With Kaguya and Shirogane separated, the pressure mounts on Kaguya to conform to her family’s wishes. The rest of the council is potentially at risk, but will that keep them from acting? And will I even care when there’s more stuff between Yu and Ino?
It’s a bit staggering to look at how long this series has been going and exactly how insanely far afield it’s drifted from its original premise compared to the corporate maneuvering and such that populates it now.
After saying that I was perfectly happy where things left off with Yu and Ino… there’s still more! Naturally they’re not quite there yet, but it’s fairly glaringly obvious that they like each other now and the little bit extra here is great. They could do more with it, but if they don’t… I’ll still be perfectly happy.
Hayasaka comes back into the fold for some cohabitation hi-jinx that goes wide ranging in terms of being very goofy and also feeling vaguely incongruous with the serious storyline we’re diving into. The gags this time feel more like an obligation than anything organically drawn from the story.
But that might be part of the charm of this ending, inasmuch as everybody is playing a situation that is absolutely preposterous incredibly straight. It’s definitely got a ‘youth power by way of Saved By The Bell’ nonsensical narrative that I don’t hate.
And it makes a certain amount of tortured sense: if our leads are together and we want to see things close out with some of the vintage maneuvering we started with, well, get the business world, familial obligations, and their respective machinations stirred into the mix.
And and, it’s not like it can’t do some excellent work. Shirogane makes a choice that seems shocking at first, but then goes into a pretty stellar monologue about Kaguya’s namesake that really shows exactly how practical (and impractical) he is and just how far he’s actually planning to go for his love.
The pieces are slowly moving into place and I’m happy enough with where things have gotten for most of the characters that I think this is really a good stopping point for these kids anyway. One last big gesture should send it off perfectly.
If you really need the story to be the way it was, then you’ll hate the way this goes, but I think that ship sailed so long ago that you’re likely here, like me, because you like the characters even when they aren’t engaged in endless bouts of brinksmanship.
4 stars - I have no complaints; adjust down if this seems even more ridiculous than normal, but it’s not like this story’s even been crazy realistic anyway.