s dream anymore, one he doesn’t want to end.
And then we have Kakeru, with the help of the others who ran before him (Yuki, Nico and King) they were able to go from 20th (Yuki) > 16th (Nico) > 13th (King) and now 10th with Kakeru running like the wind. I am incredibly excited to see whether or not Kakeru will actually catch up to the top five, as catching of to Kazuma isn’t exactly the goal here, but rather beating his time.
Last week I initially thought we were going to get insight on Kazuma, but as it turns out, that’s not the case and frankly I am not upset about it. Sure it would have been interesting, but he’s not the focus of the story. Instead the time was devoted to Kakeru, and I was a happy camper! With the help of the others who ran before him (Yuki, Nico and King) they were able to go from 20th (Yuki) > 16th (Nico) > 13th (King) and now 10th with Kakeru running like the wind, I am incredibly excited to see whether or not he will actually catch up to the top five. Remember, catching Kazuma isn’t exactly the goal here (especially since he has overtaken Boso University who had been in the lead all this time), but rather beating his time.
Now I probably said this a hundred times now, but Kakeru has quickly grown into one of my favourite characters of this show, and has hands down the best and most beautiful character development I have seen in a while. We saw just that when Sakaki lashed out at him and Kakeru remained unfazed and even smiled at him! We could see how far he has come to be completely at peace with himself and his past. In fact, he told Joji he’s in love too! At first I thought it might have been referring to running, but then I realized, he probably is referring to the team. It is because he was with this team he was able to face and overcome his past, form incredibly special friendships, and discover a whole new meaning to running that allowed him to tap into his true potential.
It excites me to know that more time will likely be dedicated to Haiji in the finale, as we will see what will become of Kakeru and how much further he will go now that he’s in a the zone more than he has ever has been before. His desire to beat Kazuma’s record, and to fulfill Haiji’s faith in him that he is the best runner. That said, I am sad to see this show coming to the end, I’m going to miss it a lot.
