From: maxson@cerl.uiuc.edu (K R Maxson)
Subject: Ano Hi ni Kaeritai (Was: Ayukawa or Madoka?)
Organization: UIUC Computer-based Education Research Lab
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 17:49:35 GMT

Spoilers thoughout.

I first posted about this almost a year ago, and there was some pretty
vehement disagreement from the net.  However, Darold now says:

dhiga@aludra.usc.edu (Darold Higa) writes:
> I agree that the ending of KOR leaves a certain ambiguity about the future
> of this relationship.

While this is true, I feel that the movie has such strong undertones of
unretrievable loss that things are bound to turn out badly for Kyosuke and
Madoka.

>                  If it didn't (and don't most people go through at least a 
> couple of heartbreaks with "THE RIGHT PERSON" before actually finding the
> right person?), then KOR did a wonderful job of taking us back to "that day".

Although I might be misinterpreting him, it seems that Darold is saying that
Ano Hi ni Kaeritai is taking us back to the day of first love's fruition, and
I don't believe this is true.  The title could more aptly be translated "I wish
( to / I could ) return to those days" and is rather a lament for the lost
years documented in the television series than it is a glorification of the
movie's own story.

The dissolution of the romantic triangle shows new aspects of all three of
the characters involved.

We see a harder, more callous aspect of Kyosuke; before the film, it was
unthinkable that he would treat ANYBODY the way he treated Hikaru.  In his
concern for everybody's feelings he had never been able to take action (even
when his inaction might result in someone's pain); in the film he finally
acknowledges that Madoka's feelings are more important to him than anyone
else's.  But I think that by the end of the film it is apparent that neither
Kyosuke nor Madoka feel unalloyed joy over this change in him.

Madoka particularly suffers a brutal deromanticizing at the hands of the
movie.  She makes Kyosuke her hit man to bump off Hikaru, her best friend
since childhood, and she obviously feels guilty and ashamed about it.
Certainly, Madoka belonged in the conversation with Hikaru where Kyosuke
confessed he loved Madoka.  Her "victory" over Hikaru, if such it is,
brings her only mixed pleasure, and she doesn't feel moved to consummate
her new relationship with Kyosuke with so much as a kiss.

I think that the actions of all involved serve to poison Kyosuke and Madoka's
relationship, and that there is bound to be a slow drifting apart between
them as they enter college.  I actually think Hikaru emerges with the least
emotional travail (and, in my opinion, that is as it should be in an ideal
world, since she was the most innocent of all the poor decisions and
machinations that went into the doomed love triangle).

Now, don't get me wroing; although I'm using words that can't help but be
freighted with emotional and moral judgements, I feel for all three of the
principles.  Even the best of people make horrible mistakes, and I think the
way Kyosuke and Madoka trash their relationship is particularly poignant.
But what could we expect?  Some things just don't have happy resolutions;
you just hope that, happy or not, you'll be able to look at yourself in the
mirror without throwing up when all the dust has settled.  I don't think
Kyosule and Madoka quite escape that kind of self-recrimination, and that
is why I find the movie particularly touching in a way the (admittedly
amusing) television series wasn't.