Myself; Yourself (Episode 13/Finale)

Many years ago, Nanaka had a violin instructor by the name Sakuraba Kaoru who was a good friend of her parents since high school. He was very close to Nanaka and her family. Not long after, Sakuraba gotten sick and urged Nanaka to get a new violin instructor. Yet she refused, willing to wait for him until he recovered and is out of the hospital.

Despite Nanaka’s well wishes, Sakuraba unfortunately succumbed to his sickness and passed away. Family members and friends grieved for his demise, except for Nanaka’s father who looked very furious. Then one night as Nanaka heard her father hitting her mother and that is when she heard the truth from her father – she is not her father’s daughter. Her mother argued that she will never tell him so as to not do abortion because the child – Nanaka – is what she and Sakuraba share. That is why she wanted Nanaka to take up violin lessons from Sakuraba so that she would share a talent as of her real father and be much closer to him. This angered her father even more, violently punching her mother. Nanaka was in shock to see and hear of this. Not wanting to believe all of these, she returned to bed and convinced herself that it was just a dream. Suddenly she heard a loud noise and went down to find out. At the living room, she saw gasoline drenched all over the place including on her mother who was unconscious and her father. Taking out a lighter, he burnt the whole place down together with him and his wife. Nanaka immediately ran to her room and was still in disbelief. However the growing inferno forced Nanaka to take an emergency escape and bringing the bracelet given by Sana and the violin, she jumped out from her room. She told everything to Sana who was there as she regained her memory while he tried to comfort her. That night after bringing Nanaka back to her uncle’s place, Sana told everything to her uncle. He understood the whole situation and he also suspected that her father was the one who started the fire. He explained to Sana that Nanaka’s father, Tsumuhiko who is also his younger brother and Nanaka’s mother, Nanae were best friends with Sakuraba. It was until when Sakuraba was terminally ill with cancer, he came clean to Tsumuhiko with the intention of not betraying his best friend and begged him to pardon them (his own wife and daughter). However that was not the case when he recalled a conversation he had with his brother that he intended to kill his wife and that he should have taken his words more seriously then.

The trauma of the fire incident made Nanaka lost her memory of that night and such cruel fate was the reason why her uncle did not want her to have her memory back, rather to have her remained as she was. But now that she had remembered them, it would be far too difficult for her to accept. Days after, Sana tried to pay Nanaka a visit though she still keeps herself locked inside her room and on each following day, he kept on being rejected. Yet Sana never quits on his effort. On a day when Sana make his usual visit to Nanaka’s place, her aunt had to leave the house and Sana was made guest in the house. Inside, he tried to call for Nanaka and when he entered her room, she was not inside. Sana began to search Nanaka inside the house frantically then sighed a relief to know that she was just taking a bath. However he felt something was wrong when she did not come out of the bathroom after so long, imagining the worst to happen. A flashback revealed that Sana attempted suicide before by slitting his own wrist with the water running in the bath, suspecting Nanaka to do the same. He rushed into the bathroom and his suspicion was confirmed. Seeing this, he overcame his own fear of his past to rescue Nanaka. Nanaka survived and Sana visited her when she was recovering in her room though she refused to see anyone yet. Sana advised her never to opt for suicide no matter what had happened. She lashed back, saying that he doesn’t understand her pain. However he did and proving his point, he opened his wristwatch and showed her the wound he inflicted he attempted suicide before. He explained that he was always being bullied in middle school and he had been welling up his feelings then until he came to his limits. That is when he slitted his own wrist in attempting suicide. Though he survived it, his situation gotten worse to point of withdrawing himself from the society. That is why he returned to his hometown so that he can meet his old friends back and become the person he used to be. He also confessed that he wanted to die after failed his suicide bid but recalling the experience, he became scared and if he did not survive, he won’t be able to save Nanaka from the same mistake he did.

Ten years on, everyone’s grown up and Hinako was preparing herself to go out with Youta (the boy with Asami from episode 9). It turned out that they were going for an open air concert at the town’s nature park. Aoi was going there as well and it was then she noticed Asami who reluctant to go for the concert but was dragged there by Aoi. Now remember that the park was supposed to be demolished to make way for the new town hall? Apparently Asami stood up to defend the park from being destroyed and to that day, it is still preserved as it was. Without anyone noticing, Shuusuke and Shuri were making their way to the concert as well. At the backstage, Nanaka was preparing for her concert when Sana came in to tell her something important. Let me it spell it out for you – Sana was proposing to Nanaka. Having said that, Sana returned to his seat and he was received by Yuzuki who then rewarded him a caramel (old habits die hard, they say) for becoming a man. Finally Nanaka appeared on stage and presented the audience her first piece she ever composed which took a long time to complete, having fair shares of cheers and sorrows in between. She titled the violin piece as “Myself; Yourself.”

Many things to say about this last episode and here goes, one by one. Firstly, Nanaka recovered her memory of the night of the fire and it was no close of being a good one. I did not expect domestic violence into the equation, given that little was know about Nanaka’s family anyway. Betrayal was what caused the violence and this anger brought to the fire which killed both of Nanaka’s parents. Actually her father probably intended to bring the whole family down to the grave but Nanaka survived, only to recall this horrible past and lead her to know that her violin instructor was her real father. Though Sakuraba appeared briefly in the story, the impact he brought was huge. This is also the reason why Nanaka’s uncle did not want her to regain her memory and it was all for the good reasons. Otherwise she won’t be slitting her own wrist to kill herself. Surprisingly the way she attempted suicide is the same as what Sana did and this probably give them a common bond they would share together – benefiting their relationship in such a way. I mean she could have just poison herself or hang herself or jumping off a cliff or even slit her own throat for that matter but instead she chose to slit her own wrist. Now that’s a point to ponder. Second is Sana’s past. It was well within out expectation that he tried suicide before but the reason he did so was not so convincing for one to resort for it. Social isolation may be painful but not to the point of suicide. Suicide is not the way out definitely. Though Sana claimed to alienate himself from society, I questioned how he was able to adjust back once he returned to his hometown. It is possible that he intended to start anew but with such social withdrawal, it seems too odd to get back to life that simple, isn’t it? But then, I may be wrong as well because Sana did mention that he was searching for him former self in his old place. Besides given the limited time, bullying the fastest way to explain Sana’s situation and bullying is no joking matter because there are several suicide cases among students (in Japan particularly) resulted from this.

The writers also proved us all wrong for shoving in Shuusuke and Shuri at the end of the story. I can see this plausible, given that the epilogue goes ten years later. A disturbing thing to consider about the twins are their possible incest together. This is not confirmed though but having the two of them living together ever closer for such a long time, the possibility is imminent. Another disturbing thing is Hinako’s relationship with Youta. No problem there as long as they’re not actually dating each other and are just good friends. But then again… never mind. Fifth is Asami who defended the town’s nature park – the place where Shuri cherished most of her good memories. Asami defended in Shuri’s honour perhaps and in that way, showing her love for Shuri. That won’t be happening and she knows it but she did it anyways because she really do care for Shuri. Remember the concert in the OP. That did not exactly happened though a concert was made in the end with Nanaka the only one performing. What is touching about it is the piece she composed is the piece she gave to Sana as her present during his farewell party a long time ago. Now that the two are getting on to each other (the ring on Nanaka’s finger and Sana’s little proposal are suffice to say that they’re getting married), the violin piece would serve the story in a melancholic kind of way with all the memories they share together and stuff. So at the end of the day, it was Aoi who turned out to be “normal” without any conflict whatsoever. Because of this, her character did little impact to the story other than the fact that she is part of the friendship of Sana, Nanaka, Shuusuke and Shuri.

For my verdict on Myself; Yourself. The story started well with a big statement (yeah, the big slap on Sana’s face) and progressed well to give room for character development. The plot is done well enough though it is pretty much the standard stuff, giving off the fun at first then the sorrow towards the end. A lot of emotions brought to the story but many of them are not engaging enough to reach out to the viewers. Like I said, it’s pretty much the standard stuff. The reason to this is probably the weak emphasis of the BGM that fails to fit to the story. Only at episode 11 when the twins ran away, a little emotional action was at play. As for the rest of the story, it’s just too ordinary. Even the ending felt the same way though Nanaka’s past was a little unexpected. However the surprise was much more impacting in episode 11 when Asami came out of the closet. Honestly no one (if not only myself) ever saw that coming – but it did. By whole and large, Myself; Yourself have the potential if more time is given to make room for character development. If the writers go to the extend of delving further to the character’s emotions, it would be much better. And would need the call for centralizing the story to a character, which they did on Sana. The problem is Sana did not have much to give for the story. In fact, if the story is told from Nanaka’s perspective, I believe it would be much better. Another element to consider is Hinako who really is not necessary for the story. However, like I’ve suggested that if more time is given, things might end up differently.