Wow, that was something. Not a good something, but… something. So I always like to loosely follow how well an anime sticks with the source material. In a lot of cases, that’s a good sign of how bad it will be. I guess they decided that a 90% original, anime-only ending was a good idea. I put a list at the bottom of what was anime-only in case there are other people who want to know who haven’t read the manga. The thing is, even if I didn’t know it was going off-script, it was still just not really that good. Very ambiguous. Is Shuichi’s memory resealed? He still seemed to remember Elena and still listened to Honoka’s ghost. What does he mean when in the end speech when he’s talking about the climax eventually coming. Bro you’re literally already on your way to the site where the guy is. Like, it might take a day or two to climb the mountain, but you’re there. This would be like a single extra episode. I’m not mad, just confused and disappointed.
Why did they make Nana seem so important in this show. Actually, why was she even in the show? Just to suffer and then bring Clair up the hill on the bike? It makes no sense!
That being said, I was not expecting Shuichi to also not have parents. And living in that disgusting hellhole, with rotten food and dying plants and dust everywhere… The memory erase seems much more like a curse than I originally thought. My guy is plagued. Did you see his eyes when Clair asked when the last time he saw his parents was? Those were not healthy eyes! Elena could’ve at least said his parents died in a non-supernatural way. Maybe hit by a truck, maybe peacefully in their sleep. And does that mean Clair’s memories were wiped? Or why did Elena have to kill their parents but not Clair? I have too many questions. Elena is basically Itachi, building hate with her sibling so Shuichi won’t find out what’s really going on. And she said to Naoto that if they discover Shuichi it’s the end of the world? Wtf.
With so many loose endings, of course I want a season 2. But knowing that this was entirely anime-based basically, I also really, really don’t want a season 2. Do y’all remember Tokyo Ghoul? This is how you get Tokyo Ghoul.
Damn. I don’t even know what else to say. The fight with Elena was kinda cool I guess. The music at least. Clair and Shuichi nearly becoming one also pretty sick. The relationship they had with the rest of the group made no sense, they all just decided to spy and hate on them. Like, what is happening? Or maybe that was just an act to stall for Yoshioka to give the coins to Elena.
Shuichi reflecting that he’s not the protagonist again makes a lot more sense now. In a way, he hasn’t driven the story forward at all. Elena and Naoto building up forces to fight Kaito is really the focus of this series. Shuichi was basically playing catch up this whole time.
His radical personality shift I don’t really understand either. He seems to be doing it for the protection of Clair, but it’s all way too rushed. This might be worth just picking up the manga. I’m strongly considering it at this point.
Overall, I’d probably give this show a 6.5/10, brought down from a 7 purely because of that not very good ending. Out of curiosity, what is it on MAL… a 7.05. Ok, so I basically agreed with the general consensus. After the past two episodes I was really excited about the potential. I know it’s like the point of the show, but having 10 episodes about not the protagonist and then revealing the actual deeper story seems like kinda a bad idea? Maybe that’s just me though. If it did end up getting a 2nd season I’d definitely check it out, but like I said I’m also kind of hoping it does not. I wonder if they would just undo this episode and ignore what happened. Oh well, if it happens it happens.
Final thoughts. I mean, yeah it’s not bad but too rushed, too many loose ends, and an anime-only ending is a terrible (or maybe great) way to promote the manga if that was the goal.
Changed parts list I saw:
1) Group never undoes the pact and doesn’t stop gathering coins and helping shuichi and claire.
2) Mc and Claire doesnt request everyone to hand over their coins and yoshi doesnt give them to Elena.
3) Ghost honoka doesnt track people just for having memories of her.
4) Shuichi is not supposed to be able to remember ANY of his memories on his own regardless of anything he sees.
5) We still dont know how Elena sealed his memories in the first place.
6) Claire never visits Shuichi’s house and from what we see of it in the manga its not run down like that and is clean and its not confirmed what is really going on with his parents.
7) Ghost honoka never talks that much. Her ability is also way scarier than that.
In fairness, it was either that or an open-ended ending.
Which does bring up the difficulties of concluding the anime adaptation of a source material whose story is still actively ongoing without an actual cut-off point in the plot to wrap things up for the anime.