Amagami SS Ep7: Chocolate Solves Everything

August 14, 2010

Amagami SS Ep7: Chocolate Solves Everything

If chocolate really solves everything then goddammit I must be doing it wrong.

At least for Kaoru it seemed to work.  I guess what’s even more surprising is the fact that Junichi even remembered just how she loves chocolate, especially the seasonal ones.  It says more about just how he knows and understands her more than anything, which really goes against both their assertions of being “bad friends”.  Bad friends wouldn’t be this understanding of each other.

They know what to say, when to say it, what to do and when to do them.  What could ultimately result from such a heterosexual relationship?  Wow that sounded so cliche.

It drives you mad.

As a direct result of what she saw last night, Kaoru doesn’t come to class.  Junichi finds this odd, knowing her to be a straight-arrow student, and is simply confused.  Being the teenager that he is, he ends up wondering if this is a direct result of his “actions”in the library.  Confused and distraught he decides to skip school and look for her after learning that she left home in a rage the previous night.

Is he overreacting?  Quite possibly, and he himself admits that he doesn’t understand why he’s so damn worried.  He says they’re bad friends after all so why is he so concerned that he’d skip school?

The answer?  To spare the obvious cheesyness of all this I’ll won’t state the obvious because, if you haven’t picked up on the not-so subtle hints then you haven’t watched enough anime, heck mainstream TV for that matter.

He's obviously not concetrating on playing pool.

As he searches the city, he passes by places that brings back memories in their friendship.  He almost instinctively goes through the places he thinks she could be, and at the same time he remembers the times they were together and how they really were “friends.”  These are the times that prove that they aren’t the bad friends they both claim to be.  Honestly would you take a bad friend shopping for clothes, playing pool with just the both of you and heck, buying chocolate?  To a certain extent maybe, but they are much closer than both give themselves credit for.  They’ve opened up to each other now and in the past much more than they previously realized.

Thus, seeing the way Junichi remembers their friendship helps the viewer delve into the possibilities of a friendship-turned-romance, as well as for him to put into perspective just how he really feels.  He is confused as he searches for her, but as he slowly reminisces through the places of their shared memories, he slowly begins to understand that perhaps, they were much closer than they thought.

And perhaps, why he finds her safety so much more important now than his own.

Stalker Fail.

Then there’s the tears and the chocolate.

Perhaps the episode tried to downplay Junichi’s giving her chocolate by having him act like a complete dork in wondering if he was cool.  Maybe for some viewers it would simply be Junichi being thoughtful of her and giving her something to cheer her up.  For others it may simply be friends consoling friends, but for me this isn’t.  For me, telling her it’s okay to cry and giving her chocolate is the proof that he deserves her, and she deserves him.

The mere fact that he could remember, out of everything the two of them have been through, that chocolate could be the one thing that would help put a smile on her face is much more than sympathetic understanding, but true empathy.  He cares for her enough to do more than what is required of him than as “just” a friend.  He could have simply listened to her sob story and given his advice, but he went the extra mile for her.  Chocolate may come of as a simple gesture, but in times like this, it could easily mean the world to people.

And crying?  As Junichi so aptly puts it, crying is okay when you need to, because crying isn’t a sign of weakness.  It’s a sign that you’re human.

It's one of the things that makes us human.

This for me is the best scene of her arc so far, as it is the sign that things have become mutual between the both of them.  Maybe Junichi hasn’t figured it out consciously yet, but he is becoming aware.  The entire city search for him was really a journey of self-awareness for him as he tries to figure out if there’s more to this friendship than meets the eye.  On that short talk behind the cafe, I think he already knew.  I think he knew that he loved her.

As cheesy as the character swapping of the bathtub scene is, I think it goes more to show the thought processes of both characters and how similar they really are.  In a way it might be a little late in the arc for both of them to finally have a mutual realization of their feelings, but hey, one of the biggest hurdles to these stories is the actual confirmation that they even have feelings for each other.  Now that they do, it should more or less follow from here.

Wait... how'd she get in the bathroom?

As slow as this episode might be, it still contains the big turning point in the arc.  Cheesy drama aside, which is really expected at this point after the Haruka arc, we finally get to see a more proactive approach from Junichi considering that it was Kaoru who was mostly in the least through the first two episodes.

Whether or not this will be enough of a strong footing for the inevitable conclusion next week, well, it remains to be seen.  From my point of view, I think it is.

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