Kimi ni Todoke Season 2 – 11

How different would Kimi ni Todoke be if it were shown through the eyes of Kazeyaha rather than Sawako?

The eleventh episode of Kimi ni Todoke Season 2 provided a continuation after the school festival where we were treated to more lovey-dovey time between our two leads.  Kazehaya stepped forth to dispel the rumors about their relationship to their class and even confirmed that Sawako is his girlfriend when queried, all the while with Sawako blushing and nervous as ever.  There was also clear communication between Sawako and Kazehaya regarding their feelings helping prevent any further misunderstandings because they’re about as frequent in the series as there are Sawako-stalkers (which is an interesting correlation, now that I think about it).  So it was nice to finally see Sawako and Kazehaya enjoy each other rather than dealing with the numerous issues that popped up in the series.

But I’ve always wondered how things would be if it were shown through the eyes of Kazehaya, both this season and the first.  For one thing, Kazehaya never had the support network that Sawako has.  For Sawako, she was able to talk to Chizuru and Ayane at anytime and get advice on how she was feeling and what to do next.  Kazehaya never had that luxury.  While Kazehaya already had a pretty good relationship with virtually the entire population of Japan, he no one to really talk to about his emotions and desires except for Ryu.  Ayane and Chizuru were helpful but nothing near the level like they were for Sawako.  Pin was never an option for Kazehaya and I don’t blame him for that.  And for most of the series, Kazehaya was being attacked by the classroom parasite (known as Joe) and never had the time to develop his thoughts and feelings on his own time.  He was always surrounded by people wanting to hang around with him rather than ask him how he was doing.  It was quite the opposite for Sawako.  Had the series been shown through the eyes of Kazehaya, we would’ve seen how he had to deal with all the external pressures of being who he is, all while trying to deal with the hardships that prevented him from progressing with Sawako.  So the number, the depth, and the nature of their friendships with classmates would have been greatly different through this perspective.

In addition to that dissimilar interpersonal relationships the two leads have, Kimi ni Todoke through the eyes of Kazehaya would have had a weaker character development for Sawako.  One of the greatest aspects of this series has been the growth and development of our protagonist.  Being able to watch her grow up from a shy, awkward, and socially-uneasy girl into a… well… one that can express her feelings better and maintain relationships was one of the strengths of the series.  We’ve been able to see her steadily progress through the support of her friends and classmates into the more mature character we see today.  Had the series been through the eyes of Kazehaya, we would have seen a jerky and unexplained growth in Sawako’s character with no real explanation to what happened and why she was able to do more.  Although it would’ve been pleasant to see Kazehaya’s reactions to this, it wouldn’t feel right.  It just wouldn’t feel as full or complete had the series been through Kazehaya’s eyes given those two features of the series.

With those two aspects of the series, the friendships and character growth, completely different depending on the perspective, you can see that there’s more to the Kimi ni Todoke than just the romance between Sawako and Kazehaya.  It’s just as much a story of that as it is Sawako’s maturity in high school, and while I did sorta realize that early on, I never comprehended how vital and imperative to the series it was.  During the middle part of this season, I frequently read opinions of other bloggers and saw their disappointment in the repetitive nature of their behavior and the back-tracking their relationship was taking.  But ignoring the actual romance during that time, or lack of romance for a better description, you can see that there was character growth for Sawako and Kazehaya, dealing with these hardships and overcoming them.  And that helped make these past few episodes even much more rewarding.

Oh, and the comedy wouldn’t be as good either.  One of my favorite attributes of the series is the comedy (and the reason I started watching it in the first place) and had Kazehaya been our storyteller, the comedy would’ve been greatly reduced.  So yeah, there’s that, too.

So considering that there’s more to the series than just the story of romance, I think we’re all glad to be seeing Kimi ni Todoke through the eyes of Sawako rather than through the perspective of Kazehaya.