u/AromaticRooster3054

I first want to say that this is not a debate about abortion rights. I am 100% pro-choice and any woman has the right to keep a baby if she wants to. That doesn't mean that I can not criticize the motives behind her choice to keep it. I also do not agree with the opinions that she should have aborted to stay with Nobu. I don't think her choice should be made according to any man.

I also only watched the anime so please keep that in mind. Mostly my gripe with Hachi keeping the baby is that I don't think her motives are as pure as she claims them to be. We know that for the several episodes before her pregnancy discovery, the script focused on Hachi struggling with being the spectator of everyone's achievements while not having achievements of her own. Junko and her boyfriend were diligently working for their art careers, Shoji was studying at university. Nana and the clic were passionate about music and making their band work. Meanwhile Hachi had nothing going on except for being their cheerleader. She realized that she was so invested in everybody's projects because she didn't have any and that made her feel like a child, like a failure. Basically she was tired of feeling like the support character for everybody and that made her develop an inferiority complex. All legitimate feelings of course.

Then here comes the baby right when she was struggling with those inner conflicts. It was the perfect project. She wouldn't have to feel sidelined in her own life anymore. By having a baby, she would finally have something going on for her and that's why she kept it. She kept the baby because of her feelings of her inferiority. She didn't care about the conditions in which the baby would be brought in. She didn't care that the baby would have an abusive father and the impacts it would have on it (or rather she didn't want to think about that) or question her own capabilities even once because she would rather have something going on in her life and not feel inferior to her friends anymore than think about the best interest of her baby. In order to not feel that way anymore, she was ready to put up with anything.

I am not saying that this would make her an unloving mother but her reasons are very selfish, self-interested and not selfless like a lot of people say. Let's also not pretend that she married Takumi for the baby. She married him because she didn't want to work or put up with any struggle for her project baby. Putting up with Takumi's abuse felt easier than taking the responsability for the baby. In that sense, Takumi allows her to run away from the responsabilities she would have to face while still feeling good about finally having a project.

I still don't hate Hachi, she is a very interesting and complex character who can be so kind but also very selfish and her motives for having her baby were indeed very selfish.

Before starting this post, I just want to say that I am aware that each country has its own culture and that by living in it, I must respect it, which I do, but that doesn't mean that culture can not be criticized especially for its more toxic aspects.

I understand that Japan has a very non-confrontational approach to social interactions and relationships but one thing that is really starting to weight on me is the fact that I am the one being painted as the bad guy for standing up for myself in the face of down-right abusive, toxic or passive agressive behavior! It is so clear that the abusive members of society take advantage of that aspect of their culture to pull out the most ridiculous toxic acts and they can keep on thriving because no one is apparently allowed to say anything to their face so they get away with it.

For context, I am a part-time student holding a part-time job and I live in a shared flat in Tokyo. I've been working this job for about a month. The first week, everything was going smoothly, then comes this coworker who starts offloading his tasks on me and I had to pick up his slack. I greatly suspect that he felt emboldened to do that because I am a foreigner and he knew this was a temporary part-time job for me. After three weeks of him doing that (it started to get more and more ridiculous), I confronted him aout it (I was already generous enough to wait three whole weeks). Mind you I did that in the most civil, polite and diplomatic manner even though it would have been more than justified to not be polite. The guy started denying and deflecting. I just told him that next time, I would record for proof (for context I am obligated to pick up his slack to do my share of work so it's not like I can just let him do what he wants and do my work).

EDIT: The main reason why I didn't go to the manager straight away was because I am very new to the job and I didn't want to already cause problems and come with a complaint to the manager especially since the coworker has been working there for about 2 years and me only one month. It's just not a good look since when you are new you are usually expected to make yourself small. For context, this is mostly an exterior job so there are no work cameras(most of the time), which is why I said I would record him for proof next time since he just kep saying ''no'' when he understood what I was getting at and then he gave me the silent treatment. I stopped being tactful when he refused to have a civil conversation. When he wouldn't answer me that's when I said ''ok I will record for proof next time''.

Well what was my suprise when two days later, when I clocked in, my manager called me at the back to reprimand ME?? Saying that my behavior was not acceptable and that if I had a problem, I should come and see him. Which means that my coworker felt so emboldened that he went to complain about ME when he was in the wrong and it turns out that I was the villain for standing up for myself?? Literally what the f**k is that about?

Then there is that time where we had this group project (in groups of 3 students) and we were two groups working at a table for a total of 6 students and these two GROWN ass women(around age 22) were doing the most in-your-face high-school type of cringe bullying towards this other woman who seemed to be socially awkward (probably neurodivergent) and when I called it out because I couldn't stand to watch it, these two women started playing dumb though they did stop afterwards. I could see that the other students who were being passive (all adults btw) were feeling very uneasy about me speaking out and I could feel like they were trying to leave me out of the conversations after that as if I was being punished for confronting the two bullies. The woman who was bullied did thank me by message right after.

EDIT: I said the the two bullies ''you know we can hear you and understand everything, we have ears'' to which one of them said ''what are you talking about'' and I answered '' we are here to work and saying mean things is making everyone feel uncomfortable''. Apparently I was wrong because everyone seemed to be 100% comfortable with the bullying going on and rather NOT comfortable with me wanting it to stop.

It just feels like this is a culture of enablers and bystanders. They seriously do not care about people being abusive or immoral (I'm talking about even verbal or sexual abuse in public) as long as they do not stand out. I understand that this is the case everywhere in the world but here it's to another extent. At least in Canada, if you speak out about something like that happening in public, people will generally side with you. Here people would rather the abuser have their way.

Seriously are we just suppose to never say anything if we don't want to get 'punished' for confronting these types of behavior? How do you all deal with that aspect?

I liked the following:

Spy x Family

Kotaro Lives Alone

My Home Hero

Hinamatsuri

Osama Ranking

Monster

Smoking Behind The Supermarket With You

No high school setting please! Thank you so much!

I'm looking for a anime recs with these broad characteristics:

Not set in high school

Set in present time

No heavy actions

Can be drama, comedy or romance

Thank you so much!