Well, I can't believe I made it this far without cracking. The only way I could watch these last two episodes is by busying myself with various nail polish bottles left behind by Envy. That's the most damage this series did to me; I think I got off lucky.
This batch finished off the Tokiya-based story from ep11 and also began a new one in the final minutes of ep12, which led to the series finale. Tokiya had absolutely no problems with leaving his management company, but Haruka's resolve as a composer was thoroughly tested by the principal. In that vein, we finally met Haruka's fabled grandmother - I'm sad to report that I was disappointed.
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| Her thoughts were just saying his name over and over again. How deep. |
Ep12 began with Haruka worrying for Tokiya; it was honestly just a few minutes of him singing and her going through some kind of field of pink. I won't make the obvious dirty conclusions. The radio broke the news that reports were coming in of Hayato being a student at Saotome Academy - and despite it actually sounding like a good plot point that perhaps his agency was involved, the story never investigated that. Instead, everyone immediately realized the truth and various amounts of chaos broke out. Haruka struggled with it herself - essentially just full of worry - until a dove (yes, a
dove; the cat shtick got old, apparently) led her to Tokiya (who had curiously arrived so many hours before morning that it was actually tear-inducing; how can they renege on a plot point so quickly and easily?).
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| Such vulgar words from such a young-looking boy... |
I feel like I really want to talk about this aspect. I see why the other 4 idols were worried about the Tokiya-Hayato business, but I really fail to see why Sho was so rage-filled. Natsuki wondering if Tokiya was trust-worthy and Ren wondering if he actually had any drive (considering his entire career didn't
really rest on his school career) both made sense. What was Sho was enraged about? I must also add in that Otoya played the typical peacemaker card that makes him blend into the background for me. Given that he's Tokiya's roommate, I assumed that he would be an important love interest (seeing as how the other two pairs are pretty much paired off with each other), but his personality is pretty wimpy.
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| Essentially just telling her to shut up. |
Anyway, Haruka found Tokiya (through the help of the magical dove) and they had a conversation before the other idols interrupted. (Are all of these people signed up for some sort of GPS-monitoring service?) After getting interrogated by Ren, Tokiya showed his resolve by revealing that he had everything riding on his debut with them and so he
was taking it seriously. Just as they finished making up, the principal (stalker that he is) immediately turned on all sorts of marketing ploys and announced the new group his agency was producing - Starish. (The "a" is actually a star.) It's funny how this was announced before the graduation project even finished; it sucks, but that's how the real world actually works. I hope the other students lose all their motivation and kill themselves.
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| She looked cuter as a child. Sounded more annoying, though. |
The catch was that the principal didn't want Haruka to be writing songs for the groups; instead, he had some guy who was apparently the God of Composers lined up to do it, and questioned Haruka if she thought she could do better. Ep13, which began in the same vein, had Haruka urging the idols to debut and that she would catch up. However, based on the fact that she ran off to her grandmother's (which Chika dutifully reported to the idols), she had really just lost all motivation. She even told her grandmother that she was thinking of staying for good.
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| There was so much ingenuity and care that went into this anime. |
The grandmother had a speech to give to Haruka, about how she loved composing and that she wasn't just doing it for giggles, and Haruka found it in her to go back and confront her problems. That was also the same time that the other idols arrived, having skipped their training because they didn't want to sing without Haruka. I was very peeved that the same animation was used for their singing (except with Haruka's clothes changed to something that was pretty close to a re-coloured uniform) as the last time this song was performed. I mean, the guys were even creepily wearing their uniforms. I understand that Japanese school-going boys and girls tend to feel comfortable in their uniforms - but, you know, some of these people have no reason to feel like that. Tokiya, for one, spends more time out of it than in, no?
They're also idols, dammit.
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| I get the feeling they're important in the game. |
The remainder of the episode showcased the "aftermath" (if it can be called that), which involved the principal calling up the president of Tokiya's previous agency (so that those "loose ends" were tied up) and then the first concert that would debut Starish. After hearing that song many, many, many times - and even seeing the same concert at the beginning of ep01 - I was already tuning out at this point. I get it, it was a super happy ending. I'm just curious as to why there was no resolution on the love-love. That really pisses me off; the only thing keeping me going was that I knew Tokiya and Haruka would get together. I still know it'll happen; apparently, it'll be off-screen. Great.
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| Bai-bai! |
I'm so glad to see this anime gone that I can't understand how I stayed with it. It was a lesson in picking up random shoujo to watch - never again. Dropping manga is a lot easier.
~Aaro
