on ending a story

We were all indeed here
We lived here...
        I came to love him..
I loved her...
        Receiving so many beginnings...
        ...and a countless number of feelings...
Learning each other's strengths and weaknesses...
        yes.. indeed... we... were here.

- Yano and Takahashi (Final Scene, Bokura Ga Ita)

on chasing

Hey, Nana...
Is this really all right?
        Is what alright?
If you leave it like this, you two will really break up.
       Then what am I supposed to do?
       Even if I talk to him now, we'll only go further in the wrong direction...
Maybe, but because you're having such a hard time, you need to take that step.
Nana, you spend too much time on these things.
I've thought this for a while, but even though Yano's chasing you now...
...do you really think he will chase you forever?
If you disconnect from Yano's feelings now, it will be too late.

- Mizu-chan (Episode 23, Bokura Ga Ita)

on intrusion

He likes you... and you like him... and it's perfect.
I'm just an intrusion.
I've given up on you many times.
Because I thought that would be best for you.
But... you're crying.
You're crying right now.
Mutual love?
Loving someone else's lover?
Friendship?

All of that...
...can go to hell!

You like him.. and he likes you... and it's perfect.
But... I can promise you one thing.
I'll never...make you cry, Takahashi.

-Takeuchi-kun (Episode 21, Bokura Ga Ita)

on forgetting

Hey. Do you know how to forget about an old love?
You find a new love. You should completely immerse yourself in it.
If that new love is true, then the old love will naturally become part of the past.

It's not that you can fall in love with someone new because you forgot the old..
It's because you fall in love with someone new that you're able to forget about the old.

Only love can heal a heart that was hurt by love.

-Takeuchi no oneechan (Episode 14, Bokura ga ita)

on memories

I don't really like the word "memory."
Why not?
No reason. In my japanese class in elementary school, I read a story.
What story?
A story called "What color was this girl's dress?" Heard of it?
Nope.

Two girls, named A and B are recalling an old story together. They get into this discussion     about a picture hanging on the wall of one of the staircase landings in their elementary school. A picture of a girl picking flowers in front of a deep red sunset...

You really never read this?
Nope.

A says, "Oh! How nostalgic. You're talking about the picture of the girl in a pretty yellow         dress, right?"
But then B says, "No, the dress she was wearing was red, just like the sunset!"
"No, it was red!"
"No, it was definitely yellow."
"All right, then why don't we go see for ourselves?"
The two of them, filled with excitement, reached the old, nostalgic school building.

What color was that girl's dress?
What color was it?
It didn't have a color.
It was just a black and white picture.

The dress that dark silhouette wore was scribbled completely black.


Yet in their memories, both bickering girls were sure that the dress in the picture had a color.

See? Human memories are too vague.Thinking something has color when it doesn't, making things more dramatic than they really are, glorifying things... It gives new, greater meaning than what was actually there.  That's why I don't believe any of this talk about beautiful memories.

What do you believe in then?
You. Absolutely you. What's right in front of me now.

-Yano and Takahashi (scene from from the anime I'm currently watching, "Bokura ga ita")