ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME
So the reason why Sayu ran from home, worked as a prostitute and is fine being raped is ... rebelling against her RICH dad? Wow ...
This anime is such a pile of shit garbage at this point. And here I thought her casually conversing with her rapist was the low point, but no ....
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
Maybe the brother fucks her at home.
Peace.
It would depend on why she's rebelling against her rich dad. From an earlier flashback (in ep 4) I got a suspicion someone died, likely through a suicide. It was probably her best friend or something like that. If it led to Sayu running away from home, I imagine, at the very least, her family prevented her from attending the funeral and everything else. Maybe they even prevented her from helping the friend before the suicide.Originally Posted by MFauli
Somehow, from your comment, I get a feeling that even if her rich dad had been molesting her, you still wouldn't sympathise with her running away. You were so quick to judge her actions as a pile of garbage.
Also the fuckboy isn't her rapist. She consented to their relationship before. She even tried to make Yoshida have sex with her in the beginning. Technically she even consented to the latest attempt, but since it was through blackmail, I reckon it wouldn't hold in any Western court. It might in Japan. She's not living in normal circumstances. She hasn't got your leeway in choosing her social contacts. Having a public job already backfired, like this episode showed. The dude was working at the shop before her, plus her only friend Asami is there. It wouldn't have been so simple for her to leave the shop and look for another part-time place.
Another Matou household, huh?
She must be the only one who's sane in her mind. I can relate, because she is the only one with the brashness to break the stalemate of confession. MC kinda brushed her (feelings) off in a cruel way, but her earnestness is endearing.
She's the underdog, in the weakest position. She loses to Gotou, whom Yoshida already confessed to, she loses to Sayu who shares the home with Yoshida. Gotou indeed can wait and see if Yoshida is true to his word and doesn't fall for Sayu, in which case he ought to keep liking Gotou. Mishima is still in square zero, more or less. If she does nothing, she hasn't got a single chance. So, all in all, it's easy for her to talk like she did because it's her only chance.
The weirdest part to me is how much better animated Asami is at this point than Sayu. Sayu looks flat in almost every scene, while Asami and Gotou are very dynamically animated. Mishima is somewhere in between, a bouncy puppy. Given that Asami is a minor side character, it's really strange.
As for why she ran away, it's very likely what Kraco said. Sayu's been sheltered for a long time, seems to have lost her only school friend to suicide, and then ran away from her family. I doubt it is as bad as a Kurenai/Matou type situation, but maybe more of business politics thing. Food company, wealthy. Marry the daughter off to have a merger, etc. Hokkaido is Japan's breadbasket, after all.
episode 8:
I hate Sayu. It's official now.
She really is an extremely self-centered bitch.Everything is about her, and despite being thankful for everything the other people do for her, she's actually the one hitting on Yoshida, who, as we can see, is about to crumble and will probably fall for her soon.
When Mishima broke down crying, I really hoped Yoshida would unexpectedly open the door again a la "Sorry, I forgot something-" and see her cry and shout the things she did shout. This anime really goes out of its way to get Sayu what SHE wants :/
At least we ought to find out why she's ran from home next week, and it better be the best of reasons. Any "my dad expects too much" or forced marriage bs or whatever would NOT justify her behavior. Ugh.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
At least now the tension in their relationship has to amount to something. He either lets her go or he doesn't; no more piddle-farting around. He even said she should go home, and now gets to make good on that (likely hollow) statement. Push come to shove, he will have to face the fact that spending a large amount of time with a domestic partner can make you dependent on them, as commented on this episode, whether he loves her romantically or not.
Yeah, he has become a psychologically dependent on her already. I suppose it's not anything world breaking, though, even if she now left. In fact I'd say getting rejected by Gotou aided in developing that dependency. He had been aiming for her for years, which alone would have kept him motivated from day to day, but after the rejection, he most likely felt like he had nothing in his life anymore. Then Sayu appeared conveniently, and his life suddenly wasn't empty anymore.
I'd say Yoshida is now mentally healthier than he was before meeting Sayu. He also knows Sayu has to go back home. We can only hope the brother dude isn't any snake, even though I suspect he's a cold enough businessman to work for Apple, which is why Sayu could only be a loose end for him. He would probably like to avoid any scandals, so I don't see him cause trouble for Yoshida. Nevertheless, Sayu still needs to sort out her problems back home the official way. They all know that. Of course there's the slim chance something is wrong about her family far worse than I'd expect, but I didn't get the feeling from Sayu's actions so far that the brother would have been raping her or anything. I don't see how she'd even consider going back home under such circumstances. She would have most likely disappeared the moment Yoshida, in an earlier episode, said she should return home eventually.
This got cliché and boring stunningly fast.
Even other series that started with promise but turned into dumpster fires (Golden Time) are better than this. It turns out that boring is far worse than trite melodrama.
The entire middle of the episode at the festival was filler. You could skip between the karaoke box and post fireworks and not miss any development.
9
Well, all of the pieces are here now. Did it work for you? It more or less did for me. The sympathetic friend suicide is a trope that gets me more often than not, and it comboed well with the mother's callousness. Brother was a bit too permissive for someone that holds a steady job... Give her cash and tell her to call you if she "thinks she's in danger"? Nah, she can stay at a local hotel if the objective is to give her distance from her mother.
On another note, how miserable is the depiction of the average Japanese man? It is that special to find someone who doesn't demand sexual favors for humanitarian aid of a minor?
Sayu is a slut, confirmed.
So she left from home because her mom didn't immediately acknowledge Sayu's feelings, then accused her brother of forsaking her, too, only because he wouldn't send her money anymore, and then she started having sex with strangers because that was the easiest solution.
Look, losing a friend to suicide is terrible. But when two sentences from your mom that you don't like make you leave her for a life in prostitution, and even when you have a great, supportive brother (we all thought he'd be some asshole, haha), then fault lies with you.
This has been a true trainwreck of a series and even the animation got worse. What's up with many of the scenes her, Sayu's face was messed up lol.
Anyway ... pls don't become prositutes over a mean mom, dear girls.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
It was already heavily suggested in an earlier episode that Sayu's friend would kill herself, so it wasn't any big surprise. I suppose this was quite a textbook background. Still worlds above any incest shit, though.
I'd say that was the brother's, and also the mother's, personality problem. Those two are most likely quite similar personalities: emotionally stable, not thinking too much about anything useless, goal-oriented, efficient, not too sympathetic by nature in their practicality. So, when shit hit the fan in this sort of manner, they didn't really have any tools to deal with it, since nothing like that could ever happen because of their own actions. My theory is the brother just thought Sayu needs a bit of space, but he had no idea how emotionally damaged she was because it would be alien to his own nature. I reckon he really thought she would live for a week or two in a hotel, then come back as good as new once the money was all gone. Because that's likely the extent of his imagination and everything he himself would have needed.
Most people don't want to get involved in anything strange looking and simply pretend they didn't see anything. Another big portion would get it sorted out through the officials. A small minority would get personally involved. I reckon that city street might have even been close to some dubious parts of the town, so the portion of those wanting to get personally involved with unwholesome aims would be larger. After that first time, I'd go as far as saying Sayu was specifically looking for suitable types to allow that kind of living.
I'd say it is more an author's problem rather than any of these characters' problems. And you're totally throwing the brother under the bus. He has been reasonably supportive.
Let me drop some truth bombs here:Most people don't want to get involved in anything strange looking and simply pretend they didn't see anything. Another big portion would get it sorted out through the officials. A small minority would get personally involved. I reckon that city street might have even been close to some dubious parts of the town, so the portion of those wanting to get personally involved with unwholesome aims would be larger. After that first time, I'd go as far as saying Sayu was specifically looking for suitable types to allow that kind of living.
The reason why netflight's primary expectation of people letting a stranger girl stay with them without "benefits" is fault, is because that simply wouldn't ever happen irl. I wrote about this at the beginning of this series: When a stranger girl tells you she's run away from home and doesn't know where to stay, you call the police/other services to help her. Yes, she would hate that and all, but she's a runaway teenager, she doesn't get to pick and choose at this point. More importantly even: YOU are an unrelated adult. So at NO point in this chain of events would you invite a stranger girl into your house, and for several days, too. That's because 1.) it's inappropriate, 2.) you don't know how mentally stable she is, 3.) she might be a crime victim that needs to be investigated, 4.) maybe she's tricking you and will steal or even murder you in your sleep, 5.) and so on.
The scenario of this anime is 100% fictional and unrealistic. It only works because Yoshi is a mix of dumb and helpful to a fault, and literally EVERYYONE he knows is okay with this shit, too. Even if you are like Yoshida, chances are the first person you tell about it irl will be outraged and force you to tell the police or else they will do that.
Which brings us to the "miserable depiction of (Japanese) men":
First of all: If a runaway teenage girl asked me for help, I'd call the police so that things can be taken care of. That's not me being heartless, that's me doing the best for her. As someone who suffers from mental illness (depression) himself, I've been to several psychosomatic hospitals and you will absolutely meet this kind of cute, helpless girl in such institutions. I've been involved with these situations myself and matter of fact is: YOU cannot help them. You can be nice and all, but to make real change, they have to get real help. That's why they're in the hospital to begin with, lol. And someone like Sayu clearly needs professional help. She's got a trauma for sure from watching her friend commit suicide. She has a difficult relationship with her mom. And she's run away and had sex with lots of stranger men. GET HER PROPER HELP.
And secondly, IF for whatever reason I didn't do the above: Yes, I would totally have sex with her, too. Assuming she's of legal age and let's me do it, then I'd be an idiot not to. That doesn't make me "miserable", it makes me reasonable. She needs a place, I offer it to her, she gives me something in return. And while it's hard to judge from anime artstyles, she doesn't look like a child, nah, she's hot, we've seen that much.Is it still morally questionable? Sure. But that's only because at that point I already failed to do the morally right thing which I explained above.
Yoshida chose to do an in-between: Not give her proper help, BUT let her stay with him. Basically, he's a dumbass, because he's neither helping her nor getting something in return. He's just further messing things up.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
The game is over if you need to start criticising the author instead of the story. This series hasn't gotten that bad, at least not yet, in my opinion. Besides, the brother is a whole lot better person than I thought he was. He just isn't a people person, nor is the mother.
You ain't dropping no bombs here. I've written about the same thing, though it might have been at Mangadex in the manga discussion. However, it's just one of those settings you need to accept for there to be a story at all. This is still more believable than a space alien dropping on your lap, mysteriously being exactly like a really cute human girl, only with a tail, some weird powers, and scifi technology. If you can't accept that, you simply can't real great many a manga/watch their animes. This is no different, basically, only no laws of physics, population genetics, and such are broken.
Actually a person who has suffered a lot in their own life, like a refugee, a victim of prolonged domestic abuse, etc, could do it. They might have lost their faith in the government and officials at least partially, but could still be a really good human. They would also be more likely to recognise another real victim, not just some scumbag looking for easy robbing targets. An outlier in the society, nonetheless. That being said, not even most of them would do it, but some might. Of course Yoshida is nothing like that.
It's still a million percent more realistic than meeting a group of space aliens that look like super cute human girls, and they all fall in love with you, one after another.
She seems to be doing much better already than in the beginning. I doubt she's going to keep selling herself anymore, and she's starting to think about her own future. The most well known Japanese mental health institution is a high building with an easy to access roof and poor fences around the edges. Sure, it would have solved all of Sayu's problems, just like it solved all of her best friend's problems, but I prefer her getting better by living with Yoshida for a while. He's probably the first decent adult who hasn't been too busy with their own business all the time, has tried to understand and encourage her, yet still being sure to set her limits and demand that she thinks about her own situation and be prepared to face the reality in the near future.
Results speak for themselves. Even the dense brother noticed Sayu has actually changed for the better in some ways, such as expresing her own will.
We'll have to agree to disagree on most of this, Kraco, so I won't reply to every single paragraph. But the following I need to address:
That's the same shitty argument SJWs (not saying you are one) love to make when people like me desire historical accuracy in video games, as much as that is reasonably possible. These people will then argue "oh, magic and dragons are fine, but gay and black people aren't?! Bigot!!1". What they're ignoring and what you just did is that there is an important difference between obious fantasy that's there as part of the sales pitch, and fantasy that nobody but activists would fantasize about.
For example, when I played Dragon Age Origins back when it released, I found it extremely silly that half of the soldiers during a big battle were women. That was clearly some activist agenda, because I didn't buy Dragon Age Origins for the fantasy-equality between male and female soldiers, I bought it for the dragons and magic fantasy. Some people complained about Kingdom Come: Deliverance not having black characters, even though the game was set in medieval Bohemia where black people (especially non-slaves) simply didn't exist back then and the developer strived to make a sim-like experience that's true to history. For that, activists called him a nazi. Because he refused to induce the kind of fantasy in their game that nobody actually wants from such game. Another example is Final Fantasy 10. I'm currently replaying the game and even 30 hours in, it has not once explained why people can breathe underwater. No explanation, it just is that way and it's extremely silly. Because I didn't start playing FF10 on the premise of "people that can breathe underwater", and since it's not explained, my mind hasn't changed on that matter. However, I have no trouble with all the magic, monsters and summons.
Which brings us back to this anime. I would indeed have less trouble accepting cute alien girls falling in love with some than what happens here, because alien girls falling in love with the protagonist would be the main hook of the show. Meanwhile, I started watching Hige o Soru under the mere premise of "girl seeks place to stay, guy lets her". I never expected that so many adults would be okay with what Yoshida does. And unlike the other underage-relationship anime from this season, this story is presented in a less light-hearted, more serious manner, so it's hard to just accept it.
Maybe some can turn a blind eye to that kinda fantasy easier than I can, but I find it terrible.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
Yeah, please don't ever call me an SJW. But no, it's not the same thing with what I was saying. I just used it to illustrate the fact that for this series to exist at all, the author has to throw away that aspect of realism. All of the central characters are smart enough and solid enough looking people, so there's simply no way for them to accept this all realistically. This is a simple fact. So, the author has to scrap that part of realism and the audience simply has to accept it's missing. It's exactly the same as in a harem series a totally ordinary, dull dude having a dozen hot girls love him passionately, despite the dude never doing anything to realistically catch anyone's attention, and in fact he never even seems to realise all those girls love him. All the girls mysteriously just keep hanging around him ad infinitum to catch him, not getting annoyed or giving up.
I guess it is easier to accept a really ridiculous setting than one otherwise realistic but that's just conflicting with realism in a specific aspect. Especially if the characters still act, more or less, as if the aspect still does exist. In this series they all do know Yoshida shouldn't keep living with Sayu, but they still accept it just like that, Yoshida himself included. Well, you could also view this as just one of those "sudden girlfriend appearance" series, which I was earlier jokingly referring to.
Specifically, I was commenting on that specific unrealism in that at least two women in this show (probably more if you dig for it) have proclaimed that Yoshida's actions (specifically not demanding carnal payment) were abnormal in the context of providing help at all. Maybe its a translation or direction thing, but that seemed framed oddly specifically to that conclusion. Realistically, yes, you call for police help or the like, but that the default action to your or I isn't even a consideration is jarring, as Kraco said, and is simply a disconnect the show required for its story to function. It kind of depicts the average man as more cynical than I think the show meant to imply.
I really disagree with this "cynical" talk of you two's. That is only true if we accept that sex is something bad/evil.
A stranger girl asks you to stay, she offers sex, it's a deal. And it's without proof to assume that it was always unpleasant sex, Sayu carefully picked and chose the guys, and the 2 we've seen so far were at least average to handsome, so this isn't some "ugly bastard raped her" scenario. It was never rape to begin with.
I feel like you guys are hung up on her being a school girl. Imagine if we were talking about some 25yo woman. Would you still condemn men that'd require sex with her as a way to pay for a stay? I don't think it's morally right to let a grown woman stay at your home for free, most people would find that odd. With Sayu, you have her teenage status, but she's not some helpless, innocent 10yo girl, she's an almost-adult who can legally have consenting sex. The men who chose to have sex with her (that SHE offered) aren't evil for doing so.If anything having sex made Sayu's situation more plausible to them, like "ahh, she's on the street and wants to earn money with sex. Okay, come on in". The alternative would be to let a prostitute stay at your place for ... for what? So she can leave and then have sex with the next guy? Thats where the unrealistic scenario comes into play again: If you were against having sex with her, you WOULD absolutely call the police to help her. Because how do you help a teenage prostitute by staying at your place, when you have to assume she's still going out to get banged for money?
It's sex. Not a crime. So don't judge those men. Sayu chose this.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
To get it out of the way, even though having consenting sex with a person of Sayu's age would be technically legal in Japan, and in fact most countries, it's still a social suicide, especially under those circumstances. That alone is one reason why avoiding sex with her is a big factor. That being said, it still is a big problem in Japan. However, there are also a lot of cases where high school part-time prostitutes have pulled the rug from under their customers. It doesn't help that prostitution is illegal in Japan! If a judge decides that receiving accommodation in exchange for sex equals to receiving money in exchange for sex, you are done for.
If it's an adult woman living with you, unless the woman reports you to the police, it's nobody's business. You can be viewed as a couple. No child/youth protection laws protect adults. However, allowing some stranger to live in your apartment in exchange for sex would seem like a huge security risk in many ways if you ask me.
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