anonymous290Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOHP6scQNV2
SENT A MESSAGE
Just curious- why do you like Katsuhira and Noriko so much? Both as individuals and as a couple? I'm neutral towards them so I'd love to hear your opinions!
Sobs my anon. I love them so much I don’t even know if I can put it into words. But I’ll definitely try it!! Especially because I’m really thankful to you for asking and wanting to give my children a chance.
This is going to belong, though. So please do make yourself comfortable before clicking! lol
Thing is, I pretty much fell in love with Katsuhira, Noriko, and Katsuriko at first sight. Katsuhira was basically a blend between Makoto Yuki (Persona 3) and Near (Death Note), two of my favorite characters (Makoto is the love of my life, tbh) and Noriko reminded me a lot of one of my fav girls, Aigis. Katuriko in turn gave me Pre-development Aikoto vibes, and Aikoto is one of my all-time fav OTP (not exaggerating here). So needless to say, I was immediately fond of them and eager to see where they were headed.
They luckily didn’t disappoint. But the best thing about it is that it only took one or two episodes for me to love them for whom they were rather than because of whom they reminded me of!
I love how both of them are all about nuances and subtleties. I know a lot of people found them bland and hard to relate to, and while I can definitely understand I’m just /bursting/ with empathy and appreciation for the way their characters and relationship were handled. Katsuhira in particular was a joy to watch. If you pay attention to him while everyone else is being loud in the foreground, you’ll always see so much. You can point out every single step in his development and every single thought-process he has if you only stop watching him.
Katsuhira is someone whose biggest sin was his lack of understanding of himself, and not being able to understand himself made him mistakenly think he didn’t really care about others. But that wasn’t true!! As early as Episode 2 you could see Katsuhira outright contradict himself: he told Chidori and the others that he wasn’t interested in himself nor in other people, but why did he tell them that? Because he remembered Noriko telling him that his attitude rubbed people the wrong way!! From the very start, Katsuhira was unconsciously trying to both, understand and be understood, to connect with others. And the beautiful thing about this desire of his is that you could see him give baby steps every episode (and strides at the end!!), but he didn’t do this on his own. He did it while watching others, while struggling to understand others, and most importantly, because of Noriko. Because she had the key to his past and to his forgotten heart. Noriko coming in contact with him was what allowed Katsuhira to start filling the blank page that he was at the start of the series.
First, through her words. Noriko gave Katsuhira insight about himself and others and this resonated so much in Katsuhira. Noriko’s words were what allowed him to start to realize, understand, and empathize, and they became his compass through the series. And while Katsuhira was developing and building himself a future (for both himself AND Noriko, though he didn’t know this at the time), Noriko’s heart (which she left behind in days long-past) started to awaken too because of Katsuhira’s influence.
Their roads through the series are perfect parallels and juxtapositions. They start at opposite ends and meet right at the middle. Noriko was tied to the past; she was downright obsessed with it. Meanwhile, Katsuhira had no past; he only had the present. It was impossible for them to become complete as they were. They were puzzles with too many missing pieces. Katsuhira couldn’t possibly find himself and truly appreciate what he had without remembering who he used to be and everything he lost. And Noriko couldn’t possibly find herself without looking beyond the past and grounding herself in the present.
And they do this thanks to each other and to how much they love one another!! Noriko was literally under medication that put all her senses to sleep and she still felt and longed for Katsuhira!! She wasn’t supposed to feel a thing, but her feelings for Katsuhira were so strong they overrode her mediation!! And Katsuhira forgot her but his heart didn’t and he fell for her all over again. Katsuhira who was all etto… ano… I think… Eh… Uhms… went from that to I know. I’m sure. I’m not wrong. because despite doubting his understanding of himself and others, he didn’t doubt his understanding of Noriko. Because he spent the entire series struggling to understand her, only to find that she has existed within himself all along.
They not only saw each other as they currently were and accepted one another, they loved each other and found themselves in one another.
When Noriko looked within herself, she found Katsuhira; so when Katsuhira looked within her, he was able to regain himself. He found the missing pieces he needed to truly come into his own as a complete person. And when Katsuhira looked within himself, he found Noriko. So it’s looking within Katsuhira, this complete Katsuhira, that allowed Noriko to remember her own heart and finally move on from the past and towards the future.
Loving Noriko changed Katsuhira and being loved by Katsuhira saved Noriko. It was beautiful!!
And Noriko, too. She looked so perfect and she was so prim and elegant and proper but she was also so, so flawed. And beyond this, no matter how expressionless she may seem, Noriko is so quirky!! She is super bold towards Katsuhira, has a dry sense of humor, flashy tastes, and one hell of a backbone. And the same goes for Katsuhira!! He’s got a sharp tongue, is pretty sarcastic, and everything he says and does is so unintentionally funny and endearing?? His interactions with Noriko in particular were a riot. Hell even when he was confessing his love to her and basically proposing, he told her he thinks she’s crazy!! Just remembering that makes me crack up, I swear.
I just… No matter how hard I try, I can’t see either of them as bland or boring. Sure their development isn’t in your face during the first 8 episodes, but that’s what I loved the most about them tbh.
The fact that they were rewarding!! I loved paying attention to them and guessing what was on their mind, and whenever the show proved me right I was elated because it just meant the nuances and characterization were there all along. They were intended and not accidental. They were carefully put there. That is the kind of development and characterization that undoes me. The one that rewards you for looking under the surface and trying to figure out the character’s motivations, emotions, and trains of thought. And while I’ll be the first one to admit the show pulled a tell-and-don’t-quite-show with Noriko during the finale because it ran out of time, I still think it exceeded with show-and-don’t-tell throughout the rest of the show.
And all this without rambling about how fascinating I found their conditions!! As someone who loves psychology, I really, really enjoyed the similarities with alexithymia and all the food for thought it gave me.
tl;dr (kind of but not really)
So basically anon, to me they were brimming with life under the surface right from the get-go, so watching them learn and grow until their hearts truly shone through and they were able to reach one another was the biggest joy of the show for me;-;
I love them so, so much that I wrote a bible and I’m still falling short. I hope I managed to pour all the love into an answer that at least makes a bit of sense! lol
ns 15.158.61.43da2
