It took a while for Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai to close the deal with me.  Maybe longer than I expected, though it’s not as if I was ever close to dropping it – a couple episodes were middling, but I feel as if I’ve understood what this show is trying to do from the beginning.  So I’m not sure why I never fully committed – maybe there was some doubt on my part about whether the series itself was fully committed to seeing through the premise it was setting up to a true conclusion.  If that’s the case, either I’ve decided that it is, or that I’m enjoying it enough so that it doesn’t matter either way.

That said, what has been confirmed for me is this series’ nature – it’s a true romantic fantasy in the Hollywood sense – and the fact that it’s absolutely not going to work for a sizeable chunk of the anime audience for totally legitimate reasons.  Fortunately that doesn’t apply to me, as I love its complete lack of anime irony and unapologetic sentimentality.  This was the week where Tadakoi went all-in on Tada-kun and Teresa-chan, and that puts the final stamp of approval on what kind of story this is – irrespective of what sort of ending it gives us.

There’s a misconception that this sort of story always has a happy ending, but historically speaking that’s absolutely not the case.  A bittersweet parting is every bit as much a trope here as “and they lived happily ever after”.  In fact I think one could make the case that a true romantic would only ever get ultimate satisfaction out of sweet, sweet heartbreak – that it’s the ideal of true love that epitomizes romanticism more than at actualization of it.  It’s too early to know, but that seems a very realistic possibility for Tadakoi.

Is Teresa a “rain-bringer”?  Well, not in the case of the Shasshinbu’s Mt Fuji trip, though the true implication of that seems to refer to whatever happened to Tada’s parents.  This looked like it might be another slice-of-life episode featuring the club members on an excursion, but it was instead the codification of Teresa-Tada as a pairing. If sidelong glances were a thousand Yen, this episode of Tadakoi would be an okanemochi.  There can be no doubt now – in the shadow of Fuji-san the truth was fully revealed not just to the couple in question, but the audience.  But that’s a long way from saying anything is practically feasible – and there are a lot of obstacles standing in their way.

To me, the reference in Teresa’s omikuji to a “machibito” – a person-in-waiting, a soulmate – is both fascinating and ominous as it pertains to her future with Tada-kun.  The implication here is that these two are connected on a deep level, but fated to never be lovers – merely two souls connected across a span that could be as wide as the stars, but not physically together.  The whole night shoot sequence was beautifully done, I thought – all those sidelong glances, Tada’s uncharacteristic introspection about the nature of regret, he and Teresa seeing the beauty in the other’s soul reflected in the beauty physically surrounding them.  Most of all the moment where the clouds cleared and the light clicked on – where each of them became aware of the truth of their own feelings and could no longer deny it.

There are some other nice tidbits here – Pin-sempai’s “Hinako!” a seeming acknowledgement of the fact that he does indeed know who she really is, Ijuin’s sleep-talking, Charles’ facade of confidence wavering as he realizes the depth of Teresa’s feelings for Tada.  But ultimately this was Tadakoi at its most essential – the core characters together, the focus on the deepest feelings on the two most important of them, the realization of the original premise at last.  It’s a benchmark episode for the series in every way, and sets up the final month as well one could possibly have hoped for.