Themes of Love Presented in Rewrite As Portrayed by Kotori Kanbe and Tennouji Kotarou

Mild Spoilers Involving Kotori Kanbe From Rewrite

I’m sure we all have opinions on forbidden love – forbidden love in art allows for an expansion of the moral imagination beyond the contrived and neat perceptions of love many of us subconsciously believe. These socially-driven perceptions can be grouped as “favorable” love, the kind of love that is inherently allowed. Love that cannot be questioned. Forbidden love lies at the opposite extreme. In reality, this grouping falls into a larger category of unfavorable love that falls outside of this fantastical yet narrow view of love. Love is socially constructed, which allows for this range of acceptability. Naturally, an individual can form an opinion on what is truly love based on different criteria but ultimately society has the power to guide human knowledge whether consciously or subconsciously. Though forbidden love is itself quite interesting, I wanted to analyze the intricate state of “unfavorable” love through analyzing works of art, in particular Rewrite, a visual novel released in 2011.

Images from mainstream media – for example, Disney princess movies – suggest that a certain kind of mutual heterosexual love between an unquestionably male man and an unquestionably female woman constitutes true love. In particular, this love is supposed to be fantastical while ultimately narrow – in particular, monogamy and undying affection are obvious “characteristics.” The shared love is obvious and powerful but at the same time mundane because it is expected to be ubiquitous. Pervasive as well. Thus the emotion is  both powerful yet ordinary at the same time due to these assumptions. But, Rewrite is different. 

Key’s visual novel Rewrite explores love through its characters; particularly of note are Tennouji Kotarou and Kotori Kanbe (shown in Figures 1 and 2). This situation is quite complex, requiring some simplifying assumptions. Kotori and Tennouji are childhood friends, neighbors, and classmates. Tennouji shows his affection for Kotori by being especially nice to her and paying a lot of attention. He seems to have romantic feelings for Kotori as a result, which connects with the idea that love is socially constructed. The mold is fit, so to speak; thus, in this regard Tennouji’s emotions fit the model for fantastical yet narrow love. The obviousness of his feelings is pointed out by a fellow classmate. 

 

Kotori appears to not reciprocate his feelings. In fact, there is a recurring gag where Tennouji jokes that he is dating Kotori and each time she flatly denies it in a serious tone. In each instance, Tennouji appears pathetic and desparate in his attempts. In the words of a friend, Tennouji acts quite lamentably. Unrequited love is necessarily seen as creepy and pitiable because it deviates strongly from the mutual aspect of socially constructed “true” love; the feelings are unbalanced, creating an unnatural asymmetry. Thus, Tennouji’s love for Kotori is constructed as apparently untrue or immensely shallow; his feels seem delusional, a fact reinforced by the gag. His love thus deviates from “normal” love. Furthermore, unshared love therefore becomes something that should be danced around, touched upon only sparingly, otherwise the unacceptable emotion will be bared. After Kotarou confessed his feelings to Kotori, she refused his feelings while simultaneously avoiding them, reinforcing perceptions on unshared love. Though the disagreement in emotions is hastily reconciled, the person who does not reciprocate also feels a pressure to evade the subject. Eluding it reflects the societal perception that true love is shared, not one-sided. At the same time, Kotori likely felt bad because of the required rejection of Kotarou’s feelings, extending the issue beyond simply societal perceptions; in the process she may hurt her friend, thus avoiding the topic would provide emotional relief.  Either way, unrequited love is constructed as a losing situation for both parties, especially the one in love. 

Though Kotarou tries to appear upbeat and untroubled, he is distressed at many times, especially at night. He struggles with many different sources of anxiety. From his internal monologue, the reader can glean that a lot of his distress comes from his unrequited love for Kotori (at least in the Kotori route of the visual novel). In particular, though sometimes he jokes about his feelings, often represses them; through this emotional obstruction, Kotarou feels worse about his situation. Here Rewrite suggests that Kotarou’s unrequited love being unfavorable harms him. 

As a result, Kotarou’s love for Kotori is denigrated, even though their friendship is ultimately reaffirmed. Love is thus constructed as a feel-good emotion but only in its respectable form. Rather, unrequited love and all unfavorable forms of love as a whole are seen as pitiable, leading to feelings of insecurity as can be seen from Kotarou’s example, even though love is generally recognized as a powerful and worthwhile emotion. When Kotarou tells Kotori he loves her for the second time (which occurs in the Kotori route itself), the  same response is given but both characters are more visibly distressed by the exchange. The reiteration differs from the initial event because it demonstrates both the strength of Kotarou’s emotions and his desperation to be understood. He is serious in his love though it is unrequited, which does not fit well with the societal model of true love being mutual. This example best displays both the harmfulness of repressing one’s emotions and of unrequited love being viewed as unfavorable by society. Thus, despite its reputation, one-sided love can be quite serious and thus reflects genuine love beyond strict social boundaries. 

In my own experiences, I have noticed that unrequited love is generally treated as something unworthy and distasteful. The person receiving the one-sided affection usually resorts to refusing the feelings then avoiding the topic; this strategy takes a different form between friends but still features the downplaying of the romantic feelings. Thus love, which is a powerful emotion to begin with, becomes something that must be repressed, which leads to hurt feelings. Unrequited love – and other forms of unfavorable love – can then be seen as stressors, despite entailing positive emotions. The example of Kotarou suggests that unrequited love can be quite powerful, reflecting true love despite transgressing social boundaries. Ultimately, Kotarou is able to be a valuable friend to Kotori who plays the same role for him, highlighting the potency of love regardless of its societal acceptability.

Works Consulted

Martin, Karin A and Emily Kazyak. "Hetero-Romantic Love and Heterosexiness in Children's G-Rated Films." University of Nebraska Sociology Department, Faculty Publications: DigitalCommons, 2009. Print.
Rewrite. Perf. Kitaeri, Kanahana, Chiwa Saito. Key, 2011. Visual novel.