Suwa Moments: What did he know and when did he know it? (And a little more. Or a lot more.)
Did Suwa receive a letter the same day Naho did?
Did he receive the entire letter the day he received it?
How much content was in the letter? Remember, Nahoâs letter was backed her diary.
Did Future Naho and Future Suwa collaborate on their letters? Did they write them independently? Were they aware of the other writing a letter?
Was Azuâs ability to disappear two ăăł into her mouth at once her start down the path to becoming a scientist who specializes in disappearing letters into a black hole to the past?
This scene is the first that sticks out to me as Suwa being aware of Kakeru and Naho fitting together. However, thereâs no indication that heâs aware of anything at this time. Remember, he likes Naho and here heâs seeing another boy immediately being observant in her favor.
Okay, so she didnât completely disappear them into her mouth in one go. Scratch the idea that she becomes a scientist specializing in black holes.
Here is another where in hindsight one can wonder if heâs purposefully being friendly to Kakeru. However, we know from Nahoâs letter that Kakeru did originally get invited along, so itâs likely Suwa is being naturally friendly.
Remember, Nahoâs letter says nothing (so far) about her future post-Kakeru. We donât know what Suwaâs letter says.
A bit later, Kakeru joins the soccer team when Naho expected him to refuse, as per her letter. She wonders if she changed things enough that led to him joining but that did set well with me at the time. âIf Suwa had a letter too, it would make more sense.â
Yet looking through these earlier pages, Iâm reminded that Kakeru tells Naho about being better than Suwa at soccer following tending Nahoâs foot, which comes after her home run that didnât originally take place.
Thus, itâs entirely possible she did change history regarding Kakeru and the club, and I forgot enough details that I mistakenly thought Suwa must have been guided by a letter of his own to convince Kakeru to join after the observation visit.
With Suwa, there are many scenes that feel like he should be seeing Kakeru as a rival yet heâs being overly friendly.
In the original timeline, Kakeru starts dating a girl who always watches the soccer club. Does this mean Kakeru did club observation in the original timeline? Does this mean the scene with him bringing the first aid kit for Nahoâs foot occurred even without her helping in the baseball game?
(My thoughts are kind of all over the place as I recall later scenes while skipping through the chapters.)
This suddenly reads differently.
Again with the selfless act that makes one wonder, âWhy?â
Another one of those things that leads to wondering if anyone else received a letter.
Since Iâm jumping ahead as I type, Iâve already mentioned it, but this definitely came with a feel of âdid Suwa do things differently this time around?â
As I wonder whether Kakeru did club observation in the original timeline, itâs also possible Ueda learned about Kakeru separately. She takes to him because of his origins before moving to town, so heâs not like she was attracted to his soccer ability.
Letter from Future Suwa to Past Suwa: âMy biggest regret in life is that I went with scissors that day. If only I had chosen paper.â
Once again, observation from Suwa, yet nothing about this scene feels like he would have written about it in a letter. Likely he completely forgot about this day. But knowing something about the future, any action, any glance, can be due to the overall nature of the letter, and not to any specific individual events.
If Suwa purposefully lost, this scene could have been avoided. Considering Nahoâs letter mentions the letter in the eraser, this must be how things originally played out.
Was this an original timeline observation on Suwaâs part?
This is another of those âthis isnât naturalâ moments.
Sure, itâs possible he could have just been a selfless kind of guy who could see that Naho liked Kakeru, but teenagers donât tend to be that observant. (Well, this is fiction, and fiction often is nothing like reality.)
I remember thinking at this point that there wasnât any reason this moment necessarily should have been written in the letter, so calling out that it wasnât felt like the author telling us to take note that something happened differently from the original timeline.
This is also the part where I mistook Azu thanking him as being that she asked him to do this, making me wonder for a moment if she maybe had a letter from the future.
Observant girl.
âMy biggest regret in life is that I didnât bring an umbrella with me that day.â
From Future Hagita.
To Past Hagita.
Letter delivered to the wrong address.
Again, these âdid the timeline change?â moments always stuck out to me. But in this case, I figure she probably just misinterpreted the invite as mentioned in her letter.
One thing I find interesting is that even with things such as Suwa convincing Naho to go to Kakeru over him dating Ueda, the altered timeline actually seems to be fairly close to the original. It feels like every push to get Kakeru out of a bad situation (dating Ueda) or improve upon things (making lunches for Kakeru) results in the original timeline (Naho and Kakeru meeting to watch fireworks together).
Whern Naho goes to the pool to meet with Kakeru later, she comments on Original Timeline Naho maybe not having the hair pin with her. Here, Kakeru mentions two things as reasons for the gift, at least one of which Original Timeline Naho didnât do (making him lunches).
Thereâs also Uedaâs obsession with the hair pin. Why is that?
My consideration thus far is that it belonged to his mother, and he originally gave it to Ueda but took it back when they broke up.
âMy second-biggest regret in life is that I didnât believe in time travel sooner.â
From Future Hagita.
To Past Hagita.
Letter delivered to the wrong address.
So far, so good.
On one hand, I kept thinking Suwa was being too observant.
On the other hand, Kakeru is being rather observant here.
But then, weâve seen how observant Kakeru can be since chapter one.
Why did Suwaâs observations always feel unnatural to me while Kakeruâs felt natural?
Actually, even Kakeruâs felt a bit unnatural to me. I joked back in the chapter one thread about Kakeru knowing what bread Naho liked due to having received a letter from the future. (This was well before we knew about the lack of a Future Kakeru.)
Future Hagita: âMy third-biggest regret in lifeââ
Letter delivered to the wrong address.
I donât think Iâve ever really considered either of the girls here had any future knowledge. The closest would be the scene at the stairs after Suwa pushes for Naho to go after Kakeru, but even then I think itâs just a matter of girls being observant of girls (these two knowing Naho likes Kakeru) the same as boys being observant of boys (Kakeru and Hagita knowing Suwa likes Naho).
This is where I actually started to doubt the âSuwa received a letter as wellâ theory.
My alternate theory is that there are three timelines:
Timeline 1) Past Suwa doesnât notice Naho likes Kakeru. With the loss of Kakeru, Future Suwa sends a letter of his regrets to the past.
Timeline 2) Past Suwa receives the letter from Future Suwa and opts to support Nahoâs feelings for Kakeru. However, he is unable to save Kakeru. Timeline 2 Future Suwa tells Naho about the letter from Timeline 1 Future Suwa, and Timeline 2 Future Naho sends herself a letter to try and help save Kakeru.
Timeline 3) What weâre reading now.
(I donât think this theory is actually the case.)
If Future Naho didnât receive the hair pin, then it makes sense that this event may not have happened in the original timeline.
Itâs also possible it did, and Future Naho didnât elaborate on details because she felt that would potentially spoil the outcome.
The series definitely has held my interest thus far!
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