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HIKARU: A GIRL IN LOVE (episodes 13-22)
HIKARU'S MODIFIED AGE
After ep12, in Grendizer's storytelling something changes. Episodes'mood becomes stable, the scripts start to follow a better internal coherency; there is also a bigger attention to evolution's characters, being the anime's main plot line. Besides, something else changes from ep13 onward: Hikaru Makiba’s age. Suddenly, any reference to her as being a schoolgirl ends (even if she should continue to attend lessons, she has no lessons from now onward). From ep13, Hikaru lives and works always at the farm. We have discussed already the “age” issue on the forum 1 a long time ago, but I like to reprise the topic here, because I think that it is very important to understand the anime story. As I have underlined previously, the characters' presentation in the first phase of the anime is mostly coherent with Uchu Enban Daisenso, or UED (of course excluding Koji, who was a last-minute addition to the anime, but this is another – long – story to be told), including their ages. Hikaru Makino (farm inhabitants' surname in UED is different from Makiba) is a teen: she seems to be 15 years old. Hikaru Makiba could be a couple of years older in anime's first phase (since she is going to school in eps 1-12, she could be at maximum 17 years old).
However, I firmly believe something changed in anime project around ep13. Assuming that the perspective of “adult” story meant necessarily properly developing the lovestory plot, it is clear how much was necessary “aging” Hikaru a bit (not too much, or the story wolud be not credible), in order to allow a better relationship with Daisuke. In that way, the teen girl became silently older of 3-4 years, by stopping going to school and transforming her female figure in a permanent reference in all episodes.
  
EPISODE 14
I like the idea of the relationship with Daisuke. See ep14 for example: it is a great example of masqueraded storytelling. While viewers watch this episode because of the first explicit connection with Mazinger Saga (giant laugh in the background  ), the real interest factor here lays in the subtle demonstration about the status of the relationship between Hikaru and Daisuke. First of all, the dialogue at the temple at New Year’s Eve daylight: Daisuke looks at Hikaru, confessing he supposes to have her same wish to express; Hikaru replies to him with complicity (look at visual aspects):
Hikaru: Well, so you know what’s my wish.
 
During the traditional game scenes at the farm, the clues are even more clear, if possible. Once Hikaru has taken Daisuke in the bathroom to clean their faces, she laughs and tells him she purposely lost the game with Koji in order to find a way to be alone with him for a while; besides, their hands are together.
  
The fact that Koji is fully aware of the situation is interesting; in the meantime, he confesses to Goro he understood her trick and accepted it.
It is a very interesting observation, coming from Koji. It seems that the Authors wanted to remark that their developing relationship was not a secret and it was regarded with sympathy from Koji (at that moment, at least...). I would like to point out that, up to now, Mr. Fujikawa seems to have a particular affection towards Hikaru’s attitude to be outspoken about her feelings: he is the scriptwriter for eps 3, 11 and 14...
EPISODE 17
This development has a big surprise about the staff: writers'group starts to enlarge. In ep16 appears Toyohiro Ando (please note: ep16 - even with plot holes and bad drawing - is anyway telling about a lovestory!), who will work again only in ep21: after this, he goes away. The biggest news, however, is Mitsuru Mashima's arrival in the staff in ep22. Before this last remarkable event, Keisuke Fujikawa writes another Hikaru/Daisuke centred episode: ep17. It contains most interesting hints about Hikaru’s personality and about the kind of relationship she was creating at that moment with Daisuke. Hikaru and Daisuke, who were in the stable, have a nice talk about family, looking at the horse and its baby:
Daisuke: What a great thing is a family.
Hikaru: Maybe, but for what myself is concerned, sometimes I feel so constrained by my father.
  
They agree about going together to a horse riding, tomorrow. Yeah: despite his hesitation (which is the latest visual evidence we have in the stable scene), Daisuke has agreed about the horse riding with her. But, after a moment, while he is looking at the red moon, he says that they must postpone the horse riding.
 
Well, in ep17 we can see the first time in which Hikaru is arguing with Daisuke: she is disappointed by his behaviour.
 
Hikaru is not an adoring girl for a beautiful guy: she clearly shows a strong attitude. She desires to build an “equal” relationship with him. She is not disappointed for the fact that Daisuke has cancelled the trip: she is disappointed because he refuses to explain her the reason for this. Hikaru told him about the fact that - for her - is important having the possibility to stay alone with him, out of her father’s control. Then, she is forced to suppose he does not want to stay with her. Daisuke clarifies explicitly that he would like to go horse riding with her, but not tomorrow. This is not a good explanation for her.
   
The interesting thing in ep17 is that Daisuke himself is uneasy and embarrassed in this situation: please see his facial expression. He prefers not to give her any explanation, instead to lie. After all, if he wanted, he could invent an excuse. I personally find ep17 a great and underestimated episode: it is the first situation in which Daisuke shows a sort of uneasiness towards his fake identity. Anyway, Hikaru’s feelings for Daisuke are still at a development stage, more in the “infatuation” stage than in the “love” stage. Once she comes back in the living room, she is still angry, stating that she is tired of Daisuke, because “sometimes he changes mood and becomes strange” and she “cannot get mad because of him”.
 
Danbei, who is aware of his daughter’s sympathy for his farmer, gets angry with Daisuke as he enters the room and screams his disapproval for the fact he’s letting her suffering. Daisuke is surprised: he did not think that the postponement of the horse riding was really important.
 
At the end, the incident was solved: at the following day, even in the middle of a snow storm, the horse riding takes place. Daisuke and Hikaru are looking at each other with a happy expression: the visual aspects of the scene leave no doubts.
We can see that, at the end of the second development phase of Grendizer, Hikaru Makiba is growing as a character. She is keeping again the same major features of the first phase. Anyway, her link to Daisuke is changing. She is still in the “infatuation” phase, for now. See also the very quick reference in ep20, when, as soon as Daisuke exits the living room after winning a card game with Danbei, she exclaims:
Hikaru: He is wonderful. He is fantastic in everything he does!
Hikaru, anyway, criticizes Dasuke when she thinks is necessary. Daisuke himself has a growing feeling for her and he trusts in her: for this motive he starts to feel uneasy in keeping his double identity with her. This situation could not last forever for sure.
Also, thanks to the high broadcast rates of the anime at that moment (ep21 had the largest japanese audience of whole anime broadcast) Katsuta & Nagai probably thought that the moment to turn definitely Grendizer in the “adult” story they had devised since the beginning was come.
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1 "We have discussed already the “age” issue on the forum": Gerdha refers to her old French forum where she took part.
Edited by joe 7 - 26/10/2019, 17:43
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