Sometimes it seems that everyone’s favorite high school romance has more in common with American politics than the date of the week where important stuff happens (this being the usual time for the fansub release).

The fight is intensifying on both sides, in this case over the hearts of Kouichi and Kazuki, the male leads, with two vastly different situations shaping up as we come into the closing quarter of the show.

Kazuki represents the Republican party, a battlefield that looked to be intensely fought over in the beginning, but now is just one that’s quickly becoming sparsely populated. Technically there are still multiple candidates left in the field but it would have to take some serious deluding at this point to believe in any other than the one that’s in the lead - with one of the main contenders seemingly dropping out and endorsing a rival, it seems almost a done deal.

Kouichi and the Democratic party has the tougher choice, a straight-up dogfight between two evenly-matched characters that may be similar in viewpoints but worlds apart in appeal. The innocent schoolgirl romantic seems to be the more charismatic of the two as the childhood friend has made a few missteps on the campaign trail but arguably up until recently it was a relative dead heat. Now, however, the pendulum of momentum is really beginning to swing and there’s one that ends up squarely in the lead, barring an unexpected surge.

So, who’s going to take the win? Eriko or Asuka? Mao or Yuumi? Will Kai, the underground favorite, play a role in stealing away hearts? Can the third-party nominations of Hiiragi and Mitsuki do anything other than get laughed at again? All this and more spoilerific commentary after the jump.

(Note: I’m really bad at politics.)

Pre-jump obscurity aside the end results seem all too apparent for me, and to be fair I would have to side with a lot of the fans out there and disagree entirely with the outcome. Mao and Eriko seem locks after the happenings of the previous episodes, something that worries a die-hard Yuumi supporter and won-over Asuka convert like me.

So, why Mao? Mao vs. Yuumi is probably the more interesting duel of the two at this point in the show, if only because Yuumi actually has a faint chance standing up to Mao due to her ‘first love’ pedigree. This is what interests me about Kouichi’s story in an objective, analytical, fourth-wall-smashing way in that both Mao and Yuumi show signs of the character traits needed to win in a harem dogfight.

Yuumi’s got the advantage of the ‘first strike’ on Kouichi, and a on-screen lip-lock, something that most shows take very seriously, lest they want to sit next to KimiNozo and School Days on the drama train. The all-encompassing ‘first love’ is an equally powerful weapon on her side, although it’s not absolute. Still, it’s pretty well shown that she and Kouichi have spent too many happy moments together, learned too much from each other, been there too much for each other to break up now.

Except for one big strike against her, and that’s the talk of her moving away. Long-distance love has worked before, in the case of Tokimeki Memorial, but here it just seems like a clever way to remove her from the story. Based on recent developments too, it seems her dependence on Kouichi in such a situation would be lessened, with the promise of Mitsuki (who is suddenly important, in a way) and the Udon Girls to keep in touch with her. There’s a feel of ‘gently letting her down’ here, which is really the only way they could detach Yuumi from Kouichi, since she’s become too endearing to have her character smashed to pieces by an “Oh, I like Mao now.”

Speaking of the devil, Mao started the race for Kouichi extremely late; all her fooling around with Kai led many to believe she truly didn’t have romantic feelings for Kouichi after all, but, as shown, her childhood-friend nature shone through, and now she’s left in a precarious situation. She’s done quite possibly everything she could wrong in this show, from stringing along the wrong guy’s heart, to recoiling in fear instead of going on the attack, and not to mention, completely flubbing her confession in episode 18. Yet, somehow, she ends up in front.

I’d like to blame it on the ‘childhood friend’ trait and end it as that but arguably Mao has merit as a lover for Kouichi, beneath all the crashing and burning she’s been doing recently. The two of them have shown an ability to get along very well in the past, laughing and smiling together and being great friends, instead of awkward lovers. This is the pivotal contrast between Yuumi and Mao for Kouichi, in that Yuumi has always been stamped with the ‘love-love’ label since day 1, and so he’s been approaching her differently, one might say, the wrong way.

As Eriko concluded in the 19th episode as well, love can’t really be forced, and while Kouichi and Yuumi aren’t exactly trying to put square blocks into round holes, it’s clear that they’ve been treating their relationship as a romantic one first and foremost. Personally, I like this, I like all the sappy first loves of teenage romance, all the excitement of a first date, or the first time holding hands, or the first kiss, but in the real world it’s probably not best to focus on such a thing as the primary objective, as it’ll just lead to a lot of awkwardness, stumbling, and full body blushes.

‘Friends first’ is a good way to go, evolving love out of a more benign relationship, instead of jumping in head-first, and this is what can really make an ending between Mao and Kouichi work. They’ve been there for each other before, and it’s just a question of them putting aside the inherent awkwardness of the romance being between the two of them (instead of having Kai, or Yuumi involved) and really finding out how they truly feel.

Also, the whole ‘movie is about a pair of childhood lovers’ thing doesn’t exactly hurt Mao’s cause.

Eriko has pulled out the ‘childhood friend’ card at the end as well, something that should all but clinch her victory, although Kazuki and even Asuka herself are fighting for that cause. It turned out that Eriko had always sort of admired, or at least envied, the happy days of Kazuki, Kouichi, and Mao’s youth, and her experimenting with Kazuki may have been in part a subconscious - if not intentional - urge to discover that sort of happiness.

It looks like Kazuki is getting hammered down left and right here by Eriko’s rejections, first with her ending the experiments and then with her ignoring him, or spouting nonsense about how ‘it’s not going to work’, but these denials only serve to make Kazuki more interested in her, and I truly doubt that Eriko means what she says either. She’s visibly flustered (or what passes for it) numerous times with Kazuki, whether it be the hide-and-seek kiss, or the avoiding of eye contact after he confesses in ep. 19, and it seems that the greatest obstacle between making this relationship work is not Asuka, but the barrier that Eriko has put up in her own heart. It just seems to be a matter of wearing that down, with the ever-famous anime brand of “persistence gets the girl”.

Asuka probably isn’t as far down as I put her; she may have less of a chance on paper, but subjectively she’s a fan favorite and much more deserving of Kazuki (disregarding elements such as the merit of having a weak-minded boyfriend such as him). She’s stuck in the same situation as Yuumi, having perhaps stronger feelings, realized ‘first’, but ultimately looking to get trumped by a ‘childhood friend’ card; the two of them only know their loves from high school, although in Asuka’s case, unlike Yuumi, that’s more than enough.

Asuka is really a lot like Mao, minus the flirting and the childhood friend bonus. Both of them are really friendly with their guy counterpart, to the point where they’re not really viewed as romantic interests at all. She seems to have just discovered how she really feels, to the point of sharing an awkward moment with Mao about kisses, but she still hasn’t taken any action yet, something that really damages her cause.

Kazuki is the type that needs to have things drilled through his head with a baseball bat, and Eriko’s blunt style of acting has all but won him over, while Asuka’s subtle hints and glances haven’t done anything to advance her status. She seems to be falling into that infamous ‘friend prison’ that guys the world over curse at, and the most she can really do is either a superficial confession, or, more likely, a relinquishing of position to Eriko.

To be fair, Asuka seems to be the type that would be happy as just friends with Kazuki, once she gets her romantic desires sorted out - it’s the old ‘if my beloved is happy’ gambit being put to work as she tries to get Eriko and Kazuki to make up (and, eventually, out) with each other, sacrificing herself for the good of others. This, however, only has the effect of riling up the fans more, since Asuka’s selflessness just increases the worth of her character. Her relationship with Kazuki might just end up being a character-building lesson, contributing to the theme of ‘too little, too late’ that seems to be prevailing throughout the show.

Yuumi is discovering too late that Mao’s in the game for Kouichi too; while Mao is discovering that fact too late herself. Eriko is realizing too late how far she’s come with Kazuki, who is too late in making a play for Eriko, while Asuka doesn’t find her true feelings for Kazuki until, yup, too late. Yet, why do Kazuki and Mao look to make away the winners here, while the others can only reflect on their defeat? Such is the question of life.

And Kai deserves a section of his own for the situation he’s gotten himself into. His paradox is the toughest one of all - he clearly has feelings for Mao but at this point it’s utterly impossible for him to do anything good with it; he knows of Mao’s feelings for Kouichi, and either he would be uncaring if he pursued her anyway, or Mao would be hypocritical if she dropped Kouichi to go for Kai again. He can only play the support role, shoved into even tighter of a corner than Asuka has. It’s not like he needs a chance to redeem his character, but it will remain to be seen if he can affect Mao somehow, and show how he’s learned to give up on people too, considering how hard he went after Mao at the start.

It’s virtually game over at this point, with all the pieces irrevocably in motion, and it’s just a matter of seeing if it all plays out the way that it looks. Mao and Eriko nearly have it locked but it’s not unheard of to see a crash on the final lap, and certainly Yuumi and Asuka could be worked to be just as worthy heroines and victors. I know I will stand behind them with everything I’ve got.

-CCY

Related KimiKiss Reading:
- Stripey supports Mao, go flame him has some viewpoints from the other side of things, the merit of the guy instead of the girl. Also, his commenters spawned some of my thoughts.
- Hinano went on a rant against pretty much all of the characters, and again, her commenters had some interesting discussion.
- Aroduc’s got a great episode summary, among other things.

(Now I’m split on whether Hiiragi deserves to hook up with Mitsuki or not; I still want some conclusion on her ‘arranged marriage’ thing, but Hiiragi’s ‘Film Club’ tirade was mind-grating.)

(More of these two, please.)

If you liked this post, try...

• May 17, 2008 -- Harem Personality Quiz: ask your blogger what harem anime is right for you!
• February 27, 2008 -- 20/20, Perfect Visions: KimiKiss
• February 14, 2008 -- Anime Diaries: In-character humor and romantic recommendations for Valentine’s Day
• February 7, 2008 -- Gyabo and Kiss! The evolution of shoujo romance?
• July 9, 2008 -- [Rapidfire] The Touhou Conspiracy, Part I: Analyze it slowly! Yukkuri

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