hontou ni sou omou?

Ah how jealousy can add spice to an anime series and even raise the Charisma of an already cute female character. For me, Kaede’s mental breakdown and psycho outburst represented the best improvement of SHUFFLE! anime over the game. While it didn’t make me like her more, it certainly made her a much more interesting character and also handed victory over to Asa-chan.

For this week’s episodes of Fate/Stay Night, Mai Otome, Kashimashi and Shakugan no Shana, sensed quite a bit of Jealousy in the Anime Force.

Sakura was understandably flustered by Saber’s introduction. After all, Saber’s really pretty and is living with her precious Emiya-sempai. I’m just waiting for her to go Kaede on a rival who takes the lead later. Kekeke.

Instead of our usual dose of Creepy Tomoe jealousy in Mai Otome, we have Nina’s Elektra Complex leading her to kill poor, sweet Ers-chan and thus giving Arika the will to fight her seriously. Major plot point but doesn’t improve Nina’s standing or cuteness in my books. And now that Ers-chan is gone, there goes my hopes for seeing Nina give up on Sergey and reciprocate Ers-chan’ feelings. T_T

Good balance of plot advancement and character enhancement in Kashimashi with Tomari ruining Yasuna’s attempt at kissing Hazumu and then lashing out Yasuna in the rain. Tomari’s yet to come to terms with her feelings for Hazumu but the threat of Yasuna taking Hazumu away again will probably move things along in her heart. Also quite funny with another spontaneous scream of frustration during sit-ups because she was thinking of Yasuna and Hazumu cosying up.

Jealousy +10 to Shana’s cuteness! Good combination of her laconic manner, fighting/training mentality, determination to win contrasted with her obvious bewilderment at her own feelings for Yuuji. Not sure how jealousy per se is going to affect the plot at this point though it may become important if she has to work with Kazumi in the future.

In conclusion, jealousy can advance plots - usually because of the consequences of jealousy-spurred actions on events and other characters. Also it impacts on characterisations especially if the series has a romance arc though that impact may not always be a positive one.