I’m in the midst of watching Suzuka for the third time. It’s one of those shows that I know it’s kind of terrible, but which I enjoy anyway. And this time around, I’ve found that I’ve been motivated to write a number of posts on the series, so you’ll see several in the next few weeks, starting with this one.
One of the real negative aspects of Suzuka is that the male lead, who we’re supposed to root for, is a creep. He’s a naive creep, but a creep nonetheless. And I feel horrible to say it, but Yamato reminds me precisely of a friend I had in high school.
Just like Yamato, this friend was obsessed with just one girl. Just like him, he was in effect, a stalker. Just like him, he went out of bounds all the time in trying to establish a relationship. And just like Suzuka, the object of his affection was a track athlete.
This non-relationship culminated in the guy asking the girl to marry him, apparently in front of a large group of people. She said “no,” and he eventually moved on.
That’s right – even this guy who, like Yamato, seemed to spend every waking moment thinking about one girl, eventually let her go. I don’t know if he thinks of her anymore, but I met with him recently, and he’s in a good relationship. That girl from long ago does indeed seem like a distant memory.
Sometimes in an anime, a romantic relationship seems like an end-all-be-all. Its significance is overstated, and viewers like me can’t help but fall for the drama of it all. In this way, anime can resemble real life, where we put too much emphasis on fleeting emotion.
Seasons change. Feelings change. We change. And even an obsession is bound to die, especially if there aren’t certain elements that keep one bonded to another. So in all the irrationality of falling in love (and it is an irrational thing – a heart-thumping, exciting, irrational thing), it’s important that we not lose ourselves – that we keep focused on what’s important, remembering what anchors our lives. And I think when we do that, we can avoid being so singularly-minded like Yamato. And that can only be a good thing.
Read Suzuka…… a bit depressing, though with a ” happy” ending.
I’ve read a little bit about the challenges the characters go through in the manga after it diverges from the anime – definitely some interesting stuff.
“Suzuka” was a very frustrating anime for me on many levels. I mean, it just seems like it went so far out of it’s way to tell it’s dramatic tale that it went into the OVERLY dramatic relm. I’m gonna cover this one later this year…and honestly, I’m not looking forward to it. ::sighs::
It’s definitely a frustrating anime. I’m about 3/4 through watching it this time around, and almost everything that Yamato and Suzuka do frustrate me, and the drama is often silly and over-the-top. But I like me some angst, so I’m equally drawn in, even while watching it for the third time.
I’m halfway through. (Sadly enough it’s taken me 2 years to watch 13 episodes, there just isn’t enough “hook” to keep me watching.) I know those feelings Yamato has, I’ve had them too. An utterly irrational crush on someone I can’t have, I won’t have, or I shouldn’t have. And yet the crush lives on. It was one of those irrational crushes that led me a couple weeks ago to want to abandon anime out of pure lust.
All that time chasing Suzuka, and there’s the perfect girl right in front of his nose – Honoka.
Yeah, I don’t blame you for going through so slowly – it’s not a particularly good anime. I don’t know why I enjoy it!
Ya know, we can’t help who we like, right? The only girl I would say I ever “loved” other than my wife was someone who disappointed me time and time again. Still, I couldn’t help but fall for her.
Luckily, God sometimes provides us someone whose just right for us, though maybe it takes some time to discover that.
Same exact thing with me. I really like this show but I can’t put my finger on why. It’s not particularly good and the characters aren’t that unique, but I am in the midst of rewatching it for the third time. Yamato is a dumbass, but to consider him a creep because he only loves Suzuka seems a bit over the top. I mean, he asked her out, she turned him down, he moved on and dated someone else… until her feelings changed… nothing particularly creepy about that. Being single-minded and being sincere can be considered the same to a lot of people.