ReLIFE - Vol. 10 Ch. 152 - Did You Mean: Love

[Huichelaar]

Personally, I think with what you said, it's a little bit taking a deep reach on what he meant. One that leans on towards the more negative side of course.

Let me address it one by one:

a) What did Arata mean by it?
If we are to take in his character and how his mind works from how he really acts, I'd say he was describing how when you try to do cling on towards other people that way, you'd share those with "special" people. Like of course, lovers. Sort of that those actions are meant to be reserved towards particular people and definitely not something you can just ask out of someone randomly even if you are friends. So you know, it is quite conservative, but thinking as how he was brought up and the society in Japan, they would definitely reserve those types of actions (hugging, handholding, all those physical ones) to more special people and moments.

b) The concept of siblings, parents, other (extended) family
To judge Arata from his statement and connecting it towards his views regarding family, I'd say it's quite a very bog far deep reach. Why? Because first off, contextually at hand, Arata and Chizuru are NOT family. They're just friends. To say that he doesn't know or understand the concept is just reaching out towards something that has no tangible backing. As presented in the story, he's just addressing the relationship between them. They are not a couple, far from lovers (at the time), that's why they shouldn't engage on those kind of actions.

c) Concept about non same-sex relationship (?)
This part... I just don't get? To say that he doesn't understand heterosexual relationships is... weird... I'd say I probably may have just not understood it. I'd like for you to elaborate it though so I can get a better understanding of your view.

d) To conclude:
I just think it's unfair to judge his views on multiple facets based on a singular statement that fitted the context at hand. He just basically said, "Chizuru, we can't do that because we are not lovers." And that's what Chizuru took from it.

These are all personal understandings and comprehension so, feel free to judge it.

But see that's the thing, he didn't say

"Chizuru, we can't do that because we are not lovers."

but instead the far more general line:

"Men and women shouldn't carelessly cling onto each other when they're not going out."

I'll refer to this phrase as "the line" from here on.

Family is included in the line. He doesn't mention family directly, but the line covers family as well, because it is so general in nature. The line claims that family should not cling to each other if at least one person in the group is male and another is female. It doesn't bring up the term family, but men and women are part of families, so it still pertains to them as well. For example, if a mother (a woman) and a son (a man) carelessly cling to each other despite not going out with one another, then they shouldn't do that, according to the line.

W.R.T "romance between people who are not of the same sex" I think I may have made a mistake and should not have used "not" in that sentence, but I'm not sure, it's been a few months. Point I think I was trying to make is that, presumably Arata's line is said because of the romantic implications of two people of the opposite sex clinging onto each other. I find that naïve because of the whole part where it ignores family like I mentioned before, but it also assumes that romance is something that only happens to people in heterosexual relationships. Specifically men and women shouldn't cling to each other because of the implications. Men & men or women & women is fine. The line makes it clear that Arata isn't aware of the concept of same-sex relationships.

In short, I think the line is actually very revealing about Arata's views. I would even go out on a limb to say that it reveals something about the author's beliefs as ultimately Arata's viewpoints aren't contradicted, but confirmed by other characters in the story (Chizuru in this example).