Tsuki ga Kirei

They only start in the second episode onwards, if I remember correctly.

Episode 9: Moving blues. Please don't kill me. They need to be together.

Episode 10: Dammit, they could repeat this song and dance again and again and my heart will get put through the wringer every time. HALLELUJAH! EAT SHIT DRAMA. Damn, Akane, proactively chasing after Kotarou like that. Incredible.

And damn sympathy for Hira here, he got friendzoned hard. Of course, the viewers know that his "I know you better" line was inaccurate. But it's understandable, to resent someone taking away your crush when you were there "first".

edited 18th Jun '17 9:05:42 AM by fillerdude

never wanted to slap somebody as hard as Kotarou though for being such a meanie.

Yep! But gotta cut him some slack. I thought Kotarou handled things better than your average middle schooler, considering how crazy jealousy can feel. He was probably trying his best not to lash out, but ended up overcompensating and cold-shouldering his girl.

Ugh, that hurt even to type. Curse you show.

Episode 11: To decide I'm hopeless before I begin is nothing but laziness.

Ah, how astutely it captures the folly of youth. If ever there was a moment we could say Kotarou was blinded by love, it's the moment he decided to go to Koumei, despite it being inconvenient for him and his family. Akane's sister even points out that it's a bad idea, because any time reality might kick in, and that's just it, the real world has a tendency of ruining fairy tale romances. If I was there, if I was Kotarou's friend, I would also urge him to reconsider. But I'm just a viewer, and I know this anime isn't real, and I can see what makes Kotarou and Akane tick, so I can hedge my bets on The Power of Love.

Still felt bad for Kotarou's mom, though. Sulking teenagers are a pain in the neck. Props to his parents for being cool. And to Akane for pointing out that parents are cool. [[spoiler: Kotarou does thank his mom in the end, which is very sweet.

Speaking of sweet— the Christmas date. Hnnng. Then she was all, like, kiss me now! AHHHHH.

No, stop, Chinatsu, move on! You can do it. You can be a good friend.

I'm honestly not sure if Kotarou will pass the exam. We'll see. I hope we get an epilogue. I'm so scared.

On a side note, it's heartwarming to see how far they've gone as a couple. The kissing, obviously, but they're also a lot more comfortable with each other. Long gone is the awkward silence, and they're just... happy. Awww. I especially loved that part where Kotarou tried to peek at Akane's fortune, but ended up just leaning on her. AWWW.

edited 23rd Jun '17 8:51:20 AM by fillerdude

So we had our ending, bittersweet, and an epilogue that was the icing on the cake: you could argue that letting it end with just the train pulling Akane away into an uncertain future, with no idea how it turns out but strongly hinting it would just be a first love that they'll quickly grow out of would've been the better artistic choice, but having the epilogue was the far more satisfying choice. Things worked out for them, isn't that great.

"And then." How could two words affect me so much?

My sensibilities as a writer told me that they were going to end up together, but every second of uncertainty had me clenching my fists in anxiety. I kept checking how much time was left. Five minutes... three minutes... and still nothing. It could have easily ended with Akane crying on the train, with Kotarou's heartfelt outburst unheard. My heart fell apart.

It was too damn real. Too damn real. And I think a show has reached some sort of pantheon when it can make my cry from relief. Didn't even notice that I was tearing up. It was crazy. And my tears started flowing faster when we got the happy ending. Bless the heavens, a happy ending. It is my opinion that there was one or two writers who simply couldn't tear the two apart, so here we are.

13.70 is now a special number to me.

I need some time to process my feelings. Still a mess.

edited 1st Jul '17 9:39:32 AM by fillerdude

Heard good things about this show over in the Spring 2017 Anime thread. Would you guys recommend the dub or the sub? I saw mention of both while scrolling through the thread. Crunchyroll seems to only have the sub but I can watch the dub if it's seen as better.

I can only speak for the sub, which does its job well. The Japanese voices are super good; they have a down-to-earth quality to them appropriate for the low-key nature of the show, and they even go as far as replicating pubertal voice cracks, for example.

edited 2nd Jul '17 7:44:23 PM by fillerdude