Is Shuichi And Kaede’s Relationship Forced?

Is Shuichi and Kaede’s relationship forced?

I’ve seen people think that Shuichi and Kaede’s relationship is forced. I want to put my own opinion on this.

Let’s start with the core relationship. Shuichi and Kaede first met when Shuichi fell out of that locker. Ever since then he stuck by her and depended on her. During this time period Shuichi has very low self esteem and kinda uses Kaede as a cruch, which is why he depends on her.

In reality, you shouldn’t fully depend on someone in a relationship. But this happens:

After Shuichi opens up to Kaede about about why he wears his hat Kaede tries to comfort him. She WANTS him to gain more confidence AND grow as a person. When you are in a relationship, the other person should encourage you to be the best version of yourself and it should reciprocated.

Kaede has more confidence than Shuichi but even she has insecurities like anyone else. Kaede opens up to him about her “piano freak” nickname and how it makes her conscious when spending time with others. Also, Shuichi was able to tell Kaede was doubting herself after everyone started blaming her for the underground passage. He comforts her and tells her to believe in herself.

These two had a healthy dynamic that would have been very good for the both of them if Kaede had lived longer.

Okay on to another topic. They only new each other for a few days. I would like to point out Shuichi and Kaede were never in love in the main story. But in that short time they had, they had a strong emotional attachment toward each other. Whether if they were attracted to each other is debatable, but the important thing is how much they truly care for each other.

Shuichi would spend the game thinking of Kaede at random points. In chapter 6, when he finds out she was framed he was furious. Add to the fact he thought about and mentioned her first when talking about everyone’s feelings being real despite the so called “fiction” they are. She was truly important to him up until the end.

Plus, emotional bonds that happen in a short amount of time are real. When I was younger, I was visiting family in the Philippines for a summer. I got close to someone in the neighborhood really fast. We shared insecurities and things about ourselves. Usually people wouldn’t do that right away but for some reason I just clicked with this person. But I was only going to stay in that neighborhood for a few days. We both had a mutual attraction but we couldn’t really continue anything due to living in different countries and school. These types of relationships can happen if you meet a person you just click with.

Shuichi and Kaede’s personalities meld so well together. Kaede is bold and kind, while Shuichi is cute and shy and it just works. That’s why they were able to get close more quickly then others in the cast.

Now to postgame content:

This is where some people got pissed off by Kaede free time events. For people who don’t ship it, I get why you would be annoyed due to the shipping and the fact we don’t learn much more about Kaede.

To be fair, we don’t know much about Miu besides implications of her past and Kaito spends most of his events telling exaggerated stories.

Kaede has a more normal past compared to the others but I think it’s due to her being a protagonist. I think the point to her events are just to show a happier side to their relationship. Her fate was tragic so it was nice to just have her and Shuichi just be cute and have fun. Plus we learn about how Kaede got into piano in her introduction and playing as her gives us a different way to get to know her. We get to see her personality and how she thinks.

Look at this! Isn’t it cute~ The point to all of this is to show how I think they writers did a good job writing this relationship despite plot and character death getting in the way. It makes me a little upset people end up hating this pairing and Shuichi just because Kaede dies. I admit the relationship and Kaede’s character could be improved if she just LIVED but she is by all means more than just “Shuichi’s love interest”. Their relationship mattered to how they developed as people. I get that it can be portrayed as friendship because everyone can ship what they want. But I just think there’s no reason to just HATE it. They’re just a couple of cute teenagers who formed a happy and healthy relationship in the end.