Yesterday wo Utatte

Expectations, keeping promises, and understandings one’s feelings. All things that I think are prominent in today’s episode. If you hadn’t already figured out, Haru has feelings for Rikuo, something that is mentioned in today’s episode when Haru says to him that her goal is to one day have him fall in love with her, but understands that it’ll take time and that it’ll hopefully happen one day.

Expectations and keeping promises go hand-in-hand during this episode because Haru asks Rikuo if he wanted to go to the movies with her, something he accepts. A promise has been made, the promise of going to the movies with Haru, a promise Haru will hold Rikuo to. This episode tells us a little bit about how important it is to keep a promise, however, what happens when an obstacle stands in your way of the promise you’ve made? Not a physical obstacle, but a moral one, granted you can argue that keeping a promise is morally right, but when you have conflicting emotions, especially when it’s surrounding a person whom you’ve liked since college, how do you react?

Wanting to return the favour back to Shinako (her bringing him food when he was sick), Rikuo goes over to her house in order to prepare food and to take care of her. However, in doing so, he forgets about Haru and the promise he made to her, which was that they would go to the movies together. This is something he releases too late, leaving Haru alone at the theatre, in the rain. This, of course, is something she’s extremely not happy about, especially since she had dressed nicely for the occasion, and because more importantly, it was a promise her made with her.

So what do you do when you’re stood up? You go find out why, which is something Naru goes to do. Waiting for Rikuo infront of his house, she asks him the most important question, why?. This is when jealousy and understanding one’s feelings come into play. Rikuo, a person trying to find himself amongst all the uncertainty that he thinks he faces, does what every person doesn’t want to hear, but at the same time they do, he tells the truth. But when you’re head over heels over someone, but that someone doesn’t like you back. Doubled by the fact that it’s the same exact feeling too between Rikuo and Shinako, only to hear the truth that Rikuo prioritized Shinako over yourself (Haru), must really sting. Something Haru makes known to Rikuo before running away.

What I enjoy most about this anime so far, is that every emotion displayed by the characters, all their thoughts and how the various relationships/friendships work together makes everything feel so real. It’s something I think everyone to a certain extent can relate to. I’ve mentioned this during my previous blog post, and I think I’ll keep on mentioning it for blogs to come because it’s very true. I think Yesterday wo Utatte, with how it currently is constructed is as close as an Anime can get to emulating reality and its, I guess, the dramatic side of reality. Overall, a very good episode!