The evidence is spilling out of Sentarou’s bag!
Sentarou, you bastard!!! How dare you cheat on Kaoru!
Forgive me if I can’t take this particular piece of drama all that seriously. Having Sentarou leave for a bit to play Beatles music could be an interesting storyline. But his decision to completely ditch Kaoru to do it, and Kaoru’s subsequent explosion, were both simply ridiculous. Why would Sentarou go cold turkey on jazz when he even admits he doesn’t like the Beatles all that much?
Misguided Good Samaritans
Aside from their misguided flings that they both should get over quickly, Sentarou and Kaoru are such great friends. I like how they both keep trying to pair Ritsuko up with each other.
Although I’m actually not sure Sentarou is capable of thinking of Ritsuko in that way at all.
Yet somehow Kaoru doesn’t realize this. If he really wants Sentarou and Ritsuko to pair up, he needs to focus on getting Sentarou to look at Ritsuko, not at getting him away from this other girl. Getting him away from the art girl is *not* going to help Ritsuko’s chances much. It’ll just delay the inevitable blow where he goes off with someone else. I think that Ritsuko’s chances in this love triangle are even more hopeless than Kaoru’s.
A threesome would be the optimal solution.
Despite this show’s high level of historical accuracy (everyone in the 60s cheated on their significant other for the Beatles), clearly we’re glossing over one of the most important aspects of 60s culture: drugs. Look at that painting and tell me with a straight face that drugs were not involved.
I haven’t even seen this episode, but I couldn’t help but laugh at your commentary. Drugs, indeed. And the good ones. O_O
Indeed. Quality.
Kaoru is pretty clear headed when it comes to relationships, right (at least among the three mains)? So, this is what I think. He’s trying to get art girl away from Sentaro because of his friendship with him – not for Ritsuko’s sake. He knows that she digs Jun and doesn’t want to see his friend hurt.
And he doesn’t really want Sentaro to get together with Ritsuko. Even though he cares for her, he still wants her to himself, as evidenced in this episode. So in terms of him trying to get Sentaro and Ritsuko together, he only does so in a comical, kiddy way, without any real effort, because he’s not particularly sure he wants that to happen. In this case, he’s still putting his own happiness ahead of his friends’.
That’s possible. I’m not convinced though. When they saw the girl in the art room, it seemed that he wanted to send Sentarou away not because he didn’t go well with her, but because Ritsuko was there and he didn’t want her to have to watch. It’s probably a bit of both.
I agree with you that he doesn’t *really* want Sentaro to get together with Ritsuko. But I don’t think he’s putting his friends’ happiness ahead of his own. I mean, Sentarou *wants* him to get together with Ritsuko. The only one who objects is Ritsuko herself, and he’s respecting that. But I think she would be happier with Kaoru than with Sentarou. 🙂
I agree with you, TWWK. Kaoru tries to get Sentarou away from art girl as he notices than she’s into Jun and not suited for Sentarou anyways. It’s even more clear when he tries to convince Sentarou not to go to that “date” w/ art girl.
Kaoru is far more sophisticated in almost every way than Sentarou. Jun and Kaoru are like made for sophisticated cool jazz. Sentarou, though, is just starting to notice that he will never be able to keep up with the ways of Jun, art girl or even Kaoru. So he’s flirting with rock music which is correctly portrayed as a social underdog movement.
I think, Kaoru instinctively feels that Sentarou moving to rock music will create a distance between that goes a bit deeper than just musical taste. That’s why he’s reacting so strongly. Well, I hope Sentarou sticks with jazz music in the end as it would be a waste of talent to have him as a drummer in a rock band and jazz could use some liveblood!
That is a great way to look at Sentarou’s turn to rock music! He definitely lacks the polish and sophistication… but I think he just follows in a slightly different tradition of jazz.