Dammit, I’m very irritated with myself that I messed up on episode counts and thought this was the final ep of Seihantai na Kimi to Boku. It happens from time to time but it especially annoyed me here because thinking it was the finale changed the entire context of how I viewed this episode. I blame the split-cour numbering convention but in the end, it was last week’s hiatus that threw me. Series’ ending the month after the season does is rare enough that I never assume it’s a possibility.
The thing is, this would have worked very well as a finale. And the whole time I was thinking about how I was going to write this, it was with the assumption that it was. I would have been perfectly fine if Koucha-sensei had ended it here – the balance of closure and open-endedness is on-point. Series about adolescents really shouldn’t have firm conclusions because their lives are not about endings, they’re about possibilities. Embrace the uncertainty and boldly go forth into the unknown. And I thought that’s what these kids were doing. It may still end that way but we have another round before we find out.
We’re about evenly split here between TairAzuma and MiYuusuke, with the latter leading off. And Yuusuke is clearly still reeling about the whole “space” thing. Understandably, I might add. It’s the least surprising thing ever that in trying to be considerate Miyu ended up messing with Yuusuke’s head in a big way. Both of these kids are kind and broadly honest with each other, but at that age you just don’t know what the right and wrong thing to do in a romantic relationship is. How could you? This is an extremely complicated thing they’re trying to do and – like most of us at that age – they’re flying by the seat of their pants.
The hard truth underlying all this is that most first romances – indeed, most teenage romances – fail. And they fail for a reason. And the reason is usually not that one of the couple is an A-hole. They’re trying to figure out how to be a couple, how to navigate leaving home, being apart, being independent. You can read books and Google it all you want, only experience is a licensed teacher here and there’s no substitute on call. Yuusuke is (obviously) less emotionally open than Miyu and a boy, so he stressed hard over not showing weakness. When he finally does, it’s not surprising that it plays out like a dam has been breached. Also, “Chan-suke”, ROFL.
Then, graduation. There’s space for everybody here. And that includes Gapacho, who actually appears for the first time at last. But like a sasquatch, good images are hard to come by. Yamada complains that the diplomas didn’t come in tubes and yeah, I get that – throwing those up in the air is non-elective. It’s a good graduation montage for sure, but the tension is building to intolerable levels here for obvious reasons. And again, I’m thinking this is the last ep so the “tick, tick” is even louder in my head.
Taira and Azuma are just on another level, and there’s no disrespect to Miyu and Yuusuke in that. That’s just how it is. They’re so real, these two – not romcom characters, just people. Shuuji is, as always, on the outside looking in. The others include him and he winds up in photos and such, but he doesn’t feel part of it. Eventually he retreats to ponder on the day by himself, and tears up when he thinks about the end of high school – a thought he’s been avoiding by obsessing over exams. This is really moving, because those tears reflect the fact that in the end, the high school experience was uplifting for him. His life actually got a little better, because he found friends who accepted him for what he was and was not.
That’s how Shino finds him – having been tipped off that her “bae” has slipped away by himself. Honda-san puts two and two together and runs interference with Kentarou, who always means well but just has no off switch. Shuuji makes Shino swear she won’t tell anyone, and she agrees – and then seeing him sets her off on an even bigger crying jag. This is about more than just high school ending, that’s for damn sure, but the fact is that high school is what kept them bonded and the chasm stretching out before them now is dark and terrifying.
Taira having nothing written in his yearbook – and not knowing what to write in Azuma’s – is just so Taira. Both of them have a sense of ending – of them ending – and don’t know what to do. Shuuji thanking Shino for everything she meant to him was a huge moment for him – and her too, of course. Again I’ll say, if that’s how it ended I would have been fine with it. Especially after he grabbed her sleeve and plaintively asked if they could still see each other after graduation. My heart wants them to be a couple, but it feels like they shouldn’t have such a definitive ending – they’re too broken, especially him. That sense of possibility was enough for me, because it felt honest and organic. Just like TairAzuma. The actual finale is going to have a big job trying to live up to this as a conclusion.
