Talk:Izumi Akazawa/@comment-25409301-20140911182738/@comment-397235-20140912063126

Her interactions in that context could just as easily be text-book jealousy. The expression she has when she sees Mei at the beach is "Fantastic. The competition's here." That makes sense: she's decided she's interested in Kouichi but damn it all that other girl just will not leave him alone, and every single time she tries to drive them apart it backfires. She still clowns around and has fun with Kouichi and Mei...right up until Junta gets run over by the boat. Unexpected deaths tend to cast a slight pall on things.

As far as your theory for the outro goes, there are two problems: two of their classmates aren't smiling. One is Kouichi, which works with your theory (since he at least likes Mei)...but Takako's not especially happy either. Does she miss Mei too? If this is Izumi's mind, shouldn't those two be the happiest? I mean, one's her potential boyfriend, and the other is her best friend; their happiness would rank significantly higher than, say, Naoya (who she loathes), Tomohiko (who, if the way she kills him is any indication, she disdains) or Yuuya and Yukari (who's not very nice to). The point of the outro is to make you think Mei's the extra, which is what it did for me for about four episodes until she decided to explain what was up.

Also, explain this image. They look pretty happy to me:

Or this one:



Look at her face. She's smiling and she's standing right next to Mei; she's even more or less abandoned Takako, who's off trying to grow more watermelons in the sand. Not a whole lot of animosity in this gif, is there?

Also, she's usually glaring at Naoya too. Nobody has a problem with that relationship, though, even though she's out and out cruel to him as well, and she's no more justified being that way to him than she is to Mei.

I do appreciate your theory for the intro, though. I'd never noticed they were all smiling (Tomohiko rarely does that)...except the two I pointed out. I'm legitimately curious about why that is.