One Week Friends | Episode 3 | TFP Review
EmperorBrandon: In a very different way from Yuki, Shogo is turning out to be quite the positive influence on Fujimiya, despite the iciness to their initial interactions. It was particularly nice to see how the scene with Fujimiya overhearing her classmates turned out.
GingaDaiuchuu: Shogo really didn’t have to be that harsh to Kaori, but at least he is a really good guy in general, and he’s sharp enough to pick up on the more subtle things, making him nearly Yuki’s opposite in most regards, aside from both being good guys overall. This show is just so sweet and innocent, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it progresses.
stardf29: I really appreciate both the male characters in this show. Yuki is emotionally very straightforward, which sometimes gets him into trouble, but it makes him feel more real and human. And Shogo is straightforward in a different way, not being afraid to speak the truth and confront others, which makes him a great friend (even if Kaori doesn’t quite see him as one).
Hitsugi Amachi: While it won’t be the highlight for many, the highlight for me was Shogo addressing the elephant in the room: the ridiculously specific memory disorder. Kudos to the author for addressing it intelligently, pointing out the real possibilities (a mental condition tied to trauma or a physical issue related to brain damage). It’s looking more like the former than the latter, so…there may be a cure for this condition. Good.
Other than that, the show is showing its heart. Probably the sweetest show on right now.
bctaris: Ah, so you feared it might be put down to something more ‘magical’, or unexplored altogether? Because I’ve long been fascinated by stuff like this–about how frankly strange memory is to begin with–I was fairly assured from the beginning, with the way it was all just what I’d rather call a convenient exaggeration of, among other things, the semantic/episodic memory problem (and, well, just the allegory). I was happy, though, that through Shogo’s character it was confirmed as arising from a past trauma, not too many years past, instead of leaving that question open. I mean, of course it has to be something workable, or the story goes nowhere.
But a good character, Shogo, complementing the far less cynical Hase.
Hitsugi Amachi: I was afraid it would be stupid and annoying, just an author’s trick in order to make the story work otherwise. So this is much, much better.
Memory is, in reality, a rather slippery beast in many ways, which is why I don’t like it being played with a little too much, just for author’s convenience (see: Golden Time for a recent example of bad usage by an author).
Shogo is a good addition to the mixture, his levelheaded common sense balancing out the somewhat naive Hase.
Sensuifu: Shogo’s curiosity parallels a similar thought I had about Kaori, that she could be suffering from some kind of mental instability, controlled by herself, sort of like ‘selective memory’ where she decides to forget what she wants. So instead of her really forgetting things ‘naturally’, she makes a subconscious effortto forget as some sort of defense mechanism. It was interesting to see Kaori’s reaction to it all, since it didn’t really tell whether or not she was denying his assumption.
It should be interesting to see how she’ll break free from this amnesia, if she ever does.
Gildor: I’ll echo what everyone says here. A really good episode and Shogo is the perfect foil for Yuki. Nice to see some actual progress being made. I was afraid the show was going to take the situation and explore different aspects of it without Fujiyama actually getting anywhere (ala Watamote). That last line, though, appears to me to be some foreshadowing for some rough waters ahead.
