Whisper Me a Love Song – 03 – Different Kind of Love

Kino Himari learned back in middle school that others felt a different kind of love than she did: a romantic love that would cause them to pair off. This caught Himari by surprise, and even in the present doesn’t really get it. All she gets is that Asanagi Yori loves her in a different way that she loves her, and so isn’t sure how to respond.

When Himari opens up to her best bud Miki she gets some clarity: loving one another the exact same way is allowed! Not only that, sometimes things don’t work out with people who do love and date each other, as Miki did with a boy in middle school. She advises Himari not to overthink things, but simply ask herself what she wants out of a relationship with Yori.

While she now understands she has options, Himari still doesn’t want to choose an option that will hurt Yori or sour their relationship. After chatting with her mom about how she and her dad met and started going out, she finally determines a way to verbalize her feelings to Yori. Brass tacks: she doesn’t love her romantically, but she doesn’t not love her either. She wants to spend more time with her, and maybe those feelings will evolve.

Yori is already so in love with Himari that just getting her text explaining the delay in her response makes her happy beyond reason. So to get such an honest, earnest answer that clearly took a lot of thinking, the conversation ends with Yori liking Himari more than ever. Himari worries she’s being selfish, but Yori doesn’t share that concern. She’s simply happy Himari is giving her a chance, and she’s not going to squander it.

Yori now knows what she must do in order to date Himari for real: get her to fall for her. She believes the way to her heart is her eyes and ears, so she goes to Aki, Kaori, and Mari and asks if she can join their band. Since they’re vocalist quit and won’t be coming back, they’re in a bind and this solves that. But it doesn’t solve the fact that Aki is clearly still harboring feelings Yori—the same feelings Yori feels for Himari. I shall embrace the chaos.

Whisper Me a Love Song – 02 – Russian Blue

Yori and Himari have made a habit of sharing their time on the rooftop, and Himari is not shy about telling Yori how she loves her singing. Yori finds her thoughts of late are dominated by the painfully adorable Himari. When she pats her head, Himari blushes, but when she takes off, Yori blushes even more. She’s not sure what she’s doing, but she knows she likes Himari.

She encounters Himari waiting outside her class at lunch, and on Aki’s urging they exchange contact info. This is how Aki learns that Himari is the girl Yori is into (and we later learn that Aki is still into Yori herself). Since it’s raining, Himari meets Yori in her classroom after school, and asks her if she wants to go on a date to a cat-themed merch pop-up at the station on Sunday. Yori enthusiastically accepts, and it’s First Date Time.

Yori shows up effortlessly mature and stylish, while Himari is a tiny goddess of cuteness in her maroon dress and white blouse. Yori compliments her and Himari is glad she dressed up for the occasion. At lunch Himari feeds Yori, and the two end up holding hands to not get lost at the packed pop-up. Himari picks out matching phone straps for them to share, and Yori buys them as a gift for her.

At a music store, Himari tells Yori she wants to see “both sides” of her: the gentle solo artist on the rooftop and the snazzy frontwoman in the band. Yori decides she’ll give the band thing a try after all. Throughout the date, she’s is on cloud nine. Just being beside Himari makes her happy, and all Himari has to do is smile or praise her for that happiness to soar even higher.

When she expresses as much to Himari before they part ways, Himari laughs it off, saying being her girlfriend would be great. But as she walks away, Yori takes hold of her arm and tells her, in no uncertain terms, that she wants to go out with her, for real for real, and asks if she’ll think about it.

When Himari does so in the bath that night, she worries that her love and Yori’s are different. But then again, she also asks herself what love even is. In any case, the cat’s out of the bag and there’s no putting it back: Himari knows that Yori-senpai has feelings for her. I wonder how she’ll choose to respond to them.

A Condition Called Love – 03 – Unlimited Overtime

A commenter in the ANN forum on this show made a very good point that made me want to reassess the show so far: this show is clearly aware that Hananoi’s more obsessive behaviors are problematic. Fortunately, while he does loom over her at the end of last week’s episode, he ends up collapsing due to his fever from waiting in the cold for Hotaru all morning.

Hotaru calls his grandma and goes home, and feels awful for asking Hananoi to do something that means so much to him, just to see if she’d feel anything. I think she’s being a little harsh on herself, but like Hananoi, that’s something she needs to work on. She’s always thought she was just some NPC, but to him, she’s a princess.

A couple of days pass, and the day their trial run ends arrives. It’s Christmas Eve, and they were supposed to go on a date, but Hotaru assumes it’s not going to happen, either because he’s still ill or because he’s sick of her. She recalls a past instance of unintentionally hurting a friend of hers, but missing the opportunity to properly apologize and drifting apart.

When her little sister’s ice skating costume rips and she needs Hotaru to rush to the skating rink with a sewing kit, Hotaru is resigned to having the same Christmas Eve she always has with her family. But then Hananoi arrives there, having remembered her mentioning her sister’s skating. He still wants to take her out on a date, and Hotaru is surprised by how relieved she feels to see him again.

She may not be aware, but the longing she felt those past two days … well, that’s pretty much love, isn’t it? She felt bad about what went down at his place, but she also missed him. After she presents him to her family (whose jaws drop at the hottie she scored) they go out on a cute, fun, low-key date with food, shopping, light viewing, and skating.

When the lights temporarily go out, Hananoi describes all of the reasons he likes Hotaru, and points out that those things aren’t normal. Not everyone is as kind and curious and generous as she is. She’s special, and he wanted her to have a special day, because he managed to find out that Christmas Eve is also her birthday.

When she slips on her skates, she catches her in a princess carry, and the lights come back on. Hotaru is struck by how many new things she’s started to feel since her trial with Hananoi began, and isn’t ready for it to end. So after he escorts her home, she asks if they can keep the trial going. Naturally, he’s fine with her extending it indefinitely.

Hananoi felt notably less creepy this week, even if he still tries way too hard sometimes at the cost of his own well-being. But I think the more time he spends with Hotaru, the more even-keeled he’ll learn to become, just as the more time she spends with him, the more she’ll learn about what it is to love.

It’s just a shame this was not a particularly nice episode to look at. I fear I’ve been so spoiled by the likes of No-holds-barred powerhouses like Dangers in My Heart that I probably won’t be continuing with this one.

Spice and Wolf (2024) – 03 – War of the Coins

Kraft and Holo arrive in the bustling merchant town of Pazzio, which is so big Holo is amazed it’s not ruled by a king. She’s also immediately smitten by the excellent apples on display in the market, and purchases an entire silver coin’s worth of them. While this initially seems like freeloading as Kraft was the one who paid, Holo soon earns her keep by delivering a clever sales pitch to increase the money the Milone Trading Company pays from 140 to 210 silver coins.

Kraft and Holo celebrate their windfall with some wine and edamame, and then meet with Zheren about his currency speculation plan. Kraft may not trust Zheren 100%, but trusts him enough to front him 10 silver coins he promises to return if he ends up taking a loss. It’s a minimal investment in which he’ll break even at worst.

Kraft teaches Holo about all of the dozens of different silver coins, each of them minted by a different king or church official, and each of them having different relationships to the spending public. Whatever their actual silver or gold content, it is the people’s trust in a coin that matters.

Holo learns (after being relentlessly hit on by a currency-examining friend of Kraft’s) that the coins are actually falling in silver content. While at first Kraft believes he may have been taken for a fool by Zheren (like the Milone merchant was with Holo’s apple-scented sales pitch), when she mentions wolves occasionally climbing trees, he considers a new perspective.

Perhaps rather than tricking them for his own gain, Zheren was instructed to do so by someone else. And that there may yet be a way Zheren intends to profit off of the reduction of silver content in the coins as opposed to the opposite as pitched to Kraft. Once Kraft and Holo confirm what that is, they’ll still be in a good position to clean up.

Mushoku Tensei II – 14 – Keeping the Tribe Strong

A triumphant new OP is leans into the show’s new normal: Rudeus and Sylphiette are no longer alone, but an adorable matched pair who will never ever be separated again. Having proposed and bought a house, the next step is to hold a feast for their friends to share in their happiness and offer their blessings.

The happy couple stroll into town to buy provisions, but first Sylphy buys Rudeus a new mage’s robe to replace his tattered one. After a day of errands they slip into the hot bath together, and when Sylphy cuddles up next to Rudy and gets him in the mood, he scoops her up and takes her to the bedroom.

To Rudy’s relief, everyone invited shows up except the vice principal and Soldat, who had scheduling conflicts. Rudy’s toast thanking everyone else is interrupted by a fashionably late Badigadi, but he manages to get it out without flubbing.

The other attendees are Cliff, Lise, Zanoba, Julie, Rinia, Pursena, Ariel, her two attendants, and Luke. Heck, even Shizuka showed up, unaware that she’d be rewarded with real potato chips like the ones back home (though she . A good time is had by all, and one by one everyone gets to offer their congratulations.

When it’s Elinalise’s turn to congratulate the couple, she finds herself suddenly overcome by emotion. Sylphy then comes out and asks if Lise is really her biological grandmother. Lise cannot deny it; she’s known who Sylphy was the moment they first met, after all.

While Lise kept it a secret out of shame, Sylphy welcomes her with open arms and zero judgment. And even though Rudy thinks this news will “disillusion” Cliff and break his crush, the opposite happens. It only makes him love Lise more, and he resolves to break her curse.

With that matter resolved, another one suddenly comes up. Before taking her leave, Ariel asks if Rudy will have a duel with Luke. She doesn’t say why, only that it would be unfortunate if he refuses. Rudy indulges them, and beats Luke in less than ten seconds.

Ariel then explains that the duel was requested from a position of pride. They love Sylphy too and have been in many deadly scraps with her by their side. They wanted to make sure they could entrust Rudy to her, because if he doesn’t treat her right, they’ll simply take her back. Ariel still plans to retake the throne or die trying, whether Sylphy is with her or not.

Rudy can’t rule out helping Ariel alongside Sylphy, as he still owes her a debt. But that’s a matter for another day. The reception was a big success, everyone they care about is happy they’ll be sharing their lives together. Of course, no one can be happier than the two of them.

Sylphy is the ideal bride for Rudy, and Rudy the ideal husband for Sylphy. She intends to grow her hair out to ensure he won’t stop loving her, but Rudy believes he has to work just as hard to keep her in love with him. The reality is neither of them have anything to worry about … at least for the time being.

Whisper Me a Love Song – 01 (First Impressions) – A Happy Misreading

First-year high schooler Kino Himari joins her longtime friend and classmate Miki to watch her older sister play in a band composed of third-years to welcome the new students. The moment Himari sees the cool beauty of the band’s frontwoman was love at first sight. When Himari catches the older, taller girl by the shoe lockers, she uses those precise words: “I fell in love at first sight.”

Those words, combined with the enthusiasm and intensity with which Himari says them, make it possible to interpret it as a confession of love. The fact the singer, one Asanagi Yori, finds Himari incredibly cute and her smile surpassingly pretty, means the “love at first sight” was mutual.

Yori reports this enchanting encounter to her friends, who partly tease her for having finally found someone, and also encourage her to respond to the girl in however way she sees fit; the better to inspire her to write the love song they want her to compose. She doesn’t know Himari’s name, but thanks to Miki, Himari knows Yori’s, along with her birthday, blood type, and tendency to sing songs on the roof.

So when Himari appears on the roof, Yori works up the courage to tell her she fell in love at first sight too, and learns that Yori wasn’t talking about falling into romantic love with Yori personally. Instead, she used the words “love at first sight” to describe how she became a fan of Yori and her music on the spot.

At first, Yori is crestfallen, and embarrassed for misinterpreting Himari’s words so totally. But she wasn’t really that far off. Words are imprecise in these matters, but she cannot deny she likes Himari and wants to keep seeing her and especially her smile. So when Himari agrees to watch her perform on the roof every day, Yori takes that as an opportunity to her Himari to fall for her even harder.

Himari may not be aware of Yori’s feelings for her, but only because she’s in a different mindset. Perhaps in time, Yori’s feelings will come through loud and clear. In the meantime, the two have such good chemistry together that they spend their first rooftop session simply chatting, and Yori ain’t mad about that at all.

Misunderstanding or not, Yori’s feelings aren’t going away, so she might as well keep playing and singing for Himari in this effortlessly sweet, gentle, and charming story about different kinds of love coming together and resulting in a new, unique, and beautiful sound.

A Condition Called Love – 02 – That Boy Ain’t Right

Hmm … Well. That’s what I get for giving this bizarre pairing the benefit of the doubt, I guess! Something is very very off with Hananoi Saki, and someone as inexperienced and oblivious as Hotaru does not possess the tools to see it. That’s a formula for potential disaster, but like a train wreck, I can’t look away … if only because I’m so worried about Hotaru’s well-being!

Hotaru has caring friends who are happy if she’s happy, and have her side no matter what. But to them, and one of Hananoi’s male classmates who is dating one of her friends, Hananoi is a complete mystery man. All they can say is he must have good taste if he chose Hotaru, but what if it’s not a matter of taste, but timing?

Hananoi only became fixated on Hotaru after she showed him a gesture of kindness after his last breakup. Back then, it looked from the outside like the other girl was being too harsh, but now her exasperation makes a lot more sense. Hotaru is indeed experiencing new things like the thrill of waiting for someone in the cold before dawn and holding hands with a boy. But the cost of experiencing those things may be too much to bear.

Not only is Hananoi clear this week he has no intention of being just friends with Hotaru if this dating trial doesn’t work out, but it’s clear he’s hiding from her just how much he wants to do with (or possibly to) her, and also seems miffed that there are parts of her life that don’t involve him. Just look at that shot of him watching her talking to friends—he’s framed and lit like a villain plotting something awful!

Now, to his credit, the weeks go by with Hananoi otherwise acting like a perfect gentleman—Hotaru observes that his requests in their shared notebook of things to do together are always “gentle.” But the mere fact he’s holding back is extremely problematic. So is the fact he essentially lives alone in a huge apartment with photos of his parents with him apparently cut out (are they actually dead), and, most distressingly, a fucking shrine to Hotaru hidden behind a curtain in his room.

Despite all these red flags furiously flapping in her face, Hotaru remains in a firm see-where-this-goes approach, along with constantly assessing her worth as a partner and whether she’s doing enough to be a proper girlfriend. This means she thinks almost nothing of going home with Hananoi, going into his room, and then asking if he’ll kiss her, to test if she’ll feel anything.

By the end of the episode, he’s pushed her down onto the ground and is looming on top of her, telling her that while trying out a kiss may mean little to her, simply touching her makes his whole body ache. Ack! Forget “odd duck.” I fear Hananoi requires medication and therapy, and is getting neither. He’s a loose cannon, and even he knows that Hotaru is being too trusting.

While this looks and sounds like a shoujo romance, it’s quickly feeling much more like psychological horror. My natural protective instinct compels me to keep watching, out of fear of what might happen to Hotaru, or just so that someone is keeping an eye on this dude. Is this the kind of vibes the writers/creators intended?

Spice and Wolf (2024) – 02 – Exchange Rate Transaction

As he continues to travel with Holo the Wise Wolf of Yoitsu, Kraft learns more and more about her, like her ability to sense when it’s about to rain, or when someone is lying. Holo also leaves nothing to the imagination where her body is concerned, as after getting caught in said rain she has no issue gallivanting about their room in the buff.

After conversing with a wine merchant about the benefits of trading supplies without exchanging hard currency, they Kraft attracts the attention of a rookie merchant named Zheren. Both his look and his voice suggest he might not be the most trustworthy, but with Holo’s input Kraft decides to at least express interest in Zheren’s scheme regarding silver coins.

When they’re back on the road, talk turns to wolves, of which Holo is one, and she inadvertently hits a sore spot, as Kraft has encountered wolves eight times and at least one of those, he had to flee while others were killed and eaten. It’s the first real tiff between Holo and Kraft, but Holo ensures they’re even by showing vulnerability.

Obviously, Holo and Kraft are the whole show here. Holo is never not charming in her haughtiness, while Kraft really knows his merchant stuff. That said, this was a much rougher-looking episode visually, and I fear Passione may not have been the best studio to re-adapt this iconic tale. I also didn’t really notice Kevin Penkin’s score, something I never thought I’d say.

While thge production shortcomings are definitely an issue—this doesn’t look anywhere near as good as Frieren—the characters and story of their journey together should be enough to sustain my interest.

Mushoku Tensei II – 13 (Part 2 E01) – Feels Like Home

Rudy’s students all notice an extra pep in his step in his first class back since being cured by Sylphy. He confides in his two male buds Zanoba and Cliff that he intends to marry the person who cured him of a certain undisclosed illness, but he’s never given thought to what that process entails in this world.

Cliff tells him that the first step to marriage is procuring a house in which to live. Cliff is old-fashioned, so even if Rudy’s wife-to-be is wealthy, he believes it’s the man’s job to provide the house. Rudy chooses a huge run-down mansion whose previous residents were killed by a mysterious evil spirit. He, Cliff, and Zanoba inspect the house, but find nothing.

While spending the night, Cliff hears sounds and wakes the others. They search the house up and down once more, and finally encounter the “spirit”, which attacks them but turns out to be an automaton: a moving doll both Rudy and Zanoba have yet to encounter in this world.

Needless to say, they’re both super pumped about the prospect of learning how it works and building one based on its design, or even improving upon it (Rudy’s thoughts include the words ‘robot maid’). Wanting to prove his worth, Zanoba exuberantly volunteers to do the research needed, and Rudy leaves it to him.

With the job of rooting evil out of his new house complete, Rudy has it fixed up and the day finally arrives when he gets to show it to an excited Sylphy. The fact he painted the roof the former green color of her hair is a lovely touch and a tribute to his love. After the tour, Slyphie laments that with her royal duties she may not be able to spend much time in the house, and as such may not be worthy to marry him.

Rudy quickly disabuses her of that notion, taking her hand and declaring that she is his and formally proposing marriage, and she promptly says yes. The night in the haunted mansion provided some dread, and Rudy’s promise not to disappear on Sylphy feels like foreshadowing, but for now spirits high and vibes have rarely been better. Next up: a hopefully drama-free wedding ceremony. Both these kids deserve a break or two.

A Condition Called Love – 01 (First Impressions) – No Normal Person

All romance series this season will have to compete with the all-timer that was Dangers in My Heart, along with the pretty solid Sign of Affection from Winter. Like Sign, a girl who has never fallen in love has the attention of a hottie. Like Dangers, there’s the visual mismatch in terms of height and looks, only with the sexes reversed.

While Kyoutarou is a lot more emo about it, this show’s lead Hinase Hotaru is similar in that she’s content with a life without romance, because like Kyou deep down, she doesn’t think there’s any chance she’ll ever experience it. It’s less a matter of her thinking she’s deficient, just different. Not made for love.

I’ve heard some rumblings about Hananoi Saki being problematic and more than a little pushy when it comes to pursuing Hotaru. That’s fair; after all, Hotaru politely declines and he begins doing everything he can to make her like him, things she never asked for.

But he does, eventually, apologize say he’ll stop bothering her. At that point, he’s cut his hair for her, bought her a delicious pork bun, nearly caught his death of cold looking for her missing hairpin. While in Hananoi’s orbit, Hotaru can’t deny she’s thinking about him more, and feeling new feelings. Heck, she even yells at him out in the snow, and she is not a yeller!

When Hananoi is ready to walk away, Hotaru grabs his sleeve, and says she never thought she didn’t like him, and asks if it’s possible for “someone like her” to learn what it means to love someone special. Hananoi, clearly the bigger romantic of the two, assures her she will, so she takes him up on his offer to go out with each other.

One could say Hananoi “wore down” Hotaru, but I see it more as him piquing her interest in something she doesn’t know anything about but wants to learn. Similarly, Hananoi has a lot to learn too, like about how far is too far for someone else’s sake. His idea of love and hers are very different, but I think the ideal place for both of them is somewhere in the middle.

While visually not as impressive as Danger or Sign, it gets the job done just fine. The OP is a legit bop, the ED is also a nice vibe, and most importantly, the immortal Hanazawa Kana brings her A-game to the effortlessly charming Hotaru’s voice. Even in this Spring of Restraint (we’re trying to focus on no more than 10-11 shows and more concise writeups) this one has a good chance of staying on my list.

Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf – 01 – A New Harvest

This fleet, efficient first episode serves as both a cozy, nostalgic blanket for fans of the original and a welcoming and earnest introduction for those new to the series. Shrewd but solitary Kraft Lawrence happens to be carrying wheat, the medium through which the wolf girl Holo can transport herself.

In a scene that really nails the grandeur of the original, Kraft finds Holo sleeping in his cart, awakened by the moonlight. He isn’t sure what to make of her, but by the end of the episode boom, he’s got himself a mysterious and slightly haughty yet charming demi-human traveling partner. Adventures await.

Spice and Wolf was one of the first two-cour fantasy anime series I ever watched, and I loved it. It had a wonderful warmth and dignity and air of profundity to it. Now it’s being rebooted by Passione with a modern design, big budget, the same voice cast, and a Kevin Penkin score. It’s a hard combo to ignore … so I won’t!

Classroom of the Elite – S3 13 (Fin) – Let’s Pray

It’s now spring break, so there’s not a school uniform to be seen. Ayanokouji has a cozy cup of coffee with Shiina, who we haven’t seen in a while, and she gives him the gift of a new volume of a book series she knows he’s into.

When Kei arrives, answering his summons, it’s the same time Shiina is taking her leave. Then Ayanokouji pretends to have forgotten what he wanted her for. Kei, rightfully miffed, takes off.

Ishizaki, with Ibuki in tow, tries to recruit Ayanokouji to join their class, as he and Ryuuen would make an unbeatable pair, but Ayanokouji declines. Even if they got enough points to transfer him, he’d rather Ryuuen remained his enemy than his ally.

He then finds a rain-soaked Honami waiting outside, invites her in to dry off, and gets her to promise she’ll spend the next year giving it her all. She now trusts him implicitly, but he won’t hesitate to deal “the killing blow” if she falls again.

Lest we forget what school we’re at, Ayanokouji has Shiina relay an invitation for Ryuuen to meet him in the same cold storage where he defeated him last season and won Kei’s heart in the process. Ryuuen can’t believe Ayanokouji lost to Sakayanagi, and suspects it was due to something out of his control.

He also launches his best surprise attack, but Ayanokouji easily reads it and blocks. Taking up the mantle of Ryuuen’s mentor, he tells him he has potential, but has to learn how to cover his tracks better.

Ayanokouji himself has left enough of a trail of competence that more of his classmates are starting to catch on. After Kei leaves their booth at a restaurant, Satou admits to Matsushita and their other friend that Ayanokouji turned her down flat, that she thinks Ayanokouji likes Kei, and that Kei likes him back.

Matsushita encounters Ayanokouji in a dark ally with Tsukishiro (who issues a challenge for him to out the White Room subject who’ll be in the next class) and confronts him on the fact that he’s actually quite a bit more capable at athletics and academics than he lets on. She also knows he set Hirata right. He tells her he doesn’t want to stand out, but if Class A is the goal, she urges him to give it his all going forward.

Matsushita also asks about Kei, whether she likes him because she knows about the full extent of his ability, and what their actual relationship is. Ayanokouji is pondering this and considering calling Kei when Suzune calls him and issues yet another challenge: if she beats him in the next round of written exams, he’ll give it his all as their class aims for Class A. If she loses, she must join the student council she’s been avoiding.

An impatient Kei comes to Ayanokouji’s dorm, wondering what the heck has been up with him. She also says Satou is starting to ask questions about them, and he adds that Matsushita is too. At this point, Kei is worried that her plans to get a boyfriend will be ruined, since everyone will get the wrong idea about her already being with someone.

She’s about to storm out in frustration when Ayanokouji grabs her arm and calls her by her first name, then asks if she’ll date him. He pulled the stunt with Shiina to see if she’d get jealous, and doesn’t want her to become someone else’s boyfriend. She asks if that means he likes her, and he says he does. She agrees to date him, and when he asks, she admits she likes him too, as much as she “hates to admit it.”

Ayanokouji draws her into a hug, and suddenly Kei has something she seems to have been wanting all this season: a romantic relationship with Ayanokouji. Mind you, he’s doing this as a practical exercise: he believes Kei can grow more if she dates him, and he believes he can learn more about this thing called romance if he dates her, something he never learned in the White Room.

It’s your standard calculating Ayanokouji, seemingly simply taking his manipulation to the next level. But while a part of him considers Kei one more “textbook” to study and then discard once he’s learned all there is to learn, another part of him wonders if that’s really how things will go down in the future.

Dare I hope that maybe, just maybe, Ayanokouji’s Grinch-like heart could grow a couple of sizes? That he might one day experience happiness? With Kei in his arms, it might be possible. And yet, even when he prays that while holding her he’s smiling, we see that he’s not. Clearly, he has a long way yet to go … and so, apparently, does Classroom of the Elite.

Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun 2nd Stage – 13 (Fin) – Stage Clear

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).