There have been a few occasions recently when I’ve assumed I was watching a series finale, only to realize at the end that there was another episode to come.  With Koori Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Douryou Joshi it was just the opposite – for some reason I remembered it being 13 episodes.  It was pretty clear by the time Himuro-kun and Fuyutsuki-san got to that riverbank that this was it, though.  And with a series like Koori Zokusei that’s a shame, because I have a lot of affection for it.  It’s no masterpiece, but one of those shows you look forward to spending time with every week.  Like an old friend.

I’m heartily glad the finale spent its entire time with the two leads.  Simply put, this series is better when they’re in focus.  I like supporting cast (well, all but one), but the A-couple really makes the series tick.  This time around Buddha-sama sends the pair of them on a business trip (I’m thinking Sendai, since beef tongue is a local delicacy).  Ostensibly it’s a meeting for a project they’ve been working on, but I think it’s pretty clear he knew exactly what he was doing.  All the little details of a Shinkansen voyage are here, right down to the eki-ben decision (Fuyutsuki goes with the “octopus pot lunch“, and you know Himuro is going to take whatever she does).

Plans are hatched for a dinner date after check-in, and everything is going swimmingly.  Fuyutsuki even invites Himuro over to visit anytime (to see Nyamero, of course).  But those are, sadly, best-paid plans as Himuro comes down with an anime cold (travel just seems bad for his health).  He even slips back into Himuro-chan form, which scuttles the dinner reservation.  But somehow I get the sense that Fuyutsuki-san wasn’t all that upset.  She seems awfully taken with Himuro-kun’s shota form – you have to feel for the guy.  She insists that they share her room, and that he take the bed while she sleeps on the couch.

This is sort of a relationship cheat, even so, because boundaries can be loosened (down to his staying over in the first place) with Himuro in that non-threatening form.  There’s a level of intimacy they both want but are both afraid to embrace while he’s a normal (yuki-otoko) adult.  And it becomes possible when he looks like a kid.  It’s sort of frustrating that it’s the only time it seems to be possible, but this is animanga we’re talking about after all.  It’s not like their memories get wiped or something – progress is progress, even under special circumstances.

There are a couple of moments in this final sequence that are rather poignant, I think.  The first is when Himuro silently bemoans that their “fun time together” is over, because it immediately makes me ask “why?”.  These are two people who clearly want to be together – that doesn’t have to end at all.  All they have to do is say the word – one or the other of them would do it – but they don’t.  Not yet.  The other is when Fuyutsuki admits that she was always called “cold and stoic”, and assumed she’d never have any close friends.  It’s the most vulnerable she’s made herself since the story began, and that alone marks a significant step forward in their relationship.  You know they’ll get there eventually, but I wish it would’ve happened on-screen.

Both these folks say how glad they are to have met the other – well, me too.  It’s not easy to tell a story about two people so genuinely nice and not have it be one-note, but Koori Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Douryou Joshi really isn’t.  It has enough cheek, enough abject silliness.  But that doesn’t mean the strength of the series isn’t these two, because it is.  They really are incredibly kind, both of them, and it’s beyond obvious that they’re a match made in Heaven.  It’s not the deepest or most nuanced love story you’ll ever see but it is very winning indeed.

Interestingly enough – and a little surprisingly to me – The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague has become pretty popular since the anime premiered – manga sales have ticked up a fair bit and it’s received a lot of marketing support.  I don’t think we’ll be seeing a second season anytime soon, as the anime powered through the majority of the published manga in this one, but it wouldn’t shock me to see it happen a couple of years down the line.  That would be just fine with me – both the humor and the romance work for me, and a comforting and easy to enjoy comedy is really a must for any good anime season.

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