r/MitsuruAdachi

Can't get H2 out of my head after I finished reading it. It is the 4th Adachi manga that I've read, after Cross Game, Touch & Rough, and it is the only one where I felt like my reading comprehension wasn't good. With the other 3, I felt like I understood the relationships between the characters, and the ending made perfect sense to me. But I can't say that for H2.

I found in a quote from Adachi-sensei about H2, which roughly goes:

*“*In my previous manga, there was a protagonist/hero and a heroine, and no matter what happened within the story, I knew that they would end up together in the end. But for H2, I created a setting for a relationship between 4 characters, so I thought that I could do whatever I wanted. Until the very last moment, I didn't know in which direction would Hiro and Hikari go.”

So I'm thinking that the reason why my reading comprehension wasn't that good for H2 was because Adachi didn't planned things out like he did with Touch, Rough & Cross Game.

That being said, I've been trying to figure out the ending for the past 2-3 days, and the interpretation that I currently have isn't really satisfying for me, so I'm hoping that someone will point out my dumb reading comprehension, and offer me something that would heal my wounds.

The way I see it, it's very straightforward to understand how Koga and Hideo felt, but it is with Hiro, and especially Hikari, that I started loosing compass. This is how I understood it:

Back when Hikari and Hiro had to spend a night at a hotel, and Hikari couldn't sleep, was already the sign that she was in love with Hiro (while also being in love with Hideo of course). Because of this, her relationship with Hideo got stagnated, as she kept yearning for Hiro, while trying to hide her feelings for Hiro from everyone, including herself. Fast forward to after her mom died, Hideo wasn't sure how to comfort her, even though by this point he knew her for 4-5 years already, and than Hiro managed to do it without saying a single word, just by playing catch with her in a place where her mom used to pick them up for dinner (to me this was the most beautiful scene in the entire series, cried like a b*tch).

Next chapter, Hikari asks Hiro to spend the day with her, upon which she says goodbye to him. Now... I totally didn't know what was going on here while I was reading it. Another scene that I didn't understood was when Hiro said that Hikari would never date him, because she loves him.

The only interpretation that I could come up with was that after Hiro managed to comfort Hikari, Hikari got a confirmation that the one person she needs the most in her life was Hiro. However, she also thought that the one person Hiro needs the most in his life wasn't her, but Koga. She said once (or a few times) that Hiro and Koga are a perfect match. When she thought that it's useless to talk about Hiro's injured leg, because he wouldn't listen, Koga easily made him put his leg into an icy water, proving Hikari wrong. Koga was the one who brought baseball back to Hiro, who created a baseball club with Hiro, who made sure he trains and rests properly, and who kept believing in him. On the other hand, Hikari didn't believe that Hiro would grow up to be such a stud, she is the one who wanted Hiro to quit baseball (while she could have dragged him to a bigger hospital for another opinion, which is perhaps something Koga would do, as Hiro's elbow wasn't even hurting), she didn't even realized that Hiro was in love with her, and how much pain she brought him by dating Hideo. Koga even stated that she would get along with Hiro in middle school, since she was also the smallest in her class, etc.

So because Hikari loved Hiro, she wouldn't want to date him, knowing that she is not the girl Hiro should be with. And her saying goodbye to him, was her wanting to separate herself from Hiro, because as long as Hiro is around, she will continue to yearn for him, which would continue to bring pain to Hideo, and leave things the same. That's how I understood it.

But when Hideo offered Hikari to choose between them, he once again opened the door that Hikari closed, and Hikari was wondering on her birthday whether she should change. This was another confusing part for me, and the way I understood it was that she was thinking whether she should choose Hideo or Hiro. Staying with Hideo would mean that she would remain the same, someone who always cares about other people's needs rather than her own, thus caring more about who Hiro and Hideo need in their life, instead of who she needs. While changing would imply that she would choose Hiro, putting her own needs first, since he's the person that she needs the most, even if she may not be the right girl for Hiro, and even if that would hurt Hideo.

However, by this point of the story, Hiro already made his decision to give up on Hikari, and be with Koga. Jumping forward to chapter 320, Hiro wants to see Hikari before his match against Hideo, and finds her at the place where he told Hikari that he loves her. He asks her to give him a word of encouragement one last time, and this was his way of saying goodbye to her. Hikari tries to give him lip service, but as she was saying “Good luck. Don't lose.” out loud, she realizes that those words were coming from her heart, and she broke down in Hiro's arms. Her bubble simply burst, as she wasn't able to contain her emotions. Her heart craved Hiro. As she was crying in his arms, she was hitting him, blaming him for making her confront her heart. And Hiro said “Sorry”.

Hiro was apologizing for making Hikari confront her heart once more, even though she already brought herself to say goodbye to him. Hiro understood Hikari's feeling by this point. He knew that she was in love with him, and that she doesn't think she's the girl for him. He also understood that Koga was really more suited for him, even if he loves Hikari more.

Hiro was crying after the match, not because he couldn't have Hikari, since he already chose Koga by this point, but because this match was the last time he would be close to Hikari and Hideo. In the last chapter, he makes a paper airplane (presumably out of his own picture from the newspaper) and throws it. It lands on the roof, and Koga asks him where did it fly to (a.k.a. where will he fly to), on which Hiro replies “Maybe to the big leagues for a bit”, indicating that he not only plans to leave Tokyo, but possibly Japan. Hiro knew that as long as he's around Hikari, she would continue to yearn for him, and Hikari wouldn't be able to make progress with Hideo. Which is why Hiro made a choice to PHYSICALLY LEAVE, and separate himself from Hikari and Hideo, so the two of them could focus on their love for each other.

When Hikari saw him crying after the match, she realizes Hiro's choice, and cried herself, realizing that Hiro chose to bear the pain upon himself, for the sake of Hideo and her. So when she meets Hideo again, she told him that she misunderstood, because she never had the privilege to choose in the first place (because Hiro already chose Koga, and would never date her in the first place for the sake of Koga and Hideo). Hideo accepted that the one person Hikari needs more than anyone in her life was Hiro. Hiro already hinted to him that Hikari wouldn't date him because she thought Koga was the person that Hiro needed. And than he states to Hikari that the person that HE needs the most is HER, which was what Hikari needed to hear from him.

In short, the person that Hideo needs the most in his life is Hikari, the person that Hikari needs the most in her life is Hiro, and the person that Hiro needs the most in his life is Koga. That's pretty much how I see it atm, and I don't really like my own interpretation, primarily because of the need for Hiro and Hikari to completely separate themselves from each other. It's like we spend 300+ chapters watching them trying to deal with these complex emotions, only for Hiro & Hikari to be like: “F*ck it, we can't deal with this after all, so let's just separate ourselves from each other."

Anyway, I doubt my interpretation is the correct one, so I will look forward to read your comments.