Suzuka - 19: Breakup

Title:	Suzuka
Episode:	19: Breakup
Synopsis
Yamato reports the rejection of his present to Hattori who tries to make him aware of two things: Honoka must have been angry about the shopping already but endured it with a smile, and she must consider Asahina as Yamato's ex-girlfriend even though they were never dating. Hattori calls Yamato self-centered and urges him to apologize to Honoka real soon - but Yamato wants his friend to shut up, as following his advices never worked out for him: From now on he will take care of his problems by himself. Later at the track&field club, Yamato decides to... apologize to Honoka. But to his bewilderment she refuses to even listen to his words [image1]! Asahina observes the scene - and begins to worry about her own responsibility for the problem. When Yamato returns home this evening she's already waiting at his door, asking whether Yamato and Honoka made up, and apologizes for shopping with him and thus causing their fight. With a smile Yamato takes the blame for asking her about the shopping on himself. Asahina now tries to cheer him up: If he continues to try to talk with Honoka, even via the phone, she will surely be happy - at least Asahina would feel that way. So Yamato tries to call Honoka on her cellphone - but what he doesn't know is that at the same time the girl has a long phone conversation with Nana about yesterday's events. Nana tries to calm Honoka down: "You know he's a baka but I don't think he had evil intentions." But Honoka is sure now that Yamato still likes Asahina. [image2] As Yamato can't get through to her he decides to walk to her house and talk to her directly. When Honoka opens the door Yamato wants her to accept the birthday present - which she rejects again without any explanation. Being still clueless Yamato insists on getting to know what's wrong with the present.. and finally Honoka spits it out: How could she accept a present that Yamato and Asahina chose happily together? Why didn't he ask anyone else? And she accuses him of just looking for an excuse to date Asahina on that day because he still likes this girl much more than herself [image3]. Yamato grows angry, and Honoka runs away... When Honoka has calmed down she suggests to break up their relation to prevent further fighting - and Yamato complies without hesitation. Now Honoka scolds Yamato: Why did he date her at all if she doesn't mean anything to him? But Yamato tells her about the moments when he really liked her - going to school together, her cooking for him, thinking about a present for her... finally Honoka asks whether she could still get the present which she will treasure as a memory of them falling in love for a short time. Yamato is almost stunned when Honoka gives him a farewell-kiss [image4]... and then she leaves. When Yamato returns home Miho asks him whether Honoka was happy about the present but barely gets an answer, nor does Yamato join them for dinner. Miho is very worried now: Has her onii-chan been dumped again? Her mother Ayano just tells her to leave him alone for a while. Yamato enters his room... only to find Yuuka and Megumi waiting for him with lots of booze. Yamato finally tells them he broke up with Honoka - and Yuuka ridicules him for that: Being neither handsome nor rich he would never get a girl like that again. [image5] But finally she tells him it might have been for the better to break up instead of dating the girl with the wrong attitude. That very moment Asahina happens to return home and cannot but overhear the conversation next door. Alarmed by the bad news she asks Yamato to talk - and as Yamato doesn't answer her questions she begins to blame herself for homewrecking their relation. Instinctively the boy replies it was him who broke up with Honoka - and he goes completely overboard, accusing Honoka of being bothersome and claiming to actually be relieved by the development... [image6]
Comments
(2005-11-15, Devil Doll:) The Honoka interlude is most likely over - and boy what a great way to end a relation, with a smile and a kiss! Kudos to Honoka-chan, and better luck next time. The whole relation arc was really exhausting for the audience, probably suffering together with the miko - so despite adoring her I think it really was for the best: Yamato didn't really connect to her, and he showed no effort to ever change that. Even if he didn't have Asahina in his heart the relation would never have been satisfying for Honoka - and it was very mature of her to understand that and put an end to it before both would get even more hurt. Honoka had been able to speak her mind about her feelings for Yamato but she couldn't speak her mind about things he did wrong, she didn't dare to criticize her idol. So she resorted to giving signals, like Asahina did before. And consequently Yamato began to show his inability to decode these signals, and his inability to show any real affection for Honoka. Yamato had once been able to get the message of one of these signals really late (during karaoke) but he failed at three crucial occasions later: When Honoka rejected his present he should have taken this as an alarm signal (instead of acting all cool in front of Asahina) and put the blame on himself even without knowing what he did wrong and go to Honoka, telling her: "Apparently I made a grave mistake, but I am too dumb to be aware of it. Please tell me what I did wrong so that I won't do it again" for the mere sake of re-establishing their communication. Instead he was angrily shouting at Honoka, blaming her for being cryptic and overly anxious - thus showing that he didn't care that much for the relationship (if he loved Honoka he should have accepted her the way she is). When Honoka stopped after the chase, yes - Yamato stood there as a living image of cluelessness. He could have hugged her; he could have promised her to be more considerate. But he didn't show any interest in the relation to continue, and consequently... ...Honoka suggested to break up. She didn't decide on it, she suggested it! Yamato could still have rejected the suggestion, asking her for a second chance, claiming that she would be worth these fights because he really likes her, and he would stop seeing Asahina and stuff! And Honoka might have given in even at this point, as she really likes this boy. The moment when she says "Baka!" sounds as if she was really disappointed that he complied to her suggestion. This was when Yamato let this final chance slip through his fingers; now Honoka had no more chance to keep the relation alive. The ending of episode 19 was one of the rare moments when Yamato found an ace in his sleeve and played it without thinking - probably the fifth occasion in this series (the sauna rescue, his confession at the date, his defending Asahina against Arima, and the hotaru bridge scene). Deep down in his guts he sensed danger for Asahina (who might really blame herself for homewrecking the Honoka-Yamato relation, and given the two years she grieved about her first love this might have really driven her away from a world she doesn't understand, back into the Kazuki), and to clear her from that suspicion he puts the blame of ending this relation on himself. Like always he gets carried away, talking way too much and thus royally annoying Asahina - but note Yamato's surprise! If he had expected anything from her it would be anger, like "I didn't expect anything better from you". But in fact Asahina did expect more from him! That's why she is so disappointed now. Inadvertantly she has shown Yamato (and us) her change of attitude about the boy. Did he really notice that? He was never good at getting hints - but his surprise leaves several possibilities open. Yamato's biggest blunder in this episode most likely was he argument with Hattori right at the start. Yamato doesn't have any sense of self-criticism and looks for others to blame for his mistakes instead, thus fundamentally lacking any base for improving. Hattori made exactly one serious mistake in this series (telling Yamato that Honoka's visit in his room would mean she wants sex with him) which backfired horribly and undermined his reputation, so that Yamato didn't follow his many other good advices (red roses!). =============================================================================

Clicking below will send you to a 404 page that we use as a honeypot to ban non-compliant robots.
Don't click here