Summary:

While the girls are enjoying a nice evening at an inn, the guys are hungry and having trouble sleeping in the wilderness. They’re so hungry that all three of them raid the candy stash separately, and they’re out of food the next morning. This leaves them no choice but to spend almost all of their money on stuff to eat, but they’re not ready to go home yet. As they continue biking, they yell out their frustrations and their desires, and Kusuda admits that he wants more self-confidence. The road eventually takes them by the ocean, and all three guys are silenced by the sight of the setting sun over the water. Unable to do anything but think of Kei, Kusuda runs onto the beach and yells towards the ocean that he loves Kei, and Mamoru and Sogabe do the same for Misaki and Chikura. Their moment is interrupted though by the shocked cries of the girls who had happened to have arrived in the same spot, so the guys run away.

Sogabe is the first to fall, and as Kei and Ayumi continue to chase the other two, Chikura stops at his side. He confesses that he likes her even though he thinks that she still likes Renjou, and he vows to catch up to Renjou. Chikura, however, recognizes that Sogabe is his own person and not Renjou, and she hopes that they both do their best. Further down the beach, Ayumi gets Mamoru to stop by questioning if he’s running away because he still likes Misaki. She knows that he can’t help but have those feelings, and she tells him that running away won’t make them disappear. Mamoru claims that he wasn’t running away and just wanted to recover, and though he isn’t sure if he has, all the shouting has refreshed him. Ayumi is happy to see him smiling, and he thanks her for coming this far for him. Kei meanwhile finally stops Kusuda by tackling him, and she wants to know why he came on this trip. Citing his own unattractiveness, Kusuda thinks that she doesn’t understand him since she’s beautiful,

Kei responds by pointing out Kusuda’s good points, and she finally admits that she likes him. Kusuda has a hard time believing this, but Kei now feels that what’s inside is more important than appearance. Although Kusuda runs away again and forces Kei to go after him, he’s now happy, as are Sogabe and Mamoru. They are soon reunited with everyone, including Misao, Yoshihiko, and Yuuji who had come looking for their younger siblings. Yuuji in particular had overheard everything that Ayumi said to Mamoru, and since Yoshihiko had told him to think about Misaki, he decides to move on from his love for his sister. Sometime after they get back home, he stops by Misaki’s house and tells her that he wants to get to know her better. His sister Ayumi meanwhile gets the advice of all of her friends on what to do about Misao and Mamoru, and she finally visits their house to give Misao an answer to his confession. She knows now that Misao is not a scary person, but she still likes Mamoru, her first love.

Well, they did a pretty good job on what they covered. Kusuda, Sogabe, Mamoru, and Ayumi got the same endings they got in the manga, which don’t end as perfectly as they could have, but they give a decent amount of closure, especially given Ayumi’s final monologue about love. I also liked the first-person point of view and different animation style in this scene right before the guys reach the ocean, and the music was once again a strong point. The key words though are “what they covered.” If you were hoping for Misaki to get a good ending (and I was), then this episode – and this series – falls a bit short. The one brief scene they had was okay, but it doesn’t have the same effect as devoting an entire chapter like the manga does (here’s an example of what they skipped out on). I wish they had more time or episodes to animate all that.

Final Thoughts:
Other than the Misaki omission at the end, the series turned out to be about as good an idealized romance comedy as I’d hoped it’d be. The J.C.Staff team did a good job on the production quality – especially the music – and they managed to cover almost all of the manga, something I initially wasn’t sure they’d be able to do (after all, episode one only covered one chapter). I’m still not happy about Misaki not getting more airtime, but I guess they could always do an OVA or something with her. I wouldn’t mind more Koyoi either since she tends to make me laugh.

29 Comments

  1. J.C. Staff has another success at a romance comedy. By the way is someone at Random Curiosity going to blog a J.C. Staff show this summer? Since you guys have had a J.C. Staff show each season.

    Spring 2009 – Hatsukoi Limited
    Winter 2009/Fall 2008 – Index and Toradora
    Summer 2008/Spring 2008 – Nabari no Ou and Zero no Tsukaima III
    Winter 2008/Fall 2008 – Shana II
    etc etc etc

    Just curious that’s all.

    shuffleair
  2. I think this was a poor production by JC Staff, and as much as by the material of sleeve eschewed direction and performance of very unbalanced in many scenes.
    The OST did not play a role ponderante, was in many cases just to make noise when compared to Chapter 09, which was very well accompanied by romantic moments.
    In any case, although it was a romantic comedy to pass the time, I expected something much more exciting and and captivating, but many of the effects Kimikiss (white backgrounds and dead) to break this title. Although not forget the good moments in each episode, although they were very short.
    Expected to follow covering many more titles this season.

    Eriol_elric
  3. Call me girly but the dude who got shafted by the artist; it really me happy to see him get together with the art chick… and the haircut makes it have more impact… like he somehow accomplished his goal of changeing. Can’t wait for the sub… I love these fruity love storys… but DAMN… that misaki story they skipped looks good… Her story throughout was really intersting to me. Since she was connected with alot of the other chars. I need to read the damn manga now..

    Matt4300
  4. Really, the Misaki ending in the manga made me wish the spent more time on Misaki/Arihara instead of Kei/Kusada which ended up taking most of the run before cancellation. It’s from Arihara’s PoV and mostly about how he fell in love with her. It was sweet but kind of rushed in the manga, but by then it was already known that the end of the manga was near.

    JohnG
  5. I was glad with the Misaki ending … I was hoping they would never cover any of the manga stuff (since I absolutely HATE that siscon known as Ayumi’s bro) … Misaki deserves a much better guy than him … honestly ><

    Kaminakun
  6. In terms of imagery this series had a lot of scenes that were very much like they were in the manga; I really liked that. Also I truly enjoyed this series and I’m thinking of getting the dvd’s…

    Luke
  7. shuffleair: As I mentioned in my Spring 2009 Preview, J.C.Staff is animating two new summer shows: Aoi Hana and Taishou Yakyuu Musume. Of those two, I’m more likely to watch Aoi Hana, but no guarantees. I should also point out that J.C.Staff is animating Hayate right now, and divine has expressed some interest in coming back to blog that.

  8. In my opinion, the Misaki thing was kind of left open in the manga anyway, but that chapter (31) was all about them, some realizations, some understanding, some closure. It was something at least. It’s nice to be able to read how it was supposed to be.

    I was still hoping for an extra episode made from the Omake chapters, with the whole Show Spoiler ▼

    Lys
  9. I pretty much liked the show overall, and I wasn’t disappointed. With Kei x Kusuda being my fave pairing, no surprise that with them following the manga, that they’d be the featured pair. The Ayumi and friends thing was almost too unwieldly to portray in such a short series. It would have been a lot nicer over a longer series.

    pagan poor
  10. would be nice to see another series of hatsukoi after this series when they got older. like how clannad had after story. so it would more memorable like true tears and toradora! for me

    hatsukoi
  11. nice ending, Omni was right that J.C. Staff did a good job, possibly average, and thinking even night shows cannot have the rated things like in the manga… it’s an animated manga anyway! shouldn’t complain… OVAs in other materials may not be subbed wor… hmm…

    kaineng
  12. I was somewhat pleased with the ending. They got basically everything wrapped up and keeping a opening for a sequel (possibly ovas). They have Ayumi choosing betwen the brothers hinting most likely the younger. Possibly for a sequel it will be some random fun, disaggreements in the releationship (Arihara x Saki and Enemoto x Kuseda), Misaki getting over her brother complex, and Ayume finally deciding between the brothers.

    roger
  13. I was impressed with this series overall, perhaps surpassing the manga. Not sure if they’ll do any additional work on it, but at least it was a decent ending for a SR in a long time that I can remember.

    Tons better than kimikiss turned out to be.

    SS
  14. I liked this series, but the anime wasn’t anything special after reading the manga already. I’d probably like it a bit more if I hadn’t read the manga first, I feel like a lot of small things were left out that made the story stronger as a whole.

    jho
  15. I absolutely loved this series, I liked that it didn’t take itself too seriously and while not all episodes where memorable, they were pretty entertaining, great stuff!

    stewie

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