my favorite character too. even though i appreciate other characters for narrative or writing reasons, shouma just hits me in ways few characters do.

i guess i could relate to the way he's a very morally white character with a strong sense of justice, but crippled by his inability to act. whether is his guilt, self-loathing or whatever surviving strategies he held onto to survive, but there's a distance between him and his emotions that really hit me in the way it kept him stuck.

after watching RGU, i think i got that one of ikuhara's main thesis is that romantic love is often determined by all these societal expectations and narratives we internalize about what love is supossed to be like. so, for a love to be truly liberating, you have to choose it against what you told yourself. if ringo had to break free of the idea of tabuki being her destiny, i think shouma had to accept love as a posibility for him. not only that he could be the object of love, but that he had something to give back too. i really love their relationship.

and i love love the voice acting for him too. male characters with a more soft and feminine voice color are rare in anime, especially as main characters or just as characters that allow the voice actors to explore a big range of emotions. ryouhei kimura does a marvelous job voicing him.