Let he who has never squandered an opportunity throw the first stone. I know I have, and so I hope to approach the topic of Makoto's run on the show with sympathy and kindness. It is easy to be triggered by some of the people on the show and what we see them do. Most of us were not jocks and cheerleaders in high school, and the show pulls from that pool relatively frequently. American society showers praise and privilege on its athletic heroes to the point that at their most successful levels they can be placed above the law. And, yet, Makoto's story is much more typical of student athletes. The vast majority of athletes who aspire to reach professional levels in their sport will not make it, and the system of privilege that supports can utterly fail them as they exit the path.
Makoto's arc on Terrace House is the opposite of what we usually see on the show. The show casts some people with a talent of some kind, and the usual arc for those housemates is that we hear about the talent when they first appear, and and some point thereafter they have some pivotal event scheduled, all the housemates go, and everyone including the audience are blown away by what this person can do. As far as we can tell, Makoto never gets to pitch at a game in his final year in college, and, in the end, he leaves the house with no clear idea of what he will do next in his life.
The show implicitly and consistently frames a value around vocational aspirations which is shared between Japanese and US culture. We know that not everyone can succeed in their current career path, and so a value is placed upon the performative display of effort. We'd have more sympathy for Makoto if we could see him working out and doing physical therapy to address his injuries. But, instead, we just see him around the house usually eating something that is not particularly healthy. We want to root for him, but we can't if do not perceive that he is even trying.
But maybe he was trying his best, and the show would not or could not show him doing so (perhaps because they could not get the appropriate filming permissions and releases). It's certainly the case that he did not feel that he could ask Minori out while his school's baseball season was still happening. And that pressure led him to the regrettable shoe incident. The desire to prioritize his baseball team was there, if not the drive or ability to succeed.
Societal privilege is an unhealthy thing not only for those who are excluded from that privilege, but also for those it leads on. What of the college athletes who earn a degree, but because of their privilege on campus, do not learn the thinking skills and subject matter knowledge that can result in jobs after their sports careers come to an end? Makoto's arc on the show is sad, and he disappeared from social media thereafter. When we were introduced to him, he was considered charming and handsome. All three girls put him at the top. We can critique his attempts at manipulation, but in the end, I suspect, that Makoto was not the man he could be, and I suspect that a part of that lack of formation was rooted in the negative aspects of jock privilege. I wish him well, and I hope he eventually finds his way.
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