Dear Internet,
I said
yesterday that I am a sucker for a good alien flick. I say today that I am a sucker for a good
romance. Combining the two can make me a
little overexcited. A problem with the
latter arises since there seem to be very little good romance stories. I occasionally get one or two recommended to
me, but they are usually very bad, relying on the audience to fill in lots of
holes in the emotional blanks since the story cannot seem to make the
characters or the premise very engaging.
I think I confused myself with that last remark. What I mean is that romance stories, especially
movies, often get to the point where the romance is portrayed as being shallow
with the bulk of the relationship between the two parties as being nothing more
than infatuation. Boy meets girl, or vice-a-versa,
and the two are explicitly told to the audience as "being deeply in
love" despite all they do in the story is kiss a few times and have a
montage of activities together. There is
no showing of the resolve that the person has for the other in overcoming
obstacles or proving that the feelings are deeply rooted like a tree rather the
shallow ones of a beautiful tropical flower.
There is often too much lovey-dovey and not enough quiet sustaining love
that creates a bond that can last until death.
The most notable offender would have to be "The Notebook,"
which not only does all these but absolves the entire cast of all crimes
against one another as if they were five year olds destroying bucket made
sandcastles. I am digressing, again, but the point I am trying to make is that
romance stories often rely on the audience to create more emotional drama that
the story is able to convey or create by itself.
"Waiting
in the Summer" is an animated television show that follows a group of six
high school students. Well, it is more
like five considering the newest transfer is a female alien from outer space
who crashed landed on Earth. Ignoring
the absent reason for her deciding to enter the local Japanese educational
system, the story revolves around the cast deciding and making a film over the
summer break. Over the course of the
break, a love polygon appears to exist.
Mio has a crush on Tetsuo, who has a crush on Kanna, who has a crush on
Kaito, who loves Ichika, the alien who loves him back. It is almost a straight line rather than a
polygon, but who am I to argue semantics.
Little by little, these emotions unfold before the audience. Each character learns of another's emotions
and responds. The central relationship
would have to be between Kaito and Ichika with the emphasis being on them
embracing their feelings for each other.
The
show is primarily character driven.
There is a plot snuck in there which keeps things moving, primarily
being the film that the group is making and eventually the fact that Ichika is
an alien. The last time that I covered a
character driven item on the Backlog was ".hack//Sign," a show that
could spend ten episodes going nowhere in either plot development or emotional
growth in the characters. "Waiting
in the Summer" remembers something that ".hack//Sign" clearly
forgot about. It remembers to treat its characters
as if they were real people with all the complexities, desires, dreams, and
needs that come with being alive. ".hack//Sign"
had characters who were so apathetic to everything around them that it bored me
to tears. "Waiting in the
Summer" has characters who not only clearly desire to be with one another
but also sympathize and emphasize with one another. On top of that is the show's ability to make
the audience have emotional connections with the characters.
What I
said earlier about romance stories relying heavily on assuming that the
audience is going to create emotional bonds with the characters with minimal
effort is true in many cases. Here, the
show makes sure to illustrate how each character interacts with one another
until the audience fully understands them and the group dynamics. The show does not want to leave anything open
ended when it comes to how the characters think of one another. This does not mean that the show will beat
what it is trying to say over your head.
No, it does the complete opposite by gently stating facts through subtle
means. It can be something as simple as
how one character looks at the other. If
one looks closely enough, the love polygon can be seen in the first episode or
two before it is outright stated which character has fallen for which one. All of this adds up to a connection between
the audience and characters. Why? It is
because that by knowing the characters throughout, we can understand them and
bond with them. When we see them
struggle with their feelings, we understand that their pain is not simple
because we know all the intricacies that cause it.
This
pain of the characters is perhaps the driving force behind the story. Sadly, with an odd number of girls to boys it
instantly should dawn upon the viewer that not everyone in the show is going to
get the fairy book ending. With there
being a central relationship, it should also dawn who are guaranteed who will
wind up together. The show is a rollercoaster ride of confessions,
rejections, misunderstandings, and realizations. Perhaps one of the most insightful views into
the thinking of love-stricken teens occurs early in the show. Kaito has imaginative sequences that are
similar to the festering daydreams that stem from an over-active imagination
where one imagines the various actions and words that someone else is most
likely not even thinking about yet alone saying. Even Ichika suffers from these sequences,
wondering about what Kaito is going to do about a situation that he does not
even know about. These hyper-active thoughts
would often cause me to remember the excessive self made stress that I would
create for myself many years ago. It
goes to show just how insightful it is when dealing with realistic
relationships.
Another
driving force behind the show is the concept of love. That seems rather silly considering the show
is supposed to be a romance. It somewhat
goes back to the flaws of other romantic stories that makes me say this. Like I said, romance stories have a tendency
to portray the relationships as being deep and filled with love despite only
being shallow affectionate puppy love.
"Waiting in the Summer" does one of the best jobs I have seen
in portraying truly deep selfless love in a romantic sense. The characters that have a crush on another character
love that person to the point of wishing for their happiness at the expense of their
own. For example, Tetsuro encourages
Kanna to go after Kaito despite knowing that if she were to succeed, he would
be unable to go out with Kanna. At the
same time he encourages Kaito to go after Ichika despite knowing that Kanna is
after Kaito. The show makes sure to
question his motives when he does this.
If he is making Kanna chase a dream that is unattainable for her and
setting her up for defeat, it would be reasonable to infer that he is making a
move to make her vulnerable to his own actions.
However, that is not what he is after.
Tetsuro loves Kanna to the point of wishing for her happiness, even if
it means that he is not the one to make her happy. At the same time, he wants the best for his
friend, Kaito. Tetsuro knows that supporting
his friends means the abandonment off his own feelings. This is what love is: wanting the best for
that person no matter what and trying to obtain it for them.
I remember
talking about "The Quiet Man" back in "The Lost World"
entry. I said that the hero needs to
make some action to prove his love for the heroine. "Waiting in the Summer" does this
in strides, small ones but strides none the less. Kaito faces possible death when facing the
mechanized threat that appears later in the show. He knows nothing about the situation but acts
to save Ichika. That is of course the loudest
of his proofs of love and easily citable.
There is also his quiet front that he uses when Ichika serves him food
like the off-screen but mentioned chocolate curry. It takes a lot of love to stomach bad food. I cannot remember what show it was, but I
recall a similar scene where the hero was presented with a cooked concoction
that could empty a stomach by looking at it.
He commentated to the girl that the dish that it was horrible and tasted
beyond words, but he ate the whole thing, swallowing mouthful after
mouthful. He, like Kaito here,
recognized the hard work that went into the action of making the meal and that it
was a first step to better meals ahead.
In
"Waiting in the Summer" the theme of film and movies cannot be
escaped. The whole premise includes the
fact that the group is making a film for their own enjoyment. They wish to make memories and capture them
so that they do not forget. The story of
the film that they make is practically the plot of the show itself, mirroring
it to the point that the film they make helps illustrate some points that the
show is trying to make. Everything that
happens in their film circles back to the show the audience is watching. "Waiting" is wonderfully self aware
of itself. It realizes that the
"love polygon" set-up has been done dozens of time before and knows
how to avoid the traps that the other shows and movies fell into. Most of these traps are avoided thanks to the
character named Remon, who has no romantic feelings for anyone. Many times throughout the show, when the plot
could possibly stagnate or downright bust down, Remon does something to spur it
onward. She is so aware of everything
that is occurring that she is almost a self insert for the director or
writer. I do not mean that Remon is
supposed to be one of the creators of the show in the body of a 17 year old
girl. What I mean is that she is
constantly pushing the plot forward, allowing the various characters to enact
upon their feelings, or preventing things from slowing down. If she is supposed to be the embodiment of
the directorial spirit or even the viewer, it would fall into line as to why
she takes the reins so often to spur the characters or story. Concerning the final two episodes, it can
easily be said that if it were not for Remon, the ending of the show would be
quite different.
"Waiting
in the Summer" is one of those shows that does just about everything
right. The premise is fun with just the
right amount of outlandishness. The
characters are realistic and completely fleshed out. The story progresses at a good pace, never
stalling or stuttering. This might be
because the show, unlike numerous other anime, is not based on anything else. It does not have to keep a source material in
mind, which is something that I harp on about as sometimes being a major
detriment. "Waiting" is not
trying to stretch out a story hoping for a second season. It is a self enclosed, magically enthralling
tale of love. I would say that other romance
stories should take note of what "Waiting" is able to accomplish, but
that would most likely lead to further degradation of the romance genre.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
P.S. Tomorrow is "Pyongyang Nalpharam" (2006).
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