The Blinding Passion

Some time ago, an anthropologist named Edvard Westermarck studied the phenomenon of people falling in love with people closely related to them. I guess there’s some credence in the old folks saying you will fall in love with a person who either looks like you or like someone related to you.

In one particular study, it was found that groups of children who were raised close together – in the close environment that siblings are raised, albeit without parents - grew up with little interest of members of the opposite sex. This type of reverse sexual imprinting – the Westermarck effect, it was called – was theorized to prevent closely related people, like siblings, from something called genetic sexual attraction, which would make them attracted to one another. (Remember when Luke Skywalker saw the holoimage of Princess Leia and said, ‘she’s beautiful!’? Something like that but more extreme.)

Whether you believe in that or the Freudian alternative, the anime series Koi Kaze (literally, ‘love wind’) is to me the example of a Westermarckian social experiment. Koshiro, a 27-year old man, is troubled by his listless life and the relationships he gets involved in aren’t ones that are fiery with desire – it almost seems like he isn’t attached to the people who forms relationships with him. His ex even asks him if he has ever truly fallen in love with someone (or something to that effect.) One day his younger sister Nanoka, 15 years his junior, enters his life. The two have not met ever since Nanoka was a baby, and here comes the dilemma: Koshiro, in addition to his natural fraternal feelings towards Nanoka, begins to feel something more, something deeper that at first he tries to deny. On the other hand, Nanoka is delighted at the prospect of living with a brother, since she’s wanted to have one all her life. Soon she becomes drawn in deeper in her thoughts of Koshiro, and something’s sure to happen.

Now I guess at this point you have an idea of what’s coming. Yes, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Are you feeling creepy? Hehe. One’s appreciation of Koi Kaze will depend on your mileage. If you’re sensitive to these kinds of things, it’s best to stop now and go to my next entry. It’s probably as good as this one. Oh, and LOTS OF SPOILERS FOLLOW, so be warned.

LOTS OF SPOILERS FOLLOW! Just wanted to say it again...

Still here? Good. After seeing the entirety of the series, I cannot remove this anime series from my mind. I still feel ambivalent about the series, but I think it’s pretty good – one of the best I’ve seen this year. In essence, the plot of Koi Kaze is about two people who try to fall in love despite the circumstances that conspire against them – and we all know we have a lot of that. And yet there’s something sad about the whole thing that I couldn’t place. At times I can’t help but root for these two – the series was set up that way, even though Koshiro can be a jerk sometimes. And at the same time I find myself wanting their relationship to pass on gracefully, for everything to be like it should be (or, like what we would like it to be.)

The series is quite serious at times, although the lighter aspects of the series are quite cute. The simple art style is very nicely done, and it kind of accents the realism of the series somehow (and the realism is what sets the series apart from other romance series - it's really that good.) The soundtrack is really good, but nothing really exceptional or memorable in my opinion. It is interesting to see the interaction of the two main characters towards each other and each episode I couldn’t help but wonder: is it the time? Will they cross the logical and societal barrier that keeps them apart?

The last two episodes come, and they are the episodes that I am still personally wrestling with (of course, in a figurative manner.) Koshiro and Nanoka eventually cross the barrier, and enter the land of no return (really! Believe me, watch the last two episodes and judge for yourself.) Chidori (Koshiro’s coworker friend,) who seems to me a lone voice of reason, perhaps in this context embodying society itself, tries to stop them both.

But you see, as the title of this entry entails, love is a powerful blinding force. It’s a strange tunnel-vision like thing that makes you focus on that special person, and nothing else. In reality, one would see that this isn’t the most practical decision to make. But it is love, and I think the point of the whole series is that if love is there, anything has a possibility to last. And as you would expect from what I wrote, Chidori fails – and the two lovers cross the barrier, one that all lovers go through at some point in their relationship, but in this context unsettled me somewhat, and it’s natural, considering the way our society treats such relationships. It made me reflect on it, and that earns some praise from me. I hated what Koshiro did, honestly. It resounded against my very being. But then, I thought, how could I blame him? He's human just like the rest of us.

(As these two episodes went on I am reminded strangely of Kim Ki-duk’s Bad Guy (or any of his films, actually.) The feeling I got here was similar to the feeling I got when watching those films.)

I’m not as optimistic about love as the mangaka of Koi Kaze probably is. The anime ending kind of reflects that – it feels logical and grounded in reality. The last episode is full of symbolism. At one point, Nanoka even thinks about a lover’s suicide (something that is explained in detail in the manga, but this route has been done in Korean melodramas for ages now, so you probably know why.) They carve their names in a tree in the amusement park where they met, and yet we know that, since the park is shutting down, no one will probably see that. Koshiro even asks himself why they are doing this – they know this relationship may not last forever, it may only be temporary. They will have to make changes, try to hide what feelings they have from others. But for this short moment, they press on, because I believe that they are very sure of one thing – that RIGHT NOW, they are in love. I think the ending may imply that they've finally gotten out of it, that they can end and move on, or it may mean the opposite. It makes Koshiro’s final words – ‘I Love You’ – even more ambiguous. Is it a goodbye? Is it a heartfelt declaration of his feelings?

After seeing the anime ending, I went to see what the manga ending was. The manga ending is similar to the anime ending, yet I felt it was better in pacing the last few moments of the series. It isn’t as ambiguous as the last episode of the anime, however, and that last episode, like it or not, is one of its strong points.

In the end, aside from that, there is no real resolution aside from the fact that the two lovers have finally accepted their feelings. There is, and there isn’t change. Life goes on. I mean, you can’t erase that love that is already there. Tragic, yes. There could have been times where such a thing could have been avoided or stopped. Where do these two go from here? Hell if I know. Ultimately it's up to us to imagine. But as enjoyable and as distressing and as endearing and as unsettling as this series was, I wish both of them good luck.