Recap
Kiyoi is rehearsing when Koyama shows up to see his older brother. He tells Kiyoi that he confessed to Hira but that Hira loves Kiyoi. He wants Hira to be happy.
Koyama sets Hira up to help out with the play, and Hira stands at the spotlight while Kiyoi talks about liking someone. After the play they clean things up together, and Hira protects Kiyoi from falling boxes. Kiyoi’s finger is bloody though, and Hira sucks on it and kisses it, only to apologize and back off.
Kiyoi asks Hira who he is to him, and Hira explains he’s the person Hira loves most. But he doesn’t want to date him, he wants to be a servant to while Kiyoi is king. Kiyoi is upset his feelings aren’t understood, and that Hira’s never considered that he loves him. He knocks Hira to the ground again before leaving.
Kiyoi focuses on his acting while VOing that Hira keeps trying to apologize via text and phone. Kiyoi ignores him, but Hira’s latest message asks him to meet where Kiyoi first saved him, and then he’ll give up. Kiyoi considers but also gets invited out to dinner.
Hira waits at school in the dark, figuring Kiyoi won’t come. He lays on the lockers like Kiyoi once did and thinks about how Kiyoi sees things. Kiyoi is watching him but runs when Hira sees him.
Hira chases him and grabs him. While Kiyoi cries about wanting to end it Hira yells his love. Kiyoi says he’s just a normal guy who wants to be touched by the person he loves. Hira still doesn’t get it and wants to know who Kiyoi loves. Kiyoi yells that it’s him. He brings up the kiss, how Hira didn’t come after him and changed his number, and how hurt he felt.
Hira tries to close the distance but Kiyoi is still angry. Hira talks about how he feels Kiyoi’s a god. He wants to touch Kiyoi, but Kiyoi doesn’t want to be touched like he was before. Hira repeats he loves him and goes in for a hug. Then he kisses him, and they’re getting hot and heavy on a classroom desk.
Riding together on the bike, Kiyoi wants to know about what Hira treasures. Hira mentions the change from Kiyoi that he left in the beaker. Kiyoi calls him creepy and smiles and hugs him. We see them laying together in bed without shirts on.
Thoughts
I feel very “meh” about this last episode. It feels vague and dreamy, not in a good way, but because so much was left out that it seems to reference things not actually in the show and not make a lot of sense. What does Kiyoi mean about Hira touching him differently? Why did Hira change his number? Why does Kiyoi think that Hira should have any idea that he’s in love with him?
The answers can be found in the book at least.
First off, Hira turns Koyama down away from Kiyoi. The phone number change is because when Kiyoi says ‘goodbye’ after kissing Hira at graduation, Hira misunderstands it to be a final goodbye. Except, Kiyoi said ‘jyaa mata na’ which is usually more like ‘until later’. ‘Sayonara’ is the more final goodbye, which drama Koyama uses. Kiyoi is confused by Hira’s misunderstanding but decides to move in with him anyway.
While living together, they have a one-sided sexual encounter where Hira takes care of Kiyoi, but doesn’t let him reciprocate. Kiyoi is confused again and tries to get closer to Hira, but is rebuffed.
Kiyoi tries to get advice from Iruma on the situation, and when he goes back to Hira’s place the photo club is there. Kiyoi is upset when he realizes Hira treats him so differently from his college friends, and Koyama rubs it in and makes it worse. Kiyoi tries again to get physically close to Hira, only to be pushed away. At that point, he moves back out.
Then, Hira shows up after Kiyoi’s play and confronts him. Kiyoi brings up the same issues as in the drama, but Hira takes the chance to point out that after being treated by a servant in High School, it was hard for him to see Kiyoi’s point of view. They make up and get back together.
But drama Kiyoi never makes much of an effort to have a relationship with Hira, he keeps shoving him into the ground and whines when Hira doesn’t understand his feelings. Considering this, drama Hira has even more of a reason to bring up how Kiyoi treated him like a servant in High School but bafflingly, he doesn’t. Kiyoi wants to be touched differently than he was, but this seems to be a reference to things that happened in the book that didn’t happen on screen.
Also, getting sexy at your old High School? Ew.
I can understand the production shying away from the more sexual content, but their solution seems to have been to pretend it was still there. I think the result only kinda works if you’ve read the book, and even then I find it unsatisfying.
I wish they’d come up with something else. They shouldn’t have wasted time on Koyama playing matchmaker. They should have shown Kiyoi sincerely trying to make the relationship work (not by kissing Hira and shoving him to the ground and then pretending to misdial him later).
At least they kept the bit with Hira sucking Kiyoi’s wounded finger, a reference to what starts off their first sexual encounter in the book.
Despite my criticisms and my feelings about this episode, I think the series is pretty good overall. They only had 6 episodes, and they got a lot of the weird-wonderful that is Hira and Kiyoi across. I think it’s part of the reason people love both this and the second season. People just want to see Hira and Kiyoi and don’t care as much about the plot, and I can completely understand.