His and Her Circumstances – 22/23/24 [14 Days, Part 4/14 Days, Part 5/Recap] – Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to the penultimate week of His and Her Circumstances! That’s right, we only have one more week before this is done and you get a final review. So if you have a series you want covered in Throwback Thursday, make sure to leave a comment so I can put it on the poll. Now without further ado, lets dive into the episodes!

First up, episode 22, “14 Days, Part 4”. This episode is all about them prepping for the upcoming play. And you know what? I need to say it. I have no idea how this is going to transition into a satisfactory finale. Between the prep there are some small scenes about Arima’s jealousy and personal issues, despite Miyazawa’s previous affirmations about their relationship, but it’s not thing particularly notable. And even if it was, this play doesn’t seem like a good way to address them what with it’s sci-fi themed subject matter and how Arima isn’t involved in it at all. In fact, it seems like Asaba is doing more to notice and address Arima’s issues than anyone else. But even he disappoints in just silently being there rather than any kind of… cathartic discussion, and also not having any actual arc of his own.

Meanwhile on the other end of the plot we have Takefumi’s quest to embarrass Tsubaski. But much like everything else, that’s also a disappointment in that nothing really happens with it. He spends all of this episode just lounging around, not having any sort of story or progress. It’s like Circumstances is unable to progress both plots at the same time. So while it’s prepping for the play, its neglecting Takefumi and Arima, and vice versa. This only exacerbates how obvious it is that the two plots don’t really work together. There’s no overlap between them. Maybe if Tsubaki was involved in the play, and Takefumi’s revenge started to impact or mess with the play, then we could have some conflict as Miyazawa becomes torn between the two and Takefumi is brought into direct conflict with her and Arima. But as it is? They are completely disconnected.

And this disappointment doesn’t stop as we head into episode 23, “14 Days, Part 5”. This was, once again, more play prep. But this time we actually got to see some interaction between Miyazawa and Arima, so there’s actually something to talk about here. Stuff like them riding the bike together, or their playful banter as Arima comes out of Kendo and the subtle hints that, to Arima, her pushing him away for his smell hurt more than Miyazawa knows. I really just wish this had been our final act. Get rid of Takefumi, keep the play but involve Asaba as the male lead in it. Play into this jealousy and Arima’s personal issues. It would just be a lot tighter all around I feel if we cut Takefumi’s whole character out of this finale.

Speaking of Takefumi, he did at least get to do something this week. Circumstances is finally having him interact with Tsubaki again, though it’s also once again pushing this weird romance between two ostensibly gay characters. Their little volleyball fight, him slowly coming to admire her, her pushing back because she doesn’t care what other people think. Were this to end in him coming around for her, only for her to shoot him down and reveal she knew who he was the entire time, I think it could be really good. This idea of forming a relationship with who he is now, who he wants to be, rather than holding him back and remembering him as he was, could be really good! To bad Circumstances is just… not doing that. It’s not really doing anything at all.

Finally this brings us to episode 24, a bloody recap. Seriously? Half of this episode is a recap 2 episodes from the end? Just how bad is their production at this point, how badly are things falling apart? I know the visuals have taken a clear step down, but this is a bit much. And it’s not like the non-recap half was very good either. It was mostly just a bunch of characters telling us what they think of the leads, reminding us who they are, what they are, and then giving us a “Next time!” sort of ending despite the knowledge there there isn’t going to be a next time soon. It was ultimately just a waste of time, and the reason I chose to make this week a 3 parter.

All in all, I find myself… waning on Circumstances. It’s had an incredibly strong run, one of the best romances I’ve ever watched. But then around episode 19 or so the entire thing seems to have just… grinded to a halt. Miyazawa and Arima are no longer the primary focus of the show. Tsubasa has fallen from my 2nd favorite character to nothing more than a gremlin caricature. Asaba never truly got an arc, yet Circumstances is still introducing new characters this close to the finish line. It’s never been more clear to me that this is an incomplete manga adaptation than right here, right now. Because it’s obvious there is so much more to tell, yet just looking at the episode count it’s clear we won’t get to see it. A damn shame. At least I have the first 2/3rds to look back on fondly.