BT: Then there is the multi-directional unrequited affair. A favorite of mine is still Magic Users Club, which also offers several iterations of the situation in isolation.
GBS: Ahh, Magic Users Club. Such a silly, but entertaining show.
(Oh, Sae, so wonderfully obtuse)
BT: Takeo has a burning passion for his underclassman Sae, but as with most things, she’s oblivious and can only respect him as a friend. Aburatsubo has it bad for his close friend Takeo, but Takeo can’t return it and won’t have any of it. Sae’s close friend Nanaka also has it bad—for Aburatsubo, knowing, of course, that he can’t reciprocate. And Takeo’s hated childhood rival, and constant tormentor, the ojou-sama Mizuha, has it for him very secretly. Oh, right, plus in the OVA, at least, the adult reporter Minoru has a little of the forbidden form of it for the teenage Akane. Really, it’s kind of the whole point of the show.
GBS: Ah, yes, the dreaded love polygon of unrequited affection.
BT: Like tarot cards for love, these can each be named as categories of unrequited love: The Foolish (Takeo, for Sae), The Impossible (Aburatsubo, for Takeo; Nanaka, for Aburatsubo), The Tormentor (Mizuha, for Takeo), and The Taboo (Minoru for Akane).
GBS: To paraphrase Dostoyevsky, every requited love is the same, while every unrequited love is miserable in its own way.
BT: Jumping ahead with some of the same creative team behind MUC, there’s Princess Tutu, expressing the classical unrequited love found in the fairy tale. The entire tale hinges on it: for Duck loves Mythos, but she is a duck, and he is a prince, and it is impossible.
Or is it?
GBS: Sometimes it’s a matter of malign fate. Other times, the impossibility of romance comes from a bridge that cannot be crossed.
BT: Hey, and sometimes it’s just simple physical incompatibility. A somewhat abstract example of the affliction comes from Patlabor, where our heroine, Noa Izumi, seriously loves her labor, named Alphonse. She must know, deep down, it can never return her love but that doesn’t stop her from letting it consume her attention from the shy (unrequited!) affections of her flesh and blood partner, Asuma.
GBS: Turning that on its head, we also get examples of objects that develop an unrealizable affection for their human owners. While it’s partially the result of a computer virus, Iggy, the android assistant of Re-l Mayer in Ergo Proxy, develops an unhealthy, but more importantly impossible, attraction to his master.
Besides all of these other reasons, there is the simplest reason for couple creation failure: a straight refusal. Sometimes the rejection is handled with grace and the not-couple part as friends. Sadly, not all refusals seem to go so well. Sometimes, the rejection causes the unrequited lover to go in a rather violent or self-destructive direction.
For those who have seen the anime version of Shuffle!, for example, they know how well Kaede Fuyou takes it when Rin Tsuchimi turns down her love. While not the first, nor last, Kaede is certainly a leading candidate for poster girl of the yandere type.
BT: Yandere girls, adorable little monsters.
GBS: It’s not all horror, of course. At times, unrequited love can be played more for comedy, as we laugh at the poor lovestruck soul’s misunderstandings and vain attempts to get the attention of the one loved. Turning to a classic show, Martian Successor Nadesico, Jun Aoi’s doomed interest in Yurika Misumaru come to mind. Poor Jun. But he made us laugh often.
