Hitorijime Boyfriend
| So let's ignore the age gap because apparently the characters live in a parallel world where 11 year old age gaps are normal. Let's actually pretend Kousuke is 21 and fresh out of college and being a temporary Math teacher is his first job. He has been in love with his brother's best friend for about a year or two and now he becomes his teacher. He continues to fall in love with him harder, and says lines like "You're the most important part of my life", "I can't image my life without you", "I want to spend the rest of my life with you". But apparently he wasn't more important than his temporary teacher job? The entire drama of this anime is not about the age gap or anything moral, it's about how Masahiro would rather die before allowing Kousuke to lose his temporary teacher job. Yet Kousuke never, ever, brought up the fact that he could just quit? You know, the temporary teacher job. There was absolutely nothing important about his job or his career. He never actually gave two fucks about his profession, because he was a criminal who used to brutally beat people up, acting like some kind of dollar store Batman. Then he falls in love with a kid and ends up making his life miserable just because he didn't want to quit a job he had for what, 1-2 months? Then he gets promoted to a full time teacher lmao. He was scared to death that he was about to be fired, the kid was depressed as fuck over it, and instead of taking this as a wake-up call, he just TAKES the promotion? Damn. The ending was like, "Let's keep living this, Masahiro. I got promoted now, there's no way I can quit now. I know I just proposed to you and I want to marry you, but sweetie you're just going to have to put up with this until you graduate ok? This job is everything to me but you're a close second so please don't leave me". I mean... am I wrong? |
RojasebApr 10, 2021 8:37 AM
| Hmm I don’t really agree with you ; first of all as you point it this teacher-student relationship with 11 eleven years old gap (I think Masahiro is something like 16 or so) is a bit toxic and borderline in terms of legality... No matter how you put it, it’s not really possible to live an open relationship with your math teacher, and obviously Kousuke would be in trouble if their relationship was to become known by everyone. I think this goes far beyond the “loosing your job” thing, and I don’t think Kousuke really fears this. I remember one scene with him saying that he would be ready to expose everything and didn’t care if it all went public ; the one who doesn’t want that is Masahiro, right? On the other hand, I agree that Kousuke’s behavior isn’t right ; I mean the way he falls in love with someone probably aged 13 or so, and then how he deliberately initiates the relationship... However, I did appreciate this anime as a whole, I especially love the OST and how the anime ends ; I also like Masahiro’s personality ;) |
SarutoKen said: and obviously Kousuke would be in trouble if their relationship was to become known by everyone. I think this goes far beyond the “loosing your job” thing, and I don’t think Kousuke really fears this. I remember one scene with him saying that he would be ready to expose everything and didn’t care if it all went public ; the one who doesn’t want that is Masahiro, right? Masahiro only ever brings up the job thing, Kousuke doesn't care but never brings up the fact the he can quit to stop stressing Masahiro. By the end of the anime, literally everyone but Kousuke's mom knew about the relationship and no one ever questioned it. Even Kousuke's adult friends didn't care about the age gap or teacher-student relationship and were supportive in the end. Only 1 of Masahiro's friend got mad and said they were "disgusting", but then everyone ganged up on him and they excluded him out of the group until he said he was sorry. Then he explained that he said "disgusting" because he thought Masahiro was cool and Kousuke is a mess as a person (so it wasn't even because of the age gap or the student-teacher thing). So in the world of the manga the mom wouldn't care either probably. They were already public. All Kousuke had to do was quit and get another job so that they could live together without complicating Masahiro's school life for no reason. |
RojasebApr 10, 2021 11:53 AM
Rojaseb said: So in the world of the manga the mom wouldn't care either probably. They were already public. All Kousuke had to do was quit and get another job so that they could live together without complicating Masahiro's school life for no reason. I would say semi-public because only close people actually know about them and I find it quite mature that everyone is ok with that, but I can’t help thinking that if gossip started to spread things would be different for both of them. I remember reading in the press a story similar to that one a while ago, and I know that the consequences for the teacher’s life were terrible and he had to move far away so that everyone forget about him. That doesn’t mean things have to go wrong (did you know French president Macron’s wife was his French teacher in high school when he was 17 and she is like 20 years older than him ? :p) I don’t say I really like Kousuke (I really prefer Masahiro), but I kind of understand that what he wants is also protecting Masahiro... |
| To be honest, I agree Kousuke acted like an asshole (most likely completely unintentionally, however) - but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, from a strictly storytelling perspective. First off, yes - the age gap and power dynamic is definitely pushing the moral and legal boundaries of romance, but the fictional context has to be considered. Personally it’s fictional nature means more leniency from me, and I think that’s a pretty common moral stance to hold - I mean, we tend to be more ok with murder (as a general example) in fiction, and hold a more lenient view on morality. I think that definitely applies here. In terms of Kousuke’s behaviour - it’s simply immature. Masahiro is the one worrying about Kousuke’s career, Masahiro is the only one thinking of the social implications of their relationship - Kousuke is an asshole because he’s immature, and can’t realise he is the adult here and needs to start acting like it. However, it is a key narrative point. I believe it’s touched upon in more detail in the manga, but Kousuke is immature and can’t take responsibility. He is naive in his desire to protect everything, to have both Masahiro and his job, and to think that they live in a fairytale world where if he fights for something he is always guaranteed to get it. Masahiro is ultimately the more “mature” one in the relationship, but the problem is he can’t always be - and in reality, he shouldn’t. Ultimately, it helps drive the narrative along without too much external drama, and it also helps us become more accepting of the relationship in terms of the age gap. There’s worse out there, and I think Kousuke has the capacity to change. It’s just going to take a bit of maturity. |
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