Okay, so it turns out that the final episode of Showa Monogatari aired quite a while ago. Nobody just bothered to release it aside from a random upload on Megavideo. the long wait wasn’t really good for my appreciation of this series: looking back, the previous episode actually left a lot to be desired due to both Kouhei’s acting and pulling a sickness bomb for the final climax.
This episode meanwhile didn’t really feel like a climax. It was interesting though, because of how it forced some of the characters to think about their futures. Ironically though, Kouhei still is a pretty flat character, but thankfully he didn’t play the biggest part in this episode.
Overall, the biggest flaw of this series is the way it presented itself: the script is good, but the way in which the characters are presented, and acted lacks ways that catch your attention and end up memorable. This is indeed tricky to do with a slice of life series, but also probably the biggest reason for why this series got ignored so badly, aside from the chronic lack of moe.
Overall, Showa Monogatari was good, but not up to the standards of Wao World. Their other movies, helmed by their flagship director, did have a strong direction and focus, starting off slow and continuing to build up to a great climax where not drama stood central, but performances. Furusato Japan still was the best at this.
Now all that’s left is the movie, and do note that that one’s being created by a different staff compared to the TV-series. The director is someone who normally does just special effects or producing, so who knows what kind of things will result from a director like that
Rating: * (Good)
