Okay, I’m going to combine these three episodes into one entry in order to wrap up Sakurasou. My impression of them is that Mari Okada overshot herself a bit here. Her strength has always been in the way she used melodrama, but the actual climax of this series… yeah.
So the idea of the final three episodes was simple: episode 22 resolved the romantic subplots, episode 23 handled the subplot about Sakurasou about to close and episode 24 was then the epilogue. The best was episode 22. Sure, it was incredibly predictable and had it coming for the entire series, but it was charming enough. I enjoyed that. Been there, done that, but charming.
Episode 23… dear god, what a bawl-fest. I mean, I can enjoy a good cry and all, but that was just too much. It’s in character for Misaki to just hijack something as important as the graduation ceremony. It’s not in character for everyone and his dog to be so emotionally attached to that speech. I mean, that was just total melodrama.
In the past, Mari Okada’s endings have always stood to me as endings that managed to deliver high emotions really well. They were overdramatic, but they were well built up, were believable, and had some variation: they weren’t a bawl-fest from start to finish and had quiet, funny or other moments that broke up the mood. That was like, “Whine whine whine Sakurasou is awesome, whine whine whine I love you all”. There is such a thing as too much love here…
Episode 24, I liked it at the beginning. Until it revealed its true colours as an ending that couldn’t pull through with the decisions it made. The sister didn’t enter the school? Hah! She actually lied to Sorata about her student number. Jin and Misaki go away in order to live their own lives? Hah, they just marry and conveniently start to live next to Sakurasou. What was all of the build-up for? What was all the growth for? I really dislike those kinds of half-assed endings.
So yeah, if I knew what I know today, I would have blogged Kamisama Hajimemashita and Sukitte Ii na Yo for the past autumn season’s Romance shows. But unfortunately, this was something that I just could never have seen coming. Sakurasou lured me in with its 24 episodes, plus its really strong start. It just did not make good use of its second half at all.
Rating: 3/8 (Mediocre)
Actually, only Misaki moved next door, Jin is still away at college. And it’s far more likely that Yuuko (being an idiot) screwed up remembering her number rather than lied to Sorata.
Agreed, that was my interpretation of things. Jin’s still far away, and it was kind of hinted that Misaki wouldn’t be so distant after graduation, so I can let Misaki slide too. That said, though the revelation fits Yuuko’s personality (and their parents seem like the type to play along and keep Sorata in the dark too), that one is still pretty stupid. The LN keeps going after this point AFAIK; maybe they were trying to cram in too many details too quickly?
I thought episode 22 was okay (meaning on par for the series, or a bit below average), 24 was mostly okay. Uh, the new characters didn’t look so interesting, but it’s not like they got much screen time. I thought it was at least a little funny that the new girl’s noisy and annoying roommate that made her decide to move to Sakurasou was Yuuko. And it was a very Misaki-like way to ring the doorbell at the end, also to go behind Jin’s back with the papers.
The big problem was 23, where the whole Sakurasou-is-closing plotline–which was weak enough to begin with–just kind of fizzled in a way that didn’t make any sense at all. Since when did the opinion of the students matter that much, anyway? The petitions were just to get an audience, right, or did I miss something? The reactions were pretty forced, for the student body and especially for the higher-ups.
I think the climax of Sakurasou was rather good. The point being that the story was not focused on the romance, but it sort of had that as a driver in the first half. So I don’t think that justifies your complaints about it, but I see where you are coming from.
66 is 99 upside down. The sister was even called out for being that dumb….