Avish said: I'm interested in hearing your theory if you're okay with sharing it, but it's no problem if you don't feel like it as you said.
Ok, so... I won't expand too much (as I said I don't have energy for this anymore). But I thought it had to do with the psychological concept of 'shadow' (disclaimer: I am not a trained psychologist!). The idea is that when you have a psychological trait or emotion you subconsciously try to suppress, it can come out in an 'ugly' form. As such, because of his grief, Arata had been trying to suppress his own competitiveness, which came out in the match with Taichi in his 'ugly form', the demon mode. That's because back then he was still trying to emulate his grandpa, if you remember he only accepted the idea of Taichi as a rival after remembering his grandpa also had a rival. However, in the fifth match against Suo, he had finally let go of trying to emulate grandpa, he wasn't repressing himself anymore, so his competitive side was allowed to come into light with a much more positive tone. Hence, he looked bright and optimistic instead of a 'demon'.
That's it in general lines, but remember these are the thoughts of someone who loved Arata very much and was willing to try to understand him - unlike Suetsugu. When an Arata fan confronted her on Twitter, her justification was that 'Arata is quiet'. As if quiet people don't have thoughts and feelings too. But, of course, you have to be willing to listen, and Suetsugu clearly wasn't - she spoke about how she found Taichi easy to write/draw, the implication being that Arata was 'difficult'.
A better author would have made the effort to listen to both, but I guess Suetsugu is the type of person who avoids what's 'difficult' - writing about love without using cliches? Difficult. Listening to Arata? Difficult. Shedding some light on Arata's grandpa? Difficult. It's clear to me now why she plagiarised in the past - she likes to take the easy way out under pressure, and just hope that no-one notices. The ending of Chihayafuru was one of these occasions: just piling up old-school shojo tropes one on top of the other, even if they make absolute no sense with the rest of the story. I'm not saying that she's not talented or had-working but she clearly lacks the ability to deliver under pressure that we see on the great authors. Because of that, I won't touch any of her other works, past or future. I don't hate her but I am absolutely done with her. |