Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun - 39

"Shizuku"

Relationships are a two way street.

Reading this manga is a little exhausting sometimes. Unlike most shoujo manga, you have to be paying attention to the little details, and unfortunately I'm so out of it right now that I feel like I missed out on quite a lot this chapter. For example, was that Shizuku's mom at Yuuzan's birthday party, or was I imagining things? Though I remember specifically staring at the page, I'm not sure I really took it in as well as I should have, and it's not as if it was something that was brought up again during the entirety of the chapter. There was also some interesting interactions with a lady whom Yuuzan seemed about to call mother, though I was under the impression that their mother was dead for some reason.

In any case, I apologize if I miss something important in this discussion, but because the focus seems to be on the Yuuzan-Shizuku-Haru triangle, that's what I'll try to cover.

For a while now it's been apparent that Yuuzan isn't the evil bastard Haru likes to paint him as, and he's not wrong in pointing out how similar he and Shizuku are. Both of them have based their identities on pleasing their parents and meeting their expectations, and both of them just want to be acknowledged for their efforts. Shizuku is lying to herself when she says that she's only trying so hard for her own sake, and I'm sure she's realized that Yuuzan is the same with his father. On the other hand, though Haru claims to understand this fact, he's the most independent of the three. He doesn't care nearly as much what his parents think of him, though he's not completely free of their expectations either. He's different in that he openly rebels against his father, which is his own way of coping with his feelings, but outwardly he seems to be happy with himself for his own sake.

However, I don't think that's really the case, though Shizuku does. She's fallen into the adolescent trap of assuming the world revolves around her more than it really does, and as she contemplates her sad existence and need to gain her mother's approval, she slights Haru by telling him that he doesn't really understand her. But, in all honesty, how often has she tried to really get into his head and see why he acts the way he does? Haru may be a little on the psychotic side, and naive to boot, but he certainly isn't stupid, and he understands very well that almost no one has ever tried to understand him.