Orange

Episode 12

I hope everyone brought extra tissues. This week's Orange was easily the show's emotional peak so far, winding back to explore the drama of the original timeline from Kakeru's perspective. This was a harsh and poignant episode, and although I feel the show has wasted too much time to recommend on its own overall, I'm happy to see it ending strong. Orange is finally delivering on the emotional potential of its very charged premise.

The whole first half of this episode was painful and claustrophobic, framed from the inside of a depressed and self-loathing young teenager. Watching the countless missed connections of Kakeru's original timeline would be painful enough; being forced to witness them from Kakeru's own perspective made things that much harsher.

There was a clear sense of distance fostered between Kakeru and his friends, as his consistently anxious and self-hating internal monologue slowly became his only companion. The show has already done a solid job of making Kakeru's position seem understandable, and gaining full access to his thoughts only enhanced the sense that this was a tragedy almost destined to happen. Kakeru's guilt came across as simultaneously misplaced and understandable - his mother made life very difficult for him, but his final words to her were sharpened by his assumption that things would just breeze over later. Kakeru's mother left him at his moment of greatest selfishness, ensuring he'd never be able to apologize for his momentary anger.

Other elements of Kakeru's feelings were also made clearer through this episode's perspective. His feelings for Naho were revealed to originally stem from the ways she reminded him of himself, if only in his more anxious and unhappy qualities. Kakeru's fear of being hated or abandoned evolved from the exit of his mother through his meeting with old Tokyo acquaintances, who were only able to laugh off his confession. The episode consistently put Kakeru's feelings in the most stark and understandable terms - he didn't want to be hated or seen as a bother, so he hid his feelings, leading to eventual bursts of anger that would then inform his need to hide his feelings. Kakeru's inability to be honest about his pain led to a vicious cycle of isolation, building up to that crucial moment of depression where you can't imagine things ever getting better.

Kakeru's feelings were only amplified by the discovery of his mother's final unsent text message. Her framing of her past actions as intended to help Kakeru was perhaps a too convenient twist, but it did make for a stark parallel with Kakeru's own actions. Both mother and son ultimately hid their true feelings and hurt those they loved, even as they were actively trying to be considerate.

This episode's execution was fortunately up to the task of conveying its heavy emotional stakes. The sound design deserved special notice here; there was a great variety of melancholy piano melodies that perfectly matched Kakeru's emotional state. Even the visuals were strong this episode, conveying very specific facial expressions with little of the unedited looseness that weakened much of the earlier material. From its storytelling to its aesthetics, every element of this episode was Orange at its best.

In the end, the only real awkward note this time was the halfhearted explanation of how the first timeline's future group might send their letters back in time. Orange's conceit has always been more about challenging the past in a thematic sense than a sci fi narrative one, so having the characters actively discuss stuff like black holes and alternate timelines has always felt a little contrived. But overall, this was a powerful exploration of Kakeru's deeply troubled mental state, an episode that demonstrated nearly everything that makes this show compelling. Orange may be a fairly troubled production, but this episode was a winner.

Overall: A

Orange is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.