Last Friends ep.03

April 25, 2008 | 25 Comments

This episode seems to be a lot more obvious about where it wants to go in terms of ending. There are a lot of narrations and dialogue which were designed to reveal the past as well as the final fate of each main characters. While I suspect it'll be dark through and through, I am mostly impressed with the characterizations that each actor has given to their character. As expected, Ruka and Michiru's stories continue to unravel in this episode but what surprised me is the development that they've given to Takeru. I have a theory about his past but I'm not sure if it's correct or not. At this point, I'm not sure if Eri will receive a specific character development but for now her character is mostly associated with Tomohiko. Either way, I hope the show can remain interesting for the remainder 8 episodes. Things move at a really fast pace now that I can't help but wonder if the writers still have a lot to tell. It looks like the story could easily be resolved in 6 or 7 episodes (instead of 11).

Continuing from the previous episode, this one begins with Takeru telling Ruka's dad that since Ruka is taking forever, he'll go and have a look. Takeru narrates about how if he thinks about it now, the whole thing felt foreboding. The first time he saw it was when Ruka was desperately trying to protect an important friend with that injured body of hers. At the same time, Takeru is shocked to see Ruka and Michiru being threatened by Sousuke, who's still holding a chair, looking ready to strike those two any second. When Takeru shakes him, Sousuke seems to come to his senses and drops the chair. Ruka then demands to know why Sousuke hit Michiru but Sousuke denies that he hit Michiru and he was just joking around. Unfortunately Michiru tells Ruka that what Sousuke did was harmless and of no importance. Because her father comes out to check on her, Ruka decides to pretend that nothing happened. After Ruka, Takeru, and Ruka's father go back to their room, Michiru tries to apologize by telling Sousuke that she was worried about Ruka's injury. Sousuke, however, orders her to stop associating herself with "that person".

A few days later, Ruka is released from the hospital so her father asks her to take good care of herself. This reminds Ruka of the time when she climbed a tree as a child, fell down, and broke her arm. Even though it took a month to heal, after she was healed, she still climbed up that tree again. Ruka, however, realizes that her father is not one of those people who say "stop it, that's dangerous". Even though he's worried about her, he would never stop her doing something that she wants to do. Later on at the share house, Ruka and Takeru tell Eri and Tomohiko about Michiru's DV (Domestic Violence) boyfriend. Tomohiko accidentally blurted out how he's kind of jealous (since he can't even scold his wife). He promptly gets death glares from both Eri and Ruka so he backtracks and tells them he can't possibly do something like that. Much to Ruka's surprise, Takeru says that such action is completely unacceptable because it'll leave permanent 'scar' in someone's life. He believes that violence disguised as love should not be allowed. When Takeru goes home, he finds out that he gets a parcel from Shirahata Yuuko. The same woman then calls him, asking if the package has arrived.

The woman tries to tell him that it's cookies that he liked when he was a kid but Takeru tells her to stop calling him since she's now happily married with a husband and kids. Crud, I hope this is just your run-of-the-mill bored housewive affair and not what I think it is (see impression). To calm himself, Takeru opens the box containing the mug that Ruka gave to him. He asks himself if one day he'll ever tell Ruka about the 'wound' that he bears with him since he was a kid. Yikes. My creepy theory is probably true after all. Meanwhile, Michiru becomes happy when she's praised by her customer and later, her manager. She is then visited by Ruka, who asks her out for lunch. Ruka uses the opportunity to ask her if the DV has happened before as well. Upon seeing Michiru's inability to answer her, Ruka assumes that she's right but Michiru tells her that when two people live together, they sometimes fight. Ruka is not convinced and reminds Michiru that Michiru's father often got drunk and hit her mother too. Michiru claims that Sousuke and her father are different and that Ruka knows nothing about Sousuke since she has only met Sousuke once. Ruka, however, tells her that once was enough.

In response, Michiru tells Ruka that she has never been loved by anyone. Not by her father, not by her mother. However, she feels loved and taken care of by Sousuke. Ruka, who's fed up with Michiru's justification of her boyfriend's DV, decides to leave the restaurant. Later on, Ruka tells herself that she should stop thinking and worrying about Michiru. After all, no matter what she does there's nothing she can do and Michiru would still say that she never feel loved. Upon seeing her gloomy expression, her manager decides to approach her so Ruka tells him that she was just thinking about how a guy and a girl race differently. The manager tells her that's to be expected since each gender's physical strength is different. Because of this, Ruka decides to train herself at the gym to make up for the physical differences. Unknown to her, however, Sousuke has been spying on her from outside her trailer. At work, Michiru is doing well until she spots Sousuke glaring at her from the street downstairs. Upon seeing Michiru spacing out, her bitchy co-worker decides to bump into her so she drops the hot hair dye onto the customer. That night after work, Michiru realizes that Sousuke is no longer waiting for her.

When she goes back to his apartment, however, Sousuke refuses to open the door for her, saying that this is her punishment for making him wait. After waiting for hours, Sousuke eventually opens the door. Once she gets in, Michiru notices that Sousuke has 3 cigarette burns on his arm. He tells her that it's what he did while waiting for her. Wow. So not only he's the king of creepsville, he's also a masochist. What's not to love about this guy? Anyway, because of this, Michiru asks her manager to cut down her work hours, which obviously is not impressing her manager, who likes it better when her employees slaving away like those sweatshop workers. That day, Michiru also finds out that her next client is a guy and becomes nervous because she remembers that she promised Sousuke never to cut the hair of a male client. After seeing that Sousuke is not outside, however, she decides to cut the guy's hair. That night during dinner, Sousuke asks her if she keeps her promise of not cutting a male customer's hair. Michiru foolishly asked him what if she cut a male customer's hair. She ends up getting her hair pulled by Sousuke before being shoved down to the floor again.

Michiru reminds Sousuke that cutting the hair of a male client is a part of her job but Sousuke asks her which one is more important him or her customers. Michiru eventually bursts into tears and tells Sousuke that it's obviously him so she wants to know why he doesn't understand this. Sousuke, who's not into rational thinking, shoves her back down on the floor and orders her not to do it again. Meanwhile, Takeru has a much better time when he moves to the shared house because his housemates decide to throw him a welcome party. Takeru is really touched by this and thanks his housemates over and over again. When they have to toast, he pulls out the cup that Ruka refused to take back. She's surprised that he still has it because she has bought a similar cup for herself. Upon seeing this, Tomohiko admits that he's jealous and suggest to Eri that they too should have matching cups. In response, Eri tells him that she can't hear him. LOL. When they give Takeru his house key, Tomohiko remembers that he didn't get a welcome party. Having said that, he's happy to be here because he's always lonely before. Takeru agrees that Tomohiko would be better off if he stays in the shared house.

After Karaoke, a concerned Ruka decides to get out to the balcony. Takeru decides to follow her and talk to her about Michiru and how she refuses Ruka's advice. Ruka tells Takeru that since Michiru asked to be left alone, there's nothing that she can do. Meanwhile, Michiru is trying to sleep when her cellphone starts to ring. As it turns out, Takeru tries to persuade Ruka to give Michiru a call but Ruka refuses to talk. Much to her surprise, Michiru calls her back because she wants to talk to Ruka. Because of this, she gets out of the house and waits for Ruka and Takeru. All three end up going all the way to pier so they can see a ferris wheel and the city from a far. Takeru decides to give the girls a chance to talk to each other so he pretends that the weather is cold and returns to the car. Ruka asks Michiru if things have been going okay with her and her boyfriend, if they never fight again. Michiru lies and nods along. Ruka admits that it's hard judging a person's life just by looking at it. After all, what constitutes happiness is different from one person to another. She gives herself as an example by saying that because she loves biking, even though she gets injured and hurt, she tries to bear it.

Anyway, Ruka figures even though there might be hard times, Michiru is probably happy with her boyfriend so she should say anything bad about it. Michiru cries upon hearing this and tells Ruka that she is rather useless but she hopes she can always be friends with Ruka. As she sneaks bad into her room, Michiru tells herself that there are two things that she treasures in her life: Ruka and Sousuke. Back then, she thought she'd always treasure both. The next day, Takeru already prepares coffee for his housemates. Much to his and Ruka's surprise, however, Tomohiko comes out of Eri's room. But the two claim that they couldn't remember what happened last night. Eri just remember feeling good after drinking last night and this morning, she woke up next to Tomohiko. Meanwhile, Sousuke tells Michiru to keep her promise before he left for work. Because of this, Michiru tells her manager that she can no longer cut the hair of a male customer. Her manager is furious and tells her that she may as well not cut any customer's hair. That night, while those in the shared house are having fun, Michiru sits down in the living room, looking at her graduation photos.

She quickly finds out that Ruka's photo has been crossed out with marker. When Sousuke comes out of the bedroom, she asks him why he crossed out Ruka's face like that. Sousuke replies that it's because Ruka is a woman who can't be near Michiru. He then reveals that he knew she went out with Ruka that night even though Michiru said she won't see Ruka again. In response, Michiru tells Sousuke that she doesn't understand why because Ruka is a woman. In response, Sousuke claims that Ruka is not a woman and looks at Michiru with the eyes of a man. Sousuke also believes that Ruka has set her sight on Michiru since a long time ago. Michiru snaps and tells Sousuke that she's not his slave. She has endured a lot for his sake but she won't allow him to say bad things about her Ruka. Sousuke looks pissed off upon hearing this and proceeds to lay his hands on her again. In the aftermath, a battered and bruised Michiru goes to the shared house, asking Ruka to help her. Takeru can then be heard saying that he knew that ever since then, Ruka has decided in her heart that she'll protect Michiru no matter what happens and even if she has to risk her own life.

Impression:

Michiru's background as a kid who grew up in an abusive household shed a little bit of light as to why she 'accepts' the kind of treatment that Sousuke dished out on her. If she's so used to see her mother being abused by her father, she'll get the impression that it's okay for a husband/a boyfriend to hit on their wife/girlfriend when they are angry. It also doesn't help that Michiru feels that she has never been loved by anyone except Sousuke. This explains why she still latches on to him even though he treats her badly. Because even though he beats her up, she also knows that he loves her. What she doesn't understand is that Sousuke's love is destructive. He's possessive and would not let her to be with anyone else but himself. Michiru, who's never been loved since she was young, is understandably unaware that if a person loves someone, then he/she must be willing to let go that person from time to time. Anyway, what I'm about to say is kind of spoilery so feel free to jump to the next paragraph if you don't want to know, but according to the chart at the official site, Michiru eventually falls in love with Takeru as well. Hopefully that means she'll forget about Sousuke the Creep very soon.

As for Takeru, I really, really, hope that Yuuko is not related to him. But I can't shake the feeling that she's not just a bored housewife that had an affair with Takeru. That'd be too normal for this show. For some reason, I think she's actually related to him. She looks too young to be his mother but she could be his (older) sister. Yeah, it's kind of messed up but it could be why Takeru has sex phobia. I should really stop because there's no justification for this creepy theory apart from her comment about cookies that he liked when he was a kid. But how did she know that he liked those cookies when he was a kid? Okay, let's pretend that this is an anime and that she could be a childhood friend who knows a lot about him. But why would Takeru become afraid of sex just because his childhood friend married someone else? Plus, he was saying about how he's been mentally scarred since he was a kid. Anyway, Ruka seems to have a calming effect on Takeru. However, with all of these unrequited feelings, I wonder if anyone will end up happy at the end of this series. In fact, after hearing Takeru's narration, I'm starting to wonder if the frightening incident that Michiru mentioned actually refers to Ruka.

Speaking of Sousuke, despite being a creep, he's actually kind of pitiful as well. The fact that he likes to burn himself with cigarettes really makes me wonder if he used to be abused like that as well. While it doesn't excuse his action at least it gives him a background for his violent tendencies. Either way, someone should give this man a Masochist Asshole of the Year award. As for Ruka, things don't look good for her. To begin with, she clearly is not happy about the body/sex that she's born with. There was a discussion on last week's episode about Ruka wanting to have a sex change operation and this episode seems to confirm that she is not happy with being a woman. However, that doesn't seem to matter considering all of the ominous dialogues that ended this episode. Takeru seems to know that Ruka is willing to protect Michiru at all cost, even if that cost is her own life. While it's likely that this is a hint about Ruka's fate, I don't understand why Michiru wrote a letter to Ruka about leaving Ruka for the 2nd time. With all of these doom and gloom scenarios, I was surprised to see a pleasant friendship scene in the middle of the episode. That scene between Ruka, Takeru, Eri, and Tomohiko actually reminded me of Nodame Cantabile episode 4.

© memento 2003