Rojaseb said:
This thread contains spoilers,
Make sure to complete the anime first!
/
I believe Haiji and Kakeru were in love with each other.
In this thread I will go over the reasons, providing quotes and screenshots. I actually put a lot of effort to make it as objective as possible. There are 4 main reasons why I believe they were in love:
- The original version of the novel
- The Japanese reference "tsuki ga kirei desu ne" (the moon is beautiful, isn't it?)
- Kakeru says "he's in love"
- Haiji says Kakeru is a shooting star
THE ORIGINAL NOVEL
Run with the Wind is based on a novel of the same name released in 2006. Before its official publication, Run with the Wind was a gay romance story.
The author, Shion Miura, is very successful and has put out various acclaimed works. On the same year Run with the Wind was published, Shion Miura also published a collection of essays where she talked about the yaoi genre (Japanese gay fiction, usually sexual). The collection of essays is called "It's Not Just a Hobby", and there she explained that she had worked on Run with the Wind since 2001 (5 years before the publication). She had originally written Kakeru and Haiji as a gay couple in a sexual relationship, and this part of the story was then downplayed for the official release in 2006.
TSUKI GA KIREI
The phrase "Tsuki ga Kirei Desu ne" (月が綺麗ですね - translated "The Moon is Beautiful, Isn't it?") is a Japanese phrase used in fiction literature to mean "I love you". The phrase was coined by the famous novelist and teacher Natsume Sōseki (1867-1912), when he explained it during one of his lectures. Sōseki believed that two people in love do not need direct words to convey their feelings.
While you wouldn't see many Japanese people using this in real life to confess their feelings, it's a relatively popular Japanese reference, and there was even a romance anime named after this (Tsuki ga Kirei), as well as a lesbian/GL manga (Tsuki ga Kirei Desu ne).
In episode 13 during their stay at the cabin, Kakeru was thinking in the balcony at night and Haiji came out with 2 cups of warm milk to keep him company. After their serious conversation was over, Hana comes out to greet them. Haiji wraps an arm around Kakeru and says: "By the way, Kakeru, do you have a girlfriend?". Kakeru gets flustered and answers: "O-Of course I don't! Where did that come from?!"
Haiji answers: "夜空が余り綺麗なものだから", shown in the image above, but a better translation is "Because the night sky is so beautiful" or even "Because the night sky is extremely beautiful". Hana starts to freak out joyfully asking Haiji what he meant while Kakeru remains blushed and confused.
This was a "tsuki ga kirei" reference. Keep in mind that there is no rule saying you have to use the word "moon" (tsuki), because it's just a romantic reference, not a literal translation. Saying night sky (yozora) or stars (hoshi) will get the same point across, "I love you." The reason why Kaiji was familiar with this reference is because he's a Literature student. So using a nerdy reference made it easy for him to confess his feelings without Hana and Kakeru knowing what he meant.
Further proof that this was a "tsuki ga kirei" reference is found in the next episode (14). While Musa and Kakeru were in the bathtub at night, Musa begins to talk about how he discovered Hana liked one of the twins, but he's very cryptic about this, so Kakeru doesn't understand what he means. At the end of the conversation regarding Hana's feelings, Musa says he "caught the moon". This is another "tsuki ga kirei" reference, but also a wordplay in Japanese because "tsuki" (moon) and "suki" (to like something or to like someone) sound very similar. So Musa was saying he "caught Hana's feelings", using the moon as a metaphor and wordplay. And yes, this is the same thing the novelist Natsume Sōseki was doing when he made the phrase popular.
KAKERU IS IN LOVE
Right before Kakeru's turn to run in Hakone, Haiji phonecalls him. The conversation ends with Haiji saying: "To me, you are the greatest runner. Become stronger, Kakeru". Moments later Kakeru moves towards the track and says to one of the twins: "What does it feel like to fall in love? I'm in love, too". The twin freaks out and begins to ask him what he meant, but Kakeru takes off.
The logical interpretation is that Kakeru is in love with running, because his earlier conversation with Haiji was about improving as a runner. However, the meaning of this dialogue changes when Haiji is about to finish the race. Kakeru is on the other side of the finish line looking at Haiji with tears in his eyes, thinking: "You asked me once what running is. You said you wanted to know what it is. The answer is you. It's you".
So if we complete Kakeru's sentence, what we originally thought was "I'm in love with running" now becomes "I'm in love with Haiji". Because to Kakeru, Haiji is the meaning of running.
THE SHOOTING STAR
Much like Kakeru thinks "Haiji is the meaning of running", Haiji thinks "Kakeru is a shooting star". Moments before Kakeru finishes his race and gives Haiji the sash, Haiji thinks to himself: "Kakeru, did you know? When you run I see a single white line of light at your feet... like a shooting star". The meaning of this had been explained earlier in the episode. Haiji says: "That night, when you passed before my eyes, I had a thought: that's my dream right there. You are the ideal form I never reached". In other words, Kakeru made Haiji's "dream come true", hence why he's a "shooting star", because you ask your wishes to shooting stars so that they become true. This is all a reference to the running! Not romantic feelings.
At the end of the anime, Haiji repeats the first words he said to Kakeru: "Hey! Do you like running?!", with a shooting star in the background symbolizing Kakeru.
So the reason why I find this to be very interesting is once again in episode 13.
After Haiji said to Kakeru, "Because the night sky is so beautiful", there was a shooting star moments later! Haiji says: "Look! A shooting star!" and the scene ends. Meaning Haiji was quoting a romantic reference used to say "I love you", then, the "beautiful night sky" had a shooting star in it, and shooting stars are used in the story to symbolize Kakeru. I think this fits very well, and it also explains why the author decided to go with "night sky" instead of "moon", because they wanted to combine the "tsuki ga kirei" confession with the shooting star metaphor that is Kakeru, and this couldn't be done with the word "moon", because stars are in the sky.
Finally, if we go back to the first episode, we get to see the original "shooting star" metaphor that Haiji was talking about.
The first time Haiji saw Kakeru run, Kakeru looked like a real shooting star going through a night sky. I'm not even trying to be poetic! I mean it literally, as you can see in the images below. The first episode backs up the confession in episode 13 because Kakeru is, quite literally, a component of a beautiful night sky:
Conclusion
I believe the anime used subtext to honor the original story, portraying Kakeru and Haiji as gay and in love, without making them say it directly. Subtext is inherently open to interpretation, but the original version of the story makes it more valid to interpret the 4 things explained here as an admission of romantic feelings. Yet there are other details we can add, too:
- in episode 1 they mention Haiji never had a girlfriend in the 3 years he had been in college
- Haiji and Kakeru are shown touching/embracing often, and are shown smiling to each other often (even in both OPs)
- how Kakeru was willing to open up about his past to Haiji, and Haiji was willing to open up about his past to Kakeru
- how Haiji decided to pair himself with Kakeru for Hakone, meaning they would get to share the entire experience because they had to travel in pairs
- how Kakeru finished his Hakone race then immediately got back up to keep running because "he needed to be at the finish line to greet Haiji", and how he cried as soon as he saw Haiji getting to the finish line
So many gestures and behavior that are simply not common between 2 straight men. If either of the two characters had been a woman, all of the things in this post would be interpreted as obvious romantic feelings. And I think it's important to bring that up because it was never the author's intention to write an "intimate friendship between two straight men". The pieces that make up Haiji's and Kakeru's relationship were carefully selected to make love happen. And in the anime adaptation we still got to see the powerful moments that had lead them to fall in love in the original story.
