Saezuru Has Always Been About Yashiro's Right to Self-Determination. Chapter 66 Might Threaten that Narrative:
I'm going to say this and I know it's going to piss some people off, but I really don't care. There's been some dismissive and downright insulting attitudes toward anyone who's dared to express disappointment with the latest chapter of Saezuru, and the worst part about it is, these dismissals in general fail entirely to understand what the criticism is even about. It isn't that anyone thinks Kamiya or Amou's words or actions are out of character or nonsensical, or that anyone is accusing Yoneda of bad writing. I certainly haven't and I haven't seen anyone else do so, either. The disappointment and the unease is coming from the potential for the latest chapter's developments to endorse a message which undercuts the entire dramatic journey of Yashiro's character. Now I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, only that the way the events unfolded in chapter 66 conveys a sense of it being a possibility.
I don't think I'm alone in having expected, after chapter 64, for Yashiro to come to the conclusion, on his own, that Doumeki still loves him, and that in itself being enough to convince him to spurn Misumi's orders, and to ignore the threat of Tsunakawa's retribution to go to Doumeki's side. That would have made plenty of sense with Yashiro's character, given his consistently self-sacrificial nature. Whenever anyone he's cared about in the past has been endangered, Yashiro has never failed to put himself on the line for their sake. So I don't think that was an unreasonable expectation to have. And it would have been the perfect culmination of Yashiro's self-actualization and a powerful statement about the importance of agency and self-determination. Instead, we got Yashiro being guilt-tripped into going to Doumeki's side, being treated by the other characters as if his trauma and reasons for pushing Doumeki away were both secondary to Doumeki's loyalty and, worse still, framed by the narrative as selfish in comparison to Doumeki's devotion. Now, I have no idea if that's what Yoneda is actually intending with the way things played out here, and given what an amazing writer she is, and how incredible this story has been up to this point, I'm going to say I doubt it, and I'm more than willing to wait and see what's actually going to happen before I pass judgement. But I still think it's fair to be unhappy with the turn things took in this chapter, and to be nervous about the potential turn the story might take if, say, there's no actual consequences to Yashiro's agency, once again, being undermined by the other characters in the story. If nothing negative happens as a result of all this, if Yashiro and Doumeki are able to simply ride off into the sunset together and live happily ever after, then the narrative is essentially pushing this idea that Doumeki was right for treating Yashiro the way he has since the start of the time skip, and that would be a serious problem, because Doumeki was never right for treating Yashiro the way he did, and in fact it wouldn't be any sort of exaggeration to call it emotional and mental abuse, and even sexual abuse. With Doumeki's confession at the end of chapter 64, we finally got acknowledgment on his part to that fact. That he's been mistreating Yashiro is a desperate attempt to hold onto him, and I assumed, as did others, that this was the moment when Doumeki finally understood that it's Yashiro, not him, who gets to decide if Doumeki gets to be in his life. It was the narrative highlighting the vital importance of Yashiro getting to make that choice on his own, and underscoring in the process the wrongness of Doumeki's behavior in trying to force himself into Yashiro's life. But now we've got a situation where Doumeki's devotion is possibly being framed as entitling him to Yashiro's love. Again, I'm not saying that's what happening, but it feels like that's what's happening with this latest chapter, and so it understandably upset some people who are particularly invested in Yashiro's journey toward self-realization.
I said this in a reply, but if Yashiro were a woman, people would be viewing the events of this chapter in a decidedly different light, I think. If Yashiro were a woman who had a history of sexual trauma and abuse, and who hadn't been allowed since the age of 19 to live for herself, then Amou's and Kamiya's words and actions would have come across as abusive and manipulative and controlling, all for the sake of a man who, let's face it, has shown stalker-levels of obsession with Yashiro. It would come across as creepy and also as undermining toward Yashiro's well-being and safety. It would be a bunch of men telling a woman that her safety is secondary and unimportant in the face of a man's feelings. Again, as I've repeated multiple times, we can't know how this is going to play out, but if nothing negative results from this, then the story is framing Doumeki's actions as "right" while framing Yashiro's actions as "wrong" and "selfish", and I would absolutely have a problem with that.
Because Yashiro never owed Doumeki his love. Doumeki's loyalty never has and never will entitle him to Yashiro's life. His actions toward Yashiro since the time skip have been manipulative and controlling, and there has to be some sort of price to pay for that. Doumeki shouldn't be rewarded for treating Yashiro like shit and lying to him because he couldn't accept Yashiro's rejection. The other characters telling Yashiro he's a terrible person and that he owes Doumeki his love because Doumeki loves him doesn't change that fact. If the narrative decides to frame Doumeki's actions as right, it won't change the fact that they were objectively wrong.
But like I've said, we'll have to wait and see if that's what's actually happening. I trust Yoneda enough not to undermine her own, central themes in an attempt to placate the fans who only seem interested in Yashiro's and Doumeki's love being consummated, regardless of how that consummation comes to fruition.
