Itazura na Kiss: Guess Who’s Jealous Now!

That’s right–Irie!

This has been a hilarious rollercoaster of an evening–first I wrestle with my sound card drivers for entirely too long only to discover that the problem that was bugging me was that my headphones were plugged in, and then, to chill out and relax and forget that computers are made of pure Satan, I enacted my original plan to catch up on the woefully negelected Itazura na Kiss. Needless to say, I am not very relaxed and calm now, because Keita is a bastard. Yes, I am calling the “nice guy” a bastard, and the actual bastard (who I have also called a bastard at certain points in time because he’s so wonderfully bastardly) is the one I am rooting for.

Not necessarily because I hate “nice guys”–I like to fancy that I am a “nice guy,” even though I probably am not–or that I think bastards are cool–becasue they aren’t–but because it all seems to be the Next Step in the evolution of Irie. Up till now, the series has been about Kotoko pursuing Irie (or I guess I should really start calling him Naoki now, since Kokoto now has the same last name and things might get Confusing, but it’s ingrained in my head), but now, of course, that she has him in the dreaded bond of wedlock, the previously complacent Irie (who has stated that he accepts Kotoko’s love as a given) now finds himself with a potential rival–the same situation that Kotoko was in for, oh, the first half of the series. He is handling it in an extremely Irie way, of course, in that he hasn’t really had these sorts of feelings before either and, therefore, makes it worse by trying to sort things out before he sits and rationally thinks things out.

It’s also amusing, and this is why it’s a good thing I watched 15-18 in one evening, how this plot twist mirrors the couple on the honeymoon in Hawaii that Kotoko and Irie met–in that relationship, the girl (Mari?) was simply a boy-crazed girl who chased after anything that looked vaguely manly, and her husband (whose name I have totally forgotten) was dutiful and faithful to her, even though he knew of her manizing ways (I am totally making words up here). He wasn the classical nice-guy husband, who had to take the chance that Irie set up for him (and I’m pretty sure he set it up for the two of them on purpose, or, at least, that was part of his motive) to set things straight with his wife. He catered to her every need, and she simply took him for granted–a situation somewhat similar in nature to the current one between Kotoko and Irie.

Relationships–romantic or not–are about two people, and Irie is geting a painful lesson in this right now. Complete with a full-fledged marital battle in the school cafeteria. I’m pretty sure that there isn’t really a guilty party, here–it’s a case of circumstances spiraling out of control and having adverse effects on everyone involved. I’m pretty sure that Keita is acting in part becasue he’s simply trying to spite (or is jealous of, himself) Irie, which probably leads to me calling him a bastard and rooting for Irie–because, deep down, in the little dokidoki fangirl heart of mine, I know he truly cares for Kotoko (there’s no way he would get that jealous and upset if he didn’t), even if he’s just really awkward about expressing it unless given cause to. It seems like this whole Keita thing is just a setup to making Irie much more active in Kotoko’s life.

I’m finding it rather difficult to frame into words what, exactly, is going on in this whole complicated mess of a love triangle. But it’s the kind of difficult that makes me respect Tada Kaoru (although I don’t know how much of this arc is coming from the manga) and the anime staff even more–because life itself can be difficult to frame into words (but hell if people don’t try).

I think I just fell into Bewitched or something by tripping over an ottoman. And I have a nagging feeling that the last scene of the 26th episode will be Irie, in his best Desi Arnaz voice, saying “KOOOOOOTOOOOOKOOOOOOOO, YOU GOT SOME ‘SPLAININ’ TO DO!”, to which Kotoko instructs Irie to “stifle!”, to which Irie’s response is “One of these days, Kotoko, one of these days…POW! RIght in the kisser!”

I blame this camera shot for this feeling.

(I watched waaaaaaaay too much Nick at Nite and TV Land as a child. I don’t know what that says about me, but I don’t care)