Natsuyuki Rendezvous, I applaud you! That was magnificent!
Now this is really how you do a dramatic climax. There was so much emotion in it, yet it was wonderfully restrained. The acting here was just brilliant. Everything in this episode was just leading up to that one moment in which Rokka would realize that for some reason Atsushi is back in Hazuki’s body, and they did so brilliantly.
The way they built it up also was amazing. Whilst Rokka was catching up to Atsushi (which is believable considering his mind has no affinity with being fast in any way), this episode kept showing flashbacks of the most memorable moments that the two of them shared together, which this series very nicely saved specifically for just this moment (now that I mention it: we never saw the flashback of the actual moment in which Atsushi died, right? That’s a wonderful touch right there for this series).
Beyond that I also really want to applaud the dialogue for this episode: that was some really well written stuff, miles away from the usual cliches. It felt fresh and captured the characters perfectly in how it described them. It also flowed so well with the actual animation. This episode didn’t feel like “okay, and now we have a bit of exposition”, but all the scenes flowed into each other, and did so incredibly smoothly. Dogakobo, where have you been hiding this talent for all this time?
Rating: 7/8 (Fantastic)
Agreed – this was an excellent episode that flowed beautifully from beginning to end and brimming with grief, joy, love, and warmth. This series never had a problem breathing life into its characters, and this episode puts on a veritable clinic.
Hazuki’s Snow White scenes were almost an unnecessary distraction, representing a change of heart on our part, since in past episodes we yearned for Hazuki to “wake up” and take back his body, and got frustrated when he couldn’t.
But that simply wasn’t the first concern for the series it was for us, and now we see why. We’re now glad Hazuki stayed put a bit longer, allowing Rokka and Atsushi their tearful, wonderful ‘rendezvous’ – a big step towards ending Atsushi’s wandering ghost plight.
There will be a bit of surprise in the end, it’s nothing that turns the plot on its head, but it’s something outside of expectation
I’ve never been able to predict this series – part of why I enjoy it so much. I’m sure the end will be satisfying, but I couldn’t tell you what’ll happen 5 mins into the next ep – let alone to the end.
The writers have done a brilliant job with this – every scene plays out realistically (assuming it was all possible) and develops both plot and character – absolutely wonderful. Visual, audio, story, characters, originality – this series has em all (I’m predicting at least 95/100 for it).
I don’t agree with you. I think all the flashbacks we see in this episode are useless, because we’ve already seen those scenes in the previous episodes (and it adds nothing to the characters, except that Atsuhi runs in a weird way). So of course the end is really good, but I didn’t like the building up.
Nah, these flashbacks are different – the deeper, buried feelings are beginning to come out, and the characters are remembering the sense of despair they felt previously – these were by no means useless and were actually very well done.
I agree, I think every flashback reveals more about why certain things are important to them.
Through seeing Shimao through Rokka’s eyes, we empathise more with him and their situation, and I also think it’s about Rokka recalling more about Shimao. It’s developed further motifs that have been mentioned burial/roots/eating/ burying memories, and a literal burial of his bones.
I loved the bit about the flowers being an expression of Shimao’s inner feelings. Last week’s bouquets were all so beautiful!
The running serious was terrible though and just made me laugh. How can anyone run like that?!!
__
Hazuki really needs to come out fighting, as the audience sees more of Shimao and Rokka, his part also gets less significant. I do wonder if they intentionally decided to reflect how Hazuki was losing (in terms of his importance to Rokka) by reducing his screen time as well.
so this is one of those rare amazing episodes like that ep of simoun and the other shows