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「やさしいかみさま」 (Yasashii Kami-sama)
“A Kind God”
Oh boy, if there was ever a half hour block guaranteed to get people raging, this would be it. Who knew Kuzu would actually take the plunge and have Narumi not only confess to Akane, but propose marriage? And marriage that Akane actually agreed to. Once you let it all sink in, we can get started.
I guessed last week that Narumi would propose marriage given the indications of his seriousness, but I didn’t expect it this soon. Considering Narumi’s inclinations towards Akane and his actions (i.e. the accepting of her sexual adventures) it was a foregone conclusion for me. Naturally this seems confusing to some, but like last time if the cuck angle is ignored there is logic here. Narumi holds true unconditional love and effectively sees Akane for “herself”—the trappings and behaviour are just facets of her soul to him per say. While there’s definitely an argument for motherly influences here, personally I just see Narumi falling in love for Akane’s appearance (both physical and outward personality) and enjoying love for what it is. He simply wants his love to live a happy life and experience it with her, no catches or conditions. A little quixotic maybe, but an honourable desire easily separating Narumi from the rest.
It’s this uniqueness of Narumi which ultimately drew Akane in. I mentioned it last time, but Narumi’s blunt acceptance of Akane’s lifestyle shattered Akane’s understanding of men. Like Narumi, all her flings wanted her for their own, but those guys experienced overt jealousy and possessiveness—Akane had to be theirs, and no one else’s. Akane believes all men must act in this manner, so when one turns up who doesn’t, it stimulates emotions she never had before, emotions making the otherwise boring Narumi interesting. Given Narumi perceived and treated her so differently from the rest, it was only a matter of time until Akane discovered the feeling Mugi could never induce in her. Although the progression from these realizations to the marriage proposal was arguably too quick, the end result I believe would not have changed regardless. Narumi, for all intents and purposes, was the one.
What Narumi’s actions in particular showcase, however, is why Mugi never stood a chance. Mugi loved Akane much like Narumi, but he remained like the other flings where once he had her she had to stop fooling around. Mugi believed he could eventually free Akane from her “boredom”, but by changing her out of that state. This is what ensured he never could truly have her. Unlike Narumi who provided Akane with a new experience, a mystery to solve, and the image of a new life, Mugi only offered the same as before, albeit in a different package. While the marriage bomb was what finally opened Mugi up to this reality, personally I think he knew it all along, and was simply waiting for his thoughts/fears to be confirmed. Does not take away the pain of losing the one he loved, but Mugi probably knew well in advance what the result would be.
With Narumi single handily solving the last relationship conundrum of the show, Kuzu looks headed back to familiar ground for its final week with Hanabi and Mugi. Both characters have suffered and subsequently changed, but it remains to be seen if their plan for a true relationship will materialize. While it would sweet seeing Hanabi and Mugi pair off again in the wake of their discoveries, I can see their personal changes actually being that sweet moment and both characters mutually deciding to go off their own way. Given Kuzu’s theme has increasingly become “all people can change”, the finale will certainly—in one way or another—see that message off.
This’s bullshit. First Fuuka, now Kuzo no Honkai. I’m sick of this.
Did you not like the ending of Fuuka? (Assuming you wanted Koyuki to be with Yuu)
I’m not mad because Fuuka and Yuu ended up together, what I despise it’s the way they handled it. I’m tired to see the same fucking trop with the childhood friend, if Yuu loved Fuuka in the first place, then why did he went after Koyuki when she lost her voice. It’s sad to see Kouki relinquish her love for Yuu because of Fuuka. After watching and hating Suzuka twelve years ago, I’s waiting for something different, and then… that twist that changed everything.
Now with Kuzo no Honkai, I didn’t saw this coming, but I can’t buy this “love”. Sure, each character in the series has grown one way or another, yet I don’t buy this sudden change of pace.
Anyway, this only reinforce my belief to stop watching romance/drama like Fuuka/Masamune/Kuzo
The ending of Masamune-Kun is kind of even more disappointing, more than Fuuka..
The thing I did not like about Fuuka is that the major event that happened in the manga never materializes in the anime. The major event I thought was something different from the norm, but it ended the same ordinary way.
Cannot speak for Fuuka, but given how the first half of Kuzu went, I think it was obvious the sort of things to expect here lol.
This show never tried beating around the bush, it was always going to push boundaries.
I really hope Hanabi and Mugi can finally get together and love each other now that everything else is out of the way…
I can’t see why they cannot have developed feelings (like actual feelings) after all the things they’ve been through xD..
Anything is possible, they might see each other as friends more than lovers now because their fantasies are over for example. Mugi and Hanabi both haven’t tried treating each other purely as romantic partners (i.e. loving each other for who they actually are), so it’s unclear currently how well it will work.
The marriage development wasn’t all that surprising; I don’t know why manga readers keep saying, “Oh I can’t wait for the anime-only viewers to rage at this.” I’ll repeat here what I said on MAL:
The latest development between Akane and Kanai feels a tad too fast, but this direction feels right in general. It just seems awful quick to ask someone to marry you, no matter how deep in love Kanai is and especially considering Akane’s nature up until this point. I want to see her change, but it feels like a character change this drastic needs at least 2 more episodes.
That about sums up my thoughts during the episode. “Oh hey, they’re developing this further– too far.”
I’ve always enjoyed the thought of a character like Akane settling with someone while still being herself (As opposed to being “fixed” or a tsundere or something along those lines); so pacing aside I actually had a great time watching this one.
Agreed, the development is logical, but for me it occurred too fast. Even ideally I’d imagine Akane would need a moment to think about the offer, it’s completely outside the realm of her experience, particularly when coming from Narumi. Might just boil down to personal preference though, there’s also an argument here for Akane going with the flow and making impulse decisions.
So, why do people rage about this? I really loved this part, both in the anime and the manga. From a manga point of view, I think it did good coming just after the Hanabi, Sanae and Atsuya arc. Like a glimmer of light after all that gloom. It was also strangely logical.
Probably because Akane acts like a whore and Narumi still wants her even though knowing this. The typical response is like Akane’s other flings shown this episode, the guy wants Akane only for himself. When she screws around it hurts because it seems like the guy is just a plaything and not anything serious. The results here may be logical, but not in terms of the “standard” relationship model.
Goodbye my first love.
How about the implication that Narumi might have had feelings for Hanabi, but was too afraid to hurt her so he never pursued her?
Not sure personally, for me it just looked like Narumi knew about Hanabi’s romantic interest, but never said anything out of fear of hurting her. It could be he did actually like her in that way, but we don’t have enough information to know for certain.
They met at the start of the Japanese school year, and this is Autumn, so I don’t think it was too fast. I have a few friends who got married within a similar time frame. Though I do think Narumi’s proposal was in the heat of the moment. Not sure he would’ve done it he still had his glasses.
Completely agree with Pancakes on Akane. Considering her experience, she probably saw this as a once in a lifetime opportunity. I’d say she accepted the proposal because of that. He’s not the first to propose to her, but he’s probably the first one that’ll let her go on with her “hobby”. Something I think few of us will let her do.
My personal favourite this episode:
https://randomc.net/image/Kuzu%20no%20Honkai/Kuzu%20no%20Honkai%20-%2011%20-%2025.jpg
They remembered what happened last night.
And the scene after that where Akane says she’ll cheat on him. XD
For me the rushing aspect is more that Akane’s revelations and Narumi’s proposal happened within ~15 minutes. Normally I’d expect that break to be drawn out more. All I really expected this week was for Narumi to confirm his desire to propose, not actually do it lol.
As mentioned above though, I can largely chalk it up to personal preference and both characters just going with impulsive decisions.
Damn, I know that feeling Mugi is feeling all too well.
You know you will lose the bet, but cling on to that fake glimmer of hope that you perceived yourself. Even he himself said it, he knows this first date will be the last date as well.
And all the time you have been trying so hard to change that person from a slut into a decent girl, then you realized you finally succeeded. Only that the change was for the benefit of someone else. Ultimate cuck? Real masochist there of Mugi to shout out that he will still remember Akane.
This show is just full of guys with a bad taste in women…
Seriously, for the past 11 episodes ago i have never been soooo proud and happy for any of KnH characters, let alone Akane; but guess what? I am now satisfied.
/Missing text/
So satisfied that my heart gonna explode. And this could be the best thing that ever happen throughout the whole series. The slutty narcist has finally found her peace and actually becomes nicer and finally, more matured. God i am soooooo beyond happy and plus i even feel at shock! right now feeling such kind of feeling towards this woman!
God i am so relieved! So relieved that it wasnt that scumbag douchebag Mugi whos all so “chilvary” thinking hes the only deserving manwhore— i mean, “hero” who thought he can actually “change” this narcist! Pfft! One thing for sure boyd, you are no one and fake people cannot change fake people. Thats one thing for sure. No matter how “authentic” or “genuine” or “bona fide” or “sincere” or “honest” or “real” or “earnest” or “truly” or “very” you thought you are into such facade, in the end of the day, fake is just fake. Theres no changing. And you know what is real? Your “fakeness”. Thats what.
Good riddance Akane’s arc is finally over. Now one last episode next week. God please dont let that asshole winning over Hanabi in the end of the day. Please dont. That shit aint deserve no one. Hes so fake that i wanna puke my afternoon bogok just thinking about it. No matter how i loved to see Mugi and Hanabi together, that gigo can just go and bang some hooker out there. I aint care shit
Although the rational person may criticise both Narumi and Mugi for being controlled by instinct rather than reason, I find myself empathising with them to a certain degree. Love is an irrational, uncontrollable force that can utterly consume and utterly destroy. Irrational in the sense that it does not require a reason, and uncontrollable in the sense that most times you cannot choose who you fall in love with. Many of us are blessed with the fortune of falling in love with the right person, that we fail to consider a hypothetical scenario where it occurs with the wrong person.
Right and wrong are difficult to quantify, but within this context wrong pretty much refers to a person who will do you a lot more harm than good – possibly to the extent of destroying who you fundamentally are.
Mugi’s attempt to gain absolute possession of Akane shows a jealous kind of love, that you could argue is primitive on top of being conditional. He was simply too young and naive. Narumi’s love for her was such, that he was fine with the lack of compromise between his feelings and her tendencies by endorsing her infidelity. As twisted as Narumi’s love seems, I would consider it to be unconditional. He did not try to fix Akane and was willing to live with her as she was, accepting everything about her while Mugi was not ready to do this.
Finally, to address Pancakes’ point on Mugi and Hanabi reconciling and pairing off, they’ve been hurt by each other far too much for anything healthy to properly develop, Hanabi moreso than Mugi. From my perspective, they potentially were the right people for each other but met at the wrong time in a tumultuous period of their lives that doomed any prospective relationship between them into ruin.
It very well could be that the timing of their meeting and relationship doomed it. I don’t think both will suddenly decide to stop seeing each other once Mugi returns, but I can see both amicably deciding to break it off after realizing a true relationship isn’t what they had envisioned. Way too many unknowns to know for certain, just going to have to wait until next week to find out.