Oh sweet lord, please don’t try and strangle her. I may be desperate for a change of pace, but that’s a little much.

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Episode Seven

The plot has come screeching to an almost complete halt this week, and has left me with very little to write about. Aside from the scenery change last week, there has been no progression on Hazuki’s part. He’s still locked out of his body and has absolutely no idea how he’s supposed to get back. Atsushi has had a remarkable lack of progress as well; he seems to be in no hurry to give Hazuki his body back and still seems to be doing an admirable job of screwing things up between Hazuki and Rokka, including sleeping with her and then just running off in the morning (Cold, man). I was pretty sympathetic towards Atsushi when the body swap first took place, but now I’m sick and tired of his woe-is-me act and how he won’t stop messing around with Hazuki and Rokka’s lives.

Rokka has gotten a bit of progression, mainly in that she’s realized her feelings for Hazuki and is starting to become suspicious that Atsushi has possessed him. I’m surprised it’s taken this long; it’s pretty bleeping obvious, and Atsushi has done literally nothing to conceal the fact that he’s taken over Hazuki’s body. His conflicted act and selfish desire to continue to be with Rokka after death is supposed to be touching, but at this point, I just find him profoundly annoying. He’s incredibly insensitive and seems to do nothing but make things harder on Rokka by perpetuating his presence in her life instead of allowing her to move on.

I feel like we are beating this horse absolutely to death, and if Hazuki doesn’t get his body back in the next episode, I’m going to pitch a fit. I don’t know what I’ll do if the finale is supposed to be the swap back; there is literally nothing else I can think of to accomplish in the current situation.

GO Rating: 2/5

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Episode Eight

So here’s the skinny.

I have had it up to my eyeballs with Atsushi and his self-centered BS. At the begining of the anime, when he was floating around and trying to help Rokka as best he could, I was very sympathetic to his situation. He died long before his time, before he could really enjoy his life with Rokka, and that’s terrible; I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose your wife and watch her suffer alone and eventually fall in to the arms of another man. It has to be incredibly painful, and I wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone.

But the short of it is that Atsushi is absolutely psychotic. We’ve seen flashbacks, including the ones this week, where he insists that he wants Rokka to move on after he’s died. He’s pushing her almost obsessively to look for someone else, and while this is probably a coping mechanism in the face of his mortality, that doesn’t make his actions in the afterlife any more excusable.

I mean, who even says that? Hazuki has shown to be the more level-headed of the two males, wanting to stand by Rokka’s side and support her and love her even if she’s still struggling with the loss of her husband. That’s a lot more selfless than I think I could be in that situation, but Atsushi has to come along and take advantage of Hazuki’s vulnerable state and just completely screw things over for him. He’s essentially mentally torturing Rokka, leaving her the same bouquets that he made for her when he was still alive and stealing all his belongings out of the house.

He appears to have no intention of returning the body, and is taking all of his old belongings and running as far away as he can, offering Rokka no explanation. I am absolutely sick to death of his self-centered attitude and how we have little to no focus on Hazuki any more. I much preferred Atsushi as a bystander, and when he appeared to be coming to terms with his replacement issues, I rather liked him. But he’s making no progress psychologically and seems hellbent on dragging Rokka down with him.

I feel that this anime would be excellent if you sympathise with Atsushi, but unfortunately, I just can’t. He’s out of his right mind and doesn’t really seem to care how many lives he wrecks while he does whatever he wants, and as a result I find myself needlessly upset during the scenes with Hazuki, because it feels like he’ll have nothing left of his life or his relationship with Rokka if he ever gets his body back. If.

GO Rating: 1/5