For my next entry into the “12 moments of anime 2009” series I’m choosing Fumi’s confession to Akira that she’s a lesbian from Aoi Hana episode 4.

        First of all, I have to say that I absolutely loved this episode, the range of human emotions and uncertainties displayed by both Fumi and Akira felt true to life and believable. Too often in anime when a main character finally reveals their real feeling it’s takes so long and is done in such an over the top manner that it stretches the limits of believability, but in Aoi Hana it felt true and right.

 

        I felt that the scene where Fumi confesses to Akira that she a lesbian and is in love with Yasuko, and that she and Yasuko are dating was very powerful and poignant. Fumi who is a very sensitive and insecure girl placed a lot of trust and pressure on Akira at that moment. As Fumi said at the beginning of their conversation she really values her friendship with Akira and doesn’t want to ruin it. I could feel the tremendous emotional pressures building on Akira with her childhood friend not only confessing to her that she’s a lesbian but asking her not to find it and her gross, and please don’t hate her.

        You can see how this plays out with Akira by the thought that she places on this situation during her train ride home, while she told Fumi that she doesn’t have a problem with girls liking girls she also wonders if she’s too simple minded, and we also see her uncertainty playing out why she sort of asks Kyoko about this. I also felt that Fumi displayed a tremendous amount courage and vulnerability in this episode. Fumi displays a tremendous level of courage by telling Akira that she a lesbian but she also shows her vulnerability when she practically begs Akira to not find her gross and not to hate her.

          This episode touched on the very human desires of wanting to love, and be loved, and also the very human need to be accepted for who you are by your friends, and the toll that these desires can take on someone when the relationship falls outside of what mainstream society considers normal.