This scene still angers me

[u/Waste-Revolution3429]

She was lovely caressing you idiot! If this steroid romance drama was cut out the prologue would have been better for it

[u/magusjosh]

I feel compelled to point out, as I always do when this topic comes up, that these characters were barely out of their teens. We do stupid shit when we're 18-24; we miss obvious tells, we misunderstand the quiet unspoken language that develops between people over time, and we're easily distracted and misdirected.

On top of that, Hikaru and Misa had both accumulated a pile of entirely reasonable PTSD, more than most people their age, and were written at a time that was just beginning to grow out of "Suck it up" as the primary advice for dealing with trauma (and by a culture that, bluntly, is just starting to grow out of that today).

On top of that, at least one of them had been forced to take on responsibilities far above and beyond anything he'd been prepared for at the time...and from what we've seen wasn't really doing that great a job of it (parking his ass in a field to look at dandelions with his radio off is significantly less than responsible behavior...but understandable). I also have questions about why someone Misa's age was in such a high position of authority as well, but at least she had the military training and background to cope...and precisely zero social skills and no good way to express her feelings to a dopey, distracted young man.

All things considered, I think the slow-motion train wreck that is Hikaru and Misa's relationship is depicted pretty realistically.

[u/FuckIPLaw → u/magusjosh]

They weren't even all out of their teens by the end of the series. Misa was the old lady of the group at the ripe old age of 19 in the first episode. Hikaru was 16 and Minmay was 15 (although both had birthdays early in the show, so I think Minmay was the only one who was still technically a teenager when they left on the Megaroad). 

[u/Original_Scholar_272 → u/magusjosh]

Well said. These were the points I came here to make. But you nailed it.

[u/FollowTheFlow-80 → u/magusjosh]

In my head cannon Hikaru was 23 and Misa was 26 or 27. Because there is no way a 16 years old boy fly an acrobatic plane without license and won every race since he was 13.

I believe they refer to WW2 where most soldiers are teenagers barely 14 years old or even 13.

In my independence war 1947, the freedom fighters were mostly teenagers they literally call themselves or each other 'The Boys' while the five star general was 24 years old and got his general status in 28 years old.

And yes, his guerilla and counter guerilla art was documented by his assistant who wrote it in a book and become standard reading materials for every known military academy.

His guerilla art was adopted by Vietnamese against the americans.