Aoharu x Kikanjuu Episode 12: I Won’t Yield! (FINAL)

“Do I need a reason to save a friend who’s hurting?”

When I first read the summary for this show I thought it sounded so dumb. The synopsis made it sound so stupid but I decided to take a look at this show anyway and I’m really glad I did because I ended up liking this show a whole lot. Though I know not many people tuned in to this show unfortunately as other shows this season gained more audience. But, and this is my opinion, I think the bigger-named shows this season turned out to be a bore and the ones glossed over turned out to be the better ones. But that usually happens every season, but anyway enough of that.

I will admit that I felt like this wasn’t much of a final episode. It didn’t feel like a final episode to me. Hotaru takes Masamune to the survival game field to challenge him to a match. If she won she’d make him say something, but if she lost she’d promise to have to stay away from Toy Gun Gun forever. The two go out and have their match but Hotaru loses immediately. She asks for another round as she never said the match would only be one round. So they kept on playing and she kept on losing, but she still asked for more rounds. Of course these two finally got to talk, Hotaru making it clear that she thinks of Masamune as a friend and she’ll help him in any way. She wants to go back to TGC. She doesn’t want anyone else to take her place in Toy Gun Gun, the thought of it makes her rage. She wants to keep playing with them, go back to the TGC, and beat Hoshishiro.

Masamune has always had a hard time with people leaving him. He’s always been the one left behind by the likes of Midori (we still don’t know why), his other teammates, and by his own mother. So that pain of being let go has been with him for a very long time. Knowing the pain of being let go, he let go of Hotaru anyway. But even so, she came back unlike all the other people that left him behind so that made a big impact on him.

In the end, all Hotaru wanted to hear were the words Masamune told her when she lost her first survival game: Join team Toy Gun Gun and become the strongest team in Japan. Hotaru smiles all cute and Masamune’s heart goes all doki doki and then the no homo feels kick in. In the end of the episode Hotaru felt comfortable about telling the boys that she’s a girl…….EXCEPT WE DON’T SEE THAT. I’VE…BEEN WAITING. FOR SO LONG. FOR HER. TO TELL THEM. THAT SHE’S A GIRL. AND WE DIDN’T GET IT. DAMMIT.

Will this show be popular enough to get another season? I have no idea. I don’t know how the sales for the manga is going, but we’ll also have to see how Blu-rays/DVDs sales go too. But I can see that this show wasn’t very popular this season so another season to continue the story will be wishful thinking. But in the end I really did like this show. I loved Hotaru, even through that stubborness. I ended up liking Yukimura a lot more than I thought I was going to as I didn’t like him at all in the beginning when he was introduced, but now I do. He’s adorable. Yeah I can admit that the drama in this show could be a little over the top for something small like survival games where their lives are really not on the line. That just shows you how passionate about this game they are. As for the characters there was a very small cast where most of the time we focused on Hotaru and then later Yukimura and Masamune. I find Midori to be amusing, where I’m conflicted. He’s twisted but sometimes he can act like a normal nice guy. I think the main trio were really fleshed out though it took Masamune awhile to see more of him.

Sometimes it felt like the drama would take a little while to resolve itself, the drama could be a little much. The music was okay, and the animation was okay. You could see the quality go down as time went. I wish we did get to see more of the survival games, preferably the TGC as the characters made it seem like such a huge thing. And it is! But it finished for our characters so quickly it was a little bit of a disappointment. Also, HOTARU NEVER REVEALED HER GENDER. And that’s so frustrating. And I also believe that they would still accept her once they’d tell her, but…we didn’t see it. And I have no idea if we’ll ever get to see it. Wishful thinking…

There were some problems but I still thought Aoharu x Kikanjuu to be a pleasant watch. It was fun, funny, and cool. I wish more people had tuned in, but oh well. For my MAL I gave the show an 8/10, but for here I’ll give it a 7.75/10. Just because she didn’t tell the guys she’s a girl. I really wanted that. I still love you, Hotaru.