“The Excitement The Night Before a Trip Is A Battlefield”
Just how is it that everyone can feel the "fake" nature of Masuzu and Eita's relationship, but no one can tell Ai doesn't really have a boyfriend even after she admits to loving Eita?
I know I'm pretty biased and that I'm about to touch some nerves, but,
Saeko (voiced by the peerless
Kaori Nazuka though you are), you're full of shit (Masuzu is too, but I like her, so it's okay). Technically, Eita's aunt is right in suspecting the nature of this relationship, but she's doing it for some very flawed reasoning that kind of pisses me off as a girl and as a fan of anime in general. There's some really ugly undercurrents to this little plot device, most of which have to do with what the
ideal of what a teenager, particularly a girl, in love should look like; Saeko basically assumes that if the couple isn't falling over themselves with each other, they're not in love. Sure, there's
some truth that young people are awkward being around the people they love, but it's wrong to generalize and assume that all couples must be like this. It's even more grinding to have her rank the intensity of the four girls' feelings based on stereotypes about how over the moon they are for the boy they like. It's not as if people in love don't ever
think like this, but to say that one way is stronger than another is stupid, and I'm probably angrier than I should be, considering the type of series this is. But you know, you can't just give the okay on something that bothers you even if the source is something conventional; that's how things become normal and hard to get rid of later.
As it is, while Saeko has no right to call out Masuzu on the basis of her assumptions of what love is like, it's still technically true that
Masuzu is lying (to some extent; she definitely likes Eita more than even she realizes) and that she evens out the playing ground by pointing it out. However, it isn't really her business, even if Eita is her nephew; if the two of them want to date, even as a pretend couple, there's no reason for why others should forcibly destroy that relationship. After all, a relationship is something agreed to by both parties, and that decision should be respected by everyone else, even if they too love one of the involved parties. To do otherwise is to selfishly ignore the feelings of the person you claim to love, though you're free to continue loving them openly. Though Eita is more or less held hostage, I don't think he's completely adverse to being Masuzu's boyfriend, if only because she acts as a
buffer to the hoards of people interested in him (four girls and one boy by this point; he's really not that great, everyone). That being the case, Saeko and everyone else really should leave it be, rather than have the girls "compete" over who loves him most.
But now I'm really being silly, so I'll drop it. All my annoyances aside,
Masuzu has been backed into a corner on several fronts. Not only has Saeko stripped her of her advantageous position, but she's hurt her credibility and made her into a common enemy for the other three girls, who have banded together in the knowledge that all three of them are in a less desirable position than the official girlfriend. Even Chiwa, who was Masuzu's closest thing to a friend because of the intensity of their rivalry, has found common ground with Ai and Hime, leaving Masuzu essentially friendless and with only Eita for an ally. Unfortunately, that's what happens when you base your relationships on lies and manipulations, but instead of giving up, it seems that Masuzu has
declared a solitary war on the rest of the harem; much luck to you,
shoujo.
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