Episode 010: Loveless
“Twelve year old Aoyagi Ritsuka is left with his insane mother as his only family when his brother, Seimei, is killed suddenly. After moving to a new school, he meets Agatsuma Soubi, who claims to have known his brother. Ritsuka discovers that Soubi and Seimei used to be a fighting pair, whereby Soubi was the "Fighter" and Seimei was the "Sacrifice". Now that Seimei is gone, Ritsuka has inherited Soubi, who will become his "Fighter". After learning that Seimei was killed by an organization known as the "Seven Moons", Ritsuka decides to investigate into his brother's death, with the sometimes useless help of Soubi, along the way.”
The anime adaptation of the manga was created by J.C.Staff and first aired April to June in 2005 and focuses on the first four volumes of the manga, meaning that there are quite a few differences between the media sources, with the anime having an ending specifically written for it!
This week we are going to be reviewing Loveless, an anime where twelve year old Ritsuka is looking into the mysterious death of his brother with the help of his brother's previous fighter partner. I remember watching this as a teenager and being quite obsessed with it, and so thought it might be good to look over something from my younger Babeushka days and seeing if it actually holds up, or if nostalgia has been lying about how good this was!
You can either listen to the podcast above, or you can read below for a majority of the transcript of the podcast! Now as always, our discussion will begin with a brief summary of the anime followed by spoiler free thoughts and feelings. This will be followed by an in-depth discussion of some of the key plot points that occurred and we will then finish off with my overall rating of the anime and a heads up about what we are looking at next time. If you have not had a chance to watch Loveless and don’t want to hear any spoilers, then please feel free to skip the detailed section and listen to it afterwards if you so wish.
So right off the bat I am going to bring up representation, as I think this is one of the key issues with this piece of media that I didn’t actually notice when I was a teenager when I first watched it, but on watching it now a decade later it really does hit in a different way. So our main character, Ritsuka, is aged 12 while the person that will show an interest in him and say he loves him is actually 20 years old, creating not only an age gap, but one that involves a child and an adult. I don’t know why as a teenager I didn’t pick up on this other than it's maybe harder to keep in mind the age of animated characters, especially when they are acting much older and are involved in situations you generally think of involving teenagers going off to save the world.
The only bright side of this issue is that throughout the show there isn’t any sex between the characters and, at most, it is a kiss or being held close, not that this excuses behvaiour like this between children and adults since there still can’t be proper consent in these situations. This just means it isn’t as terrible as it has the potential to be. And I wish this was the only issue of adults interacting with kids and boundaries, as Ritsuka’s therapist who is 21 also seems to cross a line when thinking about the child coming to therapy sessions. So yeah, there are indeed sketchy adults in this show as a content warning. The other content warning before I go further, as it will be more in the detailed discussion, is the fact there is child abuse from Ritsuka’s family life in terms of being hurt and neglected.
There are only 12 episodes to this anime, so unlike some anime series this is one that is quite easy to get through within a week. Not to say that it's one you can just half pay attention to however, as there are complex mechanics that are developed to the fighter / sacrifice set up and there is the overall mystery around Seimei’s death still to be unravelled. So it's definitely one that you want to pay attention to so that you get the full experience of the show as it deals with topics such as the power of words and how they shape our reality, our attachment to memory and what it means to us, as well as the power families can have over us, both in terms of blood relations and found family.
One of the aspects of the show that’s quite interesting is the fact that virginity, or childhood innocence depending on the reading, is actually visually represented by people having cat ears and tails while they are innocent and then once they have become adults (or had sex really) then these fall off. It’s an interesting idea that isn’t fully explained in the show, as it is better detailed in the manga if I recall correctly, but it does pose an interesting idea. How would we all act if losing our virginity was a much more public display than we have now, with everyone being able to tell at a glance and judge based on your age not just when you lose it, but when you have chosen not to as well!
The way episodes are named is actually quite interesting as well, as they are all set up to end in the suffix -less. So we have Breathless, Memoryless, Bondless, Friendless, Sleepless, Painless, Tearless, Trustless, Skinless, Nameless, Warless, and Endless. And the interesting thing is that these give hints to what the episode will be based around, but it's only after you have seen the episode that you fully see how the name fits, whether that is due to it being the name of a fighting unit or if its dealing with those emotions and feelings the word is conveying.
The soundtrack for the series is really lovely and I think it fits the art style quite well. A lot of times it's very soft and brooding that complements the melancholic scenes we get and then it can also be quite upbeat and jazzy to increase the silliness when we have scenes of hijinks. And the opening and ending songs, Tsuki no Curse and Michiyuki respectively, are both brilliant in their own ways. Both were composed by Yuki Kajiura and performed by Kaori Hikita, Tsuki no Curse is a brilliant fast paced beat to get us revved up at the start of each episode while Michiyuki is a slow, heartfelt tune that leaves us to process our feelings at the end of what we have just watched. I will say, Tsuki no Curse is one of my all time favourite anime opening songs and was even the first non-native language song that I could sing word for word as a teenger!
The final thing I will say before we go into the spoiler section is that the animation of the show and how it's coloured is also rather pleasing to watch. It looks as if it flows well and there are two distinct styles throughout the show, with it either coming across as very pastel and soft when we are dealing with normal life and interpersonal situations, and then it becomes quick bold with its colours and pacing of scenes when it comes to spell battles between fighting pairs. It feels quite clever to have these two styles of how the story is presented to give a better idea of the difference between regular life and this fantasy world.
Final Feelings and Recommendation
In terms of whether you should watch it, I think it depends on the level of comfort you will have in performing some cognitive dissonance, as I do think looking back on this show it is one you need to consider most characters as late high schoolers instead to at least make it not sit as uncomfortably. I do think it's a lovely piece of media, with the animation and sound work all being brilliant, so if you can make that mental jump and are fine with stories being unresolved, then it's definitely worth a watch as the themes are interesting.
Overall, I will give this show a six out of 10 spell battles. This is due to the fact that I do have a nostalgic soft spot for this show and in terms of technical execution the music and animation are beautiful and the topics the show focuses on are quite important and deep. The issue itself really comes with the very problematic relationship between the two main characters as well as the fact that the story doesn’t resolve at the end of the series.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Now, just a reminder that at this point, I will be going into a more detailed analysis of the anime which means there will be spoilers! If you haven’t managed to watch Loveless yet and you don’t want anything spoiled, then this is your last chance to avoid the discussion. Or you can go ahead and close the page, go watch the anime and then come back afterwards to finish reading. I promise I won’t mind. Still here? Well then, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Our main character, Ritsuka Aoyagi, has recently joined a new school due to his brother Seimei having been recently murdered plus about two years ago Ritsuka’s personality completely changed and he has no memory of who he was beforehand. Our first impression of him is that he is quite harsh, saying to Yuiko he hates stupid people and says she is one since she lets others order her about causing her to cry causing others to also criticise him for being rude. As we go through the show however we see that he does care about people, but due to a lot of trauma in his life, he is very guarded and strict in his morals when it comes to dealing with others.
At home, Ritsuka’s mother doles out abuse on a daily basis, smashing plates and screaming when he breaks a curfew, making dinner where 50% of the time it’s food ‘old’ Ritsuka would hate just to test him, or trying to get into his room when she is in fits of rage. With that in mind, it’s understandable why Ritsuka is standoffish and stubborn with people as a way of trying to protect himself, even calling out classmates who hurt Yuiko’s feelings, as he has to deal with that all the time and knows how horrible it is. It’s little wonder then why his character is commented as acting much more mature than a 12 year old and it’s a shame that any kid has to grow up this fast in life when parents are being abusive.
The situation between Ritsuka and Soubi is such a minefield, and not just due to the age thing which I mentioned earlier! We have someone who has suffered a very recent trauma and also deals with constant trauma at home due to an abusive parent, and then we have this person showing up saying they knew his brother and shows a romantic interest in him yet fails to even consider Ritsuka’s situation properly. Soubi does not respect boundaries or orders, even when he does ask for them as we get multiple examples of him being told to not lie, not to come somewhere, or to answer his phone and then he goes and breaks these promises. This is all terrible behaviour to build trust with someone who is still having to process so much emotional trauma that it’s no wonder Ritsuka is constantly mad with Soubi and yells at him for his behaviour, only to forgive him later. It definitely shows toxic traits in this relationship they have with each other.
As we progress throughout the show, we do get to meet other paired fighting teams (Breathless, Sleepless, and Zero) and it's through the interactions with their characters that we learn more about spell battles and how the relationship between the fighter unit and sacrifice is supposed to work. We learn that the fact that Soubi has a different name to Ritsuka brings a lot of disgust and overconfidence from other fighter units, since the names are decided before you are born and pair two people together, and to go against that is seen as taboo. It actually makes an interesting stand in for being queer, since people are naturally aggresive and sickened by the pair, so I do wonder if this was an intentional stand-in for the usual overt hostility homosexual relationships are shown by some parts of society.
During the episodes, there will be naval gazing questions for the audience to think about that impact the characters. This ranges from things such as Ritsuka asking if real friends would lie to each other and being told that sometimes people lie to ensure others like them, to being worried about your own self disappearing and being replaced with another which is countered with how we all disappear as we develop our personalities and our memories are not meaningless but live in every moment that we do, to even trying to understand what it means to love someone and how does one love oneself first. All of these feel like things that you ponder as you get older as a teenager, or was that just me and I am the odd one?! Either way, I really appreciate how such complex ideas are woven throughout the anime for us to ponder on before moving along in the story.
Another interesting aspect that is examined is done via the Zero’s that eventually fight Ritsuka and Soubi. Nagisa has genetically been modifying them to not feel pain during battle but has also made replacements with the same name so that parts of the pair can easily be replaced, further dehumanising them. The idea that feeling makes them weaker fighters, and so to be emotionless and stoic is better for people, is quickly challenged when it is shown that this means they don’t have automatic functions to keep them safe from the cold, showing that to be unfeeling doesn’t mean you won’t be hurt. Or that the bond between two people can’t develop as we see with the second pair of Zero’s, who eventually do regain their ability to feel pain and choose to kill their old selves and live life as they want to instead of being commanded like a robot. Both Zero’s help show the concept that trying to cut oneself off from feelings doesn’t seem to be best for survival, nor is it achievable in the long-term. People need connections and to be able to experience life.
In terms of pacing, the show does have a limited time to get us through the story, so we have episode one acting as a bit of a crash course, and its then a mix of whether episodes going forward push more of the storyline in solving Seimei’s murder or if they push the development of the characters and their relationships. We even somehow managed to get what feels like a filler episode in episode eleven, but it does act as a way to give us a breather from all the darkness in the second half of the series before we plunge into the finale.
The final episode is quite the heavy hitter, as we start with Ritsuka thinking about how life may be worth living now that he has friends and people he likes in his life, and its while the gang is at Yayoi’s that Ritsuka sees a code similar to the one he got several episodes ago. While playing the game at home to try and get answers to Seimei’s murder, there is incense placed in his room and Ritsuka seems to keep passing out several times in different locations before finally waking up. He finds himself in a world that's been through some kind of battle, and he finds people he knows as they are dying in various ways, whether it is within fires, having been strung up, or floating in the river.
Eventually he comes across Soubi who apologises but says he was just following orders before attacking Ritsuka. It's a sad scene to have happen now that these characters have bonded over the course of the show, especially when Soubi says that if Ritsuka dies here in this dream then the real Ritsuka can finally wake up. Ritsuka, having finally found connections with others and realising he can live beyond his trauma, is defiant and fights back, calling out he doesn’t want to be called Loveless. The illusion fades away and Soubi’s face turns into Seimei as he says it was a good spell.
After finally waking up from his strange hallucinations, its revealed that maybe Seimei isn’t as dead as we were all lead to believe, nor does it seem like he is a warm and caring brother as he spies on Ritsuka and Soubi while seeming to imply that the horrible visions his brother had are his destiny. Unfortunately this massive reveal is within the final five minutes and so the show finishes up leaving quite a few questions unanswered, as well as throwing new ones at us! I dunno if this was preparing the groundwork for a potential season 2, since the manga also goes well beyond this point, but sadly this is the only season and so it's a bit of a confusing ending to be left with.
And the series does end on Ritsuka asking whether Soubi would kill him if Seimei did come back to life and asked him to. Soubi tries to dodge this by saying that Seimei is dead, but when Ritsuka pushes the question the answer is sadly a most likely he would yes. Understandably Ritsuka tries to run off, but Soubi stops him and explains that if that time ever does come, he would die first as he can’t have a life without Ritsuka. So the show does end with us seeing that Soubi does deeply care for Ritsuka and it is not just an order to be filled out anymore, showing these characters have grown close together throughout the show before we fade out to the song Tsuki no Curse one more time.