English Dub Review: SING “YESTERDAY” FOR ME: “As the River Flows, Shinako Returns Home”

Overview: Rou (Dallas Reid) struggles with his own inadequacies as well as his feelings for Shinako (Michelle Rojas). 

Our Take: Rou has been a thorn in my side since the very beginning of his begrudging introduction. While that irritation is alleviated somewhat with a deep dive into who he is, he is still a major prick.

Him struggling with advanced techniques of a prestigious art school is an understandably tough learning curve for a new student transferring in. The meaning of his art is also inherently connected to his deepest insecurities about his value being reliant on it with him always stuck in his brother’s shadow. This brings out the ugliest parts of him, showing how pathetically desperate and immature he is in pursuit of Shinako in him questioning her feelings for his late brother and her love, not making any more likable. However, that seems to be the whole point. To show how sad of how human he has become in his jealousy of his brother, who even after having passed away, he is still comparing himself to. Shinako’s rejection of his romantic feelings was considerably gratifying because of this and hopefully there is nothing but grief and misfortune in his future.  

Rou reminds me how much more likable Uozumi is in how much of an ass he is towards him, because of his jealousy that Shinako had feelings for him. Shinako is the saving grace throughout this entire ordeal in her beginning to deal with the loss of Yuu and move forward. It is deeply painful as it is a beautiful scene in how she associates them in their youth with cascading cherry blossoms. Rou’s shared pain with Haru over their painful lives is a nice shared moment between the two in lamenting their struggles. His classmate and friend, who has gone through the highs and lows of being a performing art student, is a good way of putting the pep back in his step for a passionate ending. Hopefully, he keeps that energy away from Shinako moving forward.