@keira835 Well, someone did point this out how Hikaru words what he says, "Pursue your dreams, fall in love (ironically a Kana panel), hand out with your friends (Memcho shown)," etc. And how Aqua responds to it. "I want to become a doctor, It might also be a good idea to respond to Arima's feelings,..." like the other was Dream>love>friendship, other stuff. A pretty solid argument in my opinion; could you look into it? Another one is constant 3rd party input where every character is like "Kana is Aqua's light", "He's attracted to Kana", and all
Thank you for the question.
I feel like an important nuance of Japanese confession culture is being completely missed here.
Kana asked Aqua to give her an answer to her indirect confession on the day of the concert.
Kana does not look like Ruby, who is clearly focused on the concert. Instead, Kana looks distracted, like she is searching for something, or someone.
This is the narrative reminding you that Kana is waiting for Aqua’s answer, the answer she explicitly asked for that same day.
Aqua cannot ignore Kana’s request for an answer.
If Aqua is a decent person, he also cannot pursue a romantic relationship with anyone else until he gives Kana a clear response.
Let’s look at two examples of this in other manga.
I’ll start with the gentler example, and then move on to the Kaguya-sama one… I think people who have not read Kaguya-sama have a very mistaken idea of Aka…
Hina knows that Taiki likes someone else, and yet she confesses to him. She explicitly tells him that he does not need to give her an answer right away. She even makes it clear that he is free to continue pursuing the other girl.
The whole situation affects him badly, even during his matches.
Taiki is told by others to consider her as an option, despite the fact that he likes someone else.
In the end, he gives her an answer (despite her asking him to keep thinking about it) because he cannot properly pursue the person he truly wants while leaving her feelings unresolved and when he considers them.
Now, in Kaguya-sama: Ishigami and Tsubame.
Ishigami confesses by accident, and Tsubame becomes extremely stressed over how to turn him down.
It is problematic because it is also a heartfelt confession, and he is a good person and a good friend to her.
As usual, she is asked by others to consider dating him:
He tells her that she can give him an answer by spring and that she does not need to worry.
After that we see her trying to sleep with him as a way to “thank” him for liking her because she doesn’t feel she can just reject him.
He still asks her to think it over.
She even tries to go on dates with him.
She tries to fall in love with him and gives him a genuine chance. She truly believed that if she gave him a chance, she would, but she simply couldn’t.
In the end, all of this leads to her finally giving him an answer.
* Btw she begs him to stay friends with her and tells him how much he means to her, and he agrees. And… their friendship is completely over. Later, he even says that he cannot remain friends with someone who rejected him.
So this was meant to stress an important point:
You cannot ignore someone’s confession, and you certainly cannot ignore someone who explicitly asks for an answer.
If they are a good honest person and a good friend of yours, you are even expected to seriously consider the possibility of dating them, even if you currently have no feelings for them, sometimes even if you like someone else.
So while Kana is assigned to “love” and Akane to “obligation,” Aqua’s words here suggest the opposite. He treats Kana’s confession as an obligation, while his true desire lies with Akane.
And for those familiar with Japanese tropes, Aka is probably playing with ninjo vs. giri here.
This is another point I think many people miss:
The real question here is not who Aqua would date if he were alive. The question is where his true desire lies, where his heart is, and what he actually wants.
*My guess is that if he were alive, the usual pattern would repeat, just like with Tsubame. He would not be able to lie to himself or to her, and would eventually end up rejecting her.
Even in Kaguya-sama, there is a couple who starts dating despite the girl having no romantic interest in the boy at first, simply because he confessed to her.
With Kana, it is even worse, because she does not simply say, “I like you, please go out with me.” She tells him her dreams, dreams that only he can fulfill.
And we see that Aqua cannot give her those dreams, because he looks at Akane, and Ruby is also his oshi (or at least Gorou’s).
So everything becomes a mess.
In any case, the situation here is extremely complicated, which is why the only thing that truly matters is Aqua’s own words.
I have not seen enough situations like this in manga where I can say with 100% certainty why he chooses these exact words, but what stands out here is that his words express a lack of desire, and that part is what matters most.
Does he want to honor her courage after knowing she felt this way all those years?
Does he feel guilty about not being able to fulfill her dreams, and so at least considers dating her?
Does he want to avoid ruining their relationship if he rejects her?
I cannot tell which of these it is, and there are probably more possibilities that I have not thought of. My guess would be the first or the second.
But one thing is clear: he does not want to date her.
As for the order in which Kamiki says these things, it is not accidental. Aka wrote it that way because it’s a monologue, which builds upward.
We can see Aqua’s desire grows step by step:
someday → might → want → definitely want.
* again, about Kana being assigned to fall in love: because Aqua needs to give her an answer, he cannot put anyone else in that position.
*Neither actually uses the literal Japanese word for “obsessed” (執着). But, they use words with very similar meaning to each other’s.
Akane- was attracted to 「惹かれてた」:
* not in a sexual sense, but emotionally. It more like being pulled toward/drawn in by them.
This is Aqua’s old self. It is Gorou being close to his oshi, Ai:
Everything always comes back to how Gorou felt about Ai.
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