Kimiuso 16 – Lost children and hot potatoes!!

Nice

Summary:

Time is still frozen on the date of the gala concert but Kousei has given the first steps into a new world thanks to Hiroko’s guidance and his little new student: Aiza Nagi. It is, of course, no causality that she shares Takeshi’s last name and we learn from the episode that she decided to learn music out of admiration for her older brother. However the God-like Kousei his brother admired has already fallen headfirst to the ground and his attitude is making Nagi develop mixed feelings towards both him and music.

In what seems a chance encounter at first, our fallen Kousei finds the rising-to-angelhood Kaori outside of their school feeling perfectly fine. She tells him that she is waiting for Ryouta but that she will settle for him as a replacement once more. The two of them ditch school in favor of some common date-time activities, like looking at postcards and finding lost children.

Bullying

Kousei notices that even if Kaori is wearing her uniform she is not carrying her bag. To this, Kaori answers that she left it on the school and the two of them sneak at night in order to retrieve it. Kaori walks trough the school with nostalgia until Kousei notices that the whole bag business is a lie.

He questions her and Kaori decides to come clean and tell him everything:

The girl who snuck out of the hospital and waited for you…
The girl with whom you explored the school grounds, the girl you helped rescue a lost child…
Will you forget her?

Kousei knows how important it is for Kaori to become a memory, so he swears to her that he will not forget. The two of them illegally ride a bike back to the hospital and Kaori breaks down into tears for a reason unknown to Kousei.

The next day, Nagi runs out of Kousei after one of their usual fights. He chases her and after some bribing the two of them grow closer. Nagi confesses that she has someone she admires but that he won’t look at her and Kousei tells her in return how he too has someone that won’t look at her.

Why can’t the other girls in this show be this easy to please?

Meanwhile, Kaori keeps growing worried and weaker. She snaps on Kousei after he tells her about Nagi in a scene that reminds Kousei of his mother in her last days.

Impressions:

I really liked the exchange between Nagi and Kousei where he tells her about Kaori. For Kousei, Kaori is a cheerful and colorful girl that he admires for her strength. This scene was framed with images of the current Kaori, a colorless girl that has already spent most of her might. Kousei knows about the colorless girl for sure. He lived the exact experience with his mother yet he keeps turning a blind eye to all of the signs.

Speaking of Nagi, I think she is a very special character. I’m not talking about her personality but about her existence as Kousei’s student. Kousei was a slave of his past; he held to it until he lost the ability to play and Kaori is the one who helped him recover what he had lost. Now Nagi is someone new that has the skill, as a character, to expand Kousei’s world. She is different from Kaori in that she offers Kousei a way to live together with his problems, without revealing against them.

I do think Kousei has the skill to become a decent teacher. He can play while faithful to the score and he gained from Kaori an understanding of what it means to play with emotions. As long as he is not the one playing he will be able to listen to his students. Plus, personality-wise, he is someone who can listen patiently to others.

I also liked Kaori and Kousei’s little moment in school. It was nice to see her exploring the school grounds as if a really long time had passed and as if she might never visit it again. It reminded me of when I came back to my own school as a graduate. It was also nice when Kaori practically confessed that she snuck out of the hospital to watch him specifically and not Ryouta. This matched nicely with the final scene where she shouted to Kousei; it made it seem like she did it out of worry just like his mother once did.

As the remaining episodes keep decreasing, I wonder how long will she last