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| Well shit, if I knew I was going to pick up the manga before the anime even finished then I wouldn't have even bothered with this in the first place. The concept for this final episode was no doubt creative, but once again it just feels like they keep trying new things every episode and there's no basis or consistency anymore. It's a new show every time. It could certainly be creative at times, but that should have been kept in moderation, not the central foundation of the show once the coffers run dry. I'm also far too drained by all of the "artsy" episodes prior and just wanted a normal one to wrap up. Oh but of course they use the normal style on the scenes that don't fucking matter. I don't need to say what happened, right? I mean, that's what those 800 *#$(@*@# recaps were for. Nice cliffhanger, not like I was expecting any sense of closure but what a fucking way to shaft this series to very last minute. This sucks. I fell for this series right away and loved it, despite its lower production qualities, up until episode 18. After Arima and Yukino made love, everything just went to hell in a hand basket. The recaps were atrocious, the bottom budget trial and error made it unpleasant to watch, and I felt just like Arima as KareKano was slowly building distance with me. What the fuck happened? With all of my ranting out of the way, I will say what it did right. The characters. Arima and Yukino's facades led to incredible growth for both parties. Of course it ends with Arima struggling with this feeling of being left behind, but I think that it's still an important development that gives great insight into how Arima wasn't Mr. Picture Perfect. I'll also say that the one scene where Tonami runs into Arima in the hallway was intense. It's almost like he was possessed, a demon ready to consume anyone who threatened his connection with Yukino. I could definitely relate to him in the sense that often times when I see people getting along, it feels like I'm being left in the dust. Abandonment and fear of isolation. The supporting characters all felt solid and quirky, albeit not enough time due to the show's constraints (and fucking recaps did I mention that???). My favorite arc had to be how Yukino's parents fell in love. That was top notch. KareKano's central theme, no doubt, is how liberating it is to be true to oneself. Although nowhere near the same extent, I could deeply relate to this whole notion of wanting to live up to a certain image vs who I really am. I've asked the same questions as Arima. Who am I really? Will I like that person? I've also felt the pressure Yukino faced. Trying to keep up an appearance and how awkward it would be to suddenly break free of it unbeknownst to those around me. KareKano is very thought provoking and hit home all too often. I don't know. On one hand I could barely stomach these last few episodes among a few others. On the flip side, this series was grade A material when it was actually able to deliver. I can see myself proceeding to the manga as I genuinely cared about everything KareKano delivered barring the abhorrent technicalities. 8/10, a shame since this was an easy 9-10 if it had remained consistent and covered more. |
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| well, they just run out of material in the last few episodes so they had to improvise :D Loved the anime so much 10/10 |
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| Remake this series.... oh wait they won't. |
| I'm too weird to live but much too rare to die. |
| I have no words.... |
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| Well, it wouldn't be Anno if the last episode wasn't as experimental as fuck. Although I believe that even Anno wouldn't have literally animated manga panels for a near full episode if the production for this series wasn't as messed up as it ended up being. Anyway, they resolved quite a few more character arcs than I was expecting them to, without it feeling that rushed either. I'm glad they completely resolved the sub-plot between Sakura and Tonami and man, Yukino is too good for that edgy cunt. Ratohnhaketon's summary up above is pretty much exactly how I feel about this series too, so I won't say no more other than how disappointed I am in how silly fights between the author and the production team soured an anime that could've been no doubt one of my favourites. The show was 10/10 up until episode 19 with every episode after that being very hit or miss. I actually enjoyed the finale even if it was quite lazy (but very stylish), the confrontation between Arima and Tonami being the highlight for me. Unlike the other experimental episodes, this one managed to keep the right mood throughout and was paced exceptionally well, up until you realize that this was not some random episode, but in fact the finale and it ends about as inconclusively as it can get, at least when it comes to Yukino and Arima's relationship. It's a "go read the manga" ending that was unable to finish at a decent stopping point, a non-ending. Tsubaki and her step-brother's arc are the only relationships left clearly hanging and obviously Arima still needs to develop a little more as he's borderline crazy at this stage with how possessive he is over Yukino. I'd like to see how he'd act if she decided to break up with him, but I know that won't happen. It's a shame I have to go read the manga to get a proper conclusion to this brilliant series as if given the time, the budget and most importantly the material to give this series a complete adaptation. Ahh, I really thought this would have been a sure favourite of mine (it still kind of is, but not as solid as I was hoping). |
KoybzAug 11, 2016 7:44 PM
| Was great until the BS'd ending smh. I also didn't like the manga animation for this final ep. I had to pause at every single panel just to read all the sub-text. Fuck that. If the characters can talk, then let them talk dammit! Didn't even resolve Arima's over-possessiveness with Yuki. This was so disappointing. I'm going to read the manga and it better take all these shitty unsatisfied feelings away D:< Went from a potential 9/10 down to a 7/10 just because the first half was so good I didn't want to bump it down to 6/10 >.> |
| I don't accept this as an ending. It brought out more interesting points to the story then immediately left the viewers hanging. I'm just going to pretend I didn't watch the last few episodes. |
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| Honestly that was a horrible ending. I actually liked the series up until after episode 18 (when Miyazawa and Arima have their first time together), 19 and onward were kind of a mess. Why did the two get delegated to basically side characters? Unfair. Regardless, this show was amazing while it lasted and before the new director killed it. I'll give it an 8/10 just for that. Was planning on rating it higher but was not aware of how badly it crashed. But either way I'm still happy I got into this anime because watching Arima and Miyazawa's love blossom was truly heart warming. |
| This final episode is like i'm watching episode 25-26 of Evangelion. |
| Do you play Azure Lane? Then please join my fanclub https://myanimelist.net/clubs.php?cid=74907 |
| Started off strong then slowly fell to disappointment this is why I read. Manga never disappoints |
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| I should have stop watching it when it's getting bad, especially after the director left the Gainax and everything crumbled I'll start anew again by reading the manga I guess Shame, it's enjoyable until the last 3 episodes, then messed up stuff happen :( They don't even understand what they're going to animate |
"Signature removed"   |
| Agree with what most people said here, dissapointing ending. Brought interesting ideas in these last episodes about Arima and his relationship with Yukino but no closure at all. Still enjoyed the series a lot overall and will most likely read the manga. |
Honestly, at first they did a great job keeping it close to the manga How ever, I feel like they were laking ALOT. in that time they did fillers, they could of progressed the story line more.  |
| It started off really well and I loved the background stories that each character had. However, maybe because I'm watching a 1998 production in the year 2016, the animation pales in comparison to the more recent anime. Furthermore, sometimes it seems as if they simply took the images from the manga and just added some voices to it. Also, it seems as if they were trying to buy time with recaps. I get the feeling that halfway through production, the team lost their motivation to do this anime properly. Nevertheless, it's an interesting story with cute characters. But I would recommend reading the manga for the ending instead of watching the anime. |
| Disappointing, the first half was quite decent then somewhere along the line it ground to a halt, no progression was made in the main relationship and the anime wasted even more time with supporting characters (didn't even develop THOSE relationships well) and irritating recaps. Of course the non-ending was the final straw. I think I will be able to keep this positive as a 6 but barely. Given time to stew over this perhaps the score will drop. |
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| If only they didn't put so much filler episodes they could have done a conclusive ending rather than something so anticlimactic :( |
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| Not as bad as I thought |
| Around the gif~ "It's a big mistake to think you're the only one who can turn into a car" - Shiori Takatsuki |
| Good old Gainax, running out of resources to make the last episode. Makes you question the point of that garbage in the previous episode even more. I guess it's better to assume that it ended at episode 24. Save for the last couple episodes it was a really enjoyable series. Would love to see it properly done like Rebuilds but seeing as Anno and Khara can't even push out the last one I doubt it could ever happen. Still, no regrets in watching this. Even with botched ending it was better than most series made nowadays anyway. |
Ii tenki desu ne... |
| terruble ending but the show was fucking great. Too bad that everything went downhills after episode 19 (I ACTUALLY LIKED THAT EPISODE). and i wanted to see the play :,( |
| THE SMITHS ARE THE BEST BAND |
| I was really with this show until the last three episodes. Seems like the budget dried up for Gainax yet again, considering how much of this episode consisted of still frames and on-screen text. I really wanted to actually see the play for the Culture Fest as well. The best moment of this episode was Aya struggling to find the 'click' while she was writing. /r/me_irl 7/10? 7.5/10? Idk |
| "No, son, you may not have your body pillow at the dinner table!" |
| That was such a bullshit ending. Wow. It was still a good series, though. |
| Underwhelming,indeed. Still a great series overall,romance,comedy and character chemistry,it certainly delivered. Time to pick up the manga. |
One Piece episode 914 & 915 & 1027 were a mistake and 957 brought the salvation - FMmatron |
| Came back to this and re-watched it thinking i missed something since i rated it only 5/10 years back when i first completed it. Nah it's still a mess of a show, started good and clearly was leading up to a 8/10 score with ease, little good bits here and there in the 'middle' until it crashed completely in the last 5-7 episodes ..or something like that(at this point i was fast forwarding as i lost interest). Also for the most part the art style just gets more and more confusing towards the end of the show, looks and feels really bad. Could have been great, but sadly crashed imo. |
| The more I watch of Gainax and especially Hideaki Anno, the less I can believe that people consider them some of the best thing anime ever had, god there is no way that the manga isn't infinitely better than the anime. The drama was pretty good and even if the comedy was never too funny, it was still a decent show, but man the lack of effort put into this anime just becomes unberable, not to mention all the freaking recaps over and over, why not just make it a one cour series if you're going to do all this crap? And let's not talk about the ending, and people hate on FranXX going downhill rofl, no wonder the author of the source didn't want more to be touched. Very kind 4/10 from my part that I can see myself lowering further, man that was terrible. |
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anime had a really good start, but that awful ending and so many recaps, so disappointing but still i love this anime |
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| A very good series. It has flaws of course, but episode 1-18 are hands down the best anime romance of all time. Nothing else is as well directed or realized in the romance genre imo. I didn't care for it after that, but i have to give it a high score regardless. I'd probably just stop at episode 18 or 19 on a re-watch. Final part of series lose what made series great and becomes more generic. I'd give it a light 9 just because of how strong the first 3/4 of the series really is. |
| You just can't call that a bad ending, or and ending at all, the show just ended, I don't know why you're all disappointed, the show obviously needed somemore episodes to make a proper ending |
| The few last episodes made my score for this series drop drastically. A shame, really, especially since this show had a great premise of showing a more mature approach towards the teen-oriented romance and the struggles of growing up and the haunting past. We didn't get to see the play, nothing was really resolved in the end; I'm disappointed. Instead there were tons of recaps that I simply skipped (because, duh, I saw the previous episode the same day). |
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| It's a shame that the series got derailed like this. The closure that no one asked for. :/ |
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| Eps 19,25 and 26 where trash most of the time. The rest rank from fine to super fun with some episodes focusing on its stellar comedy before Anno stopped taking part of the whole adaptation. Overall a good romcon (Ive seen better in manga, though) and why not, one of my top shoujo. |
MichaelJacksonJun 8, 2022 7:42 PM
| :v |
| I guess I'm satisfied with what we got in the last episode, more or less from what I can tell Kare Kano became an experiment in saving a show from budget cuts, so they succeeded brilliantly aside from the 3 recap episodes Still, the end point of this anime is more like a proper episode 24- I wanted to see the show end with the play within a play, dammit! I dunno why they did a gay panic imouto episode though, since they clearly had some kind of budget for that one. That was a bad decision. I'm still tempted to give it a 10 because of the quality of the emotional writing and its beauty, and because they fucked. I feel that should be an automatic 10 in the category of relationship anime. |
| The Anime had way too many problems during it's second half, and it began to slightly show. Very good? Sure. Pretentious like it's little brother, FLCL? No. The Anime was quite good, but I could notice that they ran out of budget somehow while making this. The recap episodes were probably the worst, but this one is also pretty darn bad. At least we got to see the other couple's relationship progress, in some weird non-linear way. I am just glad it ended before it became a disaster to sit through. My verdict - Very Good, could have been way better though. |
| God, sooo many people hating on Kare Kano in this thread are making me sad :-[ I honestly thought that this episode (storyboarded by Anno) was incredibly directed... The artistic choices were excellent, and the silent dialog reinforced by short offscreen commentary by Mr. Kawashima and Sakura (I believe it was her voice) really had more weight to it. The manga-like panels made the whole thing more melancholic and introspective, fitting the arc. I just can't understand what to hate here. Sure, we didn't get to see the WHOLE story, but it was wrapped up with so much love, passion and creativity that I can only applaud. The ending is literally saying that "his and her stories continue", basically saying that what we witnessed was the beginning of a new love story. Isn't it optimistic? As for me, I'm gonna read the manga to know how the things ended and to get a taste of the mangaka's style, since I got sad after learning that she had so much disagreement with Gainax about the production. Anyway, Kare Kano is the best romcom I've ever witnessed, adorable characters, incredible creative direction, superb soundtrack, true romance, great friendship, all of that toppled with Hideaki Anno's unique style, what else to wish for? It's a 10/10. It deserves it despite its shortcomings, which were only on production side anyway, meaning that they can be thought of as technical issues. |
| Looks like the story behind Anno supposedly leaving the series is really convoluted and probably not even true. Nice thread trying to clear things up: https://twitter.com/buildknuckle/status/972172006329344001?s=20 More versions can be found here: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2018-12-21/20-years-of-karekano/.141157 |
St0rmbladeNov 16, 2019 12:43 PM
| I guess I'm one of the few people who didn't mind the ending. While the animation in this episode was lacking and we didn't get closure on every plot point, I still believe it was a solid ending. I was always worried about watching this series after most fans say the quality dropped after episode 18, but I enjoyed the last few episodes. Save for the recap. It just made me realize how silly it was to rely on other fan's opinions for something like this. Though it's something I normally don't depend on anyway :v I still believe this is an amazing series that's worth watching until the end. |
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| im basically reading manga for the last episode lol..and why would they choose the ending last scene not focused about the mc couple.... i thought main male lead or atleast side chara in genre "shoujo" story all cool and make girls swoon to them,,i mean it was the main selling about shoujo manga but this arima,, way to possessive man..your girlfriend need atleast a little freedom to talk with her friend...i can a bit understand if male friend,,but he didnt even want to look her gf talking with her female friend....i sense a danger around him.. miyazawa deserve a better boyfriend...i like asaba more and his interaction with miyawaza's little sister,, well..continue to manga then |
| started off as great but the last 8 episodes or so were a CHORE to get through. too much meandering, unnecessary recaps, padding content, and not enough time dedicated to the right places. The story also goes nowhere and ends in an unsatisfactory note. I'm disappointed :( |
--PhantomJun 17, 2020 6:58 PM
| Wow so many hate votes. Literally I loved the last episode. This series was very good, really loved it. 9/10 |
| Well, at least now I know why the show isn't more popular or rated higher. I though this was a hidden gem, and for the most part it really way, but it couldn't stick the landing in the end. I will still remember parts of it fondly though. Maybe I'll read the manga one day to continue the story, but the constant recaps kind of made me fed up with the story for now... |
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