Final Impressions / First Impressions / Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru

Summary:
With Mariya and Mizuho not home yet, Kana is telling Yukari about the plot of the next drama club play where a princess went out to meet her beloved. She found this person in the forest, but was surprised at his appearance. At that very moment, Takako is shocked by the fact that Mizuho is a guy, so she grabs her bag and runs away. In the day following the incident, the students are abuzz about how Takako was going to be kidnapped and how Mizuho saved her. Takako again has a hard time concentrating on her student council work because of all the memories of Mizuho coupled with what she now knows. That afternoon, after classes, Takako is headed home under guard of the other student council members when she runs into Mizuho. He wants to talk with her about yesterday, but Takako just acts formally and thanks him, referring to him specifically as “Mizuho-san” (instead of the normal “onee-sama”).
Mizuho is later staring out at the night sky from the balcony of the dormitory when Mariya comes and tries to figure out what’s on his mind, though she knows it’s probably about Takako. Mariya reassures him that Takako won’t tell anyone else about it, and then asks what he is going to do. As Mizuho is thinking, Yukari, Kana, and Ichiko suddenly call out to her with good news. It seems that Ichiko will be able to come to the dance party because she’s recently been able to leave the dorm with both Yukari and Kana. She and the other girls want to practice dancing with Mizuho, and Mariya feels that it’ll be refreshing for him to do so. Afterwards, once everyone has gone to bed, Mizuho finds himself thinking about graduation and what he should do.
The next day, Kana is telling more of the drama club’s play to the other girls over lunch: the princess had found out that her beloved was actually an angel… At the same time, Mizuho heads to the student council room and knocks on the door. Takako is the only one there, but she pauses at the door when she realizes that Mizuho is on the other side. He tells her that he understands she wouldn’t forgive him no matter how he explains it because what he did was deceive her. However, he wishes that she would allow him to participate in the dance party so that he could distinguish it as his final duty as the Elder. Shocked, Takako goes for the door, but can’t turn the handle to open it and instead starts crying. In Kana’s story, the angel started his journey in the sky, never able to meet the princess again.
When the night of the dance rolls around, everyone is waiting on Mizuho to finish getting ready. He almost puts on lipstick, but then looks around his room and decides not to. On the way there, they see that it is starting to snow. At the party, the girls who are in male roles are wearing the black uniforms while the girls in female roles are wearing the white ones. Shion in particular is wearing white because she wanted to dance with Mizuho. However, Mizuho’s first dance is actually with Kana, during which she tells him that being with him makes her feel like doing her best with whatever comes up. Mizuho is touched to hear this and with how Kana asks him to take care of her from now on. Noticeably absent from the festivities is Takako, who is actually sitting alone outside in the snow thinking about Mizuho. Mariya finds her there and claims to want to reconcile with her.
During Mizuho’s second dance with Yukari, she tells him that she probably would have regretted coming to Seiou if she hadn’t met him and that it’ll be lonely because he is graduating soon. Mariya is meanwhile telling Takako that she noticed something important recently: the two of them are alike. Although Takako tried to make everything her enemy and Mariya tried to make everything her ally, both ways weren’t honest. However, Mizuho was honest in his feelings, and at the time, he seriously wanted to save Takako without even having thought that he would get exposed. As she smiles, Mariya calls Mizuho a fool, but she also feels that that’s who he is. He’s not a guy or a girl, but rather Mizuho is Mizuho. Along those same lines, Mariya is Mariya and Takako is Takako, and Mariya feels that Takako needs only think to think about what she wants to do now. Having heard all this, Takako feels that Mariya has changed, though Mariya feels that Takako has too, and the two laugh about it.
When the time for the final dance comes, the spotlight turns to Mizuho to choose someone. Having already danced with both Ichiko and Shion, Mizuho looks around and finally sees Takako, now wearing the white uniform. As the two dance in front of all the students, Mizuho thanks her for granting his wish and says that with this, he has no regrets. Takako, however, tells him not to go deciding things on his own. She had been shocked when she found out about him, but he was still the one who saved her, and no one here wants him to leave. And besides, he saw her naked and kissed her, so he’ll have to take responsibility. At that moment, the spotlight on the two goes out and leaves them in darkness. Takako feels someone – she thinks it is Mizuho – take her hand, so she starts to confess her feelings. But right before she can finish her sentence, the lights come back on and Takako realizes that she’s holding hands with and about to kiss Mariya.
Mariya calls it regrettable because Takako’s dance ends there. Of course, the two start arguing and everything seems back to normal. Everyone again wants to dance with Mizuho, especially Mariya who hasn’t gotten her turn yet. In the aftermath, Mizuho and the girls have lots of fun through the rest of the school year, including Hatsumoude, Valentines Day, and a school trip. Eventually, Mizuho graduates and leaves his diploma on the same desk that his mother used.

Given that there was only had one episode to conclude all this, I thought the production team did a decent job. I liked the parallel with the story Kana was telling and wish that they had extended that through the entire episode instead of just the first half.
The latter part felt a bit rushed, but maybe that’s just because I wanted more TakakoXMizuho since Takako got cut off on the su part of suki in her confession. I had hoped this would be a bit more conclusive than it was, but it was still very much a Takako ending even if Mizuho didn’t explicitly end up with her. I guess the point was to show that Mizuho was loved by everyone. On that note, I’m also surprised that everyone didn’t find out that Mizuho was really a guy. If you had asked me at the beginning of the series, I would have been sure that Mizuho wouldn’t be able to keep up this charade all the way through.

Final Thoughts: In retrospect, OtoBoku was a decent harem/romance series with an gimmick: the main character is a guy who can pass for a girl. This gimmick was clever and amusing enough to hook me on the show at the beginning, and I certainly don’t regret it. Taking the Takako path was a little surprising because I expected Shion or maybe Mariya, but in a way that also made it more interesting. The show had its highs and lows, and the ending from this episode wraps things up fairly well, even if it wasn’t quite what I hoped for. It’ll be another four months until the fourth DVD is released and we can see the DVD-original episode, which could be a side-story or maybe something more. I guess we’ll find out in April….

47 Comments

  2. AAAh i don’t know if i want to read the summary on this site because the damn subbers are so fucking slow, i swear there hasn’t been a new one in three weeks!
    My only question is why is he still pretending to be a girl? You’d think everyone would find out it is what norm happens.

    bak3donh1gh
    Reply

  5. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

    O_o they play dirty, with this we have an open ending, again, with an episode 13th waiting for us in the last DVD, again. Al least here Mizuho didn’t end with soemone, so in the extra chapter he can make a choice.

    Takako vrs. Mariya FTW! But my policy put me against all the “chieldhood friend” girls, so… you can do it takako….

    Syaoran Li
    Reply

  9. Ridley44lev: Thats Mizuho’s desk with what looks like the graduation diploma. Japanese use those tube looking containers to hold their diplomas. Looks like Mizuho graduates at the end of the episode (that school year went reallllly fast)

    JCL14125
    Reply

  13. SO KEIKOKU HE was GAY!!!!
    OR he abused his kouhai on his bedroom right????(lolipedocom)
    ps:why don´t anime creators that want to change their own sex just select the surgery as the first option , and stop trying to change the world overview just to not have any racial conflicts in the future????????? with phrases like this:

    ” He changed IT´S sex just like that character……….KAKOIIIIIIII!!!! ” 😀

    this is another one of the MOST LISTED AS A SHIT STORY ANIME in my notebook here and if anyone asks me if it was good I´d say ” IF YOU WANNA CHANGE YOUR SEX GO AHEAD!!! ”
    😀 😀

    tensai_otaku
    Reply

  15. SHION was also a guy disguised and HE scorred with almost all the girls on school!!!
    He also was bisexual, and wanted to soften mizuho´s ass !!! 😀
    But as everybody change sex in this anime he( shion) choosed to change his sex to a girl, so , not to harm mizuho´s heart…….and ass of course!!! 😀

    tensai_otaku
    Reply

  22. I wonder whether the scenes shown during the ending sequence are going to be part of the final episode. But that looks like a lot to cover.
    Oh, and I’m hoping for a hotsprings episode too as the extra fanservice is very much appreciated. Perhaps they would tie it up nicely then.

    I’m rooting for Takako.

    Yyi
    Reply

  33. wow.. not a bad ending i guess.. but it was too fast ar.. 12 eps only.. if it was a 24 or 26 eps show there wud hav been more traps to go with it =) any1 thinking of a second season coming up??

    nats
    Reply

  34. hmm the ending seemed like a happy ever after type of thing with mizuho not choosin any girl but there r no broken hearts………..
    altho i gotta say 4 him 2 pass dat school wit a diploma musta been hard considerin how his cover got blown a couple of times

    asian182
    Reply

  38. Well, after everything that Onmi has said in the summary, maybe the 13th episode will be a one-year-later on episode; hopefully with a couple in there; if not, at least make funny that episode, like a Takako & Mariya fight for Mizuho’s love. We’ll have to wait until April hopefully.

    I’m glad to pick in up this show back then in October. Despite the fact of Mizuho being a man dressed like a girl because it was his grandfather last will; the story was just great. We had a childhood friend, a ghost, a council student president, a sick girl, and two lolis… wait a minute, that remind me of something very similar ~ coff Kanon coff ~ or maybe is just my imagination running wild. Oh well.

    OK, today is Christmas Eve, so time to rest a little bit of anime and enjoy the holydays.

    Merry Xmas to everyone

    Syaoran Li
    Reply

  44. Hmm… I rather liked it… I think it was one of those few game to anime that was actually interesting and good unlike some like wind…

    Anyway, overall, I really enjoyed it more than I would have thought.

    Silver
    Reply

  47. Did anyone notice that Mizuho’s mother may have been hiding in plain sight? In Ep. 1, The teacher is introduced as Hisako Kajiura…and at the end of Ep. 12, The headmistress refers to her as ‘Sachiho-san’. Also, Mizuho himself seems to indicate during the dance with Takako that his mother may still be alive…”I think I’ve done enough for my mother and my deceased grandfather.” Hmmm…

    It would’ve been nice to see the meeting of Ichigo & Takako, however. (I’d lay odds she’d either freeze or faint dead away..)

    If Hisako IS Mizuho’s mom, the reunion between the both of them would’ve been interesting…as would the meeting between the former Elder and her former imouto, Ichigo. (Did Sachiho attend Ichigo’s funeral? Was she the one to get the grandfather to set the will stipulations as they were?)

    It does make me wonder what’ll happen to poor Ichigo. She was in love with one Oneesama, but they couldn’t go anywhere because they were both girls…Years later, after death and beyond ALL odds, she meets and falls for the school’s newest (and first male) Oneesama (Oniisama?), but can’t carry it further because she’s corporally challenged.

    Does she stay at the school? Or leave with Mizuho at graduation? I can’t picture her being able to tolerate watching her friends move on year after year without her going insane eventually.

    I think she could do well in another series if scripted right, along Kana & Yukari. Maybe the school’s first dead Elder? (Nah, too morbid…)

    I would like to see more of the plot threads tied up from the series. Ep. 13 was cute but fluff IMHO.

    Hey_Waldo
    Reply

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