Mannnn, as I feared… Things got real ugly when Aoi made her move. It was especially gross to see the way Aoi had successfully to turn Erika’s two lackeys (Mao and Mika) against her, but that’s the way these things work in these types of groups. There’s no real loyalty, everyone’s out to save their own skin, and gravitate to whoever has the most power, or will take authority if they see the opportunity is ripe to. That’s probably why Aoi sought out Mao, because she’s not a doormat. When Erika turned to blamed Mao for messing with her desk, Mao didn’t back down from the fight. She utilized the fact Erika did hurt her, and immediately claimed dominance. She had essentially served as Aoi’s proxy to leading the charge to having the entire class rally behind her in bullying Erika.
And what made this so terrible was that it managed to be even worse than the treatment she had given to Tama and Hirabayashi. That’s why I never considered these circles to be an authentic “group of friends”, because really, how does one even go back to their former relationship when such a shitstorm happens? Like how could you even trust each other after going through all that? And yet surprisingly, these type of people do. I suppose it all goes back to the roots of how they ended up together in the first place. Insecurities, loneliness, power, among other reasons.
You know I’ve condoned Erika’s behaviour endlessly from the start, but man… Aoi’s method managed to actually top the brutality. She just kept on relentlessly dog-piling attacks after attacks after attacks, and to really break Erika’s heart, she used Shuji to put the nail in the coffin. It was especially gross to see her utilize Yuzu and Shuji– like really, that last move to have Shuji hand her a tissue that had a tissue cover made by Yuzu, wowwwwwww…. That was just completely uncalled for. It was quite frankly disgusting to watch.
In the end, the one who actually ended up saving Erika from a worse fate was Tama. It didn’t matter that Erika had been bullying her, she won’t stand for watching people bully each other, period. And thank god for her, because I don’t even want to imagine how bad it would’ve been if she hadn’t intervened. SO TAMA FOR BEST GIRL!
Also worth noting, like Fumiya, Tama did not approve Aoi’s methods. And she even felt bad afterwards, feeling as though she had pushed Aoi to that point of utilizing her influence to help her. But while she still trusts Aoi, she didn’t like that side of her, and even told her wished she didn’t do that. Aoi tried to deny it, but Tama can see right through that lie. Don’t take Tama lightly, she’s got eyes of a hawk.
And while we’re on the subject of Aoi’s masks, I do find it interesting how Mizusawa claims he’s able to see them through. And for that reason, I hope we’ll get a chance to learn more about how he fell for her in the first place. A part of me is curious that maybe Aoi had helped him in the past, similarly as she is doing with Fumiya right now. He did mention in the past episode 3, a certain someone once told him to live however he wants, and that had shaped him into who he is today. That’s also why it’s nice to see that he learned something from being on the team, and that’s learning how to be upfront with his own feelings as well. In this case, he decided to make sure Fumiya is on the same page when he declared that he likes Aoi, and wants to know how he feels about her.
As for Fumiya: at this time he has no romantic feelings for Aoi. Right now she’s simply his mentor in the game of life, but he does want to get to know her better. He knows she’s wearing seemingly endless layers of masks, and would like to get to know the true face of Aoi hidden underneath all of that.
At the end of the day, things were resolved rather nicely. In particular it was very nice to see that Shuji and Tama are able to get along with each other, so that means Mizusawa and Takei no longer have to tip-toe around him. I enjoyed her dynamic with them, it was very fun to watch. Minami even got everyone one of those funny keychains, and Yuzu helped sew a pattern that was Fumiya’s idea so that they’d all match, which was a really cute idea.
However seeing everyone get together made me a little sad to see Fuuka being left out, but I suppose it makes sense since she isn’t really part of their circle, just Fumiya’s. She was there to help Tama out for dress rehearsal. Actually, now that I think about it: It was rather interesting that we didn’t see Fuuka’s expressions like the others had. At best we saw a long shot of her sitting tensely at her desk behind Fumiya. Still, it’s lonely to see her on her own…
Wow, that was really ugly. I did not expect it to be as bad it got. As Fumiya astutely pointed out, what Aoi was premeditated and done purely out of malice.
Aoi’s response to Erika likely had nothing to do with Tama but served as a proxy for what she experienced herself in the past. As Aoi said, if Tama changes, this will be for nothing, which showed Aoi almost certainly had a lot more on her mind than Tama’s situation. I believe Aoi would have lashed out in this way for anyone who acted like Tama did in response to bullying, playing right into the bully’s hand as a result, because of something similar that happened to her in the past that she alluded to when she she indicated she was “worse than trash”.
As Fumiya pointed out in Episode 2, Aoi committed to this plan with 0 regard to how Tama would be impacted. You also likely nailed it when you said that Aoi was bullied in the past and molded herself in a way that she will never be a victim again.
Aoi saying if Tama were to change this will will be for nothing shows when viewed in conjunction with her saying that she used to be worse than trash likely suggests that she was once the target of a bully and forced to change into the conniving monstrous sociopath she is now who only cares about being in control of every situation and that on some level she regrets having changed herself, which is why she didn’t want Tama to change because the situation was so personally triggering for her.
Aoi’s “no name” moniker on TackFam might be more than meets the eye in the sense that there is no real Aoi aside from the one who tries to be the master of every social situation because she killed off who she used to be long ago. Even her saying Hexactly to Fumiya is probably fake as hell. The real Aoi is probably the monster we saw in this episode even though part of Fumiya hoped she couldn’t be like that. I think that is almost certainly the real Aoi.
Yeah I suspect Aoi uses “No Name” purposely because she either has no identity of her own, or she so far gone she completely lost sight of “her true self”, or like you said: she gone as far as erasing it entirely because she deemed that part of her to be useless aka: “worse than trash”. It does make me wonder if she’ll face an identity crisis at some point.
This does put into perspective of just how far Aoi is willing to go to get her hands dirty, even though she’s using proxies in order to have them carried out so her hands remains “clean” to the onlookers. It’s pretty scary how easily she manipulated everyone.
I think you’re right that Mizusawa might have been Aoi’s pupil. Mizusawa did wonder aloud whether Fumiya and Aoi were teaming up in Season 1, which is almost impossible to predict without firsthand experience, say that he expected Aoi to be with Tama when Fumiya was giving her lessons, and say that Fumiya probably knows better than he does certain aspects of Aoi, which suggests Mizusawa didn’t need as much help as Fumiya did.
Mizusawa also said a certain someone in the past told him to do whatever he wants, which strikes me as very much an Aoi thing to do since that is how most sociopaths operate.