Kare Kano vol 13

In volume 12 Kazuma was finally able to confront Shibahime about his feelings, but only after he runs away from home and quits school to focus all of his attention on the band.  We also got a peek into the life of the friend groups background member, Rika and the complicated relationship between her and Aya's older brother.

    Youngest Miyazawa sister Kano struggles with being familiar with every popular senior in school due to their friendship with Yukino.  Everyone finds it both dazzling and obnoxious the casual access she has to those in the school that are deemed untouchable by mere mortals.  Her peers suspect she may be using their familiarity to her advantage when in reality she wants nothing more than to downplay their connections.  She prefers to sit in the background, unnoticed, able to go about her life the way they pleases her.  Yet it proves hard to remain anonymous when walking the halls and your older sisters friends continue to call out to you.  The real reason she chose to go to the same school is to be closer to her literary idol and another member of the Yukino friend group, Aya.

     As they move into the studious exam phase of their final year of childhood, Soichiro struggles with his relationship with Yukino.  His accumulating accolades build to a stark contrast of the darkness hes buried deep within himself.  The darkness caused by the abuse from his extended family purely on his natural parentage.  Due to his troubled childhood, at the hands of his cousins primarily, he has worked so hard to defy the stigma placed on his shoulders from his fathers downfall.  As he gains more and more attention from his accomplishments he is keenly aware of the spotlight that is being placed on him.  First his accomplishments in kendo, leading him to be one of the top ranked high school players in the nation.  Then his placing first in the national college mock exam, bringing media attention to him.  Surely his cousins and other relatives who have wished him nothing but ill will have noticed.

    He is able to learn what that attention has wrought as he and his parents attend a family wedding.  Now that there is an amount of praise being shown to him from outsiders he is sure the jealousy and venom from his relatives will surface.  The three cousins who terrorized and abused him as a small child approach him in private to unleash their attacks.  The jealousy of his achievements is twisted and spat on as they tell him he will never truly be a part of their world, given his lowly birth, regardless of his accomplishments and praise from the common folk.  He prepared for something like this and had been planning to show his hand to them once and for all.  One of them moves to punch him but he easily outmaneuvers the attack, surprising them.  He reminds them he is a well trained martial artist and they can't pull stuff like that on him any long.  At this point the careful facade he has crafted for most of his life is let go and he expresses his true feelings in regard to their relationship and the hardships thrust upon him by the family at large.  In stunned silence he dismisses their pettiness and false assumptions.  He warns them that he will do what ever it takes to assume the role in society he wants to, against their belittlement and terror.  He knows that their protector will not be able to save them forever and some day he will destroy them if he needs to.

    Soichiro struggles with the version of him that everyone expects or that he wants everyone to expect.  He wears a face of obedience and stoicism.  Doing everything he can to make his adoptive parents proud, never to disappoint or burden them.  he never wanted to come across as conceited or spoiled, never taking his situation for granted.  It is the version of him that caught Yukino's attention, lead her to at first see him as a rival and then as an equal, sensing the hidden persona with in him.  After they agreed to be their real selves and to not hide things from each other, he continued to hide the deeper darker part of himself from him.  He fears it would cause her to push him away.  That dark side is one filled with thoughts of revenge.  He deeply desires to pay back those who have hated him and shunned him all of his life.  He wishes to attain a position in society and his family where he will be able to unleash all of the terror and hatred that has been bound up within him.  He does not want this part of him to surface before the woman he loves.  So he continues to hide himself away, remain distant, almost unloving and aloof.  He struggles with this.  he sees his obsession with his family as a disease that will keep him from achieving the same level of greatness that Yukino will achieve.  He sees her and believes that she will continue to shine brighter and brighter, while he will dwell in the shadows, irrespective of any outward accomplishments he attains.

    Sensing something in his adopted son, Soichiro's father has a private conversation with him.  He wants to reinforce the pride that his parents have in him and how well he has done for himself and the love they receive from him.  Medicine is the family business and Soichiro has been prepared to take over his fathers hospital eventually, it is almost expected of him to do so.  Aware of the hatred much of the family has towards him, his father tells him that he should choose the path in life he wants to take, instead of being bound to any family expectations.  He understands that continuing on his course will not help him to escape the pain and suffering he has dealt with all of his life.  He has more than proven he cn do anything he wants to with his life and his father is releasing any shackles that may exist on him, telling him he should life for himself and no one else.  But could this change in direction be too little too late in the young mans life?  At this rate he is the top senior in the entire nation, with Toyko U as his college of choice.  He wants to continue going to college with Yukino, even if she against going to the same university as he.  What will he do now and how much longer will he be able to be close to the only person that matters to him?  How much longer can he keep up his false face under her persistent scrutiny and brilliant future?