Episode 4 – A Star Brighter Than the Sun

Life would definitely be easier if you could… stop liking someone or something. But that’s not how it works, although we’ve probably all tried it at some point – “I No Just like chocolate” “I No Obsessed with her” “I No Want that. Sadly, all these efforts are usually doomed to be in vain because that’s not how the mind and heart work. But you have to try, as Sae showed this week. After Koki admits she likes someone, she decides she doesn’t like him anymore to save herself the heartbreak of loving a boy she can’t get along with. The way she works is that if she can avoid him, she can train herself to get over the crush, which is some sound denial logic if I’ve heard one. Essentially, she’s trying to quit him altogether.

Needless to say, this doesn’t work. Partly because, as I mentioned, that’s not how most humans operate, but also because Koki isn’t stupid. He’d seen her go to great lengths to avoid him, from waving him off when she choked on her breakfast meat, to choosing another partner for the school-mandated torture run. (My high school did something similar; it wasn’t fun.) He Know She was doing something, but he didn’t quite understand why.

Even though I’m usually a fan of characters actually talking to each other, I still like this approach. Koki shows all the signs of hoping that Sae will see through his roundabout confession and realize she That’s who he was talking about. The signs of him were subtle, but they were there – going out of his way to interact with her, protect her, blushing every time their eyes met. But he failed to take into account Sae’s long-standing inferiority complex. She’d spent years playing “tall girl” and being teased for it, to the point where she didn’t believe a handsome, popular boy could like her – nor did it occur to her that Koki might not see her that way – or see she That’s it, period. To him, Sae wasn’t a “tall girl”; She was a good friend and a kind person and he really enjoyed spending time with her. As we see in his self-introduction, he is not handsome or popular in his own mind. To him, he was still the same awkward kid he was before.

This means that, in many ways, stars brighter than the sun It’s about interiority and exteriority. Neither Sae nor Koki’s inner world keeps up with their outer appearance compared to how others see themselves. Sui is equally attracted to her beauty, though she turns out to be a very good friend and a much better friend than Sae initially thought. Izawa is on the opposite side, deliberately acting how he wants others to see him while being blissfully unaware of his own obnoxiousness. It’s kind of sad, really, or that would be the case if he wasn’t such a fool.

Using this as a backdrop really suited the episode. Sae and Koki’s behavior is very different from that of their friends and classmates, from Ayukawa being indifferent to working with Sae, to Sae and Koki being the only two people unable to ride on the rowboat. (To be honest, they do get an unfair advantage in getting the only fiberglass rowboats instead of inflatables. I’ve rowed in two and the latter was like paddling in a bathtub.) That’s all true Ordinary It emphasizes their hurt and discomfort, allowing the emotional narrative to progress unencumbered by the rest of the story. It’s a perfect approach, even if it means we have to endure Izawa being a jerk to Sae on the bus, because it gives us space to make it clear that their feelings are mutual, even if they don’t realize it yet. Why are we clearly shown Sae rescuing Koki after rescuing her?

The rest of the world be damned – these two need to end up together.

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stars brighter than the sun Currently live broadcast
Amazon Prime.