Talk:Kouichi Sakakibara/@comment-94.191.184.121-20140903184434/@comment-397235-20140904014053

There are...different kinds of love. Given the amount of shipteasing in this show, I suspect there may be some feelings the other direction (and it may very well be mutual) but it's not concrete. Granted, Kouichi at least cared enough about Mei to destroy his chances at a relationship with Izumi and he was willing to kill the closest thing he has to a mother at her behest...really, who knows?

Part of it too is how rigidly controlled emotions are in Japanese society. In a different cultural context these things are possibly the equivalent of them making out or something; if it's obvious to Americans and other Westerners who are decidedly not subtle the odds are good it's obvious to the Japanese the show was aimed at as well.