I agree, Miss Burton: It is bullshit that we’ve reached the end of Birdie Wing, for the time being, if not indefinitely. At least the second season goes out with a shining rainbow bang. This last episode also falls on the same week I played my very first round of real golf…and you can damn well bet I said Rainbow Bullet Burst on my first drive!
Aoi, Eve, and my worst fear is realized, as Aoi must forfeit due to her collapse. Since Juha predicted this would eventually happen, she completes the third day at the top of the rankings without showing any emotion. When Aoi wakes up, she has another tearful interlude with Amane, but Eve breaks it up by saying their game’s not over until someone—namely her—wins.
The same day Aoi forfeits, news leaks that Eve has ties to the mafia and once played for money, which we know isn’t just rumor! The info is leaked by Remelda for cold, hard cash from Juha’s caddy Karen. To Juha’s credit, she didn’t and doesn’t approve, as she’s perfectly confident in beating Eve without dirty tricks. But what’s done is done.
Juha hates surprises, but she gets a whole slew of them on the final day. If Eve is mentally damaged by the rumors broadcast about her, she doesn’t show it. Also, Aoi has gotten a cute new short haircut and will be serving as her caddy. The reason for that is Eve will be using Aoi’s Shining Wings, including her 48-incher, and no one knows the Wings like Aoi herself.
My heart was still fluttering at the novel sight of Aoi and Eve standing side by side, at least for one day on the same side, determined to defeat Juha. But then Eve whips out a new weapon that combines her already combined golf power with Aoi’s to form the Shining Rainbow Burst, in which the rainbow she creates is shattered not simply by shafts of light, but shining birds made of light.
It’s only natural that the ultimate golf shot would be one that doesn’t just combine the special shots of their fathers, but also their own special shots. In the same way Aoi and Eve make each other better by being in each other’s lives, when they combine their powers no one can stop them. The shot also may have suddenly made Amane and Ichina hot for each other, which is fine by me!
Through the temperamental British weather and with Aoi’s help, Eve keeps pace with Juha even after the Lunar Empress adjusts her final score upward. When Juha praises Eve for being the first to be so close to her on the final day, Eve returns the praise, but also makes clear she’s not playing Juha anymore; she’s playing Aoi.
Assuming she’d end the day at 15-under if she’d kept playing, Eve is determined to beat that score, and thus win their game. Juha is merely a speed bump on the road to that objective.
Alas, on the 18th hole, Eve’s clinching rainbow bullet is has a little too much mustard, and taps off the flag stick, resulting in a draw between her and Aoi. Aoi, at her limit despite not actually playing, helps Eve up. Eve does manage to beat Juha by one stroke, but she is immediately stripped of the win for her mafia ties, and her pro license is suspended for three years.
You can tell Juha is not happy about this result. She may be holding the trophy, but she knows Eve beat her. If I were her, I’d shitcan Karen immediately! Fast forward three whole damn years, and Ichina narrates that Eve has been neither seen nor heard from in all that time, to which I say:
It kinda is! You’re telling me Eve and Aoi, who could have gotten married after the British Open, remained apart for three damn crucial years of their youth? Unacceptable! They could have had a kid who would eventually surpass them by now! What a waste!
If three years wasn’t enough, the episode jumps yet another year, when Eve and Aoi are finally back on the course together, this time with Aoi’s hair regrown and Eve’s cut short. Their voice actors deftly add a little age to their voices as they resume the game to decide who is the best golfer in the world.
It’s an ellipsis of an ending that gives me hope that, despite how much of a miracle it was that this even got a second round, maybe we’ll get a third, which will complete these two golf girls’-made-golf womens’ story in a satisfying fashion.
After all, Eve still needs to teach Aoi Rainbow Bullet, and these two (as well as Amane and Ichina) still need to, you know, actually confess their love for one another and kiss! But even if we don’t get any of that, it sure has been a fun, ludicrous, heart-filling ride. I consider myself thoroughly shot through.
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