“I’d like for us to be friends!” – Yūki Hase & Kaori Fujimiya
Impression:
The friendship ending, eh? I suppose I should have seen it coming…
In episode 11, Hase made the decision to distance himself from Fujimiya, Fujimiya then picking up on this, quite frankly, odd behavior and then asking Shogo for an explanation. Shogo explains that Hase doesn’t want to hurt her and (after a bit of Saki Shogo cutesy romance time) the episode moves the series into its final bout of heartwarming and cute antics. If anything, episode 12 served as a reflection on Fujimiya and Hase’s time together throughout the last eleven episodes, Fujimiya alluding to the ways in which Hase has changed her life and their finally eating crepes together serving to end this arc in their tale once and for all. I think it’s fair to say that Fujimiya and Hase have grown so close over these last eleven episodes that it’s no surprise that they found each other on the bridge: their endearing romance friendship will always bring them together, after all. And thus it’s no surprise that Fujimiya eventually confesses her love that she wants to be even closer friends with Hase, Hase then realizing that his actions have, albeit somewhat ironically, hurt Fujimiya and so he confesses the same. I’d be lying if I said I’m not disappointed with how little real development we got between Hase and Fujimiya, but ultimately their ‘confession’ at the end proved and nice and appropriate way to end a series that, I fear, may not actually get a second season (but here’s to hoping!)
The other plot line that came to an end in this episode was that of Saki and Shogo’s own love marriage dependency friends debacle, a simple apology on Shogo’s side (and a really rather comical once at that) smoothing out those issues and, again, bringing the story of our four odd misfits to an end. Saki and Shogo have definitely been one (or should I say ‘two’) of the series strongest features, their appearance both refreshing what might’ve been a stale and repetitive story and Shogo’s wingman antics pushing Hase further with Fujimiya then he might ever have done on his own (or, at least, not in this twelve episode span). It was a shame that they didn’t get more time to themselves (or at least as part of the group), but I think we can all safely say that we were happy with what we got and, in the end, it was all very ‘One Week Friends’.
I’m not going to lie: now that the series is at an end I feel a bit lonely; maybe even how Hase felt in episode 11 when Fujimiya’s memory reset completely. One Week Friends didn’t blow my mind but that’s not why I was watching it. It was cute. It was fun. It was refreshing. It was a story that could easily have fallen into the categories of mundane and redundant but it avoided becoming as such by introducing new and colorful characters alongside heartbreaking plot twists and tear-jerking confession of love friendship to boot. I think I’m going to go read the manga now and, I you enjoyed this series, I’d advise that you do so too… That is, if you’re not holding out for a second season…
– Chris.