Theme discussion

Greetings readers of AA,

So this blog is about, “themes of tonari no kaibatsu Kun anime” (my little monster),

Here in this blog, I plan to discuss a few of the themes that stood out to me

My college semester recently ended and I found this anime through rather interesting means and I decided to watch it, just like other anime this too made me think, and here I am penning down my thoughts

Warnings for spoilers

Without greater ado let’s begin

1. A HIGH SCHOOL LOVE STORY

This is one of the most obvious and the first themes to stand out; the whole anime is set in a high school and a classroom. “High school life” is the backdrop of the whole anime, and it severely influences the characters in every aspect.

The character design, the personalities, the choices they are inclined to make, their maturity, and their exposure, all in hindsight resonate with “high school life”. Within the walls of the classroom, where our protagonists can be seen most of the time, one will encounter many stereotypical classroom characters, like a heartless topper misunderstood loner, a bully, the lonely one, the popular one, and so on.

This provides an excellent setting for the entire emotional churn that the characters and the readers accompanying them are about to face this theme is even the very plot setting of the anime, and partly its genre too.

2. THE DIFFICULTIES OF LOVE

All the characters in the anime are in love, with someone or the other, be it the side characters or the ing characters, or even the two main leads. Along with love they all face difficulties on their journey, however, for each, it manifests differently in comparison to the others. This theme is well resonated with all the characters of the series

Starting with Haru, the male lead He has feelings for Mizutani Shizuku the female lead, and is open and confident about them; however he does not immediate requital of his love, Shizuku takes a while to return his feelings, and that delay and uncertainty makes Haru return to his former restless impulsive and violent behavior.

Next coming to Shizuku, the female lead, who is an apathetic cold girl, in her pursuit of academic excellence she has almost given up the need for a social life; however, she too falls prey to the testing of love and ultimately develops feelings for Haru. She for her part is very uncertain about her feelings. She is unable to strike the delicate balance of developing feelings without affecting her priorities.

Thirdly there is Natsume; she keeps trying to convince herself that she will never fall for a man and that all boys are bad. In the past, she was often confessed to by many boys and ultimately was on the receiving end of all the bullying and snide remarks from her female peers as they lost their crushes to Natsume. Natsume can be seen as visibly uncomfortable and even mildly traumatized when she her old peers or when she gets confessed to. She develops feelings for michann and is ultimately turned down because, and he can only see her from a parental gaze

3. IMPORTANCE OF RIGHT FRIENDSHIP

This is a theme that is several times throughout the whole series, the importance, the whole cast of the anime is socially awkward in one way or the other, and they all can cope with insecurities and deal with their past with the right friends.

Starting with Shizuku and Haru, the polar opposite leads,-Shizuku was dubbed dry ice by her old classmates, and she neither had an interest nor need for any social life interaction, while Haru was desperate for friends. Shizuku helped “tame” Haru's violent and impulsive side while Haru added a social dimension to Shizuku's dull life. Shizuku was that one” right friend” that Haru needed, she even stood up to Yamaken and the group and asked them to treat Haru better which eventually resulted in Haru having more amicable relations with them.

Another place, where this can be seen, is in the case of Natsume and Oshima. Natsume can often be seen saying that “she feels safe around Haru” and that she likes the gang as friends, erstwhile Natsume san many online friends from a community that did not work out, and the group helped Natsume come to with her out-casted middle school life. On the side of Oshima with Haru and company, she found some friends, warmth, and even her crush.

Then there is Yamaken and Shizuku, although Haru is strong and loudly opposes this relationship this friendship has been greatly beneficial to Shizuku and helped her understand her relationship with Haru and Haru much better, she can often be seen thanking Yamaken for good advice.

4. priorities and distractions

This is a Shizuku-centric theme, Shizuku is often found conflicted and uneasy in mind.

Shizuku has an ambition of earning a salary of 10 million yen, ever since her childhood, she has seen that her mother has been the primary breadwinner of the family, she prioritized work over family relations, coupled with this the incompetence of her father in his profession,

This has left a profound impression on Shizuku.

Her life was very easy and on track, until she developed feelings for Haru, anything she deemed as a distraction towards her end goal she simply removed, however, she could never come too easy with her feelings for Haru, and she was unable to strike a balance between her personal life and her goal, one hand she was having fun on the other her grades were slowly slipping, The cut throat competition in the world of entrance examination made her rethink her relationship with Haru on multiple occasions, even when she decided to do away with Haru and focus on exams she was unable to return to that single-minded devotion, later with the help of Yamaken understands that all things need not be so binary as has always viewed the world and that she must function as a human and not a robot.

She later comes to with her feelings and understands that there is still a lot left to be said and done to cement her words which carry the emotions of her heart. Shizuku handling her fear of “trying out a new thing and eventually getting distracted is truly something endearing in the anime.

This is one experience I am sure we all must have felt very often the feud of the mind and heart.

These are all the points that stood out to me and left me pondering even after then, do tell me in the comments what did u think of this anime and what stood out to you?

thank you for reading!