An Experience Not Meant to Be Shared

Dearest Rachel –

There are too many things that I do that are solitary pursuits these days that I wish were not so, but can’t be helped at this point. Back in the day, we would do these things together (and in certain times and cases, we would drag Daniel along in our wake, but not always), which was what made it worthwhile – and conversely, certain things that we couldn’t share well, like sports, for instance, I learned to do without for the opposite reason.

One of these things, as you might guess from various letters throughout the past four and a half years, is travel. Specifically, cruising – if for no other reason than the fact that you can unpack in your ‘hotel’ room and let the ‘hotel’ do the traveling for you – and both of us were brought into that mode of transit by our parents, as opposed to discovering it on our own. But we did try to go on our own at several different point in our life, and we were looking forward to doing that much more of it once the lockdowns were lifted… except that you didn’t live to see that day. Now, I try to bring you along on these travels, both physically, on a granular level, and in the telling about it, but it’s most assuredly not the same.

Meanwhile, when we weren’t traveling (and even sometime when we were – and in fact, it would justify several trips away from home over the course of any given year), we had anime we would watch together. Now that I think about it, I don’t know if you had a genre you favored, or if you just went along with my preference for comic slice-of-life stuff – maybe that was your favorite as well, and since ours coincided, it never occurred to you to suggest other titles.

The question of genres is something that didn’t occur to me to question until now, given that Logan seems to be more into the sword-and-sorcery “isekai” genre, where a normal person from our world (usually a male, since he’s supposed to identify with the protagonist) is thrust into another, very different world, with different rules, and has to not only survive but thrive in it (which, being fiction, he usually does). For my part, I think of slice-of-life stories as more than sufficient for me to relate to, and I watch with a longing sense of wishing my life could be like that of those characters’ (Oh, and by the way – although you hardly need to be told, the same can be said for the, ah… racier titles we would watch together, and occasionally act upon. Would it surprise you to hear that I don’t bother with those titles anymore, since they can’t be acted upon any more?)

These two pursuits, and the fact that I wish they could be shared with others, is why I’ve been trying to convince the gang (the girls, especially; the boys don’t need an excuse to watch anime, and at least Daniel I can drag around on my travels with minimal persuasion) to watch a series like Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho (“A Place Further than the Universe,” or Yorimoi for short). I may have no desire to visit Antarctica in particular, but the idea that travel expands one’s horizons – and that travel with someone can deepen the relationship between each other – is something I would wish for them to get on board with, because I don’t really like this whole process of travelling alone. I’ve said enough on the subject that I don’t need to belabor the point here and now, but I will add what I said last weekend; that I don’t have the extended family to spread my good fortune (such as it is; I’ve had ill luck, too, or this wouldn’t be the only way I reach out to you, after all) like my dad did in taking us on trips. I keep think that, if they were to see that anime, and relate to one or another of the characters, they might find themselves more inclined to do the other thing I’d rather do with others, and travel with me.

All this being said, this past weekend saw me bingeing a whole other series, one that – like with so many others in the slice-of-life genre – I wish could happen to me, but not one the others could or would want to relate to – and certainly not in relation to myself.

O Maidens in Your Savage Season (Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo) has been sitting on my shelf for a while, but that title… well, it’s kind of daunting, wouldn’t you say? Poetic as it may be, there’s something… off… about it. Girls aren’t ‘savage,’ that’s the province of the male of the species, right? I’m familiar with Lord of the Flies and such stuff; it’s boys that are truly capable of savagery and atavism, aren’t we?

But the main characters aren’t what you would consider to be “mean girls,” by any stretch of the imagination (although there are a few on the periphery, and one who seems to be one but isn’t, turning into a sympathetic and even tragic figure by series’ end). They’re all rather socially awkward outcasts in their high school (making them that much more relatable, because who doesn’t think they’re among the school outcasts?), getting together as the school’s literature club…

As it so happens, the ‘savagery’ has little to do with the violence we tend to connote with the word in English (indeed, maybe there’s something lost in the translation; when I looked up 荒ぶる季節 – “araburu kisetsu” – by itself, it came out as “a rough season.” Maybe the title could be reasonably interpreted as “a rough time to be a girl,” which certainly does describe one’s high school years, don’t they?) Interestingly, the focus is on the other major topic that Western – or is it just American? – pop culture has trouble with, that of sex.

And now you see why this viewing experience can’t be shared with our friends.

Oh, there’s no depictions of untoward activity – although the game of chicken played between the aspiring writer character and the club’s faculty advisor ride the ragged edge of disaster, as such games do – it wouldn’t inspire either of us toward certain actions we weren’t already familiar with as a couple. It’s tame in that respect, but the mind games going on are something else. One tends to forget how, at a certain age, every word, every movement of a person might be scrutinized for meaning by a potential love interest. I’ve no interest in starting those speculations among our circle.

Of course, the whole point of the genre is to determine which character (and which relationships) oneself best resembles. You certainly had a lot of Kazusa within you, but also Momoko – the whole repeated moment of crying “besties!” while a little over the top, struck me as similar to your reaction to so many of those you cultivated into friends. But in terms of suitors, Izumi seems more like your descriptions of your childhood friend David Crowcroft, and while you might have seen me as Sugimoto-like at first, I’d like to think I grew out of it (although I may have acted somewhat Sugimotoesque toward another Momoko-like individual, thinking I was being like Amagi was toward Rin – although comparing you to the prudish Rin seems a little imperfect an analogy, as well). I’m not sure it would be wise to suggest that the gang try to figure out who they might be in this set of circumstances.

(Oh, and you’ll notice that, while I’m probably older than any of the adults in the series – with the possible exception of the principal – I can’t imagine anyone relating to them, for the most part, even in their most sympathetic, which I think is by design. They aren’t completely unlikeable – Kazusa’s parents, in particular, try to be their daughter’s friends, and considering that they turned out a decent girl, they’re praiseworthy for their efforts – but they aren’t meant for the viewer to superimpose themselves upon, even if it’s warranted. So I find myself wanting to be one of the high school kids, as would anyone watching this or any other such show; it’s just how it is)

So I wound up watching the whole thing on my own, and while it was a really good series that you and I would have enjoyed together (hey, it’s considerably tamer than, say, Shimoneta, the last series we watched – but never finished – together), I think this was not meant to be shared with the others. Of course, if any of them are reading this over your shoulder, this analysis (such as it is) might be the impetus to get them to look it up individually and watch it just because I’m recommending them not to… and I’m okay with that, if that’s what they want to do. Let them see it, and make up their minds; it might make for an interesting series of epiphanies. But having it thrust upon them all in a group would be more than awkward, and things are already like that. Besides, we still have to finish Yorimoi, and consider where and when we want to attempt to travel, before getting into something this heavy.

I know I’m years behind the curve on these shows, too, honey, but these things find me when they find me; and I’ll tell you about them when they do. Until the next time, though, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m sure I’m going to need it.