Insomniacs After School

Episode 11

I mentioned last week that it seemed Insomniacs After School was setting up something significant with Ganta and Isaki now being left unsupervised by family and friends. I was somewhat correct; it just took some time for us to reach that point. This episode was remarkably quiet, focusing on our two lovebirds living a small newlywed life. They go out together for location spotting, do laundry, and even prepare meals together. It's genuinely heartwarming, and when Ganta is lying there, feeling comfortable, it does feel nice. You hope these days would continue with these two together as they're away from everything that generally reminds them of their anxiety.

So, it's ironic that this episode is probably the most direct it's ever been about Ganta's emotional trauma. We could already speculate all this from the past few episodes, but it's clear that Ganta's mom walking out on him and his dad is the main source of his insomnia. From Ganta's perspective, it seemed unexpected, and it was a morning that felt infinitely worse than anything that happened the day before. This instilled fear of what the next day will bring because his first instinct is to assume that tomorrow will be worse than today. So if he never goes to sleep, then tomorrow will never come because he won't be waking up to anything. It's depressing because you can tell that Ganta probably blames himself for his mom leaving. He wants nothing more than to get a good night's sleep but he's punishing himself while also creating a coping mechanism out of the situation all at the same time, and I feel for him.

I'm sure Isaki feels for him too, but his coming out about this situation finally puts these two on the same emotional level. There's finally trust there that they share, which they don't have with other people. When Isaki went over to kiss Ganta, part of that was probably to comfort him, but another part was probably just an affirmation that these two are special to each other. Now, this isn't the end just yet. These two have a mission to accomplish on this trip first, so it makes sense for those feelings to be put on hold while also acting as a good excuse for the two to take the time to process what just happened. I also don't think these two being a couple will magically fix things because while communicating personal issues is a good first step, those issues still need to be dealt with. I don't know how much we'll get into it this season, but I'm happy we at least reached this point.

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Insomniacs After School is currently streaming on HIDIVE.