Ohitorisama Series Thoughts
Dec. 16th, 2010 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iaria• I wasn’t entirely sold on how it ended at first but then we got to this line from Satomi as she sits at a bar, drinking alone:
“That’s the story of how I ended up with a slightly unreliable, younger boyfriend. Whether I have a boyfriend, or I’m married I’ll always be fine on my own. Today I’m enjoying my time alone from the bottom of my heart.”
♥ I love that so very much – especially the middle sentence. It feels so rare to see something like this – a woman happy and confidant on her own – in... anything really. Sure she’s not single but that doesn’t really matter. She could be and be happy, but why should she have to? I want to see this more. The best part is that Satomi really does mean it. She enjoys being by herself and while occasionally she does get lonely she doesn’t actually need a guy in her life to be fulfilled or happy. That just makes me really happy.
• Satomi/Shinichi were very cute but I never really shipped it strongly. I think it’s because Shinichi really was so very young. He wasn’t just young in age but also in his personality and naivety and how he saw the world. It made the ten year difference in their ages seem even bigger. I really bought their relationship as that of mentor/mentored and I would have been happy for it to stay as just that. That said I did completely buy them falling in love. I love the way she constantly bossed him around, and he pretty much took it happily. I loved the scene where her mom comments on how she treats him and he’s all affectionately waving it off as how she always treats him, with a smile, it was cute. I love how grumpy and resistant she was about falling in love with him. I love how he was basically awed into loving her because of how great she is. They were pretty much adorable the entire series.
• While at first I was taken aback by Shinichi going off on his own to work in another city after giving it a little thought I think it was not only a perfect end but something that was necessary. I mean when he brings it up to Satomi he actually asks her permission! I thought him bringing it up – basically how unequal they really were and that he would keep seeing her as his mentor if he stayed – was very mature of him. For them to have an equal relationship he really did need to go off for a few years to mature, to experience life and to find what he loved as well. So now I love how it ended. I liked him surprising her at Christmas with a visit. I imagine that they actually would do really well in a long distance relationship. She likes alone time and spent five years without thinking about a relationship – I don’t see her straying. And while Shinichi is very young, and probably will get hit on numerous times, he is very loyal too and I can’t see him cheating either.
• I liked Satomi. I really empathised with how she kept taking too much responsibility for things and getting overwhelmed, and especially for the way that she would exaggerate/lie (ie: cooking) and then find herself caught in a tough spot. That last is so something I’ve done. She seemed to be considered the perfect teacher by most of her co-workers but I really don’t feel like the narrative was trying to push that she was perfect. She clearly had flaws. I’m actually feeling a little defensive about her because I can just hear someone calling her a Mary Sue. But where she was great was that she honestly just tried really hard and loved her students so much, and we get to see this over and over during the series. My favourite was the cooking episode and her changing the recipe, even though she knew nothing about the new one, in order to help a student. And as for those flaws... the way she would lecture people, often on something she wasn’t really sure about herself, would make me roll my eyes and also she was very given to inspirational speeches.
• I really loved the friendship between Satomi and Yoshie Tajima, the principal. They slowly formed this really wonderful friendship something I wasn’t expecting at the beginning. I really see Satomi as Yoshie’s successor. In fact about halfway through I was completely expecting that to be how the series would end – with Satomi as Yoshie’s heir. (Though of course it would remain in the family since Satomi would marry Shinichi and their children would continue the tradition.) Anyway, their sincere like and respect for each other was one of the highlights of the series. I loved their last scene where a smiling Yoshie tells Satomi that she intends to take her place as mother of the groom at Shinichi’s wedding and thus completely confirming her support of Satomi being her daughter-in-law. They’ll definitely have one of the best mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships ever.
• If there was to be more of this series it would be the Satomi/Yoshie relationship/friendship I would be most interested in seeing. It’d also be interesting to see how Shinichi would change as he got more mature. I imagine though that it wouldn’t be very significant. I am very curious about how he would react not only to learning that Yoshie was his mother but that Satomi knew about it. Now that could, maybe, create some real tension between them.
• The huge problem/conflict of the story being about how wrong it was for Satomi and Shinichi to date because they were teachers at the same school seemed very bizarre and pretty stupid to me. Why the hell would anyone care? I mean in the episode where Satomi gets a ‘stalker’ the vice-principal points out that the school has nothing to do with the private lives of their teachers. The whole thing felt very blown out of proportion and contrived.
• I loved that every episode passed the Bechdel Test, and that most of the series was about the relationships between women (which happens when most your cast is female). And, yes, a significant portion of time was taken up by boys, or specifically people talking about Shinichi, but it didn’t bother me.
• I also liked how Saeko Yano’s storyline went – she started as so jealousy of Satomi and so uncertain about her own worth that she happily tried to help the vice-principal in backstabbing the principal. But as the series went on she was given more depth, she was allowed to grow, and in the end there was a peace and perhaps even the start of a friendship between Saeko and Satomi and I really liked that.
• I liked Kimika. At the beginning I really enjoyed her battle of wills with Minami and the two of them fighting over Shinichi. It was amusing. I liked a lot less how they played Kimika’s realisation that there was something between Satomi and Shinichi. When they showed Kimika realising that it was Shinichi that Satomi had meant when she inadvertently told the entire school that she was in love I was sure TPTB were going to have her play matchmaker. Instead they had her go after Shinichi even harder, and even when he clearly was just not into her. I mean he asked her on a date – with his best friend! And she still tried to go after him. The office scene when she resigned so she could date Shinichi made me wince for her but at the same time – what was she thinking?! She really did bring it on herself. She knew that a) Satomi was in love with him and had been frantically looking for him the night before, b) that he was ‘recovering from a broken heart’, c) that he didn’t feel strongly for her and had just the night before rejected meeting her parents. Her continuing to go after him so strongly was kind of ridiculous. I did like how supportive she was at the end though.
• I was really surprised that the show ended before Shinichi discovered that Yoshie was his mother. I waited and waited for it to come out, and as the end neared I kept expecting it but nothing. I was so sure when the whole Satomi/Shinichi relationship scandal broke that she was going to confess all but nope.
• “I said I’d like to do something for her, but I never said “let’s do something about it.” – Shinichi. LOL.
• I found Yoshie’s explanation for why she abandoned Shinichi completely as a toddler really lacking. It’s clear that she loves her son and regrets very much not having a relationship with him – the scene between Shinichi, her and Satomi’s mom at the supermarket was great and I felt really sad for her – but I just can’t help but think ‘it’s your own fault you don’t have a relationship, it’s your choice’. Okay, she wanted to prevent him from feeling the pressure to succeed her as principal and live up to the family heritage/expectation but that is not a solid reason to cut him out of her life! She could have just raised him to know that he wasn’t expected to be principal after her. I mean talk about overreaction!
“That’s the story of how I ended up with a slightly unreliable, younger boyfriend. Whether I have a boyfriend, or I’m married I’ll always be fine on my own. Today I’m enjoying my time alone from the bottom of my heart.”
♥ I love that so very much – especially the middle sentence. It feels so rare to see something like this – a woman happy and confidant on her own – in... anything really. Sure she’s not single but that doesn’t really matter. She could be and be happy, but why should she have to? I want to see this more. The best part is that Satomi really does mean it. She enjoys being by herself and while occasionally she does get lonely she doesn’t actually need a guy in her life to be fulfilled or happy. That just makes me really happy.
• Satomi/Shinichi were very cute but I never really shipped it strongly. I think it’s because Shinichi really was so very young. He wasn’t just young in age but also in his personality and naivety and how he saw the world. It made the ten year difference in their ages seem even bigger. I really bought their relationship as that of mentor/mentored and I would have been happy for it to stay as just that. That said I did completely buy them falling in love. I love the way she constantly bossed him around, and he pretty much took it happily. I loved the scene where her mom comments on how she treats him and he’s all affectionately waving it off as how she always treats him, with a smile, it was cute. I love how grumpy and resistant she was about falling in love with him. I love how he was basically awed into loving her because of how great she is. They were pretty much adorable the entire series.
• While at first I was taken aback by Shinichi going off on his own to work in another city after giving it a little thought I think it was not only a perfect end but something that was necessary. I mean when he brings it up to Satomi he actually asks her permission! I thought him bringing it up – basically how unequal they really were and that he would keep seeing her as his mentor if he stayed – was very mature of him. For them to have an equal relationship he really did need to go off for a few years to mature, to experience life and to find what he loved as well. So now I love how it ended. I liked him surprising her at Christmas with a visit. I imagine that they actually would do really well in a long distance relationship. She likes alone time and spent five years without thinking about a relationship – I don’t see her straying. And while Shinichi is very young, and probably will get hit on numerous times, he is very loyal too and I can’t see him cheating either.
• I liked Satomi. I really empathised with how she kept taking too much responsibility for things and getting overwhelmed, and especially for the way that she would exaggerate/lie (ie: cooking) and then find herself caught in a tough spot. That last is so something I’ve done. She seemed to be considered the perfect teacher by most of her co-workers but I really don’t feel like the narrative was trying to push that she was perfect. She clearly had flaws. I’m actually feeling a little defensive about her because I can just hear someone calling her a Mary Sue. But where she was great was that she honestly just tried really hard and loved her students so much, and we get to see this over and over during the series. My favourite was the cooking episode and her changing the recipe, even though she knew nothing about the new one, in order to help a student. And as for those flaws... the way she would lecture people, often on something she wasn’t really sure about herself, would make me roll my eyes and also she was very given to inspirational speeches.
• I really loved the friendship between Satomi and Yoshie Tajima, the principal. They slowly formed this really wonderful friendship something I wasn’t expecting at the beginning. I really see Satomi as Yoshie’s successor. In fact about halfway through I was completely expecting that to be how the series would end – with Satomi as Yoshie’s heir. (Though of course it would remain in the family since Satomi would marry Shinichi and their children would continue the tradition.) Anyway, their sincere like and respect for each other was one of the highlights of the series. I loved their last scene where a smiling Yoshie tells Satomi that she intends to take her place as mother of the groom at Shinichi’s wedding and thus completely confirming her support of Satomi being her daughter-in-law. They’ll definitely have one of the best mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships ever.
• If there was to be more of this series it would be the Satomi/Yoshie relationship/friendship I would be most interested in seeing. It’d also be interesting to see how Shinichi would change as he got more mature. I imagine though that it wouldn’t be very significant. I am very curious about how he would react not only to learning that Yoshie was his mother but that Satomi knew about it. Now that could, maybe, create some real tension between them.
• The huge problem/conflict of the story being about how wrong it was for Satomi and Shinichi to date because they were teachers at the same school seemed very bizarre and pretty stupid to me. Why the hell would anyone care? I mean in the episode where Satomi gets a ‘stalker’ the vice-principal points out that the school has nothing to do with the private lives of their teachers. The whole thing felt very blown out of proportion and contrived.
• I loved that every episode passed the Bechdel Test, and that most of the series was about the relationships between women (which happens when most your cast is female). And, yes, a significant portion of time was taken up by boys, or specifically people talking about Shinichi, but it didn’t bother me.
• I also liked how Saeko Yano’s storyline went – she started as so jealousy of Satomi and so uncertain about her own worth that she happily tried to help the vice-principal in backstabbing the principal. But as the series went on she was given more depth, she was allowed to grow, and in the end there was a peace and perhaps even the start of a friendship between Saeko and Satomi and I really liked that.
• I liked Kimika. At the beginning I really enjoyed her battle of wills with Minami and the two of them fighting over Shinichi. It was amusing. I liked a lot less how they played Kimika’s realisation that there was something between Satomi and Shinichi. When they showed Kimika realising that it was Shinichi that Satomi had meant when she inadvertently told the entire school that she was in love I was sure TPTB were going to have her play matchmaker. Instead they had her go after Shinichi even harder, and even when he clearly was just not into her. I mean he asked her on a date – with his best friend! And she still tried to go after him. The office scene when she resigned so she could date Shinichi made me wince for her but at the same time – what was she thinking?! She really did bring it on herself. She knew that a) Satomi was in love with him and had been frantically looking for him the night before, b) that he was ‘recovering from a broken heart’, c) that he didn’t feel strongly for her and had just the night before rejected meeting her parents. Her continuing to go after him so strongly was kind of ridiculous. I did like how supportive she was at the end though.
• I was really surprised that the show ended before Shinichi discovered that Yoshie was his mother. I waited and waited for it to come out, and as the end neared I kept expecting it but nothing. I was so sure when the whole Satomi/Shinichi relationship scandal broke that she was going to confess all but nope.
• “I said I’d like to do something for her, but I never said “let’s do something about it.” – Shinichi. LOL.
• I found Yoshie’s explanation for why she abandoned Shinichi completely as a toddler really lacking. It’s clear that she loves her son and regrets very much not having a relationship with him – the scene between Shinichi, her and Satomi’s mom at the supermarket was great and I felt really sad for her – but I just can’t help but think ‘it’s your own fault you don’t have a relationship, it’s your choice’. Okay, she wanted to prevent him from feeling the pressure to succeed her as principal and live up to the family heritage/expectation but that is not a solid reason to cut him out of her life! She could have just raised him to know that he wasn’t expected to be principal after her. I mean talk about overreaction!
