it is the love interest of the intellectuals, so you might as well leave that clique.
You make an excellent point about both Shizune and Lilly and yet you kinda word it in a very awkward manner that kinda makes it sound like Shizune is the love interest for smart people, which sounds kinda condescending and elitist. Maybe I should elaborate with my interpretation:
Shizune is an intellectual through and through. She generally thinks of things only in rational ways, tends to judge people mostly on what they can or can't do (or how they can or can't contribute to her various projects) and tends to discount any circumstances that cannot be explained with cold hard logic.
Lilly is an empath through and through. She generally thinks of things with a clear view of how others will react to it, tends to judge people by their general attitude and demeanor and is sensitive to social cues, which is all the more impressive since she's blind and can only react to things like inflections, tones of voice and people's breathing.
Obviously these two are on two extreme ends of the same spectrum. And it kinda causes problems for them both.
Shizune's difficulty with empathy is probably a far graver flaw than her bossiness, pushiness or agressive go-get-em attitude. Even with Misha speaking for her in her cheerful up-beat tone, Shizune still comes across as cold. Her complete inability to empathize with Misha's plight is probably more responsible for the rift between the two than the rejection itself was and she's never really succesful in developing that part of herself, instead relying on Hisao's more developed people skills to fix the falling out. This same character trait is also cause for the student council being as understaffed as it is.
Lilly, on the other hand, sometimes has too much empathy for her own good. Her empathic skills allow her to come across as warm and caring to just about everyone, but she sometimes goes too far with it and comes across as pitying and mothering, which can annoy both Hisao and Hanako. Her strong sense of empathy is also responsible for her extreme reluctance to tell Hisao about her parents' summoning even though she really should have brought it up.
Still, when dealing with people, empathy often plays a much more important part than cold hard logic, as long as you're not too much lacking in the latter. This isn't just true for the students of Yamaku (which is why Lilly is popular and Shizune is considerably less so), but also for fans. Like it or not, people don't "decide" to like someone, they either do or don't and don't always use checklists with criteria to determine why they like or don't like somone. And because humans are hard-wired this way, empaths like Lilly have the edge over intellectuals like Shizune.
What about Lilly? You only speak to her mother in the phone, but did you learn anything about Lilly from her?
Likewise, Shizune doesn't really discuss her family either and she's been around them far more.
her 'HASD'(abbreviated) contrasts her manners and upbringing (Catholic school background. If you've been in one, you know how strict the laws there are--especially in dorms)
In reality, someone from a strict upbringing showing strong sexual urges after being let out into the world really is no contradiction whatsoever. Teen pregnancies tend to be highest among the teens who took so-called "chastity vows".
and one other thing Hanako in both Lilly's and her own arc only got better socially when Lilly wasn't around to mother her ( prove me wrong Lilly fans ) so i have question if Lilly's motherly nature was part of Hanako's social problem
No, it isn't. Before Hanako met Lilly, she didn't have any friends at all and her life was worse in almost every aspect. Lilly being an emotional crutch to lean on was valuable to Hanako, but Lilly's friendship alone wasn't enough. Lilly states in her own route that Hisao's friendship allowed Hanako to develop further. However, without Lilly, Hisao and Hanako would have never befriended each other to begin with. Hanako flees from her first meeting with Hisao and looks outright panicky when he asks Lilly if it's okay to join them for lunch. It was because of Lilly providing safety that Hisao was able to spend enough time with Hanako for her to start opening up to him. In Lilly's route, it was the combined friendship from Lilly and Hisao that made Hanako comfortable enough to then take the next step to join the newspaper club. In her own route, it was Lilly's efforts (arranging the pool club outing and calling Hisao on his white knighting) that contributed vitally to Hanako and Hisao becoming a couple. For short, Lilly's motherly nature provided Hanako with safety from which she could take her next steps towards recovery, but due to her own shortcomings, Lilly's friendship alone wasn't enough. However, I really don't think Hanako's complete recovery was something that anyone, no matter who, could have contributed to on his or her own. It was always more than one person with the addition of Hanako's own efforts.
now ask yourself, if you assign someone who procrastinates a lot to finish a project that will take about say...3 days to complete would you trust that person to finish it on time and in top-notch quality? I won't, instead I'll give it to someone who could finish it in the allotted amount of time AND in top-notch quality.
She did finish it in time AND in top-notch quality, she just didn't finish with any time remaining. In Lilly's defense, her class' plans were extremely ambitious, too much so in retrospect. She admits later the class underestimated the workload.
What I'm starting to see and assume is that her 'motherly tendency' to be her facade, her mask to escape from that reality of 'being unreliable'. Better yet, she has Hanako--that timid, scarred girl with a ticking time bomb of emotional outburst that could explode anytime; standing in as her friend would make her look 'reliable' to someone AND make you look especially respectable and knight-like, right? Now we add Hisao in the mix, and he too is having his own problem about fitting in to the school full of disabled people (he himself couldn't swallow the fact that he is now considered 'disabled'), wouldn't it be nice to stand in to be his friend, help him fit in, and make it so he relies on you more than ever.
By the time her arc start, you are made to believe that Lilly is that all-perfect 'Yamato Nadeshiko' with her motherly nature that is very much reliable. I'm beginning to conclude that Lilly is the best manipulator I have seen, second to Kira from Death Note.
Okay, let me stop you right there before you start theorizing that Lilly wrote Hisao's name down to give him a heart attack, then erased his name with the Death Eraser as a convulated plot to bring him to Yamaku and have healthy adolescent sex with him.
You've made some good arguments in your posts before, but there's no grand conspiracy here. Lilly's very much like Emi...a person who sometimes smiles when she's not feeling cheerful in order to avoid making people worry about them. It's something a lot of people do...PARTICULARLY IN JAPAN and isn't a sign of a manipulative personality.
First of all, her mothering isn't a fascade...like I said before, Lilly's an empath...she tends to feel and identify with the feelings of others and when she empathizes with others too much, she becomes overly concerned and mothering. Mothering is very much her way of showing affection to those she cares about and she does it with every person who is particularly dear to her; Akira, Hanako and Hisao...even if all three are occasionally annoyed by it. What IS a fascade SOME OF THE TIME is her appearance of always being in control of the situation. This is a by-product of her past...her parents went away leaving her and Akira behind and Akira feels this was because they couldn't deal with Lilly's blindness. Akira then had to raise Lilly herself for several years. These circumstances caused Lilly to feel like she was a burden to her sister and ever since, it's been part of her personality to try and avoid being a burden to others at all costs, even when sharing her burdens would allow others to become closer to her or allow them to help her make a better decision.
Also, Hanako's not a ticking timebomb. She only snaps at Hisao after he visits her at the worst possible time and says the worst possible things to her at this worst possible time. And even then, she stops her outburst the moment he's out of the room.
Lilly's white knighting isn't a distraction from her own problems or a way to feel better about herself like Hisao's is in Hanako's route. Lilly herself is both popular and confident...she doesn't need to boost that confidence by artificial means. Her mothering is simply part of her empathic personality.
speaking of which, did Lilly or Hanako ever mentioned how they met? Or did they just 'meet and become friends'?
Coincidence, somewhat. Lilly moved into the room next to Hanako's about a year before Hisao started attending and Hanako overheard Lilly offering comfort to a classmate who was feeling down. Needing some comfort herself, Hanako approached Lilly soon after, though at first, it was really merely Lilly talking and Hanako just sitting there and merely listening and drinking tea. It took her some time to open up to Lilly a bit.
Even then, would she buy TWO tickets to Scotland if Lilly suddenly say "I'm not going"? That's a waste of money, and considering the flight from Japan to US is about 1,600USD for one adult, you can start guessing how much are two tickets from Japan to Scotland. She's decided to go to Scotland to see her family, there may be some regret in her heart but she is %100 sure (note that the NEUTRAL ending of Lilly shows that she just leaves and Hisao ends the relationship right there. So much for 'long-lasting relationship')
Lilly herself states money isn't a problem...she gets a pretty large allowance apparantly.
Lilly WAS conflicted, even at the time Akira approached Hisao. Not conflicted enough to have a change of heart of her own, but conflicted enough to change her mind if Hisao had challenged her decision. In fact, it's possible this was what Akira expected Hisao to do and that's why she called him. But Hisao had become too used to letting Lilly handle everything, so he went along with her decision without arguing with her. After Lilly left, Hisao realized that this was his mistake and that he should have been more persistent in supporting her when she obviously needed it.
Look, I realize you prefer Shizune over Lilly and that's fine. I'll even agree with you that Shizune is somewhat underrated and Lilly is somewhat overrated. But you're starting to sound a bit too much like Kenji with the Lilly analysis. Lilly's not perfect, she has flaws, mostly ones that take a bit of effort to notice, but she's still largely how she's portrayed and while she's not any less flawed than the other heroines, she's not any more flawed either.
You're confusing your trips to Scotland. Hanako's route ends before Lilly even returns from her first trip to Scotland, whereas her permanent departure occurs a few weeks after her return from that first temporary trip.
This.