I’m enjoying Piano no Mori almost in spite of myself (and just about by myself, it seems).  I can step back and reflect on all this the things (many) about it that drive me crazy.  All the traps in the writing itself that irritate me, and all the obvious shortcuts in the adaptation.  Even the transparently low-rent production values.  But it still fascinates me, because the themes it focuses on fascinate me even if I don’t love the approach the series takes to them.  And because they’re so rarely broached in anime.

A fundamental truth of Piano no Mori is that Shuuhei is a much more interesting study than Kai.  That’s where there’s a certain fear in me that what we saw this week was the effective climax for his character – with his competition over, it was really just for him to suffer through his humiliation and come to grips with his disappointment.  Now that’s done, it’s hard to see him having a major role to play in the final few episodes – it’s fully Kai’s boat now, plus of course the other pianists he has to make look bad in the final.

Speaking of, one of those other pianists, Lech, did a seriously douchey thing by telling Kai to “go congratulate” Shuuhei when he knew he’d failed.  I assume this was just petulance over the crowd reaction to Kai, since Lech had by all accounts come off as a pretty decent kid before that.  Shuuhei was of course aghast that Kai approached him grinning like the cat who ate the canary, but even in his suffering he realized quickly enough that it was just Kai being Kai, and that the other boy probably didn’t know what had happened.  But when you’re in Shuuhei’s position, Kai’s pity is the worst possible thing.

The funny thing is, I kind of feel the same way Shuuhei does about Kai here.  None of the reasons I can’t stand Kai sometimes are his fault, really – he’s a perfectly nice guy.  But sometimes it’s those nice guys who make you feel like a cockroach without even trying that make you hate them the most.  This is the paradox of Shuuhei’s existence – he’s obsessed with Kai to the point where he knows it’s unhealthy, but if not for Kai he might have bailed on the piano altogether.  And to give Kai credit where it’s due, he’s right about one thing – Shuuhei stubbornly refuses to acknowledge his own talent.

There’s no right answer here – Kai’s existence is a torture for Shuuhei and probably always will be.  So Shuuhei skipping out on his interviews and going off on a little self-recrimination bender is probably the best thing for him.  That also gives Youichirou a chance to reflect on his many missteps as a father, both in the near and far-term past.  Even in the aftermath of his dismissal from the competition the two only exchange texts, though that’s partly Shuuhei’s fault of course.  That’s not to say Pang Wei was right that Shuuhei ran off as a cry for attention, but his subconscious probably didn’t mind the idea of making his father worry about him.

The best scene of the episode takes place in the church where a memorial for Chopin is being held.  Shuuhei in fact does show up and sees his father, but he doesn’t acknowledge him – just lets the Mozart wash over him and cleanse him.  Chopin, in fact, requested that Mozart’s Requiem be played at his funeral and here we’re treated to the ephemerally beautiful “Lacrimosa” section.  “Lacrimosa”, of course, has seen duty in anime recently before this – it was Chrollo’s theme, more or less, in Hunter X Hunter 2011.  There’s a raw, painful quality to this whole sequence, especially where Youichirou is concerned, and of course the music speaks for itself.