Goodbye, Eri: Why add an explosion?

 

I think everyone is familiar with the term 'breaking the fourth wall'. In a theatrical play, we peep into the life of a character by seeing past the fourth wall, which is the wall that connects both the house, the character and the audience. However, a house should logically have four concrete walls. In a sense, even though the fourth wall is invisible for theatrical purposes, the characters still have to treat it as a concrete entity, ala exiting through a door. It is when the characters step forward and phase through the fourth wall does the audience's immersion break. It is by breaking its concreteness are the audience reminded that they are watching a bunch of actors acting on a stage.

In anime and manga, this technique is mostly used for comedic purposes. Shows like 'Gintama' and manga like '100 girlfriends' utilizes these fourth wall breaks to subvert expectations and remind their audience not to take its content seriously. However, 'Goodbye Eri' elevates this technique further. By setting itself as an autobiography, breaking the fourth wall is not used for comedy, but instead a way to glimpse into the psyche of our main character, Yuta.

Breaking the Illusion

"Why'd you add an explosion at the end?"

In a normal autobiography, the illusion that we often immerse ourselves in is that whatever we see on screen, is an accurate retelling of actual life events. However, a hospital that explodes out of nowhere breaks that illusion. It reminded the audience -- Those sitting in the school hall and those sitting behind the computer screen -- That what we were watching was a film made by a snot-nosed kid. As we see further down the line, that explosion was taken extremely negatively. Many of the audience responded in confusion, and some even in disgust. For them, the explosion cheapened their immersion in the "brave mother that fought against terminal illness".

The keyword here is 'cheapen'. All the ways that 'Goodbye Eri' has broken the fourth wall, have made it so that the previous experiences were recontextualized and cheapened. In perhaps the first major fourth wall break, we learnt the truth about Yuta's mother. She wasn't just the "gentle mother that cared for her son" as we had been led to believe, but was instead an actor who scripted herself as such. This information completely betrayed the emotions we felt for her in the first autobiography and greatly cheapened her character. 

Eri was then set up to be the counterbalance to that. While Yuta might not have had the best experiences with his mother, Eri instead saved him from committing suicide. She accompanied him and watched movies with him; She believed in his movie when nobody else did; She fell in love with him; And most importantly, she provided him the opportunity to forgo his trauma, by allowing him to now make one for a person who actually cares for him -- Or at least, that was once again what we were led to believe.

The fact that they never dated cheapened the bond that we see them developed throughout the story. However perhaps what was the greater fourth wall break was the fact that Eri was someone who wore glasses and dental retainers, which contradicted with Yuta's "first meeting" with her.

How much of it was fake then? Was Eri truly there to save Yuta from committing suicide, or was that just a stunt to portray herself as such? In fact, how much of everything else was staged? Were their daily moviethons staged, or did they only meet whenever they needed to film? It was stated by Eri's friend that she was quite a bitch, so did she gave the same type of treatment to Yuta like his mother did? The fact that Yuta tried to ask her out is enough to assuage some of that paranoia, but even still, our immersion in the "beautiful Eri" was shaken and cheapened.

The philosophy of such a decision is made pretty clear by the characters themselves. The power of film-making and editing allows Yuta to choose how he can remember someone by. Even if his mother and Eri were not the best people he had in his life, he can still choose to make a film in celebration to the good qualities they had.

However even then, this still doesn't tackle the elephant in the room: Why add an explosion at the end? If the philosophy that Yuta embodied in his first movie was to try to immortalize his mother in a positive light, then why ruin that with an explosion? A possible theory is that because Yuta ran away in her last moments, he had failed to capture the necessary footage and needed something to end the film off with. But even then, the choice of an explosion was an unnecessarily distasteful one, and naming it 'dead explosion mother' was the nail in the coffin. 

By Yuta's own description of "awesome", we can characterize his decision as one made by a kid who simply thought that explosions were cool. If we attempt a deeper psycho-analysis, we may even say that Yuta's decision was a sign of rebellion. As his mother had tried to control his film and stifled his creativity, he wanted the explosion to quite literally "blast through" some of those oppressive feelings. This is further reinforced if we consider that Eri's autobiography ended not with a 'bang', but with the sunken countenance of a triumphant girl.

Perhaps an even stranger decision was where the film "ended". Eri's autobiography had the perfect ending. For Eri, she had been immortalized as a "brave girl" and had made the audience cried as per her wishes. For us readers, even though we came to question Eri's glasses and braces, the main philosophy of "choosing which way you want to remember your loved ones" remains intact. And for Yuta himself, the final portion with the girl thanking him, would've been the perfect epilogue to end his own personal film on.

After all, Eri's autobiography would've been the magnum opus which reinvigorates his confidence in filmmaking. He would've overcome his trauma by filming Eri's last moments and regain his will to live. There was even a girl who saw through the facade of the film and yet praised it. And perhaps into the far future, Yuta can look back at this film just like he had intended to and remember his personal triumph and his friend Eri in a positive light. In consideration of the main philosophy of this one-shot and by the motivations of Yuta, this film should've ended in this very panel -- But it didn't.

Just a pinch of Fantasy

Just like his decision to add an explosion, the third and final part of his movie was mired in questionable decisions. This time, it is worth mentioning that this portion was not filmed or recorded for anyone else. There is no student populace watching it and as mentioned, the movie had "ended" on Eri's final moments. This final portion then, was filmed specifically for he himself. It features a seemingly much older Yuta who narrates the events that transpired after Eri's movie. In it, he mentioned retreating back into a darker place and feeling as if the movie was incomplete. Even after getting a full-time job and having his own family, he would recall obsessing over Eri's movie, reediting it again and again in search of that "something".

And then, a tragedy befell upon him again. This time, the loss of his last remaining family utterly broke him. With not a soul left in him to even cry or grieve, he had decided that he would end his own life in a place that gave him a little bit of solace. He hence returned back to the movie room where he and Eri had spent the most time in. However, perhaps in a true miracle, or an utterly preposterous break in continuity, he finds Eri in her flesh and blood, alive and not a single day older.

Without getting into the more fantastical theories, the illusion here can be easily explained. In-universe, Yuta had not grown older. The older version we see of him in the movie was merely his father who has acting experience. The tragedy that befell his family was simply a narrative device to chase his character to the brink of suicide. This scene was then staged and filmed way before Eri was warded into the hospital and passed away. In the scene itself, this is all explained with Eri truly being a vampire. It then infodumps a bunch of vampire lore that doesn't really make sense, with a lot of other convoluted explanations to tie its own themes together.

So what are those themes? Well Yuta's character would question vampire Eri: "Will you be able to cope with this? Everyone you love will die before you do... Your parents, sweethearts, friends, you'll watch them all die. Won't living like that drive you to despair?" 

These words would perhaps act as a self-diagnostic of his own current situation. Having loss his mom, and now having to lose his friend, how would he himself be able to recover? And to that question, he has Eri answer -- 

These are no doubt beautiful words. But doesn't it sound familiar? Indeed, these are the same words that we have seen recited in the previous portions of the movie. It was first explained through Yuta's father and it was later echoed by Eri's friend. Perhaps I myself am overly critical, but doesn't this seem redundant? As mentioned before the previous stopping point would've been the perfect way to conclude the message that the movie was trying to convey. It wasn't necessary to break the fourth wall by introducing convoluted machinations, certainly not for a message that had already driven home.

From an emotional angle, it may seem reasonable. After all, it is a lot more cathartic when the message is conveyed through Eri herself. But picture this: Eri in her hospital bed, grasping onto Yuta's hands as she tells him to remember her through his movie. Would having filmed it realistically, not have possess the same impact as what we see in this fantastical variation?

I have pondered upon the "what ifs" for days on end by this point. After all, what all these constant fourth wall breaks have done, is to allow me to be hyper sensitive to the information that is being shown. Why did Yuta choose to edit this scene here? Why did he choose to add an explosion? Why did he choose to make this final portion of the film? This is perhaps the most genius way to utilize fourth wall breaks by Fujimoto-Sensei. Rather than doing so for comedy, it was used for us to truly reflect upon Yuta's psyche and to invite us to revisit the manga many times to recontextualize the scenes. For me, these are some of the most thought provoking fourth wall breaks I have ever read and will continue reading. 

Now then, with that said, let's explore the final elephant in the room: Why all this fantasy?

The first and most obvious theory is hinted by vampire Eri herself: "Films that end with the love interest's death are a dime a dozen. I think the later half could use a leap." We have learnt from the previous portion of the movie that Yuta possesses a creative soul. His decision to end his mother's autobiography with an explosion can be seen not just as a homage to its awesomeness, but also as a means to break conventions. See, explosions have never been done in an autobiography before. Similarly, making the love interest into a vampire hasn't as well. Wouldn't it be interesting if someone tried to do it? 

What we can glimpse beyond Yuta's creative soul, is possibly a coping mechanism as well. As mentioned by Yuta's father and by his own character, his way of coping with his problems was to view it through a camera. 

This is a form of distancing, by creating an artificial separation between you and your problems, you are better able to reflect upon it and accept it. Why Yuta needed to create a character that represents his older self and have him interact with vampire Eri, is also a form of distancing. While Yuta might not be able to admit that he has difficulties coping with the death of others, he should be able to have his father act it out and ask: "Will you be able to cope with this?" 

Similarly, we can imagine ourselves in Yuta's current predicament. Here he is, just a kid who has faced the death of his mother and now have to face the death of his friend. Not only that, he has been burdened with the tremendous task of filming their deaths, both of which he hasn't even grieve nor come to terms with. In that turbulent mental state, would he have been able to be smile when he has to say goodbye to Eri?

No, of course not. If it was me, I would've burst into tears, curse the world, and probably run away. But doing so, would not have allowed myself to film a proper resolution to the movie. And hence, to make up for his own inability to carry out the finale, he flipped the script. He allowed a healthy Eri to act out the scene, with his father being his stand-in. In such a case, even if he in that period of time would be unable to say 'goodbye', he could at least view it through a dozen layer of distancing.

Lastly, consider once again the explosion. The first explosion can be theorized as a sign of weakness. In being unable to film his mother's death, Yuta had opt in an explosion as his own weird way to cope with it. It can similarly be theorized as a sign of rebellion, as a means to break through with his own creative flair. Regardless of whichever it is, those decisions can be revisited with the second explosion. This time, not as a sign of weakness nor as a means to rebel, but as a moment of triumph; An explosion to signify a boy who overcame his trauma. By drawing parallels, us audience can feel the immense catharsis when we see how far Yuta has grown as a character and for Yuta, well, he managed to reframe his favorite explosions into a thought provoking masterpiece. Talk about having your cake and eating it too. However, such an explosion wouldn't have fit anywhere in Eri's autobiography. After all, her film is about her and should end on her personal triumph. There was no place for Yuta to have the spotlight... Unless -- Well, you get the gist.

Just by imbuing these layers of fantasy, we were able to feel profound effects. Us readers were thrown on a wild loop once again with the plot twists. We were able to turn a boring and predictable autobiography to a unique and unforgettable one. Furthermore, these strange decisions has allowed us to dive in the psyche of the main character himself; Discussing his creative spirit, theorizing about his five stages of grief, and lastly championing his love for explosions. For me personally, I was pushed as a reader to consider the structure of stories as well, asking myself why certain directorial decisions were made and why some weren't. This all wouldn't have been possible if it had ended back at the boring and predictable part of Eri's autobiography. This would've only been made possible when the story revamped itself to focus around Yuta's creative flair and emotional resolution -- And all that, with just a pinch of fantasy.

Before we end off, I want to leave you with one final thought. If we consider the theory that this final portion was meant as a personal triumph, then we have to reframe it back into the present. After all, as established in-universe, Yuta is still the same snot-nosed brat we saw near the beginning of the story. This final scene as well, was filmed before Eri was warded into the hospital. If that's the case then, all of this emotional journey -- The grieving process, the methods to cope with death, the power to overcome it -- Was all part of the brainchild of that very same snot-nosed brat. And he does everything, with enough brain juice to tie together vampires and explosions.

When we begun the story, we saw Yuta as this dumb kid who knew no better. And in the film even after Eri's death, we saw that he had grown as a person. However, what I did not expect was that he was probably much more mature very early on in the story than any of us expected. Many of his antics with Eri afterwards may either be a very small part to his greater maturity, or just scripted for the humor to begin with. We may never come to know the true extent of Yuta's genius. But one thing is for certain, the way it blurred the line between fact and fiction, for me, that was a good puzzle.