DAISUKE AND HIKARU: AN UNTOLD STORY - ANALYSIS BY GERDHA - PART 7
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HIKARU MAKIBA: AN ONGOING LOVESTORY (Eps 23-25)

EPISODE 25

Ep25 is “Naida’s episode”: it is common opinion. Well, I assure you that the reason why my opinion is a bit different is not based on the fact I dislike Naida's character to all extent (not as much as Rubina, but The Irritating Princess is really out of scale...). I simply think that – just as Rubina – Naida is in reality mainly a plot trick to let the story go where the Authors wanted it to be. Ep25 realisation has a story in itself, which is subtle, told by Katsuta in the Roman Album: but this is not the right place to discuss. What I want to underline is, instead, how important is ep25 to define Hikaru’s personality and her relationship with Daisuke.
It’s not a casualty - for me - that ep25 is located immediately after ep23 and 24: it cannot be a coincidence at all. I would like to point out the strict coordination between certain parts of the scripts of eps 23-24-25. Three different scriptwriters (Uheara-Tamura-Mashima) but only one project: for what Hikaru’s evolution is concerned, there are no plot holes and the overall story is perfectly designed and coherent in itself. Uheara takes care of the big turning point (ep23), Tamura is responsible of confirming the direction (ep24) and it’s Mashima who writes what I consider as one of the best scripts with one of the most pregnant scenes of the whole anime.
We don’t see Hikaru for nearly the whole episode, but we can feel her presence anyway. In fact, we must suppose she knew of Naida’s arrival. First, it’s impossible nobody told her the big news about another host at the Centre; secondly, who other than Hikaru could have given to Naida the red dress (by the way, see how similar it is to the one borrowed to Mineo in ep9 – I think it’s even possible that the original idea was the dress to be exactly the same...);

Thirdly, it’s likely that Daisuke took Naida to the farm for starting the horse riding, so Hikaru should have get the news about Naida at least from her father.

Anyway, given what happens at the medical centre and the dialogues there, it’s clear that the two girls never met before ¹. However, for sure Hikaru knows perfectly who Naida is while the latter has no idea about the identity of the woman in front of her. Very interesting. How to explain this? Well, I personally think Daisuke talked to Hikaru about his past love for Naida “out of screen” somewhere in between eps 23-24, and this explains Hikaru’s strange behaviour, both in medical room and in front of the cell. I mean, I have always found strange Hikaru’s sweetness towards Naida, like she gave up the war before even starting the fight. My personal explanation of this behaviour is that Hikaru knew about the passion which linked Duke Fleed and Naida on their native planet, and thought she could not counterpart that resurrected feeling: it’s enough difficult to “fight” against a ghost, go figure if it comes back from the deads. Hikaru supposes her lovestory with Daisuke – after all they have “renegotiated” their relationship from such a short time – could not survive to the storm caused by Naida’s comeback.
But on the other side, strangely, it seems that Daisuke did not tell anything to Naida about Hikaru, like if he wanted to “hide” or “protect” his feelings for Hikaru. He has a new life on Earth and he does not share the information with Naida. I don’t want to discuss here about Daisuke’s mental attitude in ep25, from a psychological point of view is extremely interesting, but this is not the point here at all (this is not an ep25 analysis, ehehe ). The point here is the incredible scene of the two girls in front of Daisuke’s room, which I consider a masterpiece of the whole anime. Hikaru trying to not show to Naida her feelings for Daisuke is really poignant; she could scream her pain and hate towards Naida, but her strengthens and her deep respect for the man she is in love for is wonderfully designed in her tentative to reject the tears coming to her eyes. Why showing anger when the most important thing is Daisuke’s state of mind? Why sharing something so personal as her feelings for Daisuke to the woman (she supposes) he loves and is going to take her place near him?

I have wondered for years why Naida decides to kill herself. From a theoretical point of view, her act is absolutely nonsense. I would like my French friends to know that their edition suffers of a big censorship at the end of the episode: the original version (aired in Italy and Arabic countries) shows some scenes which demonstrate clearly Naida’s purpose to suicide, despite Duke Fleed’s reiterate tentatives to stop her. Why does Naida want so deeply to die, despite the fact she is perfectly aware that Duke Fleed is healthy again, he is willing to fight and he screams her repeatedly to stop her action? Honestly, even if I agree with Suzi about the fact that Naida’s suicide could prove to Daisuke the story of the fleedian brains was fake, I find absurd she kills herself for a demonstration purpose: as he was healthy again, she could have told him directly and find if the case another way to prove her story was false. And I don’t find also a possible guiltiness feeling from her side due to the killing tentative towards Daisuke to be a good enough reason for a suicide, as she is perfectly aware that he is in good shape again. No, I think the reason of her desire to die is different.

In front of the room where Daisuke is locked, seeing Hikaru’s rejected tears and facing her unusual behaviour, Naida suddenly has a revelation: there is another woman in Duke Fleed’s life, somebody so special he did not tell anything about her. They have stayed together for days, and he did not feel the need to share a single word about this Hikaru Makiba, who clearly knows the deep of him despite the “low profile” she is trying to impersonate. Here is, for me, the explanation of the dialogue between Naida and Hikaru:

Naida: Tell me, you are in love with him, right?
Hikaru: But, I...
Naida: I supposed so. I love him too, maybe more than you. Love is the greatest strengthens.

and Naida’s following decision to kill herself.

Naida is weak, she cannot find a purpose in her life different from her passion for Duke Fleed. She survived all those years in the terrible Vegan enslaving, repeating herself she loved him and being convinced he shared the same sentiment, and now she must face the fact that life has gone on for him and he loves another woman. Apart of the problem of the lie about the fleedian brains and the guiltiness feeling for having tried to kill him (plus maybe other issues linked to Planet Fleed destruction, but this is another story...), I believe this is the fundamental reason why Naida decides to suicide anyway. Hikaru’s strengthens and Naida’s weakness: that’s what ep25 is about - amongst many other goals.
Finally, I have a last consideration to share. As we have discussed in other posts, ep25 is a big turning point of the story from Daisuke’ character perspective, but it’s the same for Hikaru too. ”Love is the greatest strengthens”. The look she shares with Naida in front of Daisuke’s locking door proves that also Hikaru had a revelation in ep25: there is a difference between being in love for somebody and to love someone. She is going to elaborate this insight in the following episodes...

JOE7'S OBSERVATIONS

Notice the dialogues between Naida and Hikaru:

Naida (she just woke up after the operation): Duke Fleed…where is him? (then, she turns and sees, for the first time, Hikaru. She does not know her, and asks:)
Naida: Who are you?
Hikaru: I'm a friend of Daisuke...I mean, Duke.

Note that Hikaru tells Naida the terrestrial name of Duke Fleed, which Naida does not know: then she correct herself. Besides, throughout all the episode, Naida calls him always "Duke". It is almost as if she rejected the fact that Daisuke is on Earth and she thought they are still on Fleed.

Look closely Hikaru's behavior: in front of the door with bars, she says Naida about the state of Daisuke and, after finishing, she has her eyes moist with tears. But she does not want to cry in front of her.

Naida looks down, confused: but, when she raises her head, she has a surprised expression. She has found that Hikaru is crying and that she is striving to hold back her tears. Why this unknown woman is so interested to Duke Fleed?

Then Daisuke screams umpteenth time, Hikaru does not take it anymore, she lost control for a moment and shouts:

Hikaru: “DAISUKE!”

At that moment, Hikaru became aware that she had made ​​a misstep: she revealed to Naida her feelings. She has once again called Daisuke with his earthly name, the same name she said first Naida by accident, not using the name of Duke Fleed. She turns away, embarrassed. And Naida understands that Duke made a life with another name, in the midst of other people. And with another woman. Not with her.

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¹ this means that Hikaru gave the pink robe to Naida without seeing her, through a third person. Perhaps she did not want to see her (Joe7's note).

The following here.


HERE ARE ALL THE GRENDIZER LINKS

Edited by joe 7 - 25/11/2019, 18:03