While I'm on the subject of bizarre cross-cultural relations, I may as well bring up another favorite anime/manga, Saikano.
The plot of Saikano sounds about as ridiculous as Onegai Sensei, but the story is much darker. It's about a high school couple in a small Japanese town struggling to cope with life as the world slowly comes to an end--with more of a whimper than a bang. Soon into their relationship, Shuji discovers that the Japanese military is gradually turning his girlfriend, Chise, into a weapon of mass destruction. "The Last Love Song on This Little Planet." That's the subtitle of the series and an adequate summary of what happens next. The world collapses around them as the two fall more and more deeply in love.
Because of it's genre--men in their twenties and thirties are the target audience for seinen manga--it still has a lot of graphic sexual imagery. Also some dialogue nuggets like, "You look nervous. Here, touch my breasts." But, as the story progresses, Shuji learns to reject the part of himself that only wants a physical relationship. More and more, he comes to crave companionship and a meaningful relationship with Chise--all the while, she struggles to remain human enough to reciprocate.
The anime isn't available subtitled in English online, but you can also read my favorite manga chapters here. Shuji and Chise attempt to run away from the military and lead a normal life. There aren't many inhabited towns left, but they find a small fishing village and set up house there. They live together "as man and wife," enacting the future together they so desparately crave. Shuji has to work to support Chise as she gets more and more ill without the military's mechanical support. She's taken care of him, protected him and their town for so long--for the first time, he can take care of her. He watches her body fall apart, revealing the monstrous machine underneath, and he loves her anyway. And, to the end of the Earth, the both remember their time together as the happiest of their lives.
That episode raises some of the same questions I've already been asking about what a marriage is. (See here and here.) Chise and Shuji never undertake a wedding ceremony, but I can't imagine denying that such a couple--so desperately in love, so ready to give their lives for one another, so determined to stay together until the end of time--isn't already married. The series also highlights how important marriage is for basic human existence. Chise and eventually Shuji want nothing more than a home and family. Even when the world is dying, the greatest human tragedy is this: the end of the world means they cannot have a future together.
Again, Saikano isn't a perfect story. But it is a gorgeous story about two people in love, struggling to start and protect a relationship when nothing else is left.
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