To me, the best finales are those that envolver, abrigo up everything we’ve dealt with so far, but leave the future open to be whatever we, the audience, want to imagine it will be. Clean up the dangling plot threads, but leave endless opportunities ahead. In this, and por the soaring, glorious feelings that filled me for damn near every segundo of this episode, made this one of the best finales I’ve seen in a long time. Consider me thoroughly biased, but I say it nevertheless. Here’s why:
Symbols of Love
In romantic fiction, a kiss is something to be held back, hoarded, so that they can be deployed for maximum effect later on. Rare enough is the mostrar that has this many couples that are all equally likable, interesting, and important to us viewers, but rarer still is one hat is willing to give us not just one, but three kisses within a single episode! I’ll talk about the first two, and something else besides.
First is Ryuunosuke and Rita. Oh my gods, I almost fell over cheering at that!! I have alluded to this before, but this kiss actually happened earlier in the fuente material – during Valentine’s día I believe, though don’t quote me on that. They saved it for here though, and I’m glad. A good adaptation is one that tweaks the fuente to better fit the different medium, and this is something that the Sakurasou anime has done well, such as when they gave Nanami a larger role in the first four episodes than she had in Vol 1. Here they saved this kiss to help deliver an unending onslaught of romantic moments, and end the series on a high note. I amor it! Only tu can tame a dragon, Rittan. And Meido-chan too! Don’t give up, you.
Then there’s Misaki and Jin. I don’t have words enough to properly describe how ecstatic this scene made me, but I’ll try. Jin stealing a page from Rita’s book and going in for the kiss was fantastic, mostly because I was still preoccupied por the last kiss and didn’t expect to be hit por another! Then he went so far as to give her back the marriage certificate, with his information filled in!? She was so anxious to be apart from him, but he blew that all away in one go. This is how tu do a finale. They’re giving us everything we ever wanted, all in one final burst. This is the way tu end things – with a bang!
Oh yeah, and that something else besides – Chihiro and Kazuki. I still feel that Chihiro has been criminally underused as a character, but the good news is that this meant it didn’t take a lot to give us some measure of closure for her. An innocent little lie as he tries to catch her on the “rebound” after all her kids have left…took tu long enough, Fujisawa! Now treat her right, ya git.
Hard Work vs Innate Talent
Let’s talk about Nanami. Nanami has been the poster child of the Hard Work vs Innate Talent argument, on the side of Hard Work. Yet I feel compelled to say once again that this dichotomy is bullshit, and I finally have proof from the series to prove why. (I’m going to get a bit philosophical here, so feel free to skip to the siguiente section if tu want.) It can be dicho that the real dichotomy is in Hard Work + No Talent vs Hard Work + Talent, and that’s closer to the truth. Yet I think we all do ourselves a disservice when we think this way. As humans, we each seek to find those things we’re innately good at, those things we’re “talented” at, under the assumption that these were the things we were “meant” to do, and that we could never become world-class in anything but that which we’re talented at – that it is, in effect, impossible to become great at anything else. This is limiting, and limiting is not always a bad thing – in a world of infinite choices, humans often end up choosing nothing, because we get overwhelmed. So we ourselves. We box ourselves in so we can decide.
But just because it’s useful doesn’t mean it’s true. Yes, there are some things each of us will never be able to do – a 165cm tall man probably doesn’t have a bright future as a baloncesto player, whereas I, who stands at 200cm, had a better shot. But that lista is small, the minority. When it comes to the work of our brains – which includes creativity and art – the main ingredients are hard work intelligently applied, and passion that never dies. Did tu notice how, por this last episode, Sorata and Nanami – our scions of hard work with no talent – seemed quite, well, talented? Sorata is churning out game ideas with confidence – he’s even making a demo for the review stage when he hasn’t even passed the presentation yet! – while Nanami is scaring people just por lectura lines from a horror script in her kitchen. If tu just met these character, I bet tu would think they were talented. They might disagree. You’d both be right, and wrong as well – they are talented now because they worked insanely hard, lived in a nurturing environment, were passionate about their dreams, and because they never, ever gave up. That’s my kind of talent.
Hard Work, Rewarded
But I got a little ahead of myself, and sidetracked as well. On the hard work front, the problem that many of tu pointed out was that, for a few episodes there, it looked like Mashiro was going to get everything, while Nanami ended up with nothing – she would be shipped off to Osaka por her father, losing both her dream and her amor in one fell swoop. It seemed like hard work was going to lose to talent (and hard work). And I agree, that would have been terrible. The dissonance implied in such an ending…no, that would have been no good.
Not that I ever really thought that was going to happen. Logically, at least.
Here’s the thing: if Nanami had her dream crushed but she still got together with Sorata, she still would have lost. Love, until it’s at the levels shown por Jin and Misaki, should be secondary to one’s dreams, and should never be considered a consolation prize. No, the path ahead was always clear to me – Nanami would return to Sakurasou for the siguiente semester, her dream still alive. That was why Mashiro and Sorata’s good bye to her on the train platform was so perfect. It was not “farewell”, but a “see tu when tu get home.” Even in the face of the two kisses that preceded it, that was the perfect way for her to go. Nothing else would have fit.
And she came back! My corazón sang when she reappeared, and I’m glad they took the time to mostrar us that, because not doing so would have been the kind of dangling plot thread that would have made me rage. She returned back home, her old dream still alive, only now with her father’s (begrudging) blessing as well! Chihiro-sensei was right when she dicho Nanami took the child’s way out of just saying “screw you!” and doing it anyway, but, as I expected, it was good that she did that, since that was what enabled her to convince her father. Now she’s back, with her dream still intact, and maybe her amor as well. Which brings me to…
It Can Be Whatever tu Want It To Be
I dicho that the best finales envolver, abrigo up all the loose ends, but leave the future open. It is clear that Sorata’s eyes are firmly turned towards Mashiro – he even admits himself that she has him wrapped around her little finger. Oh yeah, and there was that amor confession the other día too. Yet even so, they didn’t kill off the Nanami ship entirely, and that’s okay. Here’s the thing – now that it’s over, each of us can decide how we’d like to imagine it going from here. He’s turned towards Mashiro, but maybe they’ll fecha for a while, break up, and then Nanami gets together with Sorata. I wouldn’t bet on it, but then again I quite like Mashiro x Sorata. Who’s to say that’s not in the future? Until the autor himself (trope!) shuts off a possibility, we can imagine whatever we want.
That’s why Jin dicho “There’s no need to give up. That means on Sorata too.” Oh, Nanami! That was also why the kiss we got between Sorata and Mashiro wasn’t the full dealio. Mind you, I would have liked to see a full kiss from them, because even that would not have stopped those who wanted to from imagining – hell, even a true Mashiro End wouldn’t have done that, though it would have made it harder. Plus, it would have been soooo great to see! I have to admit though, the long lead up to the almost-kiss, which Hikari broke up (damn jealous cat!) made me howl with frustrated laughter. What a cat tease! But they roped me in good, enough that I had to laugh to avoid cursing. (Okay, I did some of that too.) And now we can even better decide on the future each of us would prefer, even if all signs point to a certain painter/manga-ka for the time being. For the time being. tu can imagine whatever tu want from here.
Be Weird
The leap adelante, hacia adelante to the new semester was wonderful, because it provided the true closure that this series needed – not just of the romance, but of the great group of friends centered around a certain old building. A Sakurasou that’s not lively isn’t the Sakurasou we’ve come to know and love, and for this series to end the way it must, we needed that back. Enter Hase Kanna (Yamazaki Haruka), the highest scorer on the entrance exam who can’t sleep with someone else in the same room, and Himemiya Iori (Shimazaki Nobunaga), i.e. Hauhau’s little brother, who got caught trying to peek on the girls’ bath on his very first night in the regular dorms. As soon as these two were introduced, I knew this would only get better. A pervert and a serious girl to be disgusted por him? Great, amor it, just what we needed! And then Yuuko is there too!? I loved her exchange with Sorata: “If tu say it was actually 66, I’m not your brother anymore.” Hah, of course! It would have been a shame to not use such a hilarious character, but it’d be no fun to have let us know she was coming so far ahead. And as I alluded to before, Misaki-sempai is back with her new house right siguiente door. Erh–that is, Mitaka Misaki is here, since she got a little impatient. Seriously, from the segundo that Kanna and Iori met, I was laughing non-stop. Just a wonderful way to end it all.
But best of all may have been how Sorata, Mashiro, and even Nanami were freaking out the newbies like the true Sakurasou residents that they are. Apparently it only takes a año living in Sakurasou to become totally weird. Good! It’s better than being boring. Bring on the nabe party! I have a feeling there will be plenty más of them in the año ahead.
The Ending
While I would have liked to see a full kiss from Sorata and Mashiro, I couldn’t help but amor it when the old 「DAYS of DASH」 came on, and they went through what I think was probably every single one of Sakurasou’s best lines and moments, all in one go. It was a rocket ship down the calle named nostalgia, as everything I loved about this series literally hurtled right past my eyes. And that pause – just to remind us of how much these characters have gone through, to remind us of all their pain and effort, they made us wait, made us wonder what was going on – and then the música came back, and exalt! It’s a brand new día my friends, and a glorious one at that! DAYS OF DASH! Needless to say, chills aplenty were had, my friends, chills aplenty, right up until the credits finally ran out.
In concluding this episodic portion, the one thing I always worried about this mostrar was that it would follow in Toradora’s footsteps and rush the ending. Gladly, Sakurasou’s ending, especially these last two episodes, was some of the greatest work they put out. This series ended on a note higher than almost any it reached, and it reached some damn high ones, which were matched only por how deep the lows were (in emotions, not quality).
Symbols of Love
In romantic fiction, a kiss is something to be held back, hoarded, so that they can be deployed for maximum effect later on. Rare enough is the mostrar that has this many couples that are all equally likable, interesting, and important to us viewers, but rarer still is one hat is willing to give us not just one, but three kisses within a single episode! I’ll talk about the first two, and something else besides.
First is Ryuunosuke and Rita. Oh my gods, I almost fell over cheering at that!! I have alluded to this before, but this kiss actually happened earlier in the fuente material – during Valentine’s día I believe, though don’t quote me on that. They saved it for here though, and I’m glad. A good adaptation is one that tweaks the fuente to better fit the different medium, and this is something that the Sakurasou anime has done well, such as when they gave Nanami a larger role in the first four episodes than she had in Vol 1. Here they saved this kiss to help deliver an unending onslaught of romantic moments, and end the series on a high note. I amor it! Only tu can tame a dragon, Rittan. And Meido-chan too! Don’t give up, you.
Then there’s Misaki and Jin. I don’t have words enough to properly describe how ecstatic this scene made me, but I’ll try. Jin stealing a page from Rita’s book and going in for the kiss was fantastic, mostly because I was still preoccupied por the last kiss and didn’t expect to be hit por another! Then he went so far as to give her back the marriage certificate, with his information filled in!? She was so anxious to be apart from him, but he blew that all away in one go. This is how tu do a finale. They’re giving us everything we ever wanted, all in one final burst. This is the way tu end things – with a bang!
Oh yeah, and that something else besides – Chihiro and Kazuki. I still feel that Chihiro has been criminally underused as a character, but the good news is that this meant it didn’t take a lot to give us some measure of closure for her. An innocent little lie as he tries to catch her on the “rebound” after all her kids have left…took tu long enough, Fujisawa! Now treat her right, ya git.
Hard Work vs Innate Talent
Let’s talk about Nanami. Nanami has been the poster child of the Hard Work vs Innate Talent argument, on the side of Hard Work. Yet I feel compelled to say once again that this dichotomy is bullshit, and I finally have proof from the series to prove why. (I’m going to get a bit philosophical here, so feel free to skip to the siguiente section if tu want.) It can be dicho that the real dichotomy is in Hard Work + No Talent vs Hard Work + Talent, and that’s closer to the truth. Yet I think we all do ourselves a disservice when we think this way. As humans, we each seek to find those things we’re innately good at, those things we’re “talented” at, under the assumption that these were the things we were “meant” to do, and that we could never become world-class in anything but that which we’re talented at – that it is, in effect, impossible to become great at anything else. This is limiting, and limiting is not always a bad thing – in a world of infinite choices, humans often end up choosing nothing, because we get overwhelmed. So we ourselves. We box ourselves in so we can decide.
But just because it’s useful doesn’t mean it’s true. Yes, there are some things each of us will never be able to do – a 165cm tall man probably doesn’t have a bright future as a baloncesto player, whereas I, who stands at 200cm, had a better shot. But that lista is small, the minority. When it comes to the work of our brains – which includes creativity and art – the main ingredients are hard work intelligently applied, and passion that never dies. Did tu notice how, por this last episode, Sorata and Nanami – our scions of hard work with no talent – seemed quite, well, talented? Sorata is churning out game ideas with confidence – he’s even making a demo for the review stage when he hasn’t even passed the presentation yet! – while Nanami is scaring people just por lectura lines from a horror script in her kitchen. If tu just met these character, I bet tu would think they were talented. They might disagree. You’d both be right, and wrong as well – they are talented now because they worked insanely hard, lived in a nurturing environment, were passionate about their dreams, and because they never, ever gave up. That’s my kind of talent.
Hard Work, Rewarded
But I got a little ahead of myself, and sidetracked as well. On the hard work front, the problem that many of tu pointed out was that, for a few episodes there, it looked like Mashiro was going to get everything, while Nanami ended up with nothing – she would be shipped off to Osaka por her father, losing both her dream and her amor in one fell swoop. It seemed like hard work was going to lose to talent (and hard work). And I agree, that would have been terrible. The dissonance implied in such an ending…no, that would have been no good.
Not that I ever really thought that was going to happen. Logically, at least.
Here’s the thing: if Nanami had her dream crushed but she still got together with Sorata, she still would have lost. Love, until it’s at the levels shown por Jin and Misaki, should be secondary to one’s dreams, and should never be considered a consolation prize. No, the path ahead was always clear to me – Nanami would return to Sakurasou for the siguiente semester, her dream still alive. That was why Mashiro and Sorata’s good bye to her on the train platform was so perfect. It was not “farewell”, but a “see tu when tu get home.” Even in the face of the two kisses that preceded it, that was the perfect way for her to go. Nothing else would have fit.
And she came back! My corazón sang when she reappeared, and I’m glad they took the time to mostrar us that, because not doing so would have been the kind of dangling plot thread that would have made me rage. She returned back home, her old dream still alive, only now with her father’s (begrudging) blessing as well! Chihiro-sensei was right when she dicho Nanami took the child’s way out of just saying “screw you!” and doing it anyway, but, as I expected, it was good that she did that, since that was what enabled her to convince her father. Now she’s back, with her dream still intact, and maybe her amor as well. Which brings me to…
It Can Be Whatever tu Want It To Be
I dicho that the best finales envolver, abrigo up all the loose ends, but leave the future open. It is clear that Sorata’s eyes are firmly turned towards Mashiro – he even admits himself that she has him wrapped around her little finger. Oh yeah, and there was that amor confession the other día too. Yet even so, they didn’t kill off the Nanami ship entirely, and that’s okay. Here’s the thing – now that it’s over, each of us can decide how we’d like to imagine it going from here. He’s turned towards Mashiro, but maybe they’ll fecha for a while, break up, and then Nanami gets together with Sorata. I wouldn’t bet on it, but then again I quite like Mashiro x Sorata. Who’s to say that’s not in the future? Until the autor himself (trope!) shuts off a possibility, we can imagine whatever we want.
That’s why Jin dicho “There’s no need to give up. That means on Sorata too.” Oh, Nanami! That was also why the kiss we got between Sorata and Mashiro wasn’t the full dealio. Mind you, I would have liked to see a full kiss from them, because even that would not have stopped those who wanted to from imagining – hell, even a true Mashiro End wouldn’t have done that, though it would have made it harder. Plus, it would have been soooo great to see! I have to admit though, the long lead up to the almost-kiss, which Hikari broke up (damn jealous cat!) made me howl with frustrated laughter. What a cat tease! But they roped me in good, enough that I had to laugh to avoid cursing. (Okay, I did some of that too.) And now we can even better decide on the future each of us would prefer, even if all signs point to a certain painter/manga-ka for the time being. For the time being. tu can imagine whatever tu want from here.
Be Weird
The leap adelante, hacia adelante to the new semester was wonderful, because it provided the true closure that this series needed – not just of the romance, but of the great group of friends centered around a certain old building. A Sakurasou that’s not lively isn’t the Sakurasou we’ve come to know and love, and for this series to end the way it must, we needed that back. Enter Hase Kanna (Yamazaki Haruka), the highest scorer on the entrance exam who can’t sleep with someone else in the same room, and Himemiya Iori (Shimazaki Nobunaga), i.e. Hauhau’s little brother, who got caught trying to peek on the girls’ bath on his very first night in the regular dorms. As soon as these two were introduced, I knew this would only get better. A pervert and a serious girl to be disgusted por him? Great, amor it, just what we needed! And then Yuuko is there too!? I loved her exchange with Sorata: “If tu say it was actually 66, I’m not your brother anymore.” Hah, of course! It would have been a shame to not use such a hilarious character, but it’d be no fun to have let us know she was coming so far ahead. And as I alluded to before, Misaki-sempai is back with her new house right siguiente door. Erh–that is, Mitaka Misaki is here, since she got a little impatient. Seriously, from the segundo that Kanna and Iori met, I was laughing non-stop. Just a wonderful way to end it all.
But best of all may have been how Sorata, Mashiro, and even Nanami were freaking out the newbies like the true Sakurasou residents that they are. Apparently it only takes a año living in Sakurasou to become totally weird. Good! It’s better than being boring. Bring on the nabe party! I have a feeling there will be plenty más of them in the año ahead.
The Ending
While I would have liked to see a full kiss from Sorata and Mashiro, I couldn’t help but amor it when the old 「DAYS of DASH」 came on, and they went through what I think was probably every single one of Sakurasou’s best lines and moments, all in one go. It was a rocket ship down the calle named nostalgia, as everything I loved about this series literally hurtled right past my eyes. And that pause – just to remind us of how much these characters have gone through, to remind us of all their pain and effort, they made us wait, made us wonder what was going on – and then the música came back, and exalt! It’s a brand new día my friends, and a glorious one at that! DAYS OF DASH! Needless to say, chills aplenty were had, my friends, chills aplenty, right up until the credits finally ran out.
In concluding this episodic portion, the one thing I always worried about this mostrar was that it would follow in Toradora’s footsteps and rush the ending. Gladly, Sakurasou’s ending, especially these last two episodes, was some of the greatest work they put out. This series ended on a note higher than almost any it reached, and it reached some damn high ones, which were matched only por how deep the lows were (in emotions, not quality).