Thank you
Yorokobi and others for the summaries and spoilers. Now that my download is complete I simply couldn't wait - I skipped to the interesting scenes
1. That conversation between Makoto and Buchou. The sense I got from this is: they make him out to be a real
ikemen, but Makoto seems awfully green when it comes to love.
The second bit was when Makoto recalled Buchou's advice:
2. Not to say "I told you so," but I kind of predicted this part. More precisely I said this part should happen first before Hotaru-Buchou fans get their hopes up, and now it has, so...
And a very... ambiguous look on his face at the end of this scene.
3. Sorry for doing this every week, but I simply have to heap praises on
Hotaru no Hikari once again. They have so far steered clear of the problem with so many romance dramas and movies where the male and female leads are just preordained to fall in love and be together
because they are the male and female leads, rather than after mutual attraction, common interests, a period of courtship etc. - the stuff of more realistic relationships. At this point both the Hotaru-Buchou and Hotaru-Makoto camps have good reasons for why they should be together, but it's not so clear what will eventually happen. (Okay, maybe after the final episode I will look at this post again and say,
How could I not have seen what was coming? Well, whatever the outcome is, I didn't.)
We're about halfway through the drama now, and this is my take on the situation:
Hotaru-Makoto:
Lust - physical attraction - surely. Plus, Buchou may have been the one who physically intruded into Hotaru's daily life, but it was only when Makoto showed up and emerged as a romantic interest that she changed her mind about her lifestyle, after God knows how long, and try to be a worthy girlfriend to him. A good relationship is one where you get all heart-poundingly excited and you aim to become something more than yourself when you're with him/her.
Hotaru-Buchou: They're the leads, so "structurally" they have the advantage. Plus, after this period of living together, Buchou is the only man in Hotaru's life who sees all the sides to her, from pretty to ugly and everything in between. Although he still grumbles, he has learnt to accept her for who she is. On her part, Hotaru does not freak out and screw up big-time when she's with Buchou, like she did with her dates. She can and
does dress and behave any way she likes in front of him. A good relationship is one where you can feel relaxed and be true to yourself when you're with him/her.
Perhaps which camp you support depends on what you think a relationship should be about, apart from whether you like Kato Kazuki or Fujiki Naohito more.