Well, the story has come to an end. After this post, I’ll put up a review that I’ll try to avoid using any spoilers in. This post, however, is spoilerific.
This was such a heartwrenching and both satisfying and unsatisfying final episode. Takayuki tells Haruka his feelings for Mitsuki: he loves her, he was hurting her all this time, and he never realized he was hurting until she left him. Haruka takes everything in stride. Even being asleep for three years, she was still the first to figure it all out. She understood time had passed, even if Takayuki and Mitsuki stopped their lives (aside from becoming a couple) on the same day as the accident. Haruka understood that they had still changedthough. I liked the way she phrased everything, that the Takayuki she knew and loved was the one from three years earlier–he was no longer that boy. She was able to take away his guilt by just choosing those words, and saying her farewell with a smile. I really liked how it turned out the storybook she always wanted (and that Takayuki bought her twice,) was about an elf that taught humans how to say goodbye. It was a beautiful way to tie everything together, and made me think of the storybooks in Chobits a bit.
Takayuki chose Mitsuki and they do talk over what has happened to them. They get together once more, but it is unclear if they stay together. Yes, the closing credits show her still wearing the ring, however, they also aren’t shown together (unlike Shinji and Miki). I feel like they tried it, it didn’t work out, and they were all the better for it. Whether or not I’m right isn’t really all that important. I love a show that has a somewhat open ending, and this one gave just enough leeway for the viewer to decide what happened.
The tie-in with Haruka’s storybook was also beautiful. I only wish Funimation had chosen to subtitle it, either during the show or as an extra. It was frustrating not to have it there. I was able to read a bit of it, but I’ll need to seek out a translation.
Overall, it was a very satisfying ending episode. I didn’t particularly appreciate Mitsuki and Takayuki getting back together, but I did appreciate that you have no assurance that they stayed that way. I also liked the ‘sum up’ in the credits, showing where each person was: Akane heading for the Olympics, Haruka becoming a published picture book author, Shinji happy with Miki, Takayuki having clearly moved up in the world (he moved out of his apartment and was wearing a suit), and Mitsuki moving along in her own way. It was very nice.
actually i much prefer mitsuki than haruka, i mean haruko is very dramatic person, she is in com for 3 years for goodness sake, does she really believe that everything will be the same after she wakes up!! mitsuki made mistake and she’s honest with it, she even given up takayuki for haruka right?, so i much prefer mitsuki, because she honest to admit it to herself that everything is going wrong….
I didn’t really prefer either girl. They were both incredibly dramatic–and it’s not as if Haruka would know upon waking up that she’d been out for 3 years, particularly when they tried to fake that it hadn’t.
I still like the way I viewed the ending: that all three moved on, and while they still might be distant friends, there’s no romance left between then.
sigh since it follows Mitsuki’s ending but changes a few things.. I can assure you they remained together .. The assurance you didnt want.. you now have – thanks to- the visual novel.
“Good ending where Mitsuki and Takayuki have a child together. Haruka writes her children’s book and Mitsuki reads it to her son (the television anime ending is a slightly modified version of this ending, leaving out the child, incorporating elements of Akane’s good ending and Haruka’s ending).”
Ah, but the visual novel is not the anime. There are many things that are different between different adaptations. No confirmation in the anime, therefore, I still stand by my separation theory.
so you willingly ignore blunt evidence from the parent story which the anime is created from and follows mostly one of the paths and mixes in some of the others.. Just because it makes you feel better… thats a bit sad.
*lol* I’m not “willingly ignoring blunt evidence.” I’m pointing out that they are two separate entities. Having something in one does not mean that it exists in the other–and it’s certainly not shown. I’m simply choosing to make my assumptions based solely on the material relevant to the subject at hand. It’s fine that they are together in the visual novel. It’s fine if the creators intend for the viewers to assume they are together in the anime. I’ve merely pointed out that it’s quite interesting that they are never shown together in those ending scenes of the anime, and that I’ve chosen to interpret that differently than most other viewers. I cannot understand why this is such a big deal to people. It’s not a wrong interpretation, or something to make me feel better. It makes the series more interesting to me, and there isn’t canon evidence from the anime to prove me wrong–or right.
Did you ever find a translation to Haruka’s book at the end?
Yeah, I think I did sometime after writing this post. It’s been a couple of years though, so it’s all rather cloudy.