An interesting thing happens in the latter half of Don’t Leave Me Alone, Daisy – the show shifts points of view from Techno to Hitomi. The early episodes were mostly catalogs of atrocities against Hitomi, and while she was definitely sympathetic, she was also somewhat anonymous. The latter half, as she’s been developing feelings for Techno she’s also become the main focus of the show – it isn’t about some weirdo science kid, it’s about a young girl who has a weirdo science kid infatuated with her.
This episode also brings some of Techno’s more disturbing habits into a more understandable, if not sympathetic light. Here’s what happens: Techno picks up Hitomi and sort of forces her to go with him on a bike ride. I say “sort of” because she ends up having a good time…until they break through the fourth dimension and zoom into the past, right into Techno’s nuclear fallout shelter.
Here, lil’ Techno believes that Hitomi is his mother, and he proceeds, in inimitable Techno fashion, to tie her up so she can’t go away.
Techno tries to rescue her, blah blah blah. What’s interesting here, though, is that Hitomi, far from being repulsed by the little tyke, believes that he is the product of a future union between her and Techno and so loves him like the son she believes him to be. She tries to teach him not to tie people up, or that he should try and make friends that he hasn’t genetically engineered in his lab. Things any mom would worry about.
Here a kind of paradox is introduced: Techno met Hitomi when he was young, so I suppose that when he saw her later, repressed affection was triggered, and he thus tries to capture Hitomi (rather than win her) because he’s deeply afraid that she’ll run away again. Couple this with Techno’s obviously amorous (albeit clinical) intentions, and you could probably get yourself knee-deep in a Freudian quagmire. So let’s sidestep that.
But therein lies the sophisticated switch the show has pulled – it is ostensibly about Hitomi being trapped by Techno, but Techno himself is trapped in a sort of affectionate web for Hitomi, an attraction that strikes him deeper than normal teenage puppy love. Hitomi’s constant fears that when her non-alien nature is revealed, it will turn Techno off, as well as her fantasies of marriage, strengthen the idea that she is really the show’s central figure. All actions aren’t predicated upon Techno’s obsession (which becomes one-note and unchanging throughout), but rather upon Hitomi’s developing affections.
So let’s see the next episode go and ruin everything.
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