Any bets on what fairy tale we'll see after The Little Mermaid? Alice in Wonderland maybe? Or Sleeping Beauty? I'm starting to wonder if the rest of the show will have Shimao in Hazuki's body and Hazuki in sketchbook fairy tale land. I wouldn't particularly mind if they did though, since this situation gives a lot to chew over. If the character relationships and the most unique love triangle I've ever seen weren't enough, now we're neck deep in symbolism as well. I love fairy tale symbolism. Last time I wondered who was putting Hazuki into the role of the failed suitors from Thumbelina, and we got a partial answer on that; not-Rokka says that the story didn't accomodate him, so he could take whatever role he wanted. The implication is that he can't take a role already filled, so in Shimao's version of Thumbelina, Hazuki can never be the prince. I'm probably going to write a longer post on all this later, since I find it fascinating, but in terms of what's important to this episode (as far as I can tell) the turning point was when Shimao started a new story in the sketchbook, giving Hazuki a leading role in The Little Mermaid. I don't know what to make of his choice of fairy tales at the moment; The Little Mermaid in a blood-red sea does not seem to bode well. Like the Thumbelina analogies, this one will probably need a few more episodes to play out. What's interesting though is when this pops up in the "real world" storyline. Shimao has decided to stop sabotaging Hazuki and is making an effort to act like him. In the process, he's discovered that Rokka really does have feelings for Hazuki, and that in a sense he's already lost the fight. However, it's still debatable whether Rokka realizes this yet or not. I've said before that I didn't want this to become a story about people trying to force Rokka to move on and portray forcing people into relationships as the answer to their emotional problems. It's easy to read Shimao's statement as such--"Stop using your dead husband as an excuse"--but when you consider the source, it becomes much more than that. If Shimao's guess is right, and I think it is, then Rokka has fallen in love again and his memory is getting in the way of new happiness. He doesn't want her to forget, and she won't, but he wants her to be able to move on. That's real love, in my opinion. And as corny as it sounds, I think a part of the old Rokka died with Shimao, and is tied so deeply into Shimao's supernatural existence that even he doesn't know it's there. How else can the show explain not-Rokka in the sketchbook, left behind and looking for her prince? Why Shimao looks like Rokka just before he possesses Hazuki? I'm not sure whether she needs to regain that part of her or let it go, but if I'm right about this hunch, it adds yet another layer to the dialogue of loving, letting go, and living. Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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