©Janome/Kodansha/”Twilight Outfocus” Production Committee
There’s a reason they call it “the hard truth.” Yoshino seems to have avoided them for most of his life up to this point, most likely on purpose. His goal of finding a sexy boyfriend seems to have consumed so much of his life that he didn’t even realize he was talented and had something to offer besides his looks. I said last week that he was poisoned girl Romance, which has a lot to do with the way he historically interacts with the world: his value lies in his lovability, and his lovability is in the service of romance. The romantic lead is lovable, maybe a little awkward, so that’s what Yoshino strives to be. He’ll make his other skills serve his goals, but ultimately fails to realize that his abilities are a wall he’s built around himself. After all, if he’s focused on romance, he doesn’t have to think about anything else.
But he Do Think of other things, as this episode illustrates so well. That was important, though, until Kirito bumped into him. When a second-year student in the film department was preparing to shoot a music video, Kirito was eager to join the crew, but ultimately chose Yoshino. When Yoshino is shocked that his goth roommate has a specific goal he’s trying to achieve, he gives his place to Kirito, only to be attacked by another boy. On the surface he looks like he doesn’t want Yoshino’s pity, but in fact that’s not what he means: what he really cares about is Yoshinonot himself. He watched his roommate hold the club like a tissue, proving his talent, only to throw it away in pursuit of a boring goal. When Yoshino offers to make way for him, he’s just repeating the same thing. Kirito invited Yoshino to join the club because he thought he was good at it and was committed to it. This sentence was his call to Yoshino. Kirito points out that Yoshino isn’t just a cute face, he’s a complete person who has something to offer if he’s willing to dig his head out of the sand.
This may be the first time someone has said such a thing to Yoshino. He was, of course, devastated as this conversation stuck with him, making him rethink everything that had happened so far. This includes his relationship with Rei. Are they boyfriends? Or is Rei just cooperating with him for her own reasons? Yoshino wasn’t sure, it was an uncomfortable situation. At lunch, Rei comments that he should spend more time with his friends instead of his boyfriend, and Yoshino realizes that he sees his friends more than he sees Korea. Nothing went according to his fantasy plan. This was the cruelest truth.
This is also someone he has to work with since it doesn’t look like Rei is going to break up with him. There was a clear feeling this week that Rei wanted to take care of Yoshino without taking advantage of him, even if Yoshino was trying to be taken advantage of of. Ray’s considerations might suggest he’s not interested, but I don’t think that’s the case. He must know that everyone is calling him trash for his actions and maybe he is trying to do the right thing. He’s not that vocal about his feelings, so we’re left analyzing his behavior to try to figure it out. This puts us in the same position as Yoshino, which isn’t a bad storytelling technique. I would be more confident in my analysis if I could confirm that his blank expression was intentional and not the awkward canned expression of all the background characters in this episode.
grade:
Twilight out of focus Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
