Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m in the mood for some meticulously sculpted melodrama, and thus feel there’s nothing for it but to take the train on down to Seiren Academy, bathing ourselves in the crimson light off the bay as we contemplate whatever future terrors await. That’s right, it’s time for some goddamn Dear Brother, where any clock stroke might foretell the desolation or doom of our haunted high school classmates.
Our last episode offered a harrowing countdown to disaster, with the leadup to Kaoru’s return to the court offering a mix of poignantly articulated personal hopes and ominous visual framing. All those shadows and birds and wailing train signals made for a paralyzing first half, so much so that Kaoru’s eventual accident on the court came almost as a relief. And ultimately, the fallout of that moment actually served as a comforting affirmation of how far our heroes have come, with both Shinobu and Saint-Juste proving the strength of their bonds with Kaoru. Even as the violence escalates, it feels like Miya-sama’s grip on Seiren is slipping, while the rebels she’s attempted to undercut only prove their enduring resilience. It seems Nanako is far from alone in her rejection of the Sorority, and I’m eager to see how she marshals her allies as we return to the battlefield of adolescence!
Episode 17
We touch back down with a low-angle shot aiming up at the hospital, its form outlined by hanging branches in the foreground. Interestingly, this is pretty much formally identical to the regular shots of Seiren Academy’s tower, implying a certain connection between these imposing structures. All of the central buildings in this show are massive and impersonal, whether it’s Seiren, the hospital, or Saint-Juste’s apartment – they all verge on gothic or brutalist prisons, structures too large and lacking in identity to ever feel like home
We then cut to a waiting room with the windows blotted out by full white daylight, an excellent trick for both clarifying the composition and creating the sense of an enclosed, shadow-strewn world
Animation is interesting that way; film compositions almost necessarily include extraneous detail, but in animation every object on-screen is chosen with purpose
Apparently Kaoru is being discharged today
Nanako and Shinobu are both in attendance, with Shinobu rushing to offer flowers to Kaoru. It feels like Shinobu’s lack of a strong self-image means she instead fiercely defines herself by her current obsession, whether it’s Nanako, the Sorority, or Kaoru. She is desperate to be validated, and thus overplays her hand when it comes to whatever she loves. She still clearly needs to internalize Kaoru’s instruction to value herself more highly
“My worrying isn’t important enough to concern you!” And once again, she immediately begins to smother what she loves
Warm pinks and reds carry us down to the shoreline, accompanied by the call of gulls overhead. I am perpetually charmed by how fully this show commits to the distinct color palettes of each hour of the day
Absolutely gorgeous reflected sunlight off the water as Nanako and Tomoko walk along the pier. Such a shame that we’ve abandoned these marvelous traditional animation techniques
Also just great compositions. A strong sense of optimistic finality in these two spotlit against the fading sun
Nanako defines Shinobu’s feelings for Kaoru as “love. Real love”
A nice contrast in shape and color as we jump to the train, with its grey rectangles set against the imposing high structures of the city beyond
Nanako admires Mariko for her directness. “I’ve come to like Mariko-san very much.” Yet once again, that train signal offers a hint of menace to her reflections
A clear, immediate juxtaposition as Nanako then extracts Saint-Juste’s abandoned cigarette from her desk. While Shinobu has no trouble loudly proclaiming her love, Nanako can’t imagine expressing her true feelings to Saint-Juste. No surprise there – Nanako’s fawning interpretation of Shinobu’s desperation for companionship reflects her doubts about her own personality more than an objective analysis of Shinobu’s behavior. We so often see who we want to be in others, even if we’re just assigning them a framing that correlates with our own anxieties
Great sequence as Nanako’s urge to light the cigarette is contrasted against the train rushing past, echoing her rush of emotions
The next morning Saint Juste is tired but content, still reveling in the afterglow of that basketball match
So of course Miya-sama has to show up at her apartment and fuck everything up
She offers to take Saint-Juste to school, once again offering that hope of reconciliation, determined to maintain Saint-Juste’s utter dependency on her approval
She forces Saint-Juste to declare that she was unhappy to play, and actually forced into it. Just textbook emotional manipulation, complete with an underlying threat of physical violence, executed within a closed space that Saint-Juste cannot escape from. Miya-sama clearly offered her this ride specifically to isolate and imprison her
And there’s that imposing Seiren tower, a shadowed monolith hanging above our poor students
Hell yeah! Kaoru catches her before she can self-medicate her feelings into oblivion, and Saint Juste defiantly declares once more that the basketball game was a lot of fun. Miya-sama is losing her power over her!
For once, those ever-present birds are framed as a symbol of liberation – rather than mocking our leads from beyond the bars of their windows, they fly alongside Saint-Juste directly, echoing her newfound sense of freedom
At lunch Nanako hides a letter in her pocket, presumably intended for Saint-Juste
Saint-Juste is playing a flute in the courtyard for an audience of enraptured onlookers, as you do. It is not hard to understand why the students of this school treat the senior trio as mythical beings
Nanako essentially describes this as the moment she truly falls for Saint-Juste. Love the followup sequence, as Tomoko and Shinobu’s light conversation is contrasted against Nanako fussing with her food and hanging her head in her hands, clearly too preoccupied with thoughts of Saint-Juste to focus on food or conversation. It doesn’t take fluid character acting to convey clear emotions!
Nanako then continues her yearning over at the basketball court. The image of her gazing up at the hoop serves as a fine visual metaphor for how she sees Saint-Juste, as a distant figure high above her
The thump of the ball and cheers of the crowd still ring in her mind. Sound design can also pretty easily make up for a lack of active animation
And then Saint-Juste appears, directly calling out Nanako for her lovesick appearance
As Nanako denies her accusation, Saint-Juste laughs and dunks the ball, chastising herself for toying with an underclassman. An incredible transformation for her since that game, demonstrating the vivacious person she must once have been
Nanako sneaks in a little bonus yearning at the pond before the clock tolls for afternoon classes
But she drops her letter at the pond! And it’s intended for Dear Brother! Welp, seems inevitable that Miya-sama will get her hands on it
Back in class, Nanako admires how love seems to have made Shinobu all the more lively and beautiful. A classic adolescent instinct, believing that a destined love is basically the only way to realize your truest self. Teenagers tend to define themselves via the perceived perception of others, and what could be more flattering than loving and being loved? It simultaneously fulfills their desire for both validation and certainty
“Unlike Mariko, I just feel confused.” Mariko’s feelings are fragile and unrequited, but even her brittle certainty feels like an answer to Nanako
“I forbid it! You cannot date a boy!” Love you Shinobu
Shinobu basically flies into a panic at the thought of Nanako dating a man, a fear presumably inherited from her own parents’ divorce
As expected, Miya-sama then deploys her flying monkeys to inform Nanako that they must meet. Delightfully on-the-nose villainy of Miya-sama scraping her nail down the stained glass windows, desecrating Saint-Juste’s sanctuary
Terrific composition of Miya-sama outlined by the stained glass, her face a black void. Like an ominous saint captured in a church’s window
As ever, Miya-sama returns to the piano when she’s feeling particularly wicked
Her face is again a black mask as she returns Nanako’s letter. Also love the preceding compositions of her looking out at the sunset, with the red glow and silhouetted trees making it seem like she’s admiring a fire in the distance
“You’re all apologies.” This is Miya-sama in her element, extracting every apology and plea before gleefully dropping the hammer anyway. She is never more herself than when considering offering mercy she would never actually grant
The windows swing open as she stands, making her hair billow and sway as she lays down the law. Even the elements live in fear of Miya-sama
“I like your gentle nature, and how obedient and submissive you are.” Unsurprisingly, Miya-sama only values others for how well they can perform as extensions of her own will
“Tear it up. Right in front of me.” She’s also a big fan of these dramatic tests of loyalty, as she demanded of Saint-Juste at the beginning of the episode. But her grip is slipping, and the tighter she clings, the more determined her victims will be to escape her
As expected, she ultimately delivers the letter proudly, now all the more certain in her defiance of Miya-sama
And Done
Thus the rebellion begins! That gifted flower from two episodes ago was clearly the spark, but this episode saw the fire of defiance truly raging, as both Nanako and Saint-Juste pushed back against the demands of Miya-sama. Ultimately, she has only so much strength as they allow her – though she controls the Sorority, she cannot physically bind them, and the threat of social censure is clearly becoming less ominous by the moment. Even if Nanako were rejected from the Sorority, her social life would remain intact; if anything, such a dramatic flex of Miya-sama’s power would only diminish it, revealing to her other victims that there is a world beyond Miya-sama’s approval. Sealed windows and distant birds that once echoed our heroines’ entrapment are now flinging open and flying free – it’s a new dawn at Seiren, and I’m eager to see Nanako’s own ambitions take wing.
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