Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun Episode 7 Discussion

rishardew said:
Natsume best character or best character?

edl01 said:
I didn't think I'd be saying this but I seriously want Haru to just dump Shizuku and get with the class rep. Think of it, Oshino is much kinder to him and likes him for who he he, she doesn't hide her emotions from him and doesn't become a complete jealous bitch over the fact she isn't number 1 at exam results snd start rejecting him with no regard to how he feels. Seriously right now I want nothng more for them to get into a relationship, reject Shizuku and the moral of the story can be: Don't be a bitch, bitch.

Lelouch22 said:

The obstinate, contrasting emotions that Shizuku is struggling with seem relatively insubstantial, so there's a lack of necessary weight and believability to her difficulties, thus creating a largely unconvincing, yet predictable, scenario, in which prior development within the relationship is temporarily forgotten and partially erased, much to the immediate detriment of the story. My favorite scene by far was the ending, since Haru and Shizuku finally had a relatively beautiful moment together, which was missing from the rest of the episode. That particular moment fully portrayed how significantly beneficial their relationship is to the story.

The intermittent infusion of flashes to Haru's past with his aunt were great, as they created another layer of depth to his character, while providing a nice parallel to his current troubles. Haru is really easy to sympathize with, now that Shizuku has temporarily become so unreasonable and stubborn. I consistently love how well the show manages to capture the inherent awkwardness and socially bizarre nature of his eccentric personality. Shizuku's still one of the best characters and exceptionally likable, but, though somewhat understandable, her naive, thoughtless decisions regarding her relationship with a Haru that she clearly has deep, romantic feelings for appears quite childish and, at times, more then a bit contrived. Thankfully, despite the self-inflicted, awkward distance between Haru and Shizuku, their interactions remain wonderfully fantastic, due mostly to their immense chemistry.
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I have more hope in this show, seeing all the effort they put in. I'm betting on it to avoid those usual paths that other romance comedies take and instead carve their own. Also, while Haru's past was great, I'll have to agree that the mass can not relate to Shizuku's emotionless 'love' of studying. However, they can only cover so much in less than half an hour and I think this episode was crafted in a way to make us feel empathy for Haru, mainly because his physical advances (as most viewers said) seemed rather bizarre. If they had focused solely on Shizuku while allowing Haru to do the same actions he did this episode, it could have possibly made him annoying and seem as if he just can't and refuses to understand.

I also believe the next episode will focus more on Shizuku and perhaps adding a bit more depth in her and Natsume's character, hopefully. I feel a nice gal talk coming up between the two and that'd be an creative route not often traveled upon in romantic comedies (as far as I know).

Also, yes, Yamaken is annoying, even more than Oshima! But I hope they'll make his character a bit more deep and on the 'gray' side than 'oh he's just a bad guy'. I believe he also has a deeper connection with Haru, although Haru may not have seen it that way. I'm guessing that like Shizuku, he used to be possibly frustrated by Haru's easy A's and athletic skill as well or something along those lines since he goes to the 'best school' as noted by Shizuku. He also looks as if he might belong to a rich family and failed their expectations. As for Oshima, her reactions are rather realistic but too sincere in my opinion. I hope they assign her a conclusive action already, whether it be for her to become jealous of Shizuku or confess already (I prefer the latter, since it makes more sense anyways)

Btw, thank you for your insightful opinion, it was a satisfying read :)

ClementIV said:
So there is banana juice in Japan?

Well at least they are moving forward with the "relationship". Haru sure doesn't think, why would he try to lick her again? That was the funniest part.

I was more surprised that the other four guys where from a private school and that Kenji is the intelligent type.

shanimebib said:


Coming back to the anime, I wonder who that mysterious aunt character was and who was the blond older guy beating Haru.

5/5

Spirai said:


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My guess is that the blond guy was his uncle and the woman in the episode introduced herself to Haru as his aunt.

Karupo said:


I'm pretty sure Haru called the blonde guy Mitsuyoshi, so I think it's Micchan but with blonde hair.

)

QuiGonJon said:
Ehhhh..... this whole back and forth "i love him"/"No I don't" thing is getting kind of old :/

JennyEsquire said:
Banana juice seems pretty disgusting.

Lelouch22 said:
Although it was quite good and mostly enjoyable, this was probably the weakest episode of the series, since the elevated drama isn't working as well as it did in episodes past. Combine that with a slight decline in the comedy, and it's inevitable that this episode would be a bit worse than the others. The most noticeable flaw in this episode was that the interactions between Haru and Shizuku, the best element of the show, were disappointingly diminished, in favor of an unsatisfying, unenjoyable heightening of Oshima's interactions with Haru and Yamaken's utterly terrible interactions with Shizuku.

The obstinate, contrasting emotions that Shizuku is struggling with seem relatively insubstantial, so there's a lack of necessary weight and believability to her difficulties, thus creating a largely unconvincing, yet predictable, scenario, in which prior development within the relationship is temporarily forgotten and partially erased, much to the immediate detriment of the story. My favorite scene by far was the ending, since Haru and Shizuku finally had a relatively beautiful moment together, which was missing from the rest of the episode. That particular moment fully portrayed how significantly beneficial their relationship is to the story.

The intermittent infusion of flashes to Haru's past with his aunt were great, as they created another layer of depth to his character, while providing a nice parallel to his current troubles. Haru is really easy to sympathize with, now that Shizuku has temporarily become so unreasonable and stubborn. I consistently love how well the show manages to capture the inherent awkwardness and socially bizarre nature of his eccentric personality. Shizuku's still one of the best characters and exceptionally likable, but, though somewhat understandable, her naive, thoughtless decisions regarding her relationship with a Haru that she clearly has deep, romantic feelings for appears quite childish and, at times, more then a bit contrived. Thankfully, despite the self-inflicted, awkward distance between Haru and Shizuku, their interactions remain wonderfully fantastic, due mostly to their immense chemistry.

Natsume and her superb humor really carries the show whenever it slips into a rare mediocrity. As such, the constancy of the excellently effective lighthearted tone is largely due to her random, but often insightful appearances, especially throughout the last two episodes, since Haru and Shizuku's relationship has become needlessly complicated. She's gradually becoming my favorite character, even elevating past Haru and Shizuku, which is quite unexpected. Though I did like her helpful advice to Haru, this episode essentially solidified Oshima as my least favorite character, aside from Yamaken, who's infinitely worse. Though somewhat likable, she's not nearly as engaging or interesting as the other characters, and her interactions with Haru, for the most part, aren't that enjoyable, due mostly to the hindrance placed around her development, since she's artificially forced into this awful "love triangle". All of this causes her to effectively feel like a supremely secondary and considerably unimportant character.

Yamaken, in his brief appearances, continues to be the only unlikable character, so the show's definitely at it's best when he's not involved. Unfortunately, it seems abundantly clear that he'll be an eventual "rival", constantly manipulating and aggressively interfering, which will certainly be far more insufferable and aggravating than his momentary scenes with Shizuku already are. I was unfortunately correct in my assumption that he would conveniently appear as soon as Haru and Shizuku have distanced themselves from one another, which, for this show's typical excellence, is far too predictable. Of course, every romantic comedy, for whatever reason, needs a ridiculously contrived triangle to "spice" things up, but I'd rather this show didn't fall into those genre-specific cliches.

The solid production values continue to be one of the best, most consistent elements within each episode. The visuals complement the atmosphere wonderfully, creating a brightly colorful aesthetic that assists in illuminating the true nature of the show. The animation was, as usual, really good throughout this episode, as it's able to illustrate the exaggerated movements and embellished humor exceptionally well.

All in all, even with a less impressive episode, Tonari is still one of the best shows of the season, as it excels with it's compelling characters, plethora of humorous moments, and the superbly engaging character interactions. I'm hoping that the story will return to it's best aspects though, most notably the relationship between Haru and Shizuku, since the absence of their mutual happiness slightly diminishes the quality of the show. As such, I'm really looking forward to the development of their relationship, since it should only improve from this point. I'd also like to think that more woefully bad triangles won't be added to the narrative, but it's practically a foregone conclusion that this show, for all it's greatness, won't avoid these conventional missteps.

Kyobotte said:

I saw this guys in Zetsuen no Tempest. Are they jobbing part-time in Tonari Kaibutsu?

HauntingShock said:


lol now where's that hairclip.

Hikarusuke said:
Why can't Shizuku accept the fact that she loves Haru. She is so denial about it.