Love and Loss in One Room

Edit: This was my 1st April post. Probably don’t watch One Room.

Some of my readers may have been aware of the series of shorts One Room which recently finished airing. What you may be unaware of is that the synopsis of you being the protagonist is misleading; the protagonist is in fact dead, and it is a spirit, not your body, which is spending time together with these girls. In fact One Room is a touching series about three young women coming to grips with the loss of someone who they really cared about.

We start to see hints of this even from the opening moments, where the protagonist of the series hovers near the outside of the building which contained his flat during his mortal life. His frequent gazes close at each girls legs and bust add to the picture; as people outside of a romantic relationship would not have this occur with such frequency. Such camera angles continue throughout the series, and we see the world through the eyes of this spirit as he hovers near, behind, below, and around each girl, aware that they cannot see him, but nevertheless wanting to keep an eye on them.

We see each of the girls have had their own relationship with the ghostly protagonist, and are having their own troubles in letting him go. Over the episodes we see the protagonist’s spirit watch over each girl as they have some touching moments.

Hanasaka Yui appreciated what this young man did in order to assist with her studies, and believes he is still helping her now. In this particular shot we see the camera slowly pan past this tree, it becomes apparent that there is no-one standing there, but Yui is speaking merely to a memory. The sakura blossoms represent spring and new life, as Yui desperately tries to leave the past behind her and find some closure.

Momohara Natsuki is a little sister who is trying to deal with the death of her older brother whilst cleaning up his old apartment. She adds some helpful rules for living to a poster, perhaps hinting at the demise of the protagonist and the errors in his life he was unable to fix owing to his life being cut cruelly short. The ghostly protagonist watches these with silent regret. After her time spent tidying the apartment, she is able to leave in peace and return home to the rest of her family.

Childhood friend Aoshima Moka thinks of how the protagonist was unable to see her achieve her goal of becoming a singer which she has been working towards. The two of them were supporting each other in their mutual dreams of singing and writing. When she is about to give up on her dreams altogether, the words from the protagonist’s last manuscript give words of comfort while the protagonist watches her. She can find peace knowing that he will be around to see her reach her dreams, even if his body is not.

In all, One Room is a heart-warming tale of the spirit of a young man watching over three young women who gradually find a little peace about his passing in his one room and the neighbourhood surrounding it.