Jintan and the others feel down after having realized that fireworks were not Menma’s wish and were unable to help her pass on. Later in the evening, Jintan receives a call from Yukiatsu to meet up with the others at the shrine where they all end up confessing their biggest guilts, blaming themselves for being unable to grant her wish. After confessing and having their emotional group breakdown, they decide that they will definitely somehow, but surely grant Menma’s wish. With that said, Jintan hurries back home to bring Menma back to the clubhouse where they are to meet, only to find her on the floor unable to get up. Menma reveals to him that her wish and what she had to do was already done, where as she had promised Jintan’s mother that she would make him cry. Jintan takes her onto his back and hurries to the clubhouse barefooted only much to his horror, when he finally arrives he can no longer see Menma. Freaking out, he finally hears her where as she tells him she is playing hide and seek. He and the group head out looking for her all through the night, and finally at dawn they find pages from her diary folded and shaped like a flower where she had written them each the reason why she loved them. Jintan, unsatisfied with the way she’s saying goodbye protested and had the group all yell, “FOUND YOU!”. Much to their surprise, after saying that everyone, Yukiatsu, Anaru, Tsuruko, Poppo and Jintan were all able to see her, and finally say goodbye and thank you.
~*~
Final Impression: *Overall Review and grading will have be in a separate entry*
*SNIFFLES* I can’t stop crying, I cried within eight minutes into the episode and I couldn’t stop and now have a nice tear-stained face and I went through half of the tissue box which I’m incredibly grateful I had beside me.
MY GOD. EVERYTHING COLLAPSED, EMOTIONAL BREAKDOWN WENT TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL! And when Poppo just like snapped, and we finally got a little bit about his character, as it has turned out he had witnessed Menma drifting down the river and had traveled around the world in hope to avoid the place and forget the memory, but in the end he came back to it unable to part from it. Who knew Poppo was carrying such a memory with him, just wow. That was a twist.
Also my god, I never thought I’d give Yukiatsu more redemption’s points. Starting#1, he called Jintan ‘leader’, #2 started considering Tsuruko’s feelings., and more importantly #3, for once he didn’t shove the blame against Jintan for Menma being unable to move on to heaven.
As for Anaru, talk about being selfish, but at least she confessed it and took the blame on her part. Moreover, she was the one who revealed that Tsuruko’s feelings towards Yukiatsu (which is kind of a bummer but was expected), and for Tsuruko she filled in so much details of the past that we weren’t aware about.
Regarding the wish, it turns out that I was right about how Menma made a promise with Jintan’s mother. But who would’ve thought the wish that turned out to be so simple was already granted a few episodes back?! Who would’ve thought that the meeting Menma was trying to plan, was actually trying to figure out how to make Jintan cry?!
I think the part that made me choke up the most was the minute Menma was no longer able to be seen by Jintan who was freaking out thinking she had already moved on until he was able to hear her voice. Moreover, I couldn’t be happier that at the very end, everyone was able to see her, even if it was for a short while. It also made me warm and fuzzy when everyone shouted, “FOUND YOU”. It meant so much to Menma, and you know what, I’m so happy for her to be able to pass on while being able to be seen by everyone one last time and say goodbye.
Overall, this episode did what it had to do. Make us cry, have a good wrap up, convey the message, resolve the matters and minor plot holes and complete everyone’s character development. The emotional rollarcoaster that had us crying then suddenly laughing (when Jintan out of blue pointed out that Anaru had two lashes) and back to more crying and heart warming moments. AnoHana by far lived up to my expectations, continuously blew me away every single week and I’m really sad to see that it’s finally over.
I’m proud to say that I traded my sleep to watch this ep as soon as I could…so heartwarming ^^ The bit where they all started crying together…it proved that every one of them has their own messed up problems even though they look like they’ve moved on =/
When the ED started, manly tears were shed *nods*
;A; IKR? It was so well done, it’s totally worth losing your sleep over
heck you can sleep a bit better now since you cried – after all crying tend to drain your energy LOLUh…such a good, good final….
I would wish to see Tsuriko together with Yukiatsu, but then we would need some more episodes…Maybe there could be an OVA?
Ahh..but it was a damm good ending..the whole anime was damm good…
I guess there is no more I can say- you just have this grate feeling and thats it!
Yes, an OVA would be pretty awesome to elaborate on how everyone is doing even though we got a little bit at the end, but at the same time it makes me conflicted since it had such a perfect ending! XD;
The ending was just well done. I couldn’t hold back the tears when everyone was trying to look for Menma T.T I thought Clannad was gonna be the only anime that would make me cry but damn AnoHana made me cry just like before. I’m so glad everyone was able to see Menma before she left.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that everyone got the chance to see Menma, and that really made the ending even more perfect and a sense of joy despite that sad farewell.
thank you very much for covering this anime! the best one i’ve seen this entire year…i honestly teared up like a toddler lost in a grocery store, baw. lovely characters, lovely directing, lovely ending. absolutely beautiful <3333
Thank you, I had a blast covering this show. It’s great to hear from the feedbacks that a lot of us fans were able to feel emotionally connected to the show and its characters. 😀
I love it! Its sad and wonderful but I don’t get it! Menma said that she will be reborn or? That would be wonderful then she could be with the guy she loves and I still hope that Anaru and Jinta don’t end up with each other(they were shown together at the end)! It would be sad because I want him with Menma and I want him to wait for her!
This anime reminded me of 1 liter of tears a drama where I cried 24 episode and in the end the girl died with a big smile on her face, just like in ano hana!
I think she HOPES to be reborn, there’s no knowing for sure because after death itself we don’t know what happens. I think it’s a way to look at it positive and believe that one day, who knows how long it’ll be, they’ll meet again.
OMG, ;A; 1 Liter of Tears I was bawling like a baby every single episode. I had to stop at episode four because I was crying to the point my eyes would start getting swollen and then after they recovered I continued to watch it. Such a beautiful story, but what made it even sadder that it was based off a true story.