Sakamichi no Apollon – 8

Of the five characters tangled in these unstable and perplexing romances, Yurika is the only one to achieve any success.  Among the chaos, discomfort, and pain, Yurika has remained true to her original ambition while others have faltered or collapsed under pressure. Unwavering from her plan and courageously facing all hardships and adversity, Yurika has persevered and found the only romantic happiness in Sakamichi no Apollon.  The reason for such an accomplishment is the mere fact that she has yet to redirect her feelings from one potential lover to another.  This dedicated direction, or perhaps more fittingly acceleration, is responsible for the first successful romance in this anime.

Uncertainly, hesitation, and misunderstandings are just a few of the reasons why the romances have essentially been inhibited or failed in Sakamichi no Apollon.  Falling victim to these flaws have been detrimental to both the affected characters and the relationships themselves.  Then there’s the added effect of causing the enthusiasm and passion behind the relationships to slow down, stop, and reevaluate their position, often resulting in a change of direction and a new acceleration toward a different yet obtainable goal.  As of the eighth episode, everyone has had to face this painful and distressing phase, though one character has remained immune to such an unforgiving treatment.

Without succumbing to ambivalence, indecision, or confusion, Yurika has persevered through any challenges she’s faced in making Jun her own.  Even with Jun avoiding, lying to, and directly rejecting her, she persisted and, under such unnerving stress and discomfort, changed herself as a result.  Combining a new look (one I like more) and a new personality (eh… kinda like the old Yurika better), our determined heroine has realized her dream and is with the man she loves.  Everyone else has faced heartbreak or questioned their pursuits thus far and has gone on to chase after someone new based on their recent feelings.  Hell, this can even be applied to Jun, who we’ve learned abandoned his schooling and his former life to now be with Yurika in a cheap studio.  So considering the amount of disappointments and pain the characters have faced, Yurika is easily the most successful when considering the romance in Apollon.

But what effects, if any, have these changes in direction, acceleration, and Yurika’s perseverance had on the story and characters of Apollon?  Perhaps the most immediate is the fact that the preexisting ideas on who’s chasing who have already disintegrated or reversed to the point where no one, not even the characters themselves, know who’s is pursuing who.  Not only will this lead to more confusion, pain, and potential suffering but it will also cause the characters to reevaluate their current crushes now that their former crush is chasing after them after seemingly rejecting them in the first half.  Not only will this cause more changes in acceleration but it will raise the overall entropy or disorder among these relationships into an interwoven system where hormones, hearts, and brains are all in conflict with each other.  To put it simply, more characters will be hurt before they’re healed.  As for Yurika’s perseverance, while it’s being used as a catalyst to quicken the progression of the other relationships, it could also be used as an example of how a character should pursue the apple of their eye.  While this technique doesn’t always lead to success like it has for Yurika, it’s been the only method to work in this anime.  That being said, the personalities of the other characters don’t seem to fit well with this mentality, so perhaps they’ll need to find new approaches of winning the partner they cherish in their hearts.  Regardless of their techniques and actions, there is certain to be more energy and commotion regarding the romances in Sakamichi no Apollon before the dust settles and the relationships and romances are finally decided.

With families being a key theme in Sakamichi no Apollon, you have to wonder if Kaoru’s mother or father will reappear sometime before the quickly approaching finale for this anime.  We’ve heard about families being brought up numerous times and seen it be used as a device to connect characters together or to explain their backstories, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see them play some role before the end that’s more significant than the two pieces they played in episode 5.  Considering how important it was to Kaoru about living with his aunt and cousin and how he could not tolerate their lifestyle and behavior, it would be satisfying to get some resolution here.  But with only 3 episodes remaining and so much left to cover with the other characters, their romances, jazz, and everything else that’s important, it wouldn’t shock me, though it might sadden me, to see this topic left untouched and unsolved.  Still, after the jazz and romance in this anime, the theme of families is the next most important, so it would be somewhat disappointing for such a major theme to be left incomplete for our main character.  Perhaps it will be resolved for Sentarou who’s also had familiar issues but for Kaoru, we might have seen all that we’re intended to see.