True Tears 8: Burden of the B*tch?

Hiromi in true tears seemed to be receiving quite some controversy lately, certainly a bit more than what I'd expect from a character like her. Now before I say any more and conclusions are jumped to, this will neither be a Hiromi-bashing post nor (god forbid) a Chris Crocker style LEAVE HIROMI ALONE rant either.

Before I actually get to the Hiromi part of this post, I'll just clear away the other things from this episode first. After the hullabaloo of the previous episode, which was flashback-ed upon by Shinichiro at the start of the episode, Ai-chan is rather unceremoniously dropped from the running (a pity really, since with the focus now fully on the 2 remaining girls, Ai's role really does seem pretty extraneous to the overall story... Chances are she'll probably be brought back later merely as an adviser to Shinichiro when the inevitable conflicts start building up). Shinichiro then starts building the foundation of his newfound relationship with Noe - using his picture book.

Like many other viewers, of the 3 girls in the show, I'm more partial towards chicken-loving Noe myself. Her character definitely brings the bright spark in the otherwise melodramatic serious setting of the show. It's interesting, now that Shinichiro is taking relationship with Noe more seriously, to find that they do have a chemistry that goes beyond chicken and master, lol (She Is His Noble Master). Noe also seems to be acting as a muse to Shinichiro's drawing efforts, and this artistic nature of their coupling is similar to Chihiro and Renji in ef, speaking of which...

A bit more length, and you would get...

A b*tch? Who? Me?

Now, to Hiromi. I suppose in most shows like true tears where the guy actually has to choose between a number of girls vying for his attention at the same time there's going to be at least one of the characters who will be typically and crudely cast as 'the bitch'. It's usually the girl who gets the shorter end of the stick when the choice is finally made - and it isn't her. Okay, perhaps bitch is rather strong a word to use (and certainly you won't find it on Animal Yokocho! Well at any rate, you shouldn't...), but for the purposes of this post, it should convey my point - The Bitch in a show is the (usually female) character that showcases the less desirable traits such as open jealousy and cattiness and as a result garners the dislike/hate of a significant proportion of the viewers. 'Realistically' speaking, a good drama should have a bitch character in its cast. In the case of true tears, none of the girls have actually achieved a level of despicability associated with the term, but the closest so far (Ai came close with her desperate attempt last episode, too bad it turned out for naught) would probably be Hiromi.

Now I'm not trying to degrade Hiromi's character further than what's already been done, but from the flack she's gotten recently it does seem like she is carrying the burden of the bitch in the show. Due to her feelings for Shinichiro being repressed by her concerns about their blood relation, she gets the stereotypical chore of 'sending mixed signals' and envying Noe and Shinichiro's growing relationship to the point of actually being slightly catty towards Noe (to be fair, it was honest Noe that initiated the lol catfight last episode). Ironically though, from the way things are moving, it looks set that Hiromi will eventually be the winner at the end which if true basically means she cannot be the bitch for long. Perhaps Noe worshippers who foresee this end feel the dissatisfaction and hence the 'hate' for Hiromi?

Did somebody say (half-)siscon?

In this episode Hiromi was actually given a chance to show her more 'warmer' side... And boy did it sting, LOL. It was surprising to me that Hiromi would be so blunt in teasing and her demands from Noe's too-cool-for-school brother. It seems that under the repression is someone who's actually not into the nice girl act after all... The bitch enjoying being a bitch for once? Personally I liked watching this side of Hiromi more than the softer side she has already started to reveal to Shinichiro before "I AM YOUR SISTER... (probably)" happened.

Of course the true bitch in this series has been rearing her head this entire time. If Hiromi actually goes yandere on someone in the series, here's hoping it's the cause of her misery right here... Shinichiro's mom is really the one in my opinion who deserves the title of DA BITCH in this show.

And with that out of my system, we will now return to our scheduled crass-free AniYoko worthy posts for the rest of the week =P (unless I decide to start posting about Kimikiss...)