Summary
A Condition Called Love offers a fresh new romance anime with complex characters and creative storytelling. The film breaks conventional romantic stereotypes, exploring the dark side of love and the nuances of relationships. The controversial scene in episode #2 shows the show's unique approach, revolutionizing the romance genre.
The epic first episode of A condition called love ABOVE Crunchyroll both made promises and started delivering with ease a fresh perspective on the romance anime genre just because of its unique premise, but the sequel is clearly continuing this trend by exploring the incredibly creative romantic journeys of both Hotaru Hinase and Saki Hananoi. Better yet, an example in episode #2 could be understood as a conventional romance story that's been completely transformed simply because of the overall meaning behind it.
Regarding Hotaru, her journey completely breaks the overall genre because the point of her experience is finding the feeling of loving another person, so the audience already knows that she doesn't love Saki. As for Saki, it's clear that he loves Hotaru deeply, possibly to a fault.
Often, the suspense lies in whether one or even both parties love each other. The entire dynamic in A Condition Called Love reverses this because Horuto clearly doesn't love Saki and will certainly share when and if she does, and Saki has made her intentions clear. His struggle lies in knowing exactly how Saki feels as opposed to what he believes.
A condition called love explores partial and complete suffering
This nuanced romantic anime isn't afraid to explore the dark side of love
What episode #2 adds to the equation is that Horuto's specific motivations are related to what motivates someone to truly fall in love, while exploring Saki'sfighting from a much darker perspective. Even though Horuto's experiments require her to try new things, she naturally feels driven to make Saki happy and even tries to make him laugh, as she is curious to see his reaction. What will his reaction be? This is apparently what people do when they love someone. In fact, this is what motivated Saki to do her best for Horuto in episode #1.
Of course, the difference lies in What is Horuto's intention? She has no romantic motives, she feels sorry for Saki. However, this is still a very subtle interpretation of love, helping to explore how complex and layered love is, since there are so many emotions involved. For Saki, episode 2 emphasizes how traumatic this experiment is for him. Saki bluntly tells Horuto that he could never just be friends with her, while still keeping to himself how much he wants her. Unfortunately, based on Horuto's thoughts, it's clear how unlikely it is that what Saki wants will happen. That's obvious not only to the audience but also to Saki, which makes his situation even more heartbreaking.
A controversial scene that changed the genre and completely defined the series
The scene that certainly best encapsulates the uniqueness of A Condition Called Love is a cliché that episode #2 introduces but also completely subverts. That's when Saki pushed Horuto onto his back on the floor as he pressed himself on top of her with his hands. When a guy or girl is involved, this type of action often happens by accident to confuse both parties. The only time it's more aggressive is in male love series or when the pinning takes place against a wall.
Here, its purpose is clearly to illustrate how much trouble Saki is having with the whole deal. However, it is not some kind of random display of domination or “love bombing” as some shojo critics may understandably but mistakenly believe. What led to this moment was a suggestion Horuto made himself without realizing how much it meant to Saki since she couldn't truly understand his feelings. Of course, this doesn't cause any errors for Horuto, but it just goes to show how complicated this series can be.
Regardless, the fact that this act is done voluntarily and motivated by each party's understanding of exactly what the other is feeling doesn't just ruin a classic romantic anime scene but also completely captures what it feels like. A condition called love is revolutionizing the entire genre.
A condition called love is simulcasting Crunchyroll