This complicated and intricate love story has finally come to its conclusion. Honestly, I was quite annoyed with the how it ended. For a series that progressed with slow pace, the ending was rather quick and rushed to the extent that it felt like everything that happened in the past was pointless and time spent on their character development was all wasted
Although I do not like the ending but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t like the episode. There were few things that I enjoyed watching in this episode. First, the last date between Shinako and Rikuo. I was glad that they were dating and even though they took it slow, their chemistry was really nice and warm. I wanted their relationship to go further and no matter how much wanted that, I had the feeling that it is not going to happen and it will not last longer. So, when they finally were open to each other about their feelings, I was satisfied that they ended it mutually realizing that none of them want that relationship. It’s not like that they were not happy with the relationship but they were not happy with the decision as it made them feel like losing someone due that. It’s good that even if they ended it, they did it mutually with no hard feelings and remained friends.
The reason why I’m not satisfied with this ending is that they decided on how to move ahead in life and thrived to bring change in them. A far as Haru and Rou goes, they ended up getting what they are happy about but there was no character development in their case. Shinako has mentioned it so many times earlier to Rou and others that she only wanted to be with his family and there is no feelings involved for him as she sees him as younger brother. But Rou is always trying to change that. I would have been happy if she had become the sister figure to him like in the past but considering how she apologized after dropping the bag, it seems like they ended up having a romantic relation and I’m not happy about it.
I also didn’t like Rikuo getting back together with Haru. I think that Haru had more screen time in the first few episodes but later there was not much focus on her character with very little character development and it seemed like her character was all about her love for Rikuo (honestly, we can’t just say that for this character only as all other main characters were the same in this regards). Even Rou and Shinako have some backstory but I can’t say that for Haru and Shinaku. They hardly had any conversation on deeper level. There was just this flashback in the end where she picks up his paper and then just moves past him without even saying a word again until they meet again after college graduation while working at the convenience store. The ending would not have felt so wrong on so many levels if they have given Haru some character development and more screen time with a little more interaction and encounters Rikuo in the previous episodes. It’s sad that a character like Haru was pushed to side when she could be a really deep and entertaining character, especially if she was supposed to end up with him.
Overall, the ending didn’t worked out for me and ended up quite plain when it could have been so much better. If this is how it was supposed to end then they should have spent some episodes and scenes on Haru’s character development and the development of their relationship throughout the series.
