Most of this finale is given over to Fuuka’s play, which serves as a proxy for how Fuuka has wrestled with who she is, who she wants or thinks she should be, and what she wants. Tama plays the isolated, pure Kris; Misuzawa plays the awkward yet curious Libra, and Aoi plays the clever but empty Alucia.
The play is a big hit with the audience, but Tomozaki himself is thrown for a loop when the ending on the stage turns out to be different than the one Fuuka showed him. In this ending, Kris doesn’t return to the garden to hang out with Libra and Alucia. Instead, she writes to them reporting that she’s well on her own, and congratulating them on their impending nuptials.
When the play ends, Tomozaki doesn’t go to Fuuka. He simply leaves the school, feeling that he gave things his best shot but lost, while convinced once and for all that life, while cruel, is no “garbage game.” He’s convinced Fuuka’s new ending was a rejection of him, and he’s not alone. Mimimi chases after him and tells him it’s not right how things ended, and that he shouldn’t merely take the play as the last word.
She could have just as easily said “then pick me”, but that’s not who Mimimi is. Instead, she gives him the push he needs to return to the library to ask Fuuka why she made the choice she did. And it all comes down to her not feeling right about letting her emotions overwhelm her ideals. She believes Libra could only be with Alucia, and only her selfishness would artificially keep them apart.
Tomozaki digs deep in his defense of him and Fuuka, telling her that while she came from a place of ideals and discovered emotions, he went in the opposite direction, starting without any ideals and only emotion and thanks to Aoi, finding a balance between the two.
And even when Fuuka the Writer still isn’t able to twist the ending of the play, Tomozaki presents her with the reality: he likes her, and wants them to be a couple. Libra was a locksmith in the play, and Tomozaki is able to unlock the solution for Fuuka.
And there you have it! I’ve gone on record being okay with Tomozaki ending up with Mimimi or Fuuka, but if I’m honest, he and Fuuka have already been an item for some time now. They just work, and that comfort and coziness continues even after they start dating, with Fuuka becoming just a little more demanding of him, which he doesn’t mind one bit.
Aoi couldn’t be happier with Tomozaki’s progress, because it proves that she was right to push him to change, and right about the offline game of life being worth playing. She still has a lot to teach him, and Tomozaki is looking forward to the challenges. But for now, he accepts her congratulations and reads Fuuka’s new ending to her novel that she wrote just for her.
It’s an ending in which Libra and Kris live happily ever after, having found their sky together. The only way I’d have been pissed is if Tomozaki chose no one, so I’m perfectly fine with this ending! It also featured some top-notch acting from both Kayano Ai (Fuuka) and Hasegawa Ikumi (Mimimi).
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