Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji Ep. 6: Throw a love triangle at it

Enough’s been said about Kyouya and his inexcusable behavior. Likewise with Erika. I’d just be repeating myself if I keep dissecting our lovebirds’ actions. So to cover that part of of the episode, let’s just post a series of screen captures that I find highly offensive. You guys can draw your own conclusions, because, again, enough’s been said about that asshole:

Hell, even the show is getting a bit tired of the same, tired dynamics between the Black Prince and his Wolf Girl. As a result, the anime introduces a new character:

Meet Yu Kusakabe, a very shy and meet classmate of Erika’s. He’s also a nice guy. No, not a Nice Guy™. Rather, Yu seems like a legitimately nice person. Needless to say, he sounds like everything that Kyouya is not. It’s just too bad that he’s cripplingly shy. Hell, if you actually buy into that bullshit alpha/beta dichotomy, you might be inclined to call Yu the biggest beta of them all. And that’s how you make the Black Prince seem like a suitable choice. There are normal guys out there. There really are. But that’s never what you see in these stories. You’ll have Kyouya, the pretty boy asshole… but he’s not so bad, because it’s slim pickings from here on out! We have Yu, who can barely look you straight in the eye. You have Takeru, who’s certainly well-intentioned, but he’s a bit of a blockhead. And let’s not forget Yoshito, who shows up for only one episode to try to NTR Erika away from Kyouya. What’s a girl to do when these are the only men she can choose from! But like I’ve said, this is bullshit. There are normal guys everywhere just like how there are normal girls everywhere. But if you want to convince your impressionable audience that Kyouya’s extreme tsundere personality is “not that bad,” then all you’ve gotta do is surround him these pathetic caricatures.

But despite this quite apparent fact, just the mere sight of Erika having an innocent conversation with Yu is enough for our super alpha male to walk up and piss all over Erika’s leg in an attempt to stake his claim. When Yu shuffles away awkwardly at the sight of this, Kyouya instantly turns cold to his “girlfriend” and ditches her. This is borderline abusive behavior, of course. The wild mood swings, the possessiveness, the myriad attempts to isolate you from forming platonic friendships with members of the opposite sex, etc. But shh, don’t take the anime seriously.

Naturally, shit hits the fan when Erika continues to take pity on Yu and hands him one of the chocolate cupcakes she had made for Kyouya. Here’s bonus mild homophobia for the road:

That’s right. Yu doesn’t get any chocolates on Valentine’s Day, so Erika imagines that his family is probably afraid he might be gay. As such, she wants to give him some chocolate so no one has to think he’s gay or anything. Sure, she’s making assumptions — Yu’s family might just be worried that he’s lonely and has no friends — but at the end of the day, it’s still mild homophobia for Erika to even come to such a conclusion given what little she knows about him. Blah blah blah, different culture this, different culture that. But like everything else in life, not all things are the same. Asian people, in general, are compelled to pick up all the trash after a sporting event. Most Westerners don’t. Chalk this up to a difference in culture, then! No big deal! We pay people to pick the trash up for us. Just different strokes for different folks! Likewise, Asian people are, in general, less tolerant of homosexuals. Chalk this up to a difference in cult–… no, man, no. This bullshit has got to stop. You can’t keep hiding behind that weak-ass rationalization forever, especially when innocent people are victimized, hurt, and bullied simply because they prefer to fondle a different set of genitals. Some issues transcend cultural barriers.

But let’s revisit our original point, i.e. shit hitting the fan because Erika dares to take pity on another human being of the opposite sex:

Yeah, he throws the cupcake right back in her face. He’s an asshole, blah blah blah. But hey, tell me something new, right? And I can hear it now. Oh, he’s just like that because he’s insecure! He doesn’t want to be hurt by Erika, so he reacts harshly to her giving a chocolate cupcake away! So what? We’ve all got problems. We’ve all got insecurities to deal with. It’s how we deal with those problems that define us as a person. Kyouya just chooses to be a horrible shithead.

Surprisingly, Erika tries to defend her friend. Tries. She doubts herself, however, when Kyouya no longer wants to play pretend-boyfriend with her:

Oh no, muh social status! When she tries to confide in Yu about her relationship woes, the latter asks the hard-hitting questions: “But you still love him, right? Your boyfriend… If he does so many awful things, why…” Oh, why indeed! Then the coup de grâce:

Then the very next day, Erika overhears Kyouya telling Yu that he doesn’t love her anyway. Again, this shit isn’t new. He said the same bullshit last week, and they made up anyway. That’s why this is all pointless. We know she won’t choose Yu in the long run, no matter how good of a person he is. Don’t get me wrong. I think Yu’s an idiot. Who falls in love with a girl in such a short amount of time? He just thinks he loves her because she’s the first person to treat him like a person. Nevertheless, this new development is just a cheap way to inject drama into a story that has already long run its course. People losing interest in your couple? Throw a love triangle at it.