信じられますか

Yea…title in this post is absolutely perfect. Refers to a various number of phenomena. Firstly, when’s the last time you saw me posting two days in a row? hehe.

(mild spoilers for REC episode one in this post)
Secondly, this could be applied to REC as a whole. With only 9 episodes and 12 minutes per episode, this is probably the shortest non-OVA anime I’ve ever seen.

And finally…we have Aka and Fumihiko in the above image. So Aka meets Fumihiko on the street, and seeing that his date stood him up, goes on an unofficial date with him instead. Randomly she decides this too! What a way to start anime interaction…just pops up out of nowhere and invites herself to watch the movie on Fumi’s ticket.

Anyway, so with Fumihiko depressed after seeing his date with someone else after the movie, Aka takes him to dinner. Is this how anime romances have become? They don’t even know each other’s names! People really need to be as generous as that.

So aaaaaaaanyway. They chat, part ways to go home after finding out they’re actually neighbors. And then we have Aka’s fire in her house, after which Fumi takes her in. Takes care of her. Is nice. They embrace. (WTF moment coming up) They kiss (ALREADY?!). And judging from Fumi waking up shirtless the next morning, they got some late night sympathy action.

Wow…..

So watching those moments, I was going crazy “OMGWTFBBQ!!” waving my arms and all. Guys…this may be moving a bit too quickly. After all, you haven’t even known each other for 12 hours… Afterwards though, I’m thinking…was that reaction justified? I mean, perhaps I’ve been overly influenced by anime, expecting once again long, agonizing periods after a couple first meets, before the first kiss. This just caught me by surprise. I ACTUALLY DIDN’T SEE THEM AS A COUPLE!!

First off, I didn’t even know Aka was actually twenty till she said so. She looked more 13 to me. Fumi looks like he’s in his 30s, so this relationship seemed a lot more father/daughter than anything.

The only other anime I remember off the top of my head where romance was not preceded by a due time-consuming courting ritual is Shaman King. And that was only cuz Yoh and Anna were arranged to be married, and they never kissed either, much less get cozy on a mattress.

However, after analyzing this for a bit, I must take their ages into account. Majority of romance anime I watch, what ages are they? 12-18 right? That seems to be the range that we see. REC we have people in a slightly older age group, so does that mean the whole courting ritual is no longer necessary? American shows such as say…The O.C. seem to suggest that that age isn’t necessary, but hope to Haruhi that most people aren’t like Marissa (haha she’s dead) and Ryan.

Perhaps anime has mislead me as well in any case. This courting ritual is not always there, despite what we usually see and have come to expect. And since REC is an anime about a girl wishing to fulfill her dream of becoming a seiyuu, it was necessary, especially given its time constraints, to skip the whole song-and-dance and just get the couple together.

I guess I shouldn’t be so shocked at Aka and Fumi’s speed, other than the fact that this happened in an anime (but at least they coulda waited till they knew their names first). I suppose neither a long-term nor a non-existant courting ritual needs to be considered the norm.

Um…REC, in any case, seems to be a short and sweet anime. Nothing especially brilliant, but a charming watch in any case.