Well, this just turned into a creepy game of “He said/She said.” I was a little puzzled when, after commenting on how Ryoko’s character seemed largely shaped by her getting dumped, some of you corrected me in the talkback by saying she’d actually been raped.
Turns out that possibility wasn’t actually introduced until this episode: although it has been left intentionally ambiguous as to whether it’s just a case of this metro dude getting too pushy or her simply trying to save face after a break-up. If it really is that gravest option, then this show’s mood seems to play the inverse of BROTHERHOOD’s by abruptly breaking up cheery antics with bits of grim, atonal seriousness.
Either way, even if the dude with the umbrella didn’t do anything, he still deserves to be fed into a wood chipper. I just don’t like the look of him.
Maybe I’m simply missing the allusions, again, but I found it amusing that the sitcom-like conceit of this episode adhered to fairy tale logic more closely than any previous episode. Ryoko gets a bop on her head and her personality reverts to what it was before she was such a bitch? That’s right there with a sorceress cursing a whole kingdom simply because she wasn’t invited to a baby shower.
Then again, thinking back to my Psych 101, if her “transition point” was brought about by an especially traumatic event (which the possible scenario above certainly would be,) you can see why she would establish a childish dissociative identity to cope. That sort of thing comes up a lot in cases of abuse…
…and, you know what? I think that’s a little too serious for even another session of reading too far into this show. Let's just leave it where it is.
Watch this episode, “Okami-san Goes on a Double Date with Jizou-san” below and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here. Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
I never considered "Ryoko was raped" as what happened. Considering they were in middle school I figured it was a kiss or some groping or something else along that line. I never felt this series was serious enough to take on a topic such as rape, even in assumption.
You didn't even get around to talking about the date, Tom, and that was half the episode (including the title).
I think many of the comments on the last episode jumped the gun by going to rape. Remember that all these characters are from fairy-tales and proverbs. Shiro is The Boy Who Cried Wolf. He's a liar. It's much more likely that he claimed something happened that didn't or molested her and lied that he didn't. Since this anime is based on light novels for girls. I doubt they went that dark.
This was my least favorite episode of the series. The idea Ryoko could fall in water and lose her memories to a specific point is silly. Well, more so than usual. I described this as being like a soap opera.
I don't think you can ever really read to much into anything...if it is there it is there if it is intentional or not. Honestly at times I wish you would delve deeper into the shows you cover (and you delve deeper than anyone else on the site and I use your stuff as examples for other writers at times....paging foxx fire art...why not talk explicitly about the Jungian philosophy in persona 4?) but I am an armchair philosopher and literature analyzer (if I could have made money doing it I would probably have gotten a PhD in English and philosophy the prince of nothing is ripe for analysis in these two fields...if I ever strike it rich I may still) so I am far from normal even for this site...
@zaldar:
For one, I don't like getting overly philosophical since it's not appropriate for all series. I did go into the subtext when Shadows of the characters appears. The comments just ended up spending more time yelling at Nick to tell him why he's wrong about something. I do analyze deeper in the article for the final episode of Persona 4, but Nick is busy with school and hasn't even had the chance to watch the episode.
You are correct on what happened in the comments but that was more discussion than yelling to my mind (except for the ones where he talked about the loli content but no need to go into that minefield again *takes foot slowly off live mine and walks away) and I thought it fit with this series. Glad to see the last episode hasn't been forgotten but I can understand not having time to do it especially if you are still in school this being exam time and all. I often wondered how people had the time to do this stuff and job and family and everything else.
I didn't like the final episode as much as I was hoping to and it didn't seem to leave to much for the "extra" episode except the Christmas stuff but ah well.
Yes to answer the teaser question of should he be beat.. Yes! Within a inch of his life.. then we switch to the metric system !