Episode 5 – A Condition Called Love

There’s a lot to infer about some of Hananoi’s comments about how he views a significant other and the potential trauma from his past romantic partners. Interestingly, such an overly emotional guy seems to have an almost coldly logical response to why he doesn’t bother having friends. He made it sound like friends would distract from what’s “really important,” which would involve his family and significant other. While you could argue there are circumstances where you will need to prioritize certain people over others, and everybody’s relationships are different, it felt very off to frame friendship that way since that typically might lead a person to seek things from their family or significant other that you would usually get from friends.

The little insight we got at the end of this episode leaves the door open for some explanations and approaches to Hananoi’s behavior. This might be a contentious opinion, but I don’t think the big emotional crescendo of this episode, Hotaru discovering her romantic feelings for Hananoi, feels earned. Maybe this is being set up for a much larger point, or we’re setting the foundation for a distinct type of relationship growth between our two leads. Still, I am unsure what to find endearing about the relationship. I like the development that Hotaru is going through as an individual, discovering what jealousy means and addressing the constant trauma from that one friend who seemingly ruined her life.

My problem is that I don’t know the basis for where Hananoi gets his relationship values, so I don’t feel comfortable any time his values inform or steer Hotaru’s development. I’m glad that we’re finally starting to see the setup for an explanation of Hananoi’s behavior because, up until this point, I was only really allowed to judge his actions and what he says. But even the cute moments like them being on the roof still feel like they’re being handled with this unintentional air of duplicity (what was his plan if Hotaru got seriously sick or uncomfortable up there?) The show seems to lead viewers into taking Hananoi’s actions of a good boyfriend at face value because those are the actions that are making Hotaru fall in love with him. Still, the show is leaving things open to be explored later as if his actions should be questioned or we should be curious about them.

I hope that once the shows start steering more in Hananoi’s direction, this lopsided problem will be fixed. Maybe I’ll rewatch the earlier episodes, and everything will suddenly feel much better after I know what it’s all building towards. I can only judge these episodes based on what I see and am not particularly pleased with what I’m watching.

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A Condition Called Love is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.