I have been thinking about this scene for an hour now. I’ve paused it and been staring at it on and off. I have totally forgotten about it. It’s just so… heartbreakingly touching. Nobuta’s hug shook Shuuji to his core. I don’t want to focus on the romantic reading (but I’m totally reading it a little bit romantic too) but what did me in was that this is the first time Shuuji is really touched. What I mean by that is, yes, he is a popular guy who is always mingling with everyone and had a pseudo-girlfriend with whom he held hands with. He is no stranger to skinship. But those touches weren’t real, not really. The person Mariko was holding hands with, the person his friends threw their shoulders on was not the real Shuuji. It was a perfectly constructed persona Shuuji wore every morning and didn’t take out until he comes back home.
But then one day, when everything’s too much and when he is without his mask, Nobuta sees him. And he is too tired (and maybe unwilling) to put his mask on. So he is honest with her. He is scared. He is terrified of being disliked, being hated. He broke someone’s heart and he is terrified. He bares his soul to Nobuta and she hugs him, comforts him. That’s why Shuuji is shook. Because someone sees him for he is with all the ugly parts and his biggest fears out in the open and she doesn’t hate him, on the contrary she holds him and tells him that everything will be okay.
He receives love as the real Shuuji and maybe this is the moment he starts to realize what real love feels like.
