Tonikaku Cawaii: Joshikou-hen is a tough series to make fit conventionally.  It’s like an OVA in a sense, but it aired on TV as a seasonal anime (albeit bi-weekly, which I never remember seeing before).  It’s also strictly taken from the manga.  But at only four episodes, it seems odd to call it a “season” of the parent series.  We also don’t know if there will be more Tonikaku Cawaii of course, though it’s certainly not acting like an adaptation that’s just wrapped.  I think we will get more – the anime has only used about half the available source material.  But the manga, while popular, is not a blockbuster so…  It’s no sure thing until we get an announcement to that effect.  And given that it was over two years between the first and second seasons, it may be a while even if it is coming.

This much I know – I very much want there to be more ToniKawa.  And that was only reinforced by this mini-series, not the absolute pinnacle of the series but nevertheless thoroughly engaging.  This show is just damn good, plain and simple.  It’s well-written, with engaging characters.  It does slice of life as well as any anime out there for my money, but has an interesting underlying plot that occasionally injects itself into the narrative.  And both of those facets were very much on display in this “finale”, which didn’t really play like a finale at all.

That’s another way Joshikou-hen defies easy categorization – it doesn’t really feel like a stand-alone entity.  The “Nasa goes to school” thing is an element certainly, but in the end it was just one element of these four episodes, the bulk of which concerned Nasa and Tsukasa’s happy marriage as ever.  And so it was with this final episode, which started out with a focus on Kaguya, the mysterious student who only rarely comes to school.  We got a little taste of her background (abandoned by her parents for being too weird, living alone), but only a taste of her fascination with the moon (and Tsukasa).  That connection remains a mystery, pretty much.

After that it was classic a SOL chapter as you could want.  Aya scolds Tsukasa that she doesn’t tell Nasa she loves him enough, especially given how often he tells her.  Aya is generally a bit of a dunderhead, but in this instance she’s actually on the money.  The reality is, even if you know it’s still nice to hear it sometimes – that’s just how people are.  Of course Nasa knows Tsukasa loves him, and he’s not the sort to act needy about hearing it.  But it would be nice to hear it.  It comes easily for some people (like him), but it’s really hard for others (like her).  That too is just how people are.

Tsukasa’s efforts to rectify this are halting at best.  That bit abut telling Nasa about her sexy underwear right before going to sleep (or pretending to) was especially cruel, though she didn’t mean it that way.  Nasa’s students opine that she ought to show him if she can’t tell him, and Kaname weighs in with a demonstration of some verbal methods – using an unfortunate classmate, Kazumiya-kun (Sakata Shougo) as a model.  Eventually she gives Tsukasa some coupons for free Häagen-Dazs with the idea of giving her a low-pressure pretext to spill it, and the two of them prove their spousal worth by correctly guessing the other’s flavor of choice.

Tsukasa does spit it out eventually, after a flood of kisses and in the most tsundere way possible.  Nasa’s reaction is so heartwarming, really – it just means that much to him to hear her say the words.  This is a great couple, one of the best in animanga, but they have that strange cloud hanging over them.  It’s never 100% clear just how much Nasa has figured out, but he’s a very smart boy indeed – he knows there’s much more to his darling than what the rest of the world sees.  And his dream is a fascinating way to bring the season to a close.

I immediately recognized the setting for Nasa’s lucid dream as Horyuji – once you’ve been to that place you don’t forget it.  Horyuji contains the world’s oldest surviving wooden buildings, most likely built in the 7th Century.  But most relevant here is that it was said to have been founded by Prince Shoutoku in 607.  Prince Shoutoku is among the most important and revered figures in Japanese history, credited with massive advancements in civil government as well as helping spread Buddhism across Japan.  And it seems very likely that Prince Shoutoku is who the others in Nasa’s lucid dream see him as.

There’s no rumored connection between Prince Shoutoku and The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter – it wasn’t even written until two or three centuries after his death.  But Tsukasa could certainly have been around then in this mythology, and the message she refers to is almost certainly Shoutoku’s correspondence to the Chinese Emperor Yang of Sui (which is itself of great historical importance).  Is ToniKawa implying that Nasa is the reincarnation of Prince Shoutoku?  That would certainly be a fascinating turn, and one that fits the premise quite neatly.  But I’m not ready to go there quite yet – maybe it was just a dream.

We certainly are left with a lot of fascinating questions to ponder as Joshikou-hen comes to a close.  As completely unexpected as its existence was, I think of it as a bonus – any Tonikaku Cawaii is a very good thing indeed.  And it was in itself very good.  The high school concept – and the students – worked much better than I expected.  The material with the main cast was as good as ever.  And we get to spend four more weeks (spread over eight) with Nasa and Tsukasa.  Hopefully they’ll be back for a longer stay, and relatively soon, and the manga (which is still ongoing) will eventually receive the complete adaptation it thoroughly deserves.