One has to give full credit to this adaptation of Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san.  It’s accomplished so many things that are so hard to do.  Each season has been better than the one before.  The adaptation has significantly improved on the source material.  It’s managed to both broaden and deepen the story with significant changes, while still managing to remain loyal to the spirit of it.  It’s as if it saw all that was good and all the potential that was untapped in the manga, and distilled it into the anime.  It’s not one of the best series ever, but in many respects it’s one of the best adaptations.

I never really doubted it would figure out the right answer (I trust that track record) but the anime was faced with a very difficult decision as to how to handle this finale.  The manga is ongoing, after all.  Not only that, there’s a movie of unspecified premise premiering in June.  The peculiar nature of Karakai Jouzu’s premise means that once it’s resolved, that’s pretty much it.  You could have a sequel (Yamamoto Souichirou has one – of a sort – with the co-authored Moto Takagi-san).  But the core story is very straightforward – less so in the anime, but only to a point.

So what does Akagi Hiroaki and Shin-Ei do here?  I have no idea whether a fourth season of the anime is on anyone’s radar.  Yamamoto’s manga are certainly having a moment, and he’s given us no sign he intends to end this one soon.  But the anime had to decide whether to more or less close the door on that possibility or not.  For a good while there it was looking like it was going to do just that, and I was kind of torn about it.  As a fan of the series obviously, that’s an ending you want to see at some point.  But whatever point that is, it’s the end point – more or less, movies aside.  And it would have been kind of sad to have that be today.

As it has with all the season finales, the anime basically goes with an original story.  There are elements taken from the manga (like Hamaguchi trying to bully Nishikata into confessing on White Day), but in substance this is mostly original.  A lot of it revolves around the “Nishikata Quest“, which is basically Nishi’s way of kicking the whole “confess or not” dilemma to the curb for the moment.  His plan – comes up with a scavenger hunt for Takagi-san to navigate on White Day, culminating in him delivering the actual reciprocal gift he was planning to give her all along.

I quite liked this little subplot, for a number of reasons.  First, it very cleverly looped the Doyoubi trio into the plot, which feels right for a finale.  It also shows off just how clever and imaginative Nishi-kun really is, which he gets too little credit for.  It also reminds us that Kimura-kun is the ultimate wingman, even when he’s not trying to be.  His recommendation of “Bryan“, the novel Takagi was “quoting” during the library “I love you” incident, sends Nishikata down the path of realization.  I mean, I suppose Kimura could have known what he was doing – but not even he can be that good a wingman (can he?).

This is all complicated by the fact that Takagi-san is late returning to Shodoshima after a mainland wedding (yes. the Jumbo Ferry does stop if the waves are bad enough).  The trio accidentally intercepts Nishikata Quest (thanks to Kimura and Takao’s sumo match), but once they figure out the truth the romance-obsessed Yukari makes sure they re-seed it.  As for Nishi, after Kimura’s push he realizes the truth – Takagi-san has been confessing to him all along under the guise of teasing.  What a powerful realization for a kid his age, but you have to give Nishkata credit for the way he responds to it.  He started the day a boy, but he ended it a man…

Of course, Nishi-kun could have literally confessed here.  Logically speaking it shouldn’t matter, since in practical terms it would be hard to more overtly do so in deed than he did.  The cat is out of the bag now, to the extent that it was ever really in it.  But somehow I suppose it does matter matter when you’re in eighth grade – the words (Tsun-kun couldn’t spit them out either) have meaning.  So for now, the dance continues.  Another year of middle school awaits in April (one suspects Yamamoto-sensei might end the original manga after that year, but who knows).  For that year the games will continue, even if everyone knows the truth.  And at the end of it, I suppose Nishikata will finally spell it out in words (maybe in the movie even, though I kind of doubt it).

If that’s how it plays out, I’d be fine with it.  And I’d certainly be fine with a fourth and final season of the anime, as much as I’ve loved the last two.  Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san is an unqualified success story of the sort we rarely see in anime – a gloriously executed adaptation that exceeds expectations in every way.  It takes something very simple and gives it substance and heft without losing the simplicity that made it charming in the first place.  Bravo to Akagi-sensei and Shin-Ei – for this finale, for this season, and for the entire adaptation.  It should be held up as the standard every manga adaptation should aspire to.