This is one of those title lines that’s really tough to decide on. Three 2-cour seasons, 19 of 25 volumes adapted – it doesn’t make sense to think the anime would stop here, does it? We didn’t get a final season announcement with this episode, but that’s not unheard of with Fumetsu no Anata e (though we got one last time). But if I stick to my official protocols I really should call this an “End – and Series Review” post. It’s not like the series is massively commercial – commercial enough, you’d think, but not a slam-dunk.

Do I want that final season to happen? Yes I do, though it might be hard to justify it honestly. Fumetsu always seems to do just enough to make we want it to come back, and this season was no exception. It’s one of the weirdest series out there, and most inconsistent. This season was not the show’s low-point either. It had a couple of standout episodes – like, vintage S1 level. And it introduced some good characters, especially Yuki (though as always with Fumetsu that was a mixed bag).

We end with a multi-part episode. And in fact, the way the production committee gets the OK for scheduling weirdness – double-eps, odd episode counts, etc. – suggests To Your Eternity may have more commercial clout than I give it credit for. A lot of the first ep focuses on Michi, who’s really a pretty minor character in the grand scheme of things. But she’s a “friendly nokker” and that makes her essential to Yuki’s plan to bring the species together. And social media is at the heart of that plan, where a masked Michi performs feats of nokker-ism (which are accused of being CG).

Yep, this world has social media, and also genetic engineering it seems. But if Fushi just accepts absolute omnipotence (what could go wrong) from the Black One he can thumb his nose at all that. Meanwhile Yuki finally works up the nerve to confess his love to Mizuha, who’s headed to a far-off high school (hopefully very far). She shoots him down, naturally. So he’s free to focus on the Nokker merchandising business he’s running with the help of his friends from the Occult Club.

The final episode is where the meat is here. And maddeningly, it’s – again – really good. It seems like no matter how whack it gets, Fumetsu can always give good finale. I think there’s something in the nature of this premise that lends itself to endings – it’s always building towards a reckoning and a transition. Maybe Ooima-sensei gathers her often-wayward narrative focus and directs it sharply whenever she’s ending an extended arc. Whatever the reason, this show never lets me off the hook.

The housekeeping gets taken care of of first. We start off with a four year time skip, not a patch on the one coming later. The high school wasn’t far enough away, as it turns out, but Mizuha buggers off for reals at last. She’s going overseas to spread the gospel of loopiness to a worldwide audience. Of much more import is that Satoru announces that four years is the limit on how long he can remain himself in this body. The next day, he says, he will lose all memories attached to the Man in Black and become simply Satoru.

To be honest I’m not really sure why this is – I mean, is he omnipotent or not? You can’t be, like, “mostly omnipotent” – it’s kind of an either/or thing. But if you get past that the close of the Black One’s arc (if indeed that’s what this is) is the sort of elegiac material this series takes to like a fish to water. “Satoru” leaves his memories for Fushi using a clay pot, and we get a glimpse of his origin story at last. I think this really comes down to what he originally wished for – to live and die in the world he created. To be a part of it rather than simply watching it from above.

With that we go much further afield in time – another 56 years, give or take. Another cycle of Fushi’s existence over in the blink of his eye. Nokkers are how being controlled via implanted microchips – though Yuki grew up and became a researcher who invented a skin cream to prevent infection with them. Overall peace seems to be prevailing on that front, though without the Black One around Fushi’s ability to keep it should that become necessary is severely curtailed given that he – wisely, in my view – declined to inherit his powers. But Yuki has passed away, and while Aiko says Fushi can stay at the family house as long as wants, he knows it’s time to find the next place – wherever and whenever that might be.

It’s interesting that Yuki isn’t staying in the Fushigumi – presumably by choice. With his seeming zest for life that’s perhaps a bit surprising, but he appears to have chosen a finite stay of years and the greater significance that places on them. The others will presumably join Fushi in that future – one he will face without the Black One for the first time. This is also going to be the last one too, one assumes. I’m in way too deep to bail now, true – but I don’t even really want to. As much as it drives me crazy I still want to be here for the moments Fumetsu no Anata e remembers what it can be and delivers the narrative poetry it’s indisputably capable of. Maybe a final season isn’t a lock, but I’m going to choose to believe it will happen.