Sakamichi no Apollon 06 – Bromance and Betrayal This episode is my favorite of the series so far. There’s so much going on between the characters, and the problems aren’t resolved by simply paying some jazz together. I feel like this episode was everything I’d been expecting out of Sakamichi but not quite getting. Yippee! Kaoru has really changed a lot since the start of the series (one year ago in their time). I was starting to feel annoyed at Kaoru’s “growth” up until now – it seemed like he had magically changed from a anxiety-ridden dweeb with emotional problems into a normal and cool guy, and all sometime between the first and second episodes. What I had been missing was a sense that Kaoru’s transformation had some context/importance/meaning. But finally, things have come full circle. In the first part of the episode, Kaoru comes across as being confident, fun, and warm while still maintaining some of his seriousness, thoughtfulness, and introspection. I especially liked Kaoru’s attempts to dissuade Sentaro from going on a date with Yurika – without being too obvious, it’s clear that Kaoru doesn’t want to see his best friend get his heart broken. Even with Kaoru’s growth throughout the year, he’s still not the most socially adept guy out there, and in his attempts to look out for Sentaro, he does make a few blunders. It’s refreshing to see this continuity in Kaoru’s character come back… Although, I hope he doesn’t cry as much in the next episode. I was a little confused by Kaoru and Yurika’s interaction in the art room (and that painting was hideous!). Essentially, Kaoru confronted Yurika about Jun by telling her that he saw her letters to him in his mail slot. Kaoru also let Yurika know that Jun hadn’t received her letters and that he might be with another woman. The subtlety and the dancing around the topic in that scene was perfect and made sense considering that both Kaoru and Yurika are from wealthy backgrounds not given to blabbing straightforwardly about personal affairs. But what was Kaoru’s motivation? I’m curious. Was he confronting her for Sentaro’s sake, or was he doing it for her sake? It honestly seemed to me that he was doing it for Yurika – he let her know that Jun hadn’t gotten her letters, probably because he figured she had been waiting for a response. And he told her that Jun may have been with another woman, probably to ease the inevitable disappointment that she will face. Maybe Kaoru’s a pretty great guy after all? Well, as soon as I was thinking that Kaoru was awesome, he went and let me down. He really handled Sentaro’s “betrayal” poorly. Really poorly. Awwww, come on Kaoru! It was great though. Thank you, finally, we get to see that a year of being buddies with Sentaro and playing jazz music isn’t enough to fix every problem and psychological issue that Kaoru has. Yes! That was my main complaint...
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