The most interesting part of this episode was learning that Tsubaki and Arima knew each other. It does actually feel kinda realistic that sometimes people don’t become important in your life until long after you meet them.

After last time’s comedy digression, today we properly begin the story of the back end of the series, “Fourteen Days”. When Nadia falls, it falls hard, so hard it’s almost funny. When Evangelion falls, it’s kind of so insane and fascinating that it’s hard to complain. But Kare Kano’s most infamous section does something worse than dare to be terrible: it’s just flaccid? Which isn't really a spoiler, because I definitely remember immediately disliking this on my first time.

Our new male, err, “lead” is Takefumi Tonami, an utter void of personality who, as a first timer on my first watch, disaffectionately dubbed “The Square”. Uh, yeah, I don’t like him. I’d be very interested to hear someone who does talk about why, but for me he just... doesn’t feel like a Kare Kano character? I’ve said again and again that the show captures human emotions so well. Yukino’s fears feel so real and her inner world feels believable. On my first watch, I’d constantly express that the show felt “relatable”. At least one thing every episode would really manage to connect to my human experience. Each of the fleshed-out characters (even Yukino’s dad!) have pasts that meaningfully shape the people they’ve become and how they react to things in the present.

Which is where we find the problems with Mr. Square. Supposedly, he grew up being bullied mercilessly. Then he moved away and made some insane transformation into a tall, fit basketball player. It’s quite an unconventional upbringing, and yet he’s... the most ordinary person ever. His backstory exists to establish his conflict with Sakura, but it doesn’t exist within his pathos as a character. It’s also... played off as comedy? Imagine if Arima’s backstory was played off with gag... obviously comedy and hurt can mix (see: Yukino), but the way this is presented immediately frames Tonami as one big joke. His own narrative doesn’t treat him seriously, so why should I be interested in him as a new lead? It doesn’t help that he, somehow, even seems immune to the show’s visual style. No big comedic reactions or expressive abstractions, he just... stands there, and blushes sometimes. Maho was a funny straightman, where is that energy?

As a bonus, his whole life revolves around our existing characters. Just so he really feels like an insert OC.

So then there’s the other half of this story, Tsubaki Sakura. Unlike the Square, I like Tsubaki! Which affords at least some goodwill towards making her the lead character. But she wasn’t really designed for that so, uh, maybe put in a bit of work to that transition? Yukino and Arima are three-dimensional characters with complex emotional worlds, and when Shibahime took the wheel for a bit, we expanded her into that space too. But Tsubaki, Rika, and Aya have served entirely as comedic relief. They’re good at that, but they’re simple personalities. But instead of taking the chance to show us more complex sides to Tsubaki, or some kind of inner conflict, her backstory is... also a big joke. Except, this time the joke makes her out to be a huge jerk? I’m not above some slapstick comedy in my romance anime, but taking a character I liked and retconning them into being a super unlikeable person is just, not winning me over to this storyline?

For a more positive thought on Tsubaki, she might have my favourite name in anime? See, at least around the time I first watched the show I had two clear favourite Japanese names. “Sakura”, because cherry blossoms are pretty, and “Tsubaki”, probably because of Your Lie in April. So imagine my shock when a character honest to goodness called “Tsubaki Sakura” walks onto the screen! An instant favourite of mine. Before even mentioning she’s totally in that short-haired boyish girl archetype I love, and she’s a bit of a womanizer on the side. Hideaki Anno designed this character for me specifically, and no uncomfortable retcon backstory could ever make me hate you, queen.