The first step to accepting your weird tastes is realizing you have them! I know what you mean, most of the works I've enjoyed have been those that just jumped out at me unexpectedly; I rarely go looking anime to watch or manga to read in general because I don't want to be distracted from my other stuff, like school obviously, and then I'm also working on an original book and I want to learn cooking~ XD haha My motto is 'aim high'.

Well said, I also think a big dose of determination is more important than any natural talent. I'm really against anything that says "Oh, this is due to genetics and other natural factors" (that is, personality traits, I don't extend that into genetic illnesses and the like). I firmly believe anyone can make themselves be the kind of person they want; it could be up to fate, but your options aren't limited to the ones given by birth.

The novel is all we need. <3

yeah, they do resemble their parents a lot. I like how for instance, Ozaki is outspoken like his folks, but still there's a part of him that's purely "Toshio". He knows the kind of person he wants to be, and he goes for it. I also like how the similarities with parents are brought out--against his will in Ozaki's case. He spends the whole anime (maybe novel) angsting about how he doesn't want to be like his father...but towards the end, he's definitely taken some actions that would have made his earlier self recoil. By this, I'm not contradicting my earlier statement a couple paragraphs up by saying that he's doomed to be like his ancestors, but it's really putting Ozaki's dad in a new light, and his understanding too. Ozaki always disliked his father for taking some measures he disagreed with, and yet he had to do the same later. Now he can't chalk it all up to his dad being a 'bad person', because really sometimes it's circumstances that drive people to take action, and his father, like all people, would have had a drive other than just being a nasty guy.

Seishin is more understated, but he's a lot like Shinmei , at least in the way that they both crossed over to the life of the okiagari despite being priests, and having been married late. (Obvs, Seishin's not married, but if he were to marry now, it would still be marrying rather late). Perhaps Shinmei was another rebel like Seishin. ...That leads me to wonder, what would Seishin's wife be like if he had one? I wouldn't be surprised if she was a chain-smoking lady with messy hair and dreamy brown eyes~

Ah okay, thanks for clearing that up. But still, I do think Ozaki would have known early about his suicide attempt. Seishin would have had to actively keep it a secret, and there's even rumors going around in the village, and since the whole village goes to the Ozaki clinic, he'd know eventually. He definitely knows, but what would the situation be like if Seishin was hellbent on keeping it a secret, and Ozaki found out from listening to the villagers' rumors? Then, he'd know about it, and he'd also know that Seishin doesn't want him to know.

I think it shows how much Ozaki cares about Seishin that he investigates rather than confronting. One way to determine that you have feelings (not even necessarily romantic) towards someone is if you change your normal behavior towards that person. A possible explanation is that Ozaki knows that he's normally very straightforward--and Seishin isn't. He knows that he shouldn't outright ask him about issues Seishin's not comfortable with, so perhaps he investigates to find out how he can probe the issue. He doesn't want to accidentally damage relations by being too direct; Seishin's the kind of person that would close up and insist it's all right when really he'll be emotionally distancing themselves from Ozaki. Simply because Ozaki is normally brash and confrontational doesn't mean he can't be otherwise, but anything that makes him be otherwise should be pretty darn special to him :p

I'm like that too, where it takes the right stuff to get me to say anything. Usually, I would complain about trivial issues like Ozaki, but when it comes to things that really matter, I usually keep it to myself, sometimes letting it out though. Sunako's a very perceptive individual...you know, I think it's likely that by reading all of Seishin's essays, she could gauge his personality and worked off that during their discussions. Although they're strangers, sometimes you just 'click' with people, because you're kindred spirits. You can be very different from each other, but all it takes is a similarity at the core, and that's something you can perceive remarkably easily sometimes. One of the things I think both the novel and anime do well is showing Seishin's growing connection to Sunako; it happens quite fast and it's not like they talk alll the time, but it's enough and you can see the impact that it's making on Seishin at least. Perhaps in the novel they'll go the other way too and show the impact Seishin made on Sunako (apart from the church scene at the end).

(as for bedroom scenes) There there, that's why fanfiction exists XD