I think you mean Tamamo-chan was a fox, or is going to her original form, or something, as this volume wraps up the story in a tidy little bow. Come for the denouement, stay for the shocking turn by the Public Morals Committee and one revelation that almost works by virtue of how it doesn’t quite work.
Well, I didn’t see that coming, meaning the ending. I really should read the volume descriptions beforehand, but I don’t, so once this started to really close in on itself it took me by surprise.
First things first - this is a good volume and it’s damn funny at times too. Anpu barely appears compared to her massive storyline last volume, but her entire existence is pretty much justified on the school trip with a brutally funny mummification joke. That section’s a cut above the usual school trips since it’s Tamamo’s home turf - her introduction of her shrine is the most Tamamo thing ever.
Actually, just about everybody gets something to do here and there are some good zingers. I even liked a couple of the fourth wall breaks, which is rare. If you have a favourite piece of this story, it’ll probably get neatly wrapped up and a little bit of a light shining on it.
Public Morals-san gets the biggest u-turn, which ties into another character pretty surprisingly. This whole thing really veers away from the discipline in favour of heart and it’s a little out of nowhere, but the sentiment is incredibly sweet and the repercussions are adorable.
Nakki and Mikki remain the stalwart friends (or is that attendants?) and are a lot of reacting, but the way they finally subvert the ‘Mikki is a food monster’ storyline is absolutely brilliant and very hard on poor Nakki (nothing like heading to a popular date spot for some heckling).
Osaki and her crush, the weasel who isn’t nearly the mean girl that she seems, the photography guy, everything just slots neatly into place for one last shot. Not everything has the expected happy ending, but that makes sense too. It’s full of charm and, by this many volumes, a sense of seeing old friends off on a journey.
When it comes to pervy old male teacher, I think that the swerve with him does go a long way to explaining a lot, but the problem is that it doesn’t have nearly enough time to breathe and amount to much. Had it been given a whole volume to get that done it wouldn’t necessarily make his earlier behaviour any less annoying, but it would show the why’s of it better.
That is kind of the problem with this last volume - it blasts through third year as a series of (admittedly fun) montages and I enjoyed this cast more than enough to wish that we were getting a closer look at some of the silliness that they get up to. Still, leaving them wanting more is better than overstuffing things.
So, it can’t help but feel a bit rushed coming into an ending that is, admittedly, very good and I have basically zero complaints with. Flash forwards are hardly the most original, but they are very satisfying when done right and this one pretty much nails it.
All the major characters get themselves a check-in and there are some amusing long-term effects from associating with the gods (poor Nakki both suffers and benefits as a result). Whatever issues exist with how fast it ends, I have zero with how it actually does.
A strong finish for a series I genuinely enjoyed, with just a couple wobbles off the best it ever was. Still, I would rather we saw the last of these great characters before the quality dipped down too far. In that respect, the author’s restraint is appreciated.
3.5 stars - rounded up for getting the ending right. Lot of silly, lot of heart, what more could you want? You can probably add an entire extra star if you’re a furry, no judgement, but I’d recommend this to just about anybody.