Well, that episode was pretty much a swift kick in the solar plexus. This series doesn’t pull any punches (sometimes quite literally). And while the situations it presents are dramatized of course, that doesn’t mean they’re unrealistic. Not only do these sorts of scenarios happen in Japan, the show’s emotional radar is so accurate that it hits quite hard. And Kotarou being who he is somehow makes it worse – there’s little more gut-wrenching than a child trying to act strong for all the wrong reasons.
The damage inflicted by the first couple of chapters is more subtle but the punches are just as accurate. They involve two classmates we haven’t met before, first Kana, a girl who keeps inviting herself over to play with Kotarou. This seems odd – not least to Karino-dono – because she never seems to have any fun (all of Kotarou’s experience being at entertaining “adult women”). He puts the pieces together and realizes the mother is manipulating her daughter into doing this because her financial situation has taken a nosedive, and she wants her daughter to be exposed to a situation she (the mom) perceives to be worse than her own at home. What impressed me about this was how quickly – and assertively – Shin acted when he realized Kotarou was being used as a prop.
Next is Kei, a boy in Kotarou’s class who frequently comes down with colds and asks to go to the nurse’s office. Kotarou heartily disapproves of this admission of “weakness”, and isn’t shy about letting Kei know that. Kotarou’s obsession with strength is well-established, but despite his mature demeanor he doesn’t have enough contextual experience to really feel empathy. Kei’s position is that he’d feel even worse getting everyone else sick (as he does Kotarou) than he does missing out on playing with his classmates. Kotarou does pass this test with honors, though, by apologizing to Kei once he understands the truth of the matter.
One of those adult women Kotarou specializes in entertaining is of course Kobayashi-san, the lawyer who brings him his stipend weekly. And while she’s a bit of an absurd character this is where the episode starts to go really dark. She cooks up a story about wanting Kotarou’s help in checking out an apartment, but in point of fact it’s the one he used to live in with his parents. She knows this because she’s been reading his diaries – which he doesn’t appreciate, understandably – and her colleague is right that most of Kotarou’s memories of the place are not good ones. Kobayashi is trying to do be kind here, but she doesn’t really understand the kid she’s trying to help.
You can pick and choose whatever part of the chapter with the three siblings abandoned by their parents was the most cutting (starting with children collecting grass to eat). For me it was the elder brother fobbing off his siblings on Kotarou so he can sit and eat junk food in peace. He comes off as the bad guy but the saddest part is, it’s totally understandable. And if Kotarou were that boy’s age he’d probably be a lot more resigned and defeated about the whole situation. This is an ugly encounter for Kotarou because it forces him to stare down the barrel of the reality he works so hard to pretend he can’t see (including the fact that his mother abandoned him).
The coup de grâce is the Mizuki situation, again echoing elements of Kotarou’s own story. She’s got a violent boyfriend, which doesn’t come as a huge surprise. As soon as the boys find out Shin and Tamaru-san immediately urge Mizuki-san to go to the cops (which she certainly should). But Kotarou takes the opposite tack, urging her to flee the apartment and go where the boyfriend can’t find her. Of course Kotarou doesn’t really want this, but again he’s trying to be strong – urging Mizuki to depart from his life for her own benefit. Against the worst of it, though, is that he wants to do this because he feels guilt about turning his father into the “bad guy” by telling on him – and he wants to spare Mizuki from having to do the same.
This, sadly, is the most realistic part of the whole premise. Domestic abuse victims blaming themselves for being abused happens all the time, and abusers are only too happy to encourage that delusion. I don’t know if Mizuki will be coming back at some point, but I feel quite confident that Kotarou’s father is going to find him eventually. And that’s going to take the story on yet another dark turn, a very different sort than we’ve seen up to now. There’s quite a tonal contrast with Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi, and the matter-of-fact way it deals with matters of real existential despair is more than a little unsettling.
