Sadly, the unthinkable has happened, which causes Yuu to go down a path that nobody should be going.
From last time, it seems that Ayumi was confirmed missing after using her collapse ability. In short, the search team thought that finding her was a lost cause and simply said that she passed away despite the slight possibility that she might still be alive.
It’s understandable that a loss of a family member can be very painful. Nao has experienced it when her brother became a shell of his former self. In the end, she managed to get over it even though she will never forget what the scientists done to her older brother.
With that, you would think that Yuu would have an easy time since he has his friends and Nao to help him get over it. Sadly, no because he felt very remorseful for not spending enough time with his little sister. Since he depended on her a lot, he couldn’t do anything in return for her. With this and post dramatic stress from his recent loss, he simply couldn’t take it anymore. In other words, he basically became a hikikomori before things got a lot worse.
From the look of it, it seemed that Nao was behind the people visiting his apartment in order to lure him out so that he can seek help. After the plan to lure him out with Yusa’s stew failed, she brings Yumi, his former girlfriend to try to convince him to get help. Of course that didn’t work either. He simply lashed out at her by throwing his empty ramen containers. Nao also tried to bring him out using force, but obviously Yuu defeated the two men by using his ability.
With her options now limited, Nao basically observed Yuu’s regression as he goes to an internet café eating nothing but pizza, before he turned to dango skewers and shooting arcade games. He eventually got into various fights with gangs, which are pretty brutal and oddly funny in a strange way. After witnessing that, it’s obvious that she needed to stop him before he tried illegal drugs. Thankfully, she stopped him in time. In other words, she managed to cure him by making the omelet rice that Ayumi tried to perfect so hard with the recipe she borrowed. Yep, that pizza sauce has magical powers to make a person normal again.
I have to admit that it was saddening and difficult to see him go down this path to the point where he almost lost his mind completely. It’s not easy for someone to get over the loss for his or her loved ones. Sure, his regression felt very similar to what Tomoya experienced in Clannad as he inherently followed his father’s footsteps shortly after he lost his wife. Still, it’s funny that he ate food that kind of resembles the family’s secret pizza sauce, sweets and pizza.
Of course, there is a big difference between Tomoya and Yuu. Yuu is too narcissistic to admit that he messed up and could have done something to prevent Ayumi’s death from happening. He could have stayed home to look after her or take Nao’s suggestion and put her in a safe location until he can confirm that his little sister has a supernatural ability. Still, I’m glad that he came to his senses now. He accepted the fact that his little sister is dead and that he should return to the student council in order to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again. In short, he couldn’t have recover without Nao or otherwise, he will lose his mind permanently.
With that, I’m quite curious how things will go from here. I’m already thinking that there will be more drama on the horizon, especially in regards to the bullies and, the person behind the school, which remains a big mystery. ¶
Mmm…this episode was quite… TwT
I wouldn’t say that she was his “girlfriend,” as that would be a misunderstanding right? He thought so, but due to his narcissistic nature, that was just an overthought on his end.
I just hope that next episode tells us what has happened in the while that Yuu wasn’t at the school. Did they find certain traces that…Ayumi is not missing.
Hopefully, we get some Deus Machina plot; as much it is a sour excuse of plot, Ayumi doesn’t deserve this kind of end QwQ
Given that he used his ability in order to win her heart, I find it pretty questionable… but of course, it’s expected given how things played out to the point where he almost passed the point of no return.
Still, since nobody recovered the body of Ayumi yet, she may still be alive. Still, I hope Jun Maeda doesn’t decide to pull a deus ex machina or it would make the development in this episode rather pointless.
Questionable as it may be, it was an infatuation…and idea of having the “ideal girlfriend” scenario. But as you say though, whether or not he saw her as his actual ex wouldn’t have mattered. Ayumi was too important in his life in comparison.
True. I do wonder then what will happen in the next few episodes. But seeing how time lasted…I’m afraid of what they might have done with her plot-wise… TwT
Won’t be holding my breath since Jun Maeda seems to love deus ex machina, but hopefully it will be better handled than it was in Angel Beats.
But hopefully it’s not something worse, like Ayumi getting captured secretly and subjected to experimentations while telling society that she is dead.
I was about to say this episode reminds me of Tomoya during the last few episodes of Clannad After Story, but I guess you noticed the parallels too.
Anyway, excellent fallout episode from episode 6. Interested to see where things go from where.
Yep, I have to admit that there are strong comparisons between what happen between Tomoya and Yuu in this episode… of course, Yuu couldn’t turn to cigarettes, drink lots of alcohol and gamble money for obvious reasons.
Aside from that, I can’t wait to see what happens next.
“of course, Yuu couldn’t turn to cigarettes, drink lots of alcohol and gamble money for obvious reasons”
Hmm, guess playing FPS extremely violently is the closest he could get away with at his age. Though he did come close to the cigarettes.
Actually, it was cocaine or something like that he was about to smoke… Hopefully, people who are against video games won’t use this episode as evidence that video games are harmful since Yuu is a special case.
Oh sorry, this to totally unrelated, but I just nominated you for the Infinity Dreams Award^^
https://deluscar.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/infinity-dreams-award/
Will probably get to it next week… I will be combining it with a previous questions post since I did not have enough content to write for the ones provided.