Shameful Otaku Secret!

…Your Tears [Final]

[last link to soon-to-be-lonely info page]

This is it, people. Savor these last 20 minutes.

Recap

In spite of the ominous opening music, Noe didn’t die. She was barely hurt, just a broken leg, cushioned by the thick snow.

Although still, I find it creepy.

Jun and Hiromi have a little chat, in which he maligns her and Shinichiro’s urges to blame themselves. Seems to be his viewpoint that it doesn’t really fix anything if you say that. He confesses he never really liked her.

Still cold after all this time.

Shinichiro is popular back at school, thanks to his flawless execution of the traditional manly-man warrior dance. But he’s dining on awkward cake at Hiromi’s apartment, since she’s loaded down with confusion. Where does she stand in this whole triangly-shaped thing? But she has an exceptionally hard time vocalizing.

There are enough people on the internet that already do, I couldn’t bear it for you to also.

Shin asks his dad why we cry, and after recovering from his obvious surprised confusion, he says “because our hearts waver.” And that eventually makes perfect sense to Shin — because his heart wavers. But he’s not given the luxury of waffling when Hiromi delivers an ultimatum. No matter what he does, he has to do it clean.

This is no time to be an anime character, be a man instead.

So he goes off to show Noe his book, but she’s all full of stubborn and won’t look. He scatters the pages at the ocean where she took Jibeta, but is more than surprised to find her follow him out and try to retrieve the airplane-folded pages.

What does it look like? This is a melodrama, she’s being melodramatic.

She looks at the book, and they part as he sings her little roach song, feeling guilty and sorry for himself.

You’re not the only one… with mixed emotions ba da dada daaa

Hiromi isn’t at her apartment, so Shin searches the obvious place in the woods where they walked with one shoe off as kids. Their exchange when they meet is sublime, and pretty much ends things.

The real surprise is that there was no surprise.

Otherwise, we get a montage for closing: Jun moving away, Shin drawing more pictures, Noe making friends and becoming somewhat normal, Aiko and Miyokichi generally being cute, and of course the final shot by Raigomaru’s grave where — blink and you’ll miss it — Noe cries.

Thoughts

True Tears ended as it began: gauzy and dreamlike, seemingly casual in feel, but utterly captivating.

Its dedication to realism in the story was maintained until the end. Noe’s ultra-melodramatic attempt at suicide ended with an embarrassingly non-dramatic fractured leg, Jun slapped away everyone’s attempts at martyrdom, and most of all Shinichiro learned that love ain’t easy. Human emotions are complicated things, and unless you want to star in School Days (and we know how well that ends…), sometimes difficult choices must be made.

…

The thing that may have impressed me the most is that, taken from start to finish, the story moves along what seems like a very predictable arc. Nothing major (excepting the details) happened that didn’t seem like it was going to, and yet True Tears made me feel like I was watching something completely amazing and unexpected — without pummeling me with comas,  drawn-out deaths, or any of that nonsense.

This show’s position as the best thing to happen this season has been cemented as easily as it was first taken.

Two Shadows [Final-ish episode]

[last link to Clannad Info Page]

Sorry, but huh? Am I a terrible person for wanting unspeakable tragedy to befall the characters of these Key/Kyoto animated abominations? I waited a couple days since everybody in the universe who wanted to see this probably has now. So…

The Last Recap

Nagisa is pretty bummed about finding old man Akio’s photos and diaries.

Yes, but he’s still perfectly crazy now, just like a real actor. No need to worry.

But Okazaki pushes her on, after all they can’t quit the play now. Too many sidekicks, tsunderes, and space cadets have put too much effort into it. Okazaki tries to distract Nagisa by taking her around the school festival, which looks suspiciously like… a date?

Apparently the “student council president” role does not supercede the “bear suit” role

But when they get separated, he finds her in Miyazawa’s resource library watching tapes of her dad acting. Now she’s worse than before.

Well, she probably could have picked a worse tape to watch, but I don’t know what that would be.

The play goes on though, or at least it starts to. Nagisa sees Sanae sitting in the audience with an empty seat next to her and the buildup of guilt explodes in front of the whole school auditorium. Okazaki, behind the scenes, can’t just jump out to talk her through it this time, so his finger just hovers over the curtain control button while Kyou yells at him to push it.

And the blobby gelatinous tears flow

But there he is, running in to save the day at the last minute like some kind of crazed, antennaed Superdad — Akio. Obviously meant to be the crowning achievement of the series, he delivers a heartfelt monologue across the room for the whole theater to hear. And he does indeed save the play, and the day.

Well, I mean I feel like — Wait, who are you talking to?

Afterward, back in the theater club room, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Sort of. Okazaki whips out his confession of love, and the wall around the rough heart of the charming delinquent comes tumbling down and all that.

A kiss would have been nice. But instead we get more blobby tears.

What We’ve Learned

That the writers are totally willing to make a show out of loose ends. Or else they’re just trying to sell you some OAVs.

I didn’t really see much of what the girl in the empty world, her high-framerate tin buddy, and the play about them meant to the story. Why didn’t that together in some way?

And Okazaki’s dad — while he showed up at the end, obviously invited by Nagisa, there was zero resolution on that front. For a story that ended up being about the importance of parents and family, I expected more.

“Some stuff happened.” I contemplated using that to summarize the whole show.

However, there is a preview for a postscript — I don’t know, however, if it’s on TV or an OAV. Guess I’ll find out soon enough. And I’ll be wrapping this present up as soon as I further collect my thoughts.