#I really like the point where shima connects anger and empathy. it’s a really interesting way to look at conflict

[chase-the-ladybug]

Went back to compare shima-ujie interactions

It’s interesting how the words revolving around Shima and Ujie when he was practising volleyball in chapter 41 compare to what their interactions this chapter(61) were.

Shima had said before how he couldn’t get angry before bc he couldn’t empathise, but here he is, clearly upset. He’s come far from the kid who wouldn’t bother getting upset bc ‘it’s not worth it’. What specifically changed though?

Let’s compare to Mitsumi in the past. She was upset in chapter 41 when ujie told her to stop playing a good person, bc it means something to her to look out for other people, and she values it. She could empathise with ujies pain and yet he treated her with disdain in response.

Shima however didn’t care at the time. But now, he’s finally learning to look forward and go after what he wants, so when ujie says what he does, it hurts him. It’s like a dismissal of what he’s working toward, but it scares him bc it’s also a feeling he empathises with.

Ujie says here he probably doesn’t understand that. But Shima got mad bc he DOES UNDERSTAND, it’s a point of contention for him that he just can ‘play along’ in whatever way to please others. He wants to change that though and Ujie hadn’t recognised it.

There’s also the case of how he still holds in a lot of self-hatred for the type of person he is, imo. He finds it incredibly hard to be ‘selfish’, and it’s already taken so much for him to chase acting again, but there’s always this worry that he’s just taking advantage of the people around him. Even though him pursuing this doesn’t logically hurt them at all.

In the end though, when he does talk to Ujie again to explain what he thought, it comes back to the words of assurance he himself gave Ujie in chapter 41

Because since that chapter he DOES know what it’s like to try hard for something, he DOES care about the role he worked towards, it’s NOT a role he stole from someone more deserving. And in the end, it resonates with Ujie too.