For a minute I felt a bit cheated by this episode. Not because of the start though: I like how it turned the cliff-hanger of last week around by having Kaoru stop Sentarou at the last minute. After that though… Studio Mappa… a slide-show montage? Those are for lazy storyboarders who don’t know how to animate a certain part of the manga.
The real part that made me raise an eyebrow though was when Sentarou went off to return one of the music sheets that Kaoru forgot. You’re really going to end this lazily by killing him? It was all just too obvious. And don’t get me wrong: I really like a good major character death and they should be pulled more often, but this is just the complete wrong place for it.
What happened afterwards totally made up for it though: the revelation that it wasn’t Sentarou who was in critical condition in the hospital, but Sachiko. So yeah, Sentarou who was already facing huge difficulties in accepting his place in the family just drove one of his younger sisters into the hospital. It fits in much more with the themes of this series than just randomly killing him off, and the creators made excellent use of it. I really loved the climax, and it also created an absolutely wonderful set-up for the final episode.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
storyboarders do not animate anything <__< they are well… storyboarders.
Eh..I was left a bit cheated by the entire episode. The build-up with Sentaro’s family was too perfect to just waste away like that. The montage was cliched and the accident right before a major joyous activity was incredibly cliched. It felt like a stupid twist they didn’t need. Now I know that the manga is probably like that (I haven’t read), but the manga also has more space in between these developments making them feel less like cheap “twists” and more like decent developments in the story.
Hopefully, the last episode will make-up for this sub-par one.
@Taara535 – The accident really was in the manga as well, and it came on about as suddenly as in the anime. The lead-up to it – the practice sessions with Ritsuko – was more fleshed out, but that was that.
I liked the episode over all, but they cut a pretty important discussion between the priest and Kaoru, where they discuss Sentarou’s past. Maybe they didn’t think it was important for the anime story, and maybe it wouldn’t have contributed to anything, but it’s still some interesting background info, which furthers to explain Sen’s character.
And now I’m left wondering how they’re going to squeeze an entire manga volume plus some extra chapters into that final episode…
excellent? really? I thought it was lacking. T
*oops, I submitted it by accident*
excellent? really? I thought it was lacking. This episode was incredibly rushed and just failed all the building up so far. I mean… just to sum up the things that happened:
– Sentaro runs away
– Kaoru stops Sentaro, they fight
– They reconcile right away
– Sentaro’s dad all of a sudden does accept him
– Ritsuko will sing for the cultural festival
– They have a cheesy *FRIENDSHIP* moment
– bad setup with Kaoru forgetting his papers, everyone could see it coming that Sentaro would get into an accident
– I must say, nice twist when it turned out to be Sachiko who was in the hospital
– Doctors say she might never wake up, yet she wakes up the very next day. really?
– Sentaro runs away again
– Everyone’s worried he might never come back
yeah… Just my opinion but I didn’t like this. I thought the series was really great so far, but this episode dissapointed me.
Sakamichi no Apollon has always been somewhat like a Soap opera but this episode it turned into one. It all felt incredibly contrived to me. It was a serious what the hell moment for me to see Sen on a motorcycle. I don’t remember him saying anything about being able to drive one nor did I ever remember seeing him on one before. And then his sister was on it with him? Where did he pick up his sister? Why did she want to go with him? Why the hell was his sister outside at night with a sprained ankle?!
Mixed feelings about this one
Montage was kinda lame, lots of cheesy moments
That it was Sachiko who got hurt was the only good twist.
However I loved the moment when Kaoru went to the rooftop, the music that built up to it, and the exchange between Kaoru and Sen was beautifully portrayed.
One great moment, but everything else was rushed, and yeah, soap opera material.