Love is Indivisible by Twins – Episode 1

What’s it about? Twins Rumi and Naori are both childhood friends of the boy Jun, who is a “walking encyclopedia.” While Naori has gotten closer to Jun because of their shared love of literature, more jockish Rumi has been feeling a bit left out of their friendship as she has started to develop feelings for Jun. Rumi decides to make a move–but will the three of them be able to navigate the complexities of their relationships?

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Within the first five minutes of watching this anime, I went to search for who was on the production staff. I was not expecting much from the show, given the rather boilerplate “two twins fall in love with one boy” premise and light novel origins, but was already quite impressed by the clever dialogue and wistful music and atmosphere for the show. 

Sure enough, Yokote Michiko was on series composition. In general, I prefer shows where characters talk and act like human beings—meaning, they say and do things that don’t always make obvious sense, and are based more on deep internal struggles and processes opaque to the viewer and to themselves. 

Yokote is a master of this kind of writing, particularly in shows like Princess Tutu, and this show is no different: Rumi and Naori are both compelling characters who have more going on with them than “I like Jun.” They lie to each other and themselves, have thoughts they only tell the audience (and things that it seems they aren’t telling us too), and generally are characters I want to learn more about.

I love Naori, who uses literature as a defense mechanism to feel smarter than those around her–throwing borderline nonsequitur references to Lord of the Flies in the faces of her bullies and then smugly gloating to herself at their utter confusion. When she teases Jun for reading Murakami Haruki, saying “that’s lewd!” I felt that this was a show that not only understands literature, but is utterly uninterested in using that understanding to seem Very Smart to its audience–in fact, if the Lord of the Flies moment is anything to go by, it gently makes fun of people who would gloat like that. 

I hope that the show continues to explore how adolescents interact with stories and literature, and I’m honestly left wondering what stories might have led Naori to think of herself as the villain in her own story.

Rumi, on the other hand, is mostly defined by her relationship to Jun. However, it is in the handling of their relationship where the show is doing something different. Instead of creating a slow burn will-they-won’t-they like many a love triangle before, the show leaps into a relationship between Rumi and Jun that lasts all of two minutes of montage (including kisses and adorable dates) before Rumi snuffs it out herself.

This show is clearly not afraid of moving into the messier, more interesting parts of romance that many slow burn romances show little interest in–what happens when you try to break up with somebody and you can’t let go? What happens when your reason for breaking up was fundamentally a bad one, but you still have to live with the consequences? It’s these kinds of stories that are made possible by this narrative choice, and those kinds of stories I honestly find more interesting.

All of this strong writing is elevated by strong direction and beautiful music, unsurprising given that the director Nakanishi Matoki directed one of the most devastating and gorgeous episodes of Made in Abyss. The music maintains the show’s melancholy but thoughtful tone, and the overall experience was one that I found quite enjoyable.

It is worth noting as a caveat that Jun himself is a rather underdeveloped character. While he is mostly defined by his love of literature and his deep empathy, I hope that we get to see the messier sides of him just as we saw of Rumi and Naori. In any case, I will definitely be keeping up with the show to see if we do.