Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「君にふれて」 (Kimi ni Furete) by Riko Azuna
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「発熱／初恋申請」 (Hatsunetsu / Hatsukoi Shinsei)
“Heating Up / Application for First Love”
While it may only be week two of a single season adventure, Yagakimi is certainly on the right track. Lingering fears about a hatchet job pacing or reversion to the yuri mean (read: melodramatic fan service) have continued to be avoided, which when it comes to these types of stories is really good thing. Yeah sure problems may yet arise down the line, but right now I’m giddy with excitement at the things to come.
Probably one of the defining features of Yagakimi is its excellent treatment of the relationship between Yuu and Touko, and this was on full display this episode. Often (too often) yuri relationships are asymmetrical, one girl takes the initiative and all but forces herself on the other, who in turn loathes the attention (and various degrees of kissing), but always gives in for one reason or another. Or in other words a very toxic form of love we more or less give a free pass to because hey, pure love and all that jazz. In Yagakimi however, that same feeling takes a back seat. While Touko is clearly smitten with Yuu and engages in the same audacious behaviour as other yuri leads, there is a distinctive lack of sensuality, of the drive for even bolder displays of passion. Not like Touka doesn’t have those thoughts mind you, but actually indulging in them? Yeah that might prove problematic.
Now the reason for this breakoff from the usual shenanigans of course lies with Yuu and Touko and their experience, or rather lack of it. Unlike the usual scenario where one girl often knows what they’re doing (or at least has the moxie to pretend so), in Yagakimi neither of our main pairing knows exactly what to do. Yuu obviously is trying to figure out just why she doesn’t feel a damn thing in the first place, but Touko? She’s actually scared of pushing Yuu too hard and having her outright reject her. Compared to the likes of citrus this is very accurate teenage romance at play, because anyone who’s gone through that gauntlet and all the swirling emotions knows the fear of rejection. When a broken heart appears to be a life ending occurrence (and oh boy does that bring back memories), taking the illusion of happiness becomes a good choice, which is why in part Touko so eagerly proposed and accepted her one-sided love. Our student council stunner wants badly to hold onto the feeling she’s found and is going to do anything she can right now to avoid losing it.
It’s going to be a slow and methodical walk down the path to understanding love, but as Yagakimi will show, it’s one both Yuu and Touko will learn quite a bit from. Might run into the usual array of problems along the way (*looks at Sayaka*), but you can be sure this is one girls love story which won’t be obeying the usual script.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「hectopascal」by Yuu Koito (Yuuki Takada) and Touko Nanami (Minako Kotobuki)
Man, this animation is doing the story so right. I’m so happy because they got Yuu’s curiosity of ‘why does Touko still feel this acceptable’ right. It also means that Yuu’s feeling something about this and that small part of her is something she wants to know more about.
So glad this got an anime and that the team doing it seem to really get it. Love it.
The fact Yuu’s emotional state and confusion was nailed perfectly pleases me to no end. It would’ve been so easy to pass it off in favour of other more compelling aspects (read: kissing), but the focus on it shows the writers are determined to represent both sides which ensures the later arcs are going be accurately adapted. Oh yes I’m excited lol.
Actually, the situation with Sayaka seemed to be resolved relatively quickly. Sayaka being jealous that Touka chose Yu for the campaign rather than herself, but rather than having some huge misunderstanding that would take 1-2 episodes to resolve (somehow), Touka ACTUALLY TALKED TO SAYAKA about what was bothering her when she noticed Sayaka’s demeanor and managed to resolve the issue without any “bloodshed” between them or between Sayaka and Yu.
Definitely agreed on it being resolved quickly (not something you can say often about these kind of shows), but it would be premature to think the issue with Sayaka is done and dusted. The girl’s jealousy of Yuu isn’t going to disappear that quickly and I don’t even have to spoil anything to say it will be flaring back up before too long—this sort of thing is not something a single conversation can permanently pave over.
Is comparing anything gentle or innocent to Citrus relevant?
For innocence, consider Maria-sama ga Miteru; for every trope going, there’s Strawberry Panic!; there’s even Kashimashi for a touch of jealousy and gender confusion. Of course, I’m old, and we had more to choose from back in the day: Yamibou and Kannazuki no Miko added action, adventure, and even robots. And there are so many more.
Cliches and tropes are unavoidable. Are there characters we can invest in? Do we want to? Does the story hang together? Is it consistent? Logical? Is anything ever going to happen? If the answer to the last is no,
don’twatch Aoi Hana instead.Or, just switch off you’re brain, and enjoy something that’s sweet and innocent for a change.
For better or worse I think the citrus comparisons will remain for a while yet here. Citrus just represents the trends in modern yuri too well to ignore (not to mention I covered it and remember it well), making comparisons between it against Yagakimi work so well. Such stark differences can often highlight points easily lost by using a more thematically relevant example, which in this case can prove important because in many ways Yagakimi isn’t like other (modern) yuri.
Totally love this show. Eye shots are a great way to show emotions.
And…
https://randomc.net/image/Yagate%20Kimi%20ni%20Naru/Yagate%20Kimi%20ni%20Naru%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2027.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Yagate%20Kimi%20ni%20Naru/Yagate%20Kimi%20ni%20Naru%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2028.jpg
These scenes effectively show the rift between the main characters
Troyca is on a roll here, what can we say? 😛
I don’t know much about the director to put my full confidence that he will be able to do a great job adapting the manga to animation(speed-skimmed read the manga, but forgot cause of exams). However, Jukki Hanada is responsible for series composition and the script. So the person in-charge of the backbone of this show is a proven individual when it comes to coming of age stories… “cough, cough, Yorimoi, Hibike!, K-ON, Sola”.
https://randomc.net/image/Yagate%20Kimi%20ni%20Naru/Yagate%20Kimi%20ni%20Naru%20-%20ED2%20-%20Large%2001.jpg
I don’t why but the ending of this reminds me of the Toradora endings. The art or the beat perhaps?
https://randomc.net/image/Yagate%20Kimi%20ni%20Naru/Yagate%20Kimi%20ni%20Naru%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2025.jpg
These two… reminds me of Kumiko and Asuka.
For some reason I’m still not used to Yuu’s voice. I just didn’t imagine her to have such a cutesy innocent voice that’s usually reserved for the optimistically naive first year character who’s hopelessly in love with their senpai. I guess it’s to emphasize that she’s the younger one here or something but even her friends don’t sound so…childlike.
Who is Touka? Lol, seriously though, the biggest thing keeping me coming back to the show is Kotobuki Minako, she just kills as Touko. Less impressed with Yuu’s VO, I imagined her voice more like Koyomi’s (girl who doesn’t like cute things) but still enjoying. The OP and ED are… interesting? Not quite what I expected (what are those creepy masks?? Doesn’t the ending seem too upbeat?) Still loving the animation gimmicks, that kiss scene with the train was really well executed imo.
I tend to agree that the citrus comparisons are… not helpful. The “modern yuri” genre is too wide to pretend that citrus is representational of all of it. I will say that YagaKimi is somewhat like citrus and others in that it depicts a relationship that is not always “healthy.” The difference is that YagaKimi actually grapples with that question of “how do you have a healthy relationship?” I only read the first 10 or so chapters of citrus (before I stopped for my own mental health), so I’m not an expert, but the narrative doesn’t seem to have any self-awareness of just how fucked up that relationship is. Comparing to something like Aoi Hana or even Sasameki Koto is way more compelling imo.
Haha wow and I thought I was decent at editing, thanks for catching that mistake!
As for the citrus comparisons I commented on it a bit above, but as mentioned it’s mostly down to the stark difference between the shows (making Yagakimi stand out more) and the fact I remember the show well from covering it. I haven’t seen either Aoi Hana or Sasameki Koto in a long time so I’m hesitant to bring them up right now. They’re definitely on my immediate rewatch list though, I think having a similar series in tone and feel would make for some good discussion when we get into the later arcs.