Honey Lemon Soda

Episode 8

One of the things I love about Honey Lemon Soda is how it handles Serina. In almost any other shōjo romance, she'd be the horrible rival, the girl who believes she ought to get the boy and damn the consequences. At the very least, she'd oppose Uka and Kai's relationship. But here, cementing the idea that this is more about Uka learning that it can be safe to come out of her shell, Serina is nothing but a good friend to Uka. Yes, she fully admits that she still has a thing for Kai, and yes, she wouldn't be opposed to dating him again, but none of that gets in the way of her friendship with Uka. She's honest, and even more importantly, she knows when to give up. Dating relationships may not last forever, but there's a decent chance that a friendship will. Uka's friendship is just as important to Serina as her feelings for Kai, and that guides her character development.

This episode also drives home the idea that Kai is every bit as awkward as anyone else. It's easy for other kids to see him as more mature than them because of his looks and deceptively cool demeanor. But the truth is that he's not sure how to interact with Uka any more than she is with him. Both of them are continually dancing around their feelings, as evidenced by the fact that he's been waiting for her to ask for his number. He clearly really wants to be able to text her, as we saw a few weeks ago when he used Ayumi's phone to call her and then was beaten to the punch by Ayumi at the festival. But he's not sure how to ask for it. That could be because he feels like he epically screwed up with Serina back in middle school, but I think it may also come down to how important Uka has become to him. He's gruffly awkward about it when people ask, but deep down, he wants her to notice him as much as she wants him to notice her.

He's also clearly watching her at all times. At the beach, her fluster about his shirtless state bothers him, but apart from when Serina pulls him away, he's got his eye on Uka. He's nowhere to be seen when she's confronting her bullies, but he asks her about it later on, so he was plainly aware of the situation. The fact that he let her handle it herself shows that he's learned from his past relationship, although I don't doubt that he'd have jumped in if things got worse. However, the greatest gift Kai, Ayumi, and the others have given Uka is faith in herself. Would I have confronted my middle school bullies the way Uka did? Hell no; I'd have run in the opposite direction as fast as possible. The courage it took her to do that, something she may not even be fully aware of herself, is astounding, and it shows how far she's come. That the episode ends with her finally asking Kai for his number reinforces this idea.

Although Honey Lemon Soda looks more like a romance now than it did before, it's still really about Uka and how she's growing up. Her father – who may be a problem later; he seems very overprotective – comments that he's sad that she's doing things with her friends now, even though he knows that's a good thing. What he may not realize is that this means that Uka isn't growing up so much as out: out of her shell, that is. She tends to credit Kai with enabling this, but the truth is that Uka is doing it all herself; Kai and the others are just the training wheels on her bike of self-esteem.

Love can help her find her self-worth, but it can't save her. She's doing that all by herself.

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