Tag: all ages
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata – 06
An ongoing theme in Tomoya and Utaha's friendship has been mutual inspiration. In their first encounter (they're classmates, but hadn't interacted before) Tomoya expresses how much Utaha's work inspires him the moment he steps up to her table at her book signing. His remarks leave an instant and lasting impression. Fast forward to that "fateful" snowy day when Tomoya declines to read her latest manuscript.
Utaha, you see, never come out and told Tomoya inspires her as he did with her. Offering him the manuscript is her way of showing it. But he rejects that approach, and even though it's for perfectly understandable reasons—he's a fan, and doesn't want to influence her creative process any more than he wants a sneak peak at an unfinished work—it still feels to Utaha that he's rejecting her, which wounds her deeply.
Utaha had never quite forgiven him for that…until this week, which is another showcase of Saekano's knack for placing its characters in relatively confined, intimate places. Even Tomoya's date with Kato at the mall felt like it, since the crush of people made them have to stick that much closer together, and the mutual fun they were having made that crush blur and fade into the background, until it was just them.
The confined space here is more concrete: a hotel room, where Utaha was going to spend the night, but invites Tomoya in when he drenches himself in the rain in the act of what she deemed as chasing after her. It's an assertion he can't and won't deny, though he wasn't expecting to end up on a bed with Utaha, both of them in bathrobes and nothing underneath. The optics are a constant source of nervous titillation, but I frankly like how it puts the two on the spot.
Bathrobes concealing nakedness and nervous joking aside, Tomoya cut his date with Kato short because he now knows what doesn't sit right with him about her first scenario draft. He didn't like how they left things in the club room, but at the same time, were it not for his date with Kato, he wouldn't have been able to express his reservations anyway, which ironically reflect the positions Kato and Utaha occupy with regards to Tomoya's life.
Utaha's plot is much like her plot with Tomoya thus far: seemingly bound by fate, or from a past life; something sprawling and dramatic and epic, like spending the night in a hotel room (but this is all-ages, so…) And Tomoya likes that, but he's found he also likes what Kato brings to the table: a steadfast decency wrapped in utter normality; the beauty of the mundane; the way a flat character can draw a reader when suddenly big suddenly happens. Kato isn't bland; she's universally relatable.
God, the timing, framing, and sound effects of this little sequence were so deliciously awesome. Utaha types away in this new direction, but she's clearly upset by it; it's as if the romantic ideal she represents has been suddenly usurped by Kato. Reality and the fiction being discussed and created is inextricably linked in this show. But she and Tomoya do work all night, and the fact that she was able to summon this much passion and belt out something both of them can be proud of is a testament to the mutual inspiration I mentioned earlier.
When Utaha gets dressed and prepares to set out for her busy day, she doesn't hesitate to make a joke about post-evening afterglow, not to mention the fact she wickedly took a picture of her in bed with Tomoya while he was asleep and made it his background.
But while there wasn't any of that kind of action last night, it was still a night Utaha will cherish, because it showed her, just as it showed us, that Tomoya is not only her muse, but has the makings of a great creator in his own right. She leaves that hotel room feeling a lot better about the two of them, but not just because of the progress they made with the plot, but in the battle for Tomoya himself.
Rewinding to yesterday, Eriri "bumps into" Kato at the mall and sketches her, which is clearly her way of commiserating over the fact that Utaha is off somewhere with her Tomoya. Misery loves company, so it gives her great solace to see that when properly stimulated, she's able to pull back Kato's stoic mask just that little bit. Like Utaha's "coup" this week, this not only makes Eriri optimistic about developing a good heroine from Kato, but also that she's still in the running for Tomoya. Kato is adorable, but she's not invincible.
Author sesameacrylicPosted on Thu, 19 Feb 2015 Tue, 29 Dec 2015 Categories Anime Reviews, RABUJOI World Heritage List, Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata, Winter 2015Tags aki tomoya, all ages, all-nighter, ayanami rei, bathrobes, book-signing, creator, date, dating sim, doujin circle, Eriri Spencer Sawamura, girlfriend, glasses, harem, heroine, hotel room, How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, inspiration, jealousy, kasumigaoka utaha, kato, Kato Megumi, mall, mr ethical, normals, otaku, rejection, saekano, schedule, shopping, 冴えない彼女の育てかた1 Comment on Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata – 06