A Condition Called Love

Episode 6

So this childhood friend of Hotaru's that has been brought up for almost every episode has to appear at some point in the series, right? Anyway, now we get more context of what Hotaru was like with her best friend when they were kids and how the passive-aggressive bullying transitioned into just straight-up bullying. I feel bad for Hotaru. By all accounts, she didn't do anything wrong and was just made the victim of someone else's extreme feelings. Maybe there's more context that the show will elaborate on but I like how the show attempts to combine Hotaru's trauma with her current situation. Love does change people and can cause them to act out in extremes. Considering that she was made the victim of someone else's extreme love, it makes sense that Hotaru would be hesitant to express that love for the majority of the episode. I like that the show sets the episode up toward the typical drawn-out awkwardness of being unable to confess your feelings but then has it adds legitimate weight behind why that would be difficult for Hotaru.

My problem with the episode is that it feels as if that payoff is missing something given how the dilemma was originally set up to involve Hananoi. I was impressed that the show uses Hananoi as a parallel for Hotaru's bully. I thought that was a brilliant idea as it would have used a more relatable circumstance for Hotaru to question Hananoi's behavior. When he starts clinging to her more, she notices something isn't right because of how he's acting AND how his actions remind her of the past. Combine that with the very heavy—and borderline uncomfortable—jealousy portrayed in the first seven minutes, I was strapped in for what felt like a very different type of episode. However, like previous ones, we are setting aside Hananoi's behavior to focus more on Hotaru overcoming her trauma separately.

It's well done but when I look at the episode as a whole, I cannot help but feel like there's a sense of disjointedness and missed opportunity. Hananoi's jealousy isn't resolved or brought up again. There's no questioning how Hananoi is going to deal with these insecurities. Hotaru is still working with the target of Hananoi's jealousy and the message about “my feeling will never change” feels a bit irresponsible when it's directed towards such a co-dependent personality like Hananoi. Maybe these will be answered and addressed later. We barely know anything about the guy whose confession feels a bit hollow. The show is teasing things about Hananoi without actually saying anything about him. Maybe now that we have the definitive confession, it'll be much harder to run away from those insecurities since there was plausible deniability in the relationship being a "trial run." Now it is real and I don't see how they could progress unless we get more of an idea of who Hananoi is as a person.

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A Condition Called Love is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.