If I believed everything I saw in promo images, I'd think Shirobako was a shade less lewd than To Love Ru.
I pretty much laid out what I felt that scene was trying to communicate in my
earlier impressions post about that episode, so I don't want to rehash it too much. But I think that people reading it as a surefire representation of blooming yuri romance are missing the mark. I can't blame them too much, because most shows wouldn't have the confidence to tread the line this cleanly, or have characters talk in such a naturalistic, indirect way.
The metaphor Kumiko uses to describe Kousaka, the "Yuki Onna", the snow maiden that lures travelers to their doom, is pretty instructive here. Kousaka has an almost supernatural presence that pulls Kumiko along. And it's not really her beauty. The camera largely avoids putting her in a sexual light when it shoots from Kumiko's perspective (only the part with her finger on Kumiko's forehead seems to cross that line). But it's Kousaka's confidence and maturity, the absolute conviction with which she sets out to do this absurd thing on the day of the festival, that Kumiko can't really resist. It's the same part of her personality that so shocked Kumiko when they failed to reach Nationals in middle school.
And the way Kousaka dresses up for this event plays into everything she's saying about herself. She wants to set herself apart from everyone else at school. She wants to be special. That's why she plays the trumpet, but that's also why she's wearing high heels and a classy dress to a mountain hike, and it's why she prefers that second shrine to the one before it. She wants to appear more mature, more adult, and more capable than the rest. The pain of setting herself apart is worth it if it makes her special.
The whole climb is a very
intimate event for the two characters, and it draws them much closer to each other emotionally, a moment of connection only they experienced. But that doesn't make it necessarily
romantic, and the show takes care to keep the two from being too close when they play.
I can certainly think of friends I have who I'd carry a euphonium up a mountain for in a totally platonic way. Those moments of connection are priceless, even if they don't lead to sex. Is that so unusual? Do people actually think Kousaka is serious when she's talking about "confessions of love"? Because Kumiko sure doesn't, and she knows Kousaka better than any of us.
Their shadows are next to each other, but they don't overlap. Why? Because they're two separate people who aren't romantically entwined.
Take the show as it is. It's weird to see people saddling it with these expectations that they know it won't meet so they can get mad at KyoAni for not being progressive enough to include a homosexual couple after a scene like this, because it subverts a scene that's already beautiful, touching, and well-directed in its own right.
