Through My Window, the first of the two films directed by Marçal Forés, is a Spanish Netflix Original about the young yet passionate love between two people who meet most bizarrely. Raquel and Ares are neighbors, but both come from two different styles of upbringing. But that does not stop Raquel from stalking the man and peeping into his room, which is visible from her bedroom window. Meanwhile, Ares, too, was intrigued by this girl, and he hacked into her Wi-Fi router and her laptop to gain access and find out who she was. The meet-cute is not a friendly one, but they end up purposely running into each other too many times and slowly falling in love.
Where does Yoshi come into the picture? He and Daniela happen to be Raquel’s best friends. Unknown to Raquel, Yoshi is secretly in love with her. It has not been shown when or how he fell for her. It is implied that they have been friends for a long time, and his friendship has turned into an attraction, but Raquel still sees him as a best friend who she can run to at any given point in time. He was the first person to know about her obsession with Ares, the rich playboy neighbor, and how she is developing a book based on his character. Yoshi happens to know every tiny detail that happens in Raquel’s life because that is the purpose of a best friend.
It is unclear why he never expressed his love for her. One reason could be that he did not know how she would react to his admission of his feelings. He believes there is a chance she might stop hanging out with him to avoid awkwardness or making him feel as if she is leading him on. Ultimately, his worry was that Raquel would stop being her friend, and he did not want to lose her. This shows how emotionally dependent he is on her. Just like he knows everything about her, she knows everything about him too, except this big secret.
Knowing that Ares and Raquel have begun flirting with each other, all Yoshi can do is witness their games. This pains him, but he cannot do anything about it because he is in no position to tell her what she should do with her life. Being with Ares is her choice, and Yoshi, as a friend, supports her decisions. He was the one with her when she got physically intimate with Ares for the first time and realized that he was an emotionally unavailable person. Yoshi managed to bring her out of her misery and let her know this man could be toxic. But Raquel kept going back to Ares, knowing her friends, especially Yoshi, would be there for her if she fell apart. This comes across as a destructive pattern, and Yoshi, as a friend, tries to put an end to it.
By the end of the first movie, Ares is at Yoshi’s mercy to help him seek Raquel. Yoshi thinks of the negative impact he has had on her so far. He endangers Ares by not rescuing him from the swimming pool he fell into, knowing Ares is allergic to chlorine water. Yoshi’s act was extreme, but he believed it was to keep Raquel away from Ares. It is not clear if Ares informed Raquel about Yoshi’s actions. By the looks of things in the sequel, Raquel was still unaware of how Yoshi almost killed Ares.
Yoshi hates Ares because, as a friend and the love he has for her, he feels Ares is a womanizer who would never be faithful to her. He might have been right because the nature of a human being never changes, and Ares could not be trusted, keeping in mind his flings from the past. Yoshi and Daniela end up at Ares’s vacation villa by the sea only to make sure Raquel is not hurt. They come across as good friends, but again, this behavior of walking into their space to save her comes across as a big mistake. Yoshi, especially, should give Raquel some benefit of the doubt and let her make up her mind about Ares. Yoshi’s secret fondness for Raquel also comes across as a disturbing pattern because he, in a way, manipulates her to make sure she separates from Ares.
The second movie begins with Raquel’s book Through My Window being appreciated by her college professor, who asks her to approach a publishing house to consider her manuscript. Raquel hesitated because she did not know if her book would be accepted by the publishers. Yoshi was her confidence booster because she had shown the manuscript only to him. This proves she trusts his judgment. He pushes her to email the manuscript, but she does not. Maybe Raquel was not sure how Ares would react to this news. One positive aspect of their friendship is that Raquel and Yoshi turn out to be great dancing partners. Their dance performances are the highlights of both films. This is probably how he feels connected to her.
In the sequel, Yoshi is pursued actively by a local girl named Anna, who saves him from being bullied by local boys. Just like Yoshi’s obsessive love for Raquel, Anna showcases the same kind of fondness for him; the only difference is that she expresses it without any hesitation. Anna and Yoshi sleep with each other, and she hopes this will probably change his mind. Unfortunately for her, that does not happen because he cares for Raquel. Ares and Raquel break up over him cheating on her, and Yoshi finally thinks it is his time to swoop in and proclaim his love. Yoshi should have given Raquel some breathing room before jumping on the opportunity. But he finally realizes Raquel will never love her the way he does because she ends up pursuing Gregory, her classmate from college.
Yoshi finally concludes that it would be better to give his heart a chance with a woman who likes him back. He would want to explore the possibility of dating other women. He feels Anna genuinely liked him, and he should go ahead and pursue her, hoping it would give him a chance to think of a woman other than Raquel. On his way back to meet her, a speeding Yoshi dies as his bike goes off the cliff. It is tragic that he died without ever letting any of the women know that he loved them.
As Raquel and Daniela are devastated over his death, she finally comes to know after a while since his funeral that he had sent Raquel’s manuscript to the publisher, posing as her literary agent. The publishing house responded with their interest in going ahead with her work. This proves he is there for her, even from the other side, blessing her with such good news. Raquel may have never known about the love he had for her, but his actions were proof enough to confirm that feeling.
