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EP. REVIEW: After the Rain

Gina Szanboti wrote:

Emdykay wrote: For once the guy is divorced and has a young kid Wait, what? When were we told this?

Very first episode? The anime logically gets his relationshipstatus cleared up right away o.O
It´s the scene where his son is sitting in the staff room, Akira smashes a dish in disappointment that he is married, the next day she smashes a dish because she is excited when told he is divorced.

That my former comment is interpreted as satire is interesting, assuming it was the one mentioned, I was sure making fun of the "17 years and 364 days means no go, 1 day later everytjhing is fair game" attitude, but otherwise I meant it...

Physically a female is old enough to breed at menarche because primative humans didn't live past 40 and evolution hasn't caught up to modernity yet. Any good High School Biology lesson should had taught that. Rondo being devorced, or widowed is exceptable in society to begin a relationship with a new potential partner.

Using you as subject for this question @CrowLia, it's not possible to reconcile with the fact that this is a "love story" about and between Akira and Kondo? And thus, of course that even when he could put an end to this he will not, because the story needs to continue? What's the point in insisting on denouncing him for this behavior then? He is a creation of his creator, that'll manipulate actions to move the story, this love story. Wanting this to end means wanting the series to end.
But I guess that's not the biggest problem for some people, the biggest problem is his portrait as "a nice guy". He can't be? He is. For me these accusations that he is a "predator" are absurd. He is a "nice guy", and he ending together with Akira doesn't automatic makes him a "predator". That thing about "power" and "position of authority over her" as his boss, it's actually the one thing he could take advantage to get rid of her, not to get inside her panties instead.

Maybe the current climate are clouding people minds and forcing them to view this anime in the worst way possible when it's not that bad actually. An example of this is "his concerns" @CrowLia. Yes, he is concerned with the societal blackslash, yes he is, and it's natural for us viewers to understand this and question his character about this, but, believe me or not, in this story his biggest concern towards Akira is actually her depression for her lost passion. They both share this pain, to not be able to do what they loved and gave meaning to their lives. So instead of taking advantage of her depression to have sex with her Kondo is in reality, no interpretations here, concerned about her depression making her giving up on what she loves to do. Details and realities like this are what makes these accusations of him being a predator absurd.

Is it not possible that it's neither?

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at here. Human culture itself is an evolutionary adaptation. Since humans take so long to reach sexual maturity, making potential evolution on the genetic level slower relative to many creatures, culture is often believed to be a useful, fast-changing adaptation to get around that. (Not that it was intentional, nothing in evolution is, just that it was useful and gave an advantage since it allows humans to change behavior to adjust to a variety of situations, so it stayed around.) In that regard, most modern cultures discourage breeding at the first possible opportunity since it's damaging to both the mother and child, and otherwise doesn't really benefit anyone in the climate we're currently in.

@Blood- Yes, my phrasing was awkward but the meaning was still there without the addendum, forgive me for not having absolutely flawless phrasing in every single sentence of a long post written in my second language, you can pat yourself on the back for your superior English skills now

That's right. I haven't seen nor read anything about this, which is reason i asked that question if he is, or isn't married I'm only going by what's written in this article which was much too vague in that sort of detail. Physically a female is old enough to breed at menarche because primative humans didn't live past 40 and evolution hasn't caught up to modernity yet. Any good High School Biology lesson should had taught that. Rondo being devorced, or widowed is exceptable in society to begin a relationship with a new potential partner. Akira is 17. The law says she has to 18 to marry without consent of parents/guardian unless she gets that consent she can not legally do so until then. Don't like it? Tell it to the judge. If she wants to jump his bones before her 18th. then so be it! but he then becomes a sleezbag for not doing the adult duty by convincing her in waiting until she turns 18. They're going to be the one's to suffer the consequenses if openly discovered if that's any way the story is going to travel, but it is silly to argue over hypothetical's.

My argument had nothing to do with marriage or their respective relationship, merely the idea that any sexual interaction before the abstract rule of a certain number of orbiting another celestial body is inherently immoral, while the same interaction afterwards is obviously fine.

As you already pointed out both interest and capability for sexual interaction start way before individuals reach age of majority (maturity?) for the overwhelming part of the population. So does the practice.
Ok, so teenagers do have sex and relationships, even before they turn 18. But we deem it unethical when they have them with people much older than them, why? Because the age difference practically always brings a lot of inequality in the partners experience and power. Which makes it easy to exploit those relationships or have them turn abusive and unhealty, even if the partners do not conciously realise. That is why we tell people it is smart to abstain from them in general, even if you technically could form one that is perfectly ethical. The chances of that happening is just ridiculously slim.
Those implications don´t go away because the sun rose another time. Meaning the relationship is equally unethical on her 18th birthday than it would be during her 17th year.

Conversly the relationship is perfectly fine if those imbalances are absent, as would be the case in the relationship or interaction of two teenagers of which one has reached legal age and the other has not.
There is a reason most western nations do not have staturoy rape as offence, but regulate sexual interactions of minors with multiple dynamic laws, like acceptable age ranges. And even if intercourse of a 17 and 18 year old could be persecuted in many US states, it is barely ever done to my knowledge... for good reason.

That is why I think statutory rape is a ridiculous concept, based on horridly outdated morality, not grasping reality as it plays out in todays society.

I also need an explanation why, following your argument, Kondo would be sleazebag for sleeping with Akira, rather than just someone protecting himself from prosecution? He does not seem to have done anything amoral in your version.

One has to voice their objection to their respective legislative representitive to table a change in that law is all.

that's just the way it has been and the way it still is.

No mentally healthy adult of whatever age is going to abuse a teenager unconsciously, or vice-versa.

Panino Manino wrote:

Using you as subject for this question @CrowLia, it's not possible to reconcile with the fact that this is a "love story" about and between Akira and Kondo? And thus, of course that even when he could put an end to this he will not, because the story needs to continue? What's the point in insisting on denouncing him for this behavior then? He is a creation of his creator, that'll manipulate actions to move the story, this love story. Wanting this to end means wanting the series to end. But I guess that's not the biggest problem for some people, the biggest problem is his portrait as "a nice guy". He can't be? He is. For me these accusations that he is a "predator" are absurd. He is a "nice guy", and he ending together with Akira doesn't automatic makes him a "predator". That thing about "power" and "position of authority over her" as his boss, it's actually the one thing he could take advantage to get rid of her, not to get inside her panties instead.

Again, I've already addressed your first paragraph in my response to Blood-. What I'm concerned about is how transparent the plot manipulation was to force that first date instead of showing Kondo doing the responsible thing and rejecting her, then developing feelings for her and start to wonder about the morality issues he'd be facing.

The problem with the Nice Guy is that this is a narrative used by a lot of predators and mysoginists "Oh, women are so awful, I'm such a Nice Guy to them but they never want to date me, look at how Nice I am." It's a shitty narrative and the guys using it are never in fact as nice as they see themselves. So Kondo seems like a fantasy for that audience except in this scenario, being so Nice Guy as opposed to the shitty Kase, is what makes Kondo desirable for Akira.

Panino Manino wrote:

Maybe the current climate are clouding people minds and forcing them to view this anime in the worst way possible when it's not that bad actually. An example of this is "his concerns" @CrowLia. Yes, he is concerned with the societal blackslash, yes he is, and it's natural for us viewers to understand this and question his character about this, but, believe me or not, in this story his biggest concern towards Akira is actually her depression for her lost passion. They both share this pain, to not be able to do what they loved and gave meaning to their lives. So instead of taking advantage of her depression to have sex with her Kondo is in reality, no interpretations here, concerned about her depression making her giving up on what she loves to do. Details and realities like this are what makes these accusations of him being a predator absurd.

His biggest concern towards Akira can't be her depression, injury and giving up track because she doesn't know about them at this point in the series. So far the only concerns he has shown about having a relationship with Akira, and what his mind immediately jumps to when the suggestion even comes up is that he would look bad. This actually breaks -I think unwittingly- the Nice Guy narrative, because he's clearly more concerned about his own feelings than Akira's, and the idea that "hey, dating a girl closer in age to my own son is irresponsible and even if I didn't mean to, I would be taking advantage of her" never ever crosses his mind. He literally only seems to care about whether his feelings will get hurt and how bad he looks. I'm not saying he shouldn't have those concerns, the problem is that those are his only concerns. It's not his sense of responsibility as an adult towards an undeveloped young girl who clearly needs guidance that makes him hesitate about dating, but purely his ego. That already makes me think that he's not in fact a good match for Akira because so far he has shown little to no concern for her feelings.

[...] it's clear that we're supposed to compare Kase's behavior to Kondo's and end up sympathetic to the older man. For one thing, the overtly sexual way in which Kase looks at Akira makes it clear

No mentally healthy adult of whatever age is going to abuse a teenager unconsciously, or vice-versa.

That is quite wrong and makes me wonder if you have been living under a rock, considering the massive topicalization of power abuse recently, with MeToo and much more and a lot of those dynamics are applicable in many a context.

Abuse is not limited to physical violence and there are also relationships that are very harmful to one or both partners without one comitting anything in the region of persecutable crime. Does not make them any better for the participants though.

... Maybe the current climate are clouding people minds ...