[DreamSword]

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Originally Posted by Kurona

Yeah, I figured it'd be that -- but to me that scene reads less as outright encouragement, and more as "I dare you". Not "you should do this", but "you can -- but do you want to?". OOO is a show about desire, after all; so what I got from this episode is a situation where both Eiji and Ankh are not equipped at all to handle Rie's desires, but someone like Date who's older and more experienced in different things is. It's the show introducing a new, wildly different player when it comes to the theme of desire; with his first set of post-new year episodes showing that in full force. This is his style of doing it -- Eiji would talk someone through it and try to convince them it's not what they want, while Date does practically the opposite and has them realise on their own it's not what they want. He gets that in this sort of situation, it's a thing where you're only going to truly come to that conclusion on your own.

Okay, sure, but here's the problems I have with that.

1. This means Date is full well willing to risk people's' safety and mental well being on a mere hunch that he has about how someone else feels. Dangerous move and very presumptuous on his part.

2. Even if Date DOES somehow know the whole story, we're never shown that. Infact, everyone(audience included) has basically every reason to believe the opposite, since, and correct me if I'm misremembering here, each Yummy DOES pretty accurately gun for every person's' desire, even if taken to a destructive extreme alot of times. Rie admitting to her basest feelings doesn't help.

3. It also means Date is a man of inaction and really only cares about his bottom dollar. I get that OOO is all about the moral gray area, but it doesn't exactly make Date someone I wanna root for. Ankh does the "selfish standoff" style of arc much better, I feel.

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It's also an episode where an older man goes "Aaah, I see, it's a young girl; so obviously it's about love!", so it's not a favourite of mine by a long shot, but beyond that I can see the underlying themes the episode was going for.

And that too!

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As for belittling Eiji and Ankh... ehhh, not really? Like, he's pretty playful with Eiji, sure; but only in the sense of once again someone older and more mature being able to navigate emotions in a way Eiji isn't capable of -- and as we've seen laid out in many many episodes, Eiji is really not emotionally stable or in a right state of mind to think of things concerning himself. And when it comes to Ankh... well, that's just comedy revolving around two strong personalities clashing.

Maybe it's just my own barriers with Japanese culture and manners of speaking, but I really can't agree. Date, in nearly every interaction he's had with a bunch of people, really came off as a uncaring know-it-all to me. The way his arc ends up going later on only compounds this.