Zetsuen no Tempest

[Kraco]

He hasn't gotten any new mail as far as I can see. I suppose he's only been telling people that he's got a girlfriend, and that he doesn't necessarily believe himself that he's got a girlfriend in the next city. I was thinking under the pretense that Yoshino really did think he had an existing girlfriend through his phone and wasn't mentally delusional.

Mentally delusional? Mahiro might be a brute but he's by no means stupid. If Yoshino had told him his girlfriend had died around the same time Aika died, it would have given Mahiro all the evidence to think Yoshino in fact was the boyfriend Aika teasingly suggested she might have. He must have suspected that at some point anyway, since those two did spend time together, even if Aika was, kind of, badmouthing Yoshino to Mahiro so much that Mahiro sometimes thought Aika hates Yoshino. I don't know if that's the main reason why Yoshino pretends his girl is still alive, or if it's simply to act like everything's still cool for him, so that Mahiro wouldn't be wondering why Yoshino isn't seeking revenge or isn't otherwise depressed, as Yoshino could have easily lied his girlfriend died randomly during the metallization incidents.

[Buffalobiian]

When the three were still together, did Mahiro know Yoshino had a girlfriend? I don't really a scene where it showed he did.

I only recall Mahiro commenting on Yoshino's girlfriend after he came back as a mage. In fact, I think he even said something like "you have a girlfriend now", to which Yoshino replied in surprise "How'd you know?". If Mahiro never knew Yoshino had a girlfriend, there would have been no reason to pretend he had one (and still does). The fact that Yoshino even went out of his way during his reading task to tell the girls in his class he had a girlfriend suggests to me that it's a personal thing to him, rather than an act he puts on to fool Mahiro.

[Archangel]

2) Yoshino and Mage were actually dating each other via long distance. They're somehow seeing Aika's picture instead of each others'.

LMAO! Make this happen, please.

There's definitely something there though, how they're deceptively not showing his girlfriend. But she has to be real in some manner seeing as his friend when the mage made his first appearance also acknowledged her existence.

I don't like how they're dragging along these tiny plot developments, what i really want to know is what Aika's true role is in all of this. I'll be severely disappointed if she doesn't turn out to be an evil mastermind with some evil purpose and an evil smirk.

When the three were still together, did Mahiro know Yoshino had a girlfriend? I don't really a scene where it showed he did.

He already knew, it's just her identity that he was unaware of.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 16

[Kraco]

For some reason I'm enjoying now Hakaze's change from a mysterious, mighty chief magician into a love-struck girl. Maybe it's because this show has spent so considerable time to try to give Yoshino, Mahiro (and Aika) so deep personalities with all the history, flashbacks, and the other characters talking so much about them. To be honest I still fail to see how Yoshino is nearly as remarkable as they all say, but between maintaining the illusion of a girlfriend and how significant he supposedly is, someone as important as Hakaze behaving like that next to him is nice to watch. Maybe it's all the better that almost everything about Yoshino is speculation that make him more interesting (also as Hakaze's possible partner, should he begin to feel similarly).

Other than that, it's amusing to watch how Samon's faction try to look so hard to prove Yoshino is the Exodus chief magician, clearly making up evidence to support their theories, in lack of anything definitive.

Aika seemingly predicting her own death was an interesting loose detail. Did she predict everything that would happen so accurately a long time ago that she chose to keep reading and quoting the two books with different endings on purpose?

[Buffalobiian]

Hakaze coming out into the open about it is pretty refreshing given how secret crushes drag on in normal anime depictions. Yoshino has the potential to influence those around him when he tries. I can see why Samon would be initially wary of him if he is able to make Hakaze dance for him.

[Archangel]

Moegician.

[shinta|hikari]

Hakaze!!!!

3 exclamation points were not enough.

Yoshino is absurd because he is a living contradiction. He is sympathetic, yet detached, powerless, yet influential. He does not make sense, making him the best candidate for the mage of Exodus, or at least the heart of Exodus, as this episode implies. He may not have the power(?), but he has the inclination to change the world, and has in fact done so once already despite being powerless.

[Kraco]

He needs to have some special power or ability to be anything, though, even if it was to grant powers to others, or whatever. Otherwise he's just a man with a fancy title, and it's still all up to his own mundane skills. I don't think simply being the love interest of the Princess of Genesis is enough to make one the Prince of Exodus. That makes no sense. She could have fallen in love with anybody, given a chance. Especially since we have already seen Exodus can grant every bit as impressive powers as Genesis. Unless one surmises the Tree of Exodus created the goofball what's-his-name mage of Exodus as a distraction while its real intention is to mess with the Genesis subtly.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 17



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Aaaand, it's out! I wouldn't have minded that they kept it secret a little longer had Samon not exhausted his hilarious list of guesses.

[Kraco]

I couldn't stop loving Hakaze's internal but very much externally visible attempts to stop liking Yoshino and the unavoidable daydreaming that always followed. She has certainly been a much funnier character after getting back from the island. But as much as I liked those scenes, I still don't mind the secret getting revealed already. It's better to stop when you are at the top, not when the audience is already getting tired of it.

The exact same could be said about the other folks trying to deduce the indentity of Yoshino's girl. It was funny, but the half-mage did stop it suitably, because every minutes was stretching the unlikelihood of nobody voicing the most obvious suspect. I suppose it's somewhat understandable Mahiro didn't allow himself to realize it. Yoshino was apparently his only friend, and that would have ended had he known it from the beginning. I wonder if they still intend to suspect Yoshino, though. Mahiro might be angry enough to, but how much sense would it make?

[Buffalobiian]

The girlfriend thing didn't have anything to do with suspecting Yoshino. They just wanted somebody they can use to get a leverage on him. The fact that Aika is his girlfriend doesn't drop his chances of being the killer either (at least as far as Samon and Tetsuma are willing to believe).

[Kraco]

Perhaps, perhaps not. But the reason why they started to look for the girlfriend fused now with Mahiro's goal of finding Aika's killer (and also Aika's possible boyfriend, which Yoshino used against him earlier). I guess it doesn't mean one thing or another in the bigger picture as far as Samon is concerned, but now it all depends on how Mahiro, once he cools down his head, judges Yoshino. Aika is dead so jealousy is kind of useless, which means all that's left for Mahiro is to try to weigh how well he thinks he knows Yoshino against all the other emotions (since all the facts are missing). They were friends, after a fashion, so will he consider Yoshino capable and willing to have killed Aika?

No doubt Mahiro will go and ask Yoshino directly. I think he's that kind of a guy, not one lurking in the shadows trying to find out everything indirectly.

Another interesting thing would be to see how Hakaze would react to all this. I doubt she would be all too quick to suspect Yoshino of anything vile.

[Archangel]

I wonder if there's anything to Samon's crazy theory and if it's connected with all of them dismissing the most obvious answer when searching for possible girlfriends. It's like the trees themselves were impeding their thought processes of even acknowledging Aika as a possibility.

[Kraco]

I wonder if there's anything to Samon's crazy theory and if it's connected with all of them dismissing the most obvious answer when searching for possible girlfriends. It's like the trees themselves were impeding their thought processes of even acknowledging Aika as a possibility.

Dunno. Maybe they were just afraid of Mahiro and thus didn't say it, since they all know he's an abnormal siscon. That's the feeling I got.

[Archangel]

Dunno. Maybe they were just afraid of Mahiro and thus didn't say it, since they all know he's an abnormal siscon. That's the feeling I got.

That's definitely not it, they seemed genuinely surprised with the suggestion and maybe surprised on how neither of them had thought of it first.

[Ryllharu]

I am getting really tired of their explanations that Yoshino must be the Mage of Exodus, though now he's just "the mind" of the Mage of Exodus.

What it basically boils down to is, "an ordinary guy can frequently outsmart us...he must be the mage of exodus, it is the only explanation, it is definitely not that we are all dumbasses!" But the Kusaribe are all dumbasses, except Natsumura and Megumu. They're frequently easily tricked by either Yoshino or Mahiro (who isn't that clever himself). Hakaze is a proven moron, Samon is even dumber (revealing his entire plan to Yoshino and Mahiro's clever wordplay, something they are used to from Aika), and Tetsuma isn't too bad though he has a bad case of tunnel vision when it comes to a given task.

They need to give it up. Sure, Hanemura is weak willed, but look at the opposite. Hakaze is the princess of Genesis, and she's incredibly violent and doesn't preserve much. She blew away half of a mountain, just to prove a point. If their logic is correct (which I bet it isn't), Hakaze should be obsessed with maintaining a balance, not acting so impulsively.

[Buffalobiian]

Hakaze is a proven moron

Do elaborate.

[Ryllharu]

Do you seriously not remember all the times that Yoshino and Mahiro were able to shock/surprise her over the doll? Hakaze is so powerful, that common sense, or even a general wariness frequently eludes her. Or maybe the fact that she never quite figured out that she was locked two years in the past, but Yoshino figured it out easily? Now that she's back, she displayed classic lovestruck moron behavior, enough that her subordinates are actually concerned.

And lest we forget: She did get stuffed into a barrel by one of the biggest idiots around, Samon. That's kind of a big one.

It's not as easy to see when you compare her with the even bigger morons around like Samon and Yamamoto, but Hakaze isn't that clever.

[Buffalobiian]

Do you seriously not remember all the times that Yoshino and Mahiro were able to shock/surprise her over the doll?

I do, and I don't consider the surprises to be Hakaze's fault. Yoshino and Mahiro are above average.

I can't call being lovestruck a sign of being a moron simply because it can happen to everyone regardless of how smart they are. It's almost a necessary component of extreme love.

As for the barrel.. we don't know how that happened. Flashbacks have shown Samon to ambush her once already and she was smart enough to have an offering in her mouth to get her out of the situation. I suppose that you could always wear some kind of ring around you, but when an entire village is opposing you (some of which have been planning it for two generations), it's almost inevitable that they'd trip you up sometime down the track.

She's not that clever, but I can't agree with the term "moron".