Happy☆Lesson The Final

Happy Lesson: The Final is what you can call the culmination of the whole series. On the contrary of some who hated the ending (obviously because their "best girl" bet lost), I actually loved the ending, because, tho it was a bit to be expected, it made something you don't see everyday happened. Well, of course a teacher x student ending is not normally seen and is highly criticized, for me, it was something interesting. The OVA did decently well on that matter.

At the end of the day, I think that this series was enjoyable and interesting overall. There are some boring moments, but the ... comedy and romance part made up for that.

10/10 for me.

Happy Lesson: The Final is quite possibly the most unfulfilling ending to a series I've seen in a long time. Going into it I thought, finally, a conclusion... of the heart. Would Fumitsuki confess (again) and end up that doting schoolgirl who gets together with her crush, or would Kanna steal him away and find out in the end he'd always had a thing for her? I was excited to find out.

The choice was surprising, though not in a good way. It's made obvious early on who Chitose likes more, and in the process, diminishes both the final scene, as well as the continuity of ... the series as a whole. Almost as if the writers realized they'd forgotten to close out the romance and decided to shoehorn something in real quick. Really, the only part of this that receives a proper conclusion is the plot, which gets resolved in an expected fashion. Audiences familiar with the previous seasons and OVA I believe will find the sendoff to this show both confusing, and lazy. A true disappointment.

'Happy Lesson the Final'. Good lord where do I even begin. Well, for an anime that starts out by showing us what family values are this OVA basically takes the core idea of the entire Happy Lesson series and throws it into the trash bin.

The first two seasons continuously feed us with family themes. FAMILY. So it's the male lead and the 5 female teachers who decided to be his mothers doing family orientated stuff. Family goes here, goes there - encounters some problems and we have some drama but in the end all is good. And if you've watched the first two ... seasons that basically means over 10 hours in total of this idea being rooted into your head.

In the first two episodes of this final you get the idea that this is how the series is going to end. The great platonic love of a family. Oh boy was I wrong. I wasn't even remotely prepared for the complete farce that is the 3rd episode. Out of all animes that I've watched this one has the absolute worst ending ever.

At the very end you feel cheated because you spend a considerable amount of time watching this series and this OVA tells you that it didn't mean anything. The whole family theme is gone and instead they replace it with a dreadful, yes, dreadful harem-ish ending. So what was all that platonic love about? Wasn't so platonic after all eh. The worse thing is there's no build up to it, you have no idea what's about to happen - it's as if the script writer suddenly thought "Well, I'll just make them fall in love instead. Why the hell not. I'm the writer."

And so the ending feels out of place, like it doesn't belong in this series. Moreover, the respectable characters in here that show some dignity are the ones that get slaughtered by the ending. I was really rooting for Nanakorobi but the series' writer shows no mercy and slaughters her development (or what was left of it at this point) like a merciless troll.

It was all surprising. I mean, 'Happy Lesson' was already mediocre to begin with so I imagined things could only get better but the final proved me wrong. What you have here is a classical example of an average series driven to disaster by a confused writer who has no sense of direction as far as story-telling goes.

That's that for the story and the characters. As for art and sound - they stay exactly the same. Good art and a very good OST. The opening is again very captivating and involves all the main characters but I'm afraid all the artists working on this project have wasted their talents because frankly, the story sucks and drags the whole anime down with it.

Enjoyment? Virtually none - other than a sporadic grin here and there. Personally I will pretend that this OVA never happened and the true ending lies with season 2. I'd advise anyone planning to watch this anime to avoid the final. It should be called "No Lesson at all final - and hey did you know our writer is neurotic?".

'Happy Lesson the Final' gets 3 measly points from me.