Welcome everyone, to the grand finale of His and Her Circumstances. Well, I say grand, but it’s not, is it? Closer to a grand disappointment if anything. I cannot think of a more messy, disappointing finale to a series I’ve actually enjoyed than this. It’s almost impressive, if I wasn’t so absolutely livid. Why? Well lets dive in and talk about the “why”.
First up, the production. To call these episodes a mess would be a disservice to messes everywhere, it was downright trash. Oh there were some bits that looked nice, I’ll grant. The stark coloring in episode 25 lent very well to the horror vibes, while the rainbow patterning on Arima’s face really sold the internal strife. Aside from that however, both episodes were veritable power points, with episode 26, the bloody finale, not even having that. It’s like the episode never made it out of the storyboarding phase, complete with text on the screen in place of spoken dialogue and simplistic, black and white sketches for the characters. Some might try to defend this as “Unique” and “Artistic” but I just call it “Mismanagement” and “incomplete”. As someone who loved His and Her Circumstances production early on, this was a massive disappointment.
Getting into the episodes, first up is episode 25, “A Story Different from Up to Now”. The only thing worth saying about this episode is that it was a complete and utter waste of our time. Not only was it a filler episode, one completely devoid of any connection to the main plot, it also had nothing to do with our leads. Instead, we simple followed Miyazawa’s sisters through an, admittedly occasionally amusing, few days at school and a creepy classmate. It’s like Circumstances lost the script, or had no idea how to properly pace it’s finale, and so made something up to shove in between the finale. It wouldn’t be so bad if this “6 episode arc” hadn’t been split up by a recap as well. I don’t know why their production fell apart, but there’s no question it did.
The only marginally interesting part of the episode was the horror theming in the 2nd half of it. While it wasn’t important, nor narratively interesting in any way, I did at least get a visual kick out of it. I can only imagine how great it could of been had this instead been used during Arima’s little breakdown in episode 26. Or perhaps integrated into Takefumi’s revenge plot in some way. You know, something actually narratively relevant. Instead it’s a silly gag in a filler episode. Disappointing.
This brings us to episode 26, “14 Days, Part 6”, the grand finale, the complete and utter disappointment. Absolutely nothing was resolved here. Takefumi and Tsubaki’s revenge plot? Let’s just speedrun taking the two canonically gay characters and pushing them into a romance that fits neither of their personalities. The play? Didn’t even get to see it, the play never happens and all the time wasted setting us up for it was for naught. Miyazawa and Arima’s relationship status? Time to assassinate Arima’s character at the last moment by turning him into a complete yandere-style ultra-possessive boyfriend who can’t stand her having any friends and actively goes out of his way to threaten/intimidate any platonic relationships she might have. It’s like Anno saw all of the good plot points Circumstances had built up to this point, and just decided to throw them in the trash.
What makes it even worse though is how Circumstances absolutely destroyed it’s pacing here. For some reason, despite having a completely unnecessary filler episode in episode 25, 26 felt like 2 episodes shoved together. For whatever reason, they were unable to split this finale into 2 separate episodes, allowing both Takefumi and Arima’s stories their own episodes to wrap up. Sure, they didn’t actually wrap up. In fact as I said above, they completely and utterly fell apart. But perhaps had they been given the time necessary to really dive into these moments, to really sell us on these relationships, it could have been better. Not much, forcing the two gay characters into a heterosexual relationship will never not be shit. But at the very least it could make it appear… natural.
On top of all of that though, Circumstances couldn’t even make this finale look good. There was 1 scene, 1, in the entire episode that looked anywhere near good, and that was Arima’s internal conflict at the mirror, though if you want to include his intimidation of Takefumi immediately after as a 2nd scene I’d be willing to give that one to. It’s such a shame because had it been directed and presented as well as the rest of the series, I could have forgiven a lot of it. Selling the emotion of a scene goes a long way, even when your scene is utter trash. But here Circumstances failed to do either and it just… God, there are only so many ways I can say I was disappointed by this show before it becomes rote.
So yeah, in case it wasn’t obvious already, this ending was complete shit. Does that ruin the journey we had to get here? Not entirely. Circumstances up through episode 18 was good, and I will forever remember enjoying that story. But this finale will certainly leave a sour taste in my mouth anytime I think back on the enjoyment and experience I had watching it. I don’t know what it is with Anno, or perhaps its Gainax, and utterly destroying your series with endings that answer nothing and assassinate all your characters. It’s like they hate the anime they are working on, and want to ensure you do to. After my experience with Evangelion, and hearing what Anno thinks about it, I’d be willing to believe that.
Whatever the case, that’s another season of Throwback Thursday complete! Thanks for sticking around. As per usual, here is a poll to vote for the next series we will be watching together. The review for this should be out sometime next week depending on how busy I am, and then we will pick up with the winning show the week after that. See you then!
