Look at how smug he is. I love the character expressions in this show, especially Shimao's. In case there was any doubt, Natsuyuki Rendezvous is already living up to the noitaminA pedigree of not being just any romance show. Last week I expressed some concern that it might have delved too deep too fast; I was mostly worried that the show would run out of content to work with. This episode proved me completely wrong in that assumption, and I'm glad it did. The main thing this episode accomplished was to establish that this is not a ghost story. The "hook" from the first episode--Shimao is a ghost and only Hazuki can see him--does its job in getting us interested, but there's far more going on here, to the point that Shimao's spiritual status in not even the focus. Instead, the spotlight goes to Rokka and her understandably conflicted emotions. We get a lot more detail in the form of flashbacks and internal monologue from both Rokka and Shimao about what their relationship was like while he was still alive, and I assume that the details will keep coming as the show goes on. There were a lot of heart-wrenching moments in those parts, as well as in some of the commentary Shimao has throughout the episode ("That was my spot") but the one that stood out the most to me was the reason why Shimao was haunting Rokka. As he died, she asked him not to leave, so he didn't. Of course there's more to this on Shimao's end since he states that all he wants is for her to be happy. However, his actions make it clear that he only wants Rokka to be happy with him, even if she can't see him, providing the majority of the humor and the title for this post. It's easy to call his actions selfish, but in the context they're presented you can't help but feel for him. He has one sided conversations with Rokka, acting like nothing has changed when the reality is he can't help her anymore. While I can't really speak to it myself, having never gone through something like Rokka has, it's clear that she has the kind of grief that you never really forget. Even though she likes being around Hazuki and even reciprocates his feelings to an extent, she never thinks about him in terms of starting a serious relationship, only as a "love affair." Her terminology is ironically accurate, since Shimao is present, but if this is a story about how Rokka moves on, then it speaks to how much effort Hazuki will have to put in if he wants to change her mind. In terms of personal experience, I relate with Hazuki a lot more. What Shimao calls cowardice seems more like inexperience, since I get the feeling that Rokka is the first person he's been really serious about. I'll leave it to whatever future flashbacks and/or monologues that may be in store to confirm or deny that. He clearly has a lot to learn though, since at the moment he doesn't seem to know what he wants out of the relationship, just that he likes Rokka. Its one thing to declare your love, but if he actually gets the girl...then what? Is he willing to deal with the emotional baggage Rokka's carrying? If Natsuyuki Rendezvous isn't a ghost story but not quite a love story, then what is it? At the moment, despite and even partially because of the supernatural angle, we have a story about the complexity of human emotion that can't be solved just by one character hooking up with another. It's here that the show greatly distances itself from the well-worn paths of high school anime romance, where a kiss and a confession are the end of the story. People and their lives and emotions are far more complex than that, and Natsuyuki Rendezvous promises a story that reflects that complexity. Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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