Article

Blue Spring Ride Episode 11 – “Like a Storm”

September 22, 2014

I love how at the end of Kou’s flashback which they posture as a dream, Kou recalls Futaba’s face as she’s running. All those agonizing memories of his mother and at the end comes Futaba running at him. It’s a great metaphor for this episode.

The whole first half of this episode is heart-wrenching. We get to watch as Kou gets his mother’s terminal diagnosis. The shock that overtakes him. The deep regret he has for how he spent the time with his mother studying. His first bout of grieving that gets aggravated by the guilt he feels towards his brother. Watching him cry and apologize like that was just…heart breaking.

Lots of people thought that Kou was kind of a jerk. And, yeah, he comes across that way in the beginning. But when the backstory finally gets told, it puts a different spin on events from the beginning. Go back and watch the first few episodes now that you know the truth. There’s plenty of foreshadowing, and his actions make a lot of sense.

One more shot from that scene that I’ll point out was the one of Kou leaving the hospital. There’s this girl in the background with short hair. She’s actually Futaba’s rival later on in the series, but as for the anime, I’m surprised she even made an appearance this late in the season. Maybe we’ll get a second season? **Fingers Crossed**

So last episode I showed that he was having difficulty with studying, and now we get to see why. He’s got this guilt that eats him up inside about how he spent the time with his mother studying. His goal was to make a career so he could support his mother further on. It was a honorable goal, and sweet, that he wants to take care of mom. But he regrets not spending that time with her now, as she’s gone so soon.

It’s no wonder when we get back to present time that Kou is a bit shaken up and has a hard time studying. While he agrees to go with the gang for a study session in the library, he just can’t handle it. The look on his face –

So he sneaks out and then the group realizes that he’s been gone a while. I got one shot that shows the red head guy was actually sitting at their same table. Then Futaba gets all stirred up to go after Kou, but she runs into the red head, whose name is Touma. (We don’t get that in the anime, but that’s his name from the manga.) When she falls over him, she has one of the most embarrassing moments of her life.

Well, now. Nice job, Futaba. Poor Touma will be messed up the rest of the series because of your encounter. Actually, it’s some well written comic relief that needed to happen this episode because of how serious the rest of the content is. The gang ends up at the station donut shop. There Yuuri and Futaba share a knowing look about Kominato saying he noticed something was bothering Kou. Futaba wants Kou to realize how much the group cares about him, if he would only see the light that is right beside him.

So Futaba goes to Kou’s house but he’s not there. Tanaka-sensei answers the door. I like their conversation about Kou’s heart and him not opening the door. Tanaka sensei says that it’s not that there’s a lock but that Kou forgot to make a door knob at all. So Futaba is determined to bust down the door. I love that! So does Tanaka sensei. His simile of Futaba being like a storm is right on. She’s raging to get to Kou’s heart. And Tanaka sensei really wants his little brother back.

Futaba seeks out Kou in the teen hangout. There he’s thinking about his friends and trying to distance himself from it. Only Futaba won’t let him. The scene where she comes running is a great throwback to the beginning of this episode. When Kou thinks of Futaba, she’s running right at him.

They end up back at the waterfront. This time she confronts him about why he’s acting so distant. We get Kou’s perception of things. He feels like there’s no point to his life, now that he’s lost his mom. He has no one to take care of. He can’t start over and spend time with her, because she’s gone. He thinks Futaba can’t understand that. And really, she’s not had that experience of losing someone close to her, so she really can’t. But she can still love him.

It’s the next comment that causes her to have a realization. He doesn’t understand why the group wants to know him and get close to him. It scares him. That’s when Futaba realizes that Kou is only scared because he’s afraid of losing something again.

Her words finally break through the door. I think it’s beautiful what she tells him.

Yay, Futaba! You go, girl! You know it had to make a big impact on him. That she’ll defend him for smiling or laughing. That got Kou thinking and he realizes he’s been needing permission all along. To laugh, have fun, enjoy everyday things. He finally grieves this episode for things he’s withdrawn from. Granted, withdrawing was the only way he could cope, but I think he realized that by withdrawing he’s missed out on things, and he was punishing himself.

The episode ends with Kou holding Futaba by the waterside and him commenting how he’s been waiting for something like this storm.

That storm being Futaba, as his brother recognizes earlier. It’s pretty clear to me that Kou still cares about Futaba or he wouldn’t be affected like that. It’s obvious Futaba still loves him as well. Can you believe this is only the beginning? There’s so much more story left, and we’re down to the last episode this week! Makes we wonder how they’ll tie up the last episode, because the manga continues into summer break from here, where Yuuri makes her move. How much will the last episode contain? Guess we’ll find out soon enough!

See you next episode!

4 Comments

By the way, how can I follow you ? I want to get an update from your site on my email folder.

renxkyoko iglesias Sep 23, 2014
- yeah, didn’t realize that was missing….I added that feature, so now you can subscribe. 🙂 Happy reading!
  
  Laura Sep 23, 2014
I haven’t watched this anime, but am reading the manga. To be honest, it’s already at Chapter 43, but I dropped it at Chapter 35 due to my dislike of Kou.

renxkyoko iglesias Sep 23, 2014
- I know he became really unlikable by the fangirls around chapter 20 when he picked Narumi over Futaba. I still felt sorry for him because I think he was very confused by his own grief. The most recent chapters he’s making smarter choices and and working at redeeming himself. Give it another shot!
  
  Laura Sep 23, 2014