A peculiar episode for this series, especially with only two episodes left after this. You’d think that this close to the end, the creators would pump up the drama, but instead we get what is likely the quietest episode of this series yet. There was a lot of simple slice of life.
So in this episode, Kyouko basically takes Akira, Fumi and some of her classmates to a holiday house owned by her fiance. A lot of the episode was just focused to the bunch of them having fun. There was a bit of drama, but this was much lighter than previous in this series. Basically, Kyouko’s fiance turns out to really like Kyouko, even when he knows that she has a crush on a girl. Yet again a subversion of the “childhood friends becoming lovers”-trope. This also is an important episode for Akira at the end, where she finally seems to realize that she’s the only one of her friends who still hasn’t fallen in love.
With two episodes left, I’m very curious to see how the creators are planning to end this series. Of course, I’d be happy with a second season, but there are other shows that are currently airing that deserve a sequel much more than this series. With the Noise time-slot apparently having bombed, I don’t think that the producers are very keen on keeping this series going, and I’m really not bothered if that turns out to be the case: we’ve got ourselves a nice, short and consistently excellent romance here that was really good while it lasted.
I personally hope that the creators are going for a Hitohira end here: don’t try to save the biggest climax for last, and instead try to wrap up the plot nicely, and let life just go on afterwards. That’s going to be perfect for this series, instead of inserting some shallow conclusion in which Akira suddenly comes to realize that she’s in love with Fumi. That’s going to be rather lame.
Rating: * (Good)]]>
Aoi Hana – 09
I wonder,what will be Noise’s next anime?
It finally happened the second half of this episode is no where in the manga. Maybe they felt it wasn’t going to be a strong enough episode if they stuck to manga, but I get the felling they might try and couple together Akira and Fumi.
If they are going for a second season then I can almost guarantee so as long as they stick to the manga that it would be better than the
this season (not to say this season is bad).
If the second half of this episode is indeed all original material, then the creators indeed seem to be going for an anime-original ending.
Such an ending is not necessarily a bad thing, but the creators are going to have to be really careful not to cheese it up too much, now that they have to write it themselves.
“Yet again a subversion of the “childhood friends becoming lovers”-trope.”
It’s too early to say that. The story isn’t finished yet (neither the manga not the anime).
“If the second half of this episode is indeed all original material, then the creators indeed seem to be going for an anime-original ending. ”
Actually there’s no original material at all. They just shifted some events, and removed some others, in order to cover two chapters instead of one.
What is a SoL anime without Natsuyasumi episode? ^^’ However in such episodes plot doesn’t really develop, just a bit of characters. Imo Aoi Hana managed to develop both plot and characters in this episode.
“Actually there’s no original material at all. They just shifted some events, and removed some others, in order to cover two chapters instead of one”
Really I don’t remember the test of courage or the stargazing.
Yup, I don’t expect any fireworks for the two last episodes (i.e. fumi x akira), but rather some hints to further interest in a second season (it already started with fumi x kyouko).
The audience is not expecting big drama, they are obviously not preparing it, so it will be hard for them to screw up the ending, which is basically a “to be continued”, regardless of whether there will one day be a second season.
I also guess this is pretty much what will happen with Cross Game. Both seasons were just introductory, the full action will happen in the future installments.
I realized one of the reasons that I enjoyed watching this ep so much was because it was mostly slice of life, and thus a refreshing change from all of the drama that’s been occuring (not that the drama has been overly heavy-handed or anything). I wouldn’t mind if they had a second season that put a little less emphasis on relationship development and gave more screentime to the daily misadventures of Pon-chan and the gang.
Another great episode, Aoi Hana is truly one of the greatest romance anime’s i’ve seen in a while. One question lingers in my mind though… when they where playing tennis how did they all get the tennis attire? I mean I doubt that the house had tennis wear just lying around for visitors.