Last Friends ep.04

May 3, 2008 | 15 Comments

While I'm not exactly a fan, I've been following Ueno Juri's career ever since Swing Girls. With every film/series, I notice that she always chooses a role that is different from the one that she played beforehand. Her role in Swing Girls requires her to be a spunky high school girl whereas in Summertime Machine Blues, she plays a geeky and rather quiet college girl (and Eita's love interest). I don't think I need to highlight how different her role in Nodame Cantabile was in comparison to her role as Ruka in this series. It's also interesting to see her working with Eita over and over again. Although they seem to work together quiet frequently, their interaction in each projects are distinctly different. Takuma/Haruka in Summertime Machine Blues are reluctant couple whereas Nodame/Mine in Nodame Cantabile are goofy friends who get to drive Chiaki mad. Ruka/Takeru, on the other hand, is more like unrequited love mixed with deep friendship.

Episode 4

In the aftermath of Michiru arriving at the shared house asking for help, Ruka asks her if she'd tell them the truth about how many times has this happened to her. She also tells Michiru that this is not love. This is a person who deals violence to another person so freely. Eri chimes in and warns Michiru that guys who do DV tend to be persistent and stalker-like. Ruka suggests that Michiru don't get near the guy since he's dangerous. They ask her to stay at the shared house and Takeru will try to find a new job for her. The next day, Ruka asks her parents not to disclose Michiru's location if a guy calls them. Meanwhile, Michiru and Takeru are staying at home when a knock on the door startled them. As it turns out it's just Ogurin who forgets his wallet. As for the real creep, he tries to find Michiru at her work but since she's not there, she asks the equally abusive co-worker to pass on his business card to Michiru. Like a blessing in disguise, the abusive co-worker dumps his business card into rubbish bin. At the motorcoss track, Michiru is invited by her coach, Hayashita, for a drink but she refuses since she has someone waiting home. This causes Hayashita to wonder if it's a guy who's waiting at home.

Ruka is unhappy to hear this so she asks Hayashita if he can stop seeing her as a woman and sees her as a racer. Hayashita, however, admits that he can't do that because no matter what, he sees her as a woman, an excellent female racer. Later on that night when everyone's busy preparing dinner, Michiru notices that her cellphone has been beeping. She quietly sneaks out to check the phone only to find that Sousuke has left her messages after messages (IIRC, it's one for every minute. Yikes). In the message, Sousuke tells her that he wants her to come back and have dinner with him. He promises that he'd never lay a hand on her again. Ruka, however, snatches the phone from Michiru's hand and asks her not to listen to the messages. She knows that if Michiru goes back, the same thing will happen all over again. The only one who gets hurt is her. Because of this, she pushes Michiru back to the dining room where everyone is having Sukiyaki. During dinner, Ruka tries to fetch some food for Michiru, prompting Eri to point out that when it comes to Michiru, Ruka acts like a man. Ruka seems uncomfortable with this but pretends that it's not a big deal.

Ogurin wonders why would anyone want to hit and push a cute girl like Michiru to a floor. The others chime in that Sousuke must be the worst but Michiru asks them not to talk about Sousuke like that. She claims that Sousuke is also in pain when he hit her. Everyone else is weirded out to hear this, leading to a temporary awkwardness. Takeru, however, manages to thaw the tension by suggesting that they eat, drink, and have fun tonight. The next day, Michiru begins working as Takeru assistant. However, this causes a model to think that she's Takeru's girlfriend. But she thinks this explains things because her attempt to seduce him didn't work. As a result, everyone thought that he's gay. Meanwhile, Ogurin is in the middle of shopping for matching cups with Eri when he sees his wife walking with her lover, buying accessory using Ogurin's credit card. In the aftermath, Ogurin becomes sad so Eri suggests that he confronts his wife because if he can't do it, the situation will just drag on and on. Ogurin, however, points out that his wife looked happy before he sobs quietly. Eri gives Ogurin her handkerchief and affectionately tells the guy that he's foolish for still loving his wife.

Meanwhile, Ruka has just finished another practice at her motorcross track when she notices that Sousuke has been watching over her. So creepy. Because of this, she makes a call to Takeru to tell him of the situation and to make sure that he doesn't leave Michiru alone. While inside the change room, Ruka can see that Sousuke has been waiting for her outside the building. When Ruka goes out of the change room, however, she finds Hayashita looking for her. Because she wants to avoid Sousuke, she asks Hayashita if he's free to go out drinking with her. While at the bar, Ruka asks the coach how she can gain the same amount of speed as other male so she can be good at the all-Japan championship. Afterwards, the two walk home together but because Ruka trips herself a little bit, she ends up bumping into the coach's body. Since the guy is probably half-drunk, he ends up hugging Ruka before kissing her. A shocked Ruka pushed him aside and tells him that she asked him to stop. Ruka then runs away from the guy and finds a basin to wash her lips. She then goes to Takeru's bar to check on Michiru but she's gone home with Ogurin and Eri.

After giving Ruka a drink, Takeru notices that Ruka is shaking while trying to hold the glass. Because of this, he asks her what happened. Ruka immediately tells him that she was assaulted by a guy. She informs him that it's not Michiru's boyfriend but someone she already knows for a while. There is nothing particularly unpleasant about the guy but she couldn't help herself from shivering when he touched her. Because of this, Ruka feels useless. She figures if she shudders when someone else simply touch her, she probably won't be able to do much despite her desire to be stronger for Michiru's sake. She then starts sobbing so Takeru gets closer to her and tells her that he's just going to put his hand around her shoulder. He then asks her if she's afraid of him but Ruka tells him that if it's Takeru, she's not afraid. She's fine with him. Because of this Takeru assures her it's okay for her to cry when he's around. Ruka cries as much as she wants then returns happily with Takeru back to the shared house. Takeru can then be heard narrating how that day, no one know that he got to see her weakness. Takeru decides that if Ruka would protect Michiru then he'd protect Ruka.

Back in the living room, Ruka asks Michiru how her day went so Michiru tells her that thanks to the job that Takeru gets her, she realizes that the world is large. Upon hearing this Ruka reminds Michiru that since the world is large, there are men who are not violent. Ogurin believes that because Sousuke 'bind' Michiru's arms and legs, it ends up narrowing and closing her world. Michiru, who slowly changes, tells Ogurin that's probably the case. Takeru then comes with cups of tea and much to his flatmates' surprise, the cups are matching. The next day at the motorcross track, Ruka says good morning to Hayashita but it's apparent that he feels a bit awkward with her. Because of this, she approaches him and asks the guy to see her face. She asks him to pretend that what happened yesterday never happened. Much to her relief, Hayashita cheers up again and apologizes for being drunk. Ruka adds that she feels a lot of respect for Hayashita as a racer and as a friend. Therefore, she doesn't want to lose his respect and friendship. Hayashita assures her that he understands. Back at home, Michiru seems restless because unlike her flatmates, she gets to stay home and do nothing.

As a result, Michiru is drawn to her cellphone again and upon opening it, she finds out that her mother has been trying to reach her. She foolishly returns the call and finds out that her gold-digging mother needs money again. Instead of delivering the money herself, however, Ruka decides to go there to deliver the money. While looking inside the house, Ruka feels unease so when Michiru's mother asks her about Michiru's whereabouts, she decides to bolt out. As it turns out, that creep Sousuke has been waiting inside so he can find out Michiru's whereabouts. He has paid Michiru's mother to bait Michiru to come to her house. Later on at the shared house, Eri and Ruka hears a knock on the door so Eri opens the door. Much to everyone's horror, the person is none other than Sousuke!! Sousuke believes that Michiru is here and demands to see her but Ruka tells him that she's not here. Sousuke doesn't believe this so he rings Michiru's phone and hears her phone rings from inside the house. Sousuke smirks and insists on coming in but Ruka tells her that they know what he's done and if he insists on coming, they'll call the police. Before Sousuke can say anything else, Ruka closes the door.

When Michiru comes out of the bathroom, her roommates quickly distract her with light talks so she doesn't know what happened. Unknown to them, however, Sousuke is still waiting outside in the rain and Takeru, who's just come home, notices him. Ruka is horrified to hear this so Takeru offers to stay awake for the night. That night, Michiru is restless as well so she heads to the kitchen and ends up meeting Takeru. Takeru offers to boil her some tea so she asks him about his family. Takeru claims it's normal family: salaryman father, stay-at-home mother, and an older sister. Yikes. Please don't let my creepy theory be true. Anyway, the reason Michiru is interested in his family is because she thinks a guy who can brew a good coffee and tea must grow from a gentle family. Michiru herself was born in a family where her parents had a divorce, where her mother always worked outside, and as a result, she's always alone at home. Sousuke was the same like her. Although he was at first raised by his mother, when she had a new lover, he was moved around from one relative's house to the next. Michiru then realizes that she's been rambling about her boyfriend.

Takeru assures her that he's fine with it so Michiru continues by saying that when she first met Sousuke, she thought they were similar. The two of them were lonely. Now that she lives in a house where everyone is nice to her, she feels bad for Sousuke since he's all alone. In response Takeru tells her that it's hard to judge people's loneliness just by looking at them. This is true even for Ruka. Michiru can then be heard narrating to Sousuke how that night, while she was listening to the sound of rain beating against the window, she thought a lot about him. She then apologizes to Ruka because back then she didn't know her pain. The next day, Ruka is about to take the trash out but since she thinks Sousuke is not out there anymore, she allows Michiru to do it for her. Michiru is surprised when she finds Sousuke sitting not far from the garbage disposal area, letting himself drenched by the rain. Sousuke tells Michiru that he'll always wait for her since waiting is not hard. Ruka who sees Michiru hugging Sousuke tells herself that it's impossible to hurt others and not getting hurt as well. Even though she tries to separate Michiru and Sousuke, the one who got hurt was herself.

Impression

Ruka's trauma after being forcefully kissed by her coach was an unfortunate incident but it's a very realistic scenario. A guy often gets along so well with a girl that he ends up thinking that the girl is also into him while the fact is, that's not true at all. It's especially hard when the guy doesn't know if the girl likes him or just sees him as a good friend. And then there are cases like Ruka and Takeru, where a guy gets along so well with a girl that she puts him in the 'friends' category. For some guys, this is the last place they want to be in especially if they like the girl. After all, it's a rather miserable place to be, having to lend a shoulder for a girl that he likes even though the girl just sees him as a friend and a shoulder to cry. Meanwhile, he can't move forward because he feels that there could be a chance that the girl will see him as more than a friend. It's a very admirable thing that Takeru is willing to be seen as a friend for Ruka considering that he likes her but most guys probably see him as a hopeless case while girls probably think that he's just "one of the girls" and therefore harmless.

As for Michiru, she begins to show signs of regaining her independence although it's obvious that it'll take a while before she's completely free from Sousuke. She clearly starts to realize that life without him is a lot better. The reason she comes back and forth to him is because she still feels a connection to him and just like a drug addicts, she can't resist going back to him even though she knows he is bad for her. Speaking of Sousuke, there doesn't seem to be an end to his terror. The guy is really creepy and a good stalker too to boot. X( I get the feeling that unless someone puts him behind a bar, he'll continue to stalk Michiru. He's like Jason from Friday the 13th or any serial killer you can think of. He's relentless in his pursuit of his victim. Now, while this is quite fun if you like horror film, I do wish we get to see a little bit of his past. Sure, Michiru mentioned that he came from a broken family but I want to know where his tendency to be violent came from. It's not necessary to make him sympathetic but it's important for the viewers to understand that raising children in a violent home often destroys the children's ability to interact normally with other people.

Preview

Next week: The *bleep* finally hits the fan.

© memento 2005