| @inim problem I have atm is so much to watch, so little time. Most of my non anime watching time, I watch other tv shows with Em, occasionally a film, but mostly tv. We're currently watching an murder mystery series from the 90's, Jonathan Creek, it's very British and of it's time (not racist or offensive, but overtly sexual, grabbing breasts etc, but in this case it's the female lead that is the one being lewd and the male is a bit shy, so he gets teased by her), non PC someone today might say. I had a couple of hours to myself last night and was desperately looking around for something to watch, spoilt for choice and had decision paralysis. Ended up watching some Castlevania Nocturne, and some eps of a murder drama set in Istanbul called The Turkish Detective, which has a good cast, and a bit different. I was going to watch Once Upon a Time in Hollywood from Tarantino, but didn't have enough time. |
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| @inim Have to get to some of those classics as well. They've been on my list for a while, just haven't dedicated the time. @23feanor I think Castlevania: Nocturne hit its stride in S2. Felt a little uneven in S1, but it really gets going when a certain vampire shows up. I have seen Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, not personally one of my favorite Tarantino movies, but a good watch. Episode 38 Last episode felt like the end to an arc in this show with everything it worked to wrap up, so I can only imagine we're going to get back to the sad in a hurry. And of course, the first task this episode is to convince Mitsuki's grandmother Fuzuki to let her go to America, and Mitsuki wants to tell her the truth this time. I'm sure this will all go smoothly. They're also planning for surgery with a professor in the US who is going to look at her threat and be involved in her surgery, so that at least gives her a different (and true) excuse for going abroad. Fuzuki is skeptical and states her opposition. Her worries are justified at least, it's a lot to hang on a new procedure especially since it's such a long trip for Mitsuki in her current state. Mitsuki tries to convince her with the possibility of saving her voice, but that just leads to a confrontation over music, Fuzuki's mortal enemy. This leads to her finding out about recordings Mitsuki has done with Prince, though not about FM. Still no new messages in the book. Meroko mentions that they literally work for fate, which seems basically accurate. She's not happy about it. Later, Mitsuki entreats her again, this time bringing her mother's having left into the conversation. Again, probably not the best choice, nor is stating that she hates Fuzuki. It's believable that she'd say this, but all it does is dredge up her Fuzuki's darkest memories. So now she resolves to take off on her own to America, but before she can leave, a bit of well-timed mail arrives to inform her that her Fuzuki was in a music conservatory. Huh, how about that. So she heads to the address of said conservatory to investigate. There, she meets with a woman who was childhood friends with Fuzuki. Fuzuki was a pianist, apparently, and met her fiancé there. Of course, it all went wrong, as he broke down under the pressure of playing to become a professional and rejected her help. He left her and the country (damn, there's being stressed and then there's leaving your fiancé to go study music in another country), so since he gave her up for music, she gave up music. More believable reason for her to have such a big problem with it, though this is another instance of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. It's not like music itself hurt her, an asshole did that. She married a decent guy later, had a child, and the rest we know. So Mitsuki can sympathize more with Fuzuki. Takuto is right that Fuzuki can't really understand Mitsuki's perspective because she doesn't know that Mitsuki only has a year left to live. She returns home shortly after Fuzuki realized her absence, searching for her in a panic having believed that Mitsuki had run away like her daughter. She quickly clarifies that she is still going to America, but not because she hates her. Then she runs off. So... I like what this episode was going for, but I wish it had been a little more thorough on that delivery at the end. Having Mitsuki say she doesn't hate Fuzuki is good and all, but she is now fully aware of Fuzuki's abandonment issues, having been left behind not once but twice over music. Coming in and saying that Mitsuki is choosing to do the same, but not out of hatred or frustration with Fuzuki, is a start but Fuzuki's collapse at the end shows that this still touches the same nerve. She still has every reason to believe she's being abandoned for similar reasons, and it's entirely plausible to her that Mitsuki might not survive the trip or the surgery if she gets it, so that's a more than valid concern. Also, I'm unclear on this, but she cannot fly with just Prince's say-so. If Fuzuki forbids it, she can be scooped up and brought back. Maybe it wasn't the time to tell Fuzuki everything and she probably wouldn't have accepted it if Mitsuki had, but leaving things only partially done like this is just going to create more problems and heartache. |
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Reply to whiteflame55
@inim Have to get to some of those classics as well. They've been on my list for a while, just haven't dedicated the time.
@23feanor I think Castlevania: Nocturne hit its stride in S2. Felt a little uneven in S1, but it really gets going when a certain vampire shows up. I have seen Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, not personally one of my favorite Tarantino movies, but a good watch.
Episode 38
Last episode felt like the end to an arc in this show with everything it worked to wrap up, so I can only imagine we're going to get back to the sad in a hurry. And of course, the first task this episode is to convince Mitsuki's grandmother Fuzuki to let her go to America, and Mitsuki wants to tell her the truth this time. I'm sure this will all go smoothly. They're also planning for surgery with a professor in the US who is going to look at her threat and be involved in her surgery, so that at least gives her a different (and true) excuse for going abroad.
Fuzuki is skeptical and states her opposition. Her worries are justified at least, it's a lot to hang on a new procedure especially since it's such a long trip for Mitsuki in her current state. Mitsuki tries to convince her with the possibility of saving her voice, but that just leads to a confrontation over music, Fuzuki's mortal enemy. This leads to her finding out about recordings Mitsuki has done with Prince, though not about FM.
Still no new messages in the book. Meroko mentions that they literally work for fate, which seems basically accurate. She's not happy about it.
Later, Mitsuki entreats her again, this time bringing her mother's having left into the conversation. Again, probably not the best choice, nor is stating that she hates Fuzuki. It's believable that she'd say this, but all it does is dredge up her Fuzuki's darkest memories. So now she resolves to take off on her own to America, but before she can leave, a bit of well-timed mail arrives to inform her that her Fuzuki was in a music conservatory. Huh, how about that. So she heads to the address of said conservatory to investigate. There, she meets with a woman who was childhood friends with Fuzuki. Fuzuki was a pianist, apparently, and met her fiancé there.
Of course, it all went wrong, as he broke down under the pressure of playing to become a professional and rejected her help. He left her and the country (damn, there's being stressed and then there's leaving your fiancé to go study music in another country), so since he gave her up for music, she gave up music. More believable reason for her to have such a big problem with it, though this is another instance of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. It's not like music itself hurt her, an asshole did that. She married a decent guy later, had a child, and the rest we know.
So Mitsuki can sympathize more with Fuzuki. Takuto is right that Fuzuki can't really understand Mitsuki's perspective because she doesn't know that Mitsuki only has a year left to live.
She returns home shortly after Fuzuki realized her absence, searching for her in a panic having believed that Mitsuki had run away like her daughter. She quickly clarifies that she is still going to America, but not because she hates her. Then she runs off.
So... I like what this episode was going for, but I wish it had been a little more thorough on that delivery at the end. Having Mitsuki say she doesn't hate Fuzuki is good and all, but she is now fully aware of Fuzuki's abandonment issues, having been left behind not once but twice over music. Coming in and saying that Mitsuki is choosing to do the same, but not out of hatred or frustration with Fuzuki, is a start but Fuzuki's collapse at the end shows that this still touches the same nerve. She still has every reason to believe she's being abandoned for similar reasons, and it's entirely plausible to her that Mitsuki might not survive the trip or the surgery if she gets it, so that's a more than valid concern. Also, I'm unclear on this, but she cannot fly with just Prince's say-so. If Fuzuki forbids it, she can be scooped up and brought back. Maybe it wasn't the time to tell Fuzuki everything and she probably wouldn't have accepted it if Mitsuki had, but leaving things only partially done like this is just going to create more problems and heartache.
@23feanor I think Castlevania: Nocturne hit its stride in S2. Felt a little uneven in S1, but it really gets going when a certain vampire shows up. I have seen Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, not personally one of my favorite Tarantino movies, but a good watch.
Episode 38
Last episode felt like the end to an arc in this show with everything it worked to wrap up, so I can only imagine we're going to get back to the sad in a hurry. And of course, the first task this episode is to convince Mitsuki's grandmother Fuzuki to let her go to America, and Mitsuki wants to tell her the truth this time. I'm sure this will all go smoothly. They're also planning for surgery with a professor in the US who is going to look at her threat and be involved in her surgery, so that at least gives her a different (and true) excuse for going abroad.
Fuzuki is skeptical and states her opposition. Her worries are justified at least, it's a lot to hang on a new procedure especially since it's such a long trip for Mitsuki in her current state. Mitsuki tries to convince her with the possibility of saving her voice, but that just leads to a confrontation over music, Fuzuki's mortal enemy. This leads to her finding out about recordings Mitsuki has done with Prince, though not about FM.
Still no new messages in the book. Meroko mentions that they literally work for fate, which seems basically accurate. She's not happy about it.
Later, Mitsuki entreats her again, this time bringing her mother's having left into the conversation. Again, probably not the best choice, nor is stating that she hates Fuzuki. It's believable that she'd say this, but all it does is dredge up her Fuzuki's darkest memories. So now she resolves to take off on her own to America, but before she can leave, a bit of well-timed mail arrives to inform her that her Fuzuki was in a music conservatory. Huh, how about that. So she heads to the address of said conservatory to investigate. There, she meets with a woman who was childhood friends with Fuzuki. Fuzuki was a pianist, apparently, and met her fiancé there.
Of course, it all went wrong, as he broke down under the pressure of playing to become a professional and rejected her help. He left her and the country (damn, there's being stressed and then there's leaving your fiancé to go study music in another country), so since he gave her up for music, she gave up music. More believable reason for her to have such a big problem with it, though this is another instance of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. It's not like music itself hurt her, an asshole did that. She married a decent guy later, had a child, and the rest we know.
So Mitsuki can sympathize more with Fuzuki. Takuto is right that Fuzuki can't really understand Mitsuki's perspective because she doesn't know that Mitsuki only has a year left to live.
She returns home shortly after Fuzuki realized her absence, searching for her in a panic having believed that Mitsuki had run away like her daughter. She quickly clarifies that she is still going to America, but not because she hates her. Then she runs off.
So... I like what this episode was going for, but I wish it had been a little more thorough on that delivery at the end. Having Mitsuki say she doesn't hate Fuzuki is good and all, but she is now fully aware of Fuzuki's abandonment issues, having been left behind not once but twice over music. Coming in and saying that Mitsuki is choosing to do the same, but not out of hatred or frustration with Fuzuki, is a start but Fuzuki's collapse at the end shows that this still touches the same nerve. She still has every reason to believe she's being abandoned for similar reasons, and it's entirely plausible to her that Mitsuki might not survive the trip or the surgery if she gets it, so that's a more than valid concern. Also, I'm unclear on this, but she cannot fly with just Prince's say-so. If Fuzuki forbids it, she can be scooped up and brought back. Maybe it wasn't the time to tell Fuzuki everything and she probably wouldn't have accepted it if Mitsuki had, but leaving things only partially done like this is just going to create more problems and heartache.
whiteflame55 said: I had some really bad years when I hit rock bottom in the 2010s. My self-prescribed "work" back then was watching movies. I took the IMDB 250 list and literally started to watch it from top to bottom. Yea, pretty insane, and not always pure delight. In 2019 to 2021 I did a similar thing for anime, you see the results. It's a mix of compulsive-obsessive, loner, and some weird drive to understand things "deeply". Kurosawa was not the biggest chore back then, it probably was Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen (2 parts, 1924) which is 4:20h of silent movie with some of the first special effects in movie history. Some of them aged not too well, lol. Fritz Lang is a genius, but I'd go with M: Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931), even compared to Metropolis (1927). M is probably the single movie which best stood the test of time I've ever seen. It invented countless cinematic standards and is really fun to watch. If you need any movie recommendations, just ping me. Indicate how willing to suffer you are in the request ;)@inim Have to get to some of those classics as well. They've been on my list for a while, just haven't dedicated the time. whiteflame55 said: Actually after Christmas, we are closer to twelve weeks of life left than to twelve months. She hasn't even a week left to waste anymore.she doesn't know that Mitsuki only has a year left to live. Oh, and I just learnt that I forgot Kurosawa's 6th entry in the top 250: High and Low (#83, 1963). I haven't done the due dilligence, but I think together with Stanley Kubrik he is the#2 director with most top 250 movies on IMDB (6 entries each). More than Alfred Hitchcock (5 entries), one less than Christopher Nolan (7 entries). OK, that much on my lousy counting skills. Here is the chatgpt generated list ... Rank Director Number of Films in Top 250 Examples of Films in the List 1 Christopher Nolan 8 Memento, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar, Oppenheimer 2 Stanley Kubrick 7 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket 2 Martin Scorsese 7 GoodFellas, Taxi Driver, The Departed, Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street 2 Steven Spielberg 7 Schindler's List, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Saving Private Ryan 5 Alfred Hitchcock 6 Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, North by Northwest 5 Akira Kurosawa 6 Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Ran, Ikiru 7 Billy Wilder 5 Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Witness for the Prosecution 7 Quentin Tarantino 5 Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Inglourious Basterds 7 Charlie Chaplin 5 City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator 10 Sergio Leone 4 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West 10 Hayao Miyazaki 4 Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro |
inimJun 3, 10:54 AM
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| @inim I had a friend at uni who used to do something similar with the film club from his film studies course (IMDB has been about since start of the internet, just learnt that). Whenever he started pontificating about various obscure directors, my eyes would start glazing over. There were more than a few people (usually guys) at uni who seemed to peg their reputation and personality around films and knowledge of films, and used this as some sort of barometer of a persons worth and intelligence, textbook pretentious uni student. I have never had any inclination to watch all the top films, although I did have for anime, and when I got around to them, have found all the top entries for the elitist anime lists very good. I have watched a good deal of older films, but mostly because they were on old terrestrial tv, which ties in to the decision paralysis I mentioned yday. We have so much choice these days, you always feel like you could be watching something better (fomo), and can spend ages just searching what to watch, rather than actually watching. Back in the day, you had some channels, and you watched what was airing at the time, it's how I watched many older films like Breakfast at Tiffanys, Good, Bad & Ugly and loads of other Westerns, 7 Year Itch, Schindlers List, Taxi Driver, Leon, Clockwork Orange, Shining, basically stuff I wouldn't have picked up if it weren't put in front of my eyeballs, but I ended up enjoying. Episode 38. I hadn't noticed before, but the OP has Mitsuki and FM with angels wings, or maybe as a shinigami. As you pointed out @inim, it's closer to 12 weeks. It's xmas now and Mitsuki has until spring, so March, not long. We learn of the unfortunate events that led grandma to intensely dislike music, believing it to be a 'demon that brings unhappiness', bit extreme and case of misdirected anger and frustration, but you can understand why she associates music with feelings of sadness and betrayal, after her fianceee and then daughter chose music over staying with her. If she'd have been a tad more open and accepting, I doubt her daughter would've had to make such a choice, but irrational feelings of abandonment are, irrational. I agree with Takuto, and think Mitsuki needs to tell her grandma how much time she has left and why music is so important to her, then maybe they can make the most of the little time they have together. Although the grandma may try and lock her up. Mitsuki returns home to tell her grandma she doesn't really hate her, but she's going to America anyway and hopes she can listen to her songs one day. No idea how Mitsuki is going to make it to America without her permission (judging from the trailer they make it there ok, so wasn't an issue in the end). What I found sad was the grandma at the end, who isn't happy that Mitsuki returned because she didn't want to leave having her grandma think she hated her, no, she's preoccupied with how music has taken everything and everyone away from her. A lonely old lady wallowing in her grief and apportioning blame where it doesn't belong. Yes first fiancee chose music over her, but as @whiteflame55 said, says more about him being an asshole than about music being a devil that makes people sad. Hazuki chose her man, who was a musician, over her mum, because Fuzuki wouldn't accept him, because of his music. That's her hangup. She died during childbirth, which is sad, but not down to music, or Mitsuki's dad. |
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| @inim One of these days, I'll have to at least start going through some of the top lists for movies generally. Most of my watches in those groupings have been the result of my parents going out of their way to give me some real culture in the form of movies like Casablanca and Annie Hall (both of which I loved), so I owe it to them for getting me interested in these movies. I'll have to some of those 20's and 30's entries at some point, though I'll probably avoid Die Nibelungen. Sounds like it may not be worth the effort. And yes, I'll be happy to get some suggestions after I get through a few of the ones you've already listed. Kurosawa is a deep enough well for now. Also, guess I'm not surprised by the number of films from each director on that list. I've certainly seen a number of films by the big names you've listed, though there are some glaring gaps. Really have to watch more Hitchcock, Leone, Wilder and Chaplin. Episode 39 Yep, seems that somehow Mitsuki's being allowed to fly. It's implied that her grandmother approved begrudgingly, though given the events of last episode, I find that hard to believe. They arrive and meet Kazumi, her husband and child before heading out to LA. There's mention of Eichi being in Arizona I believe. I guess Kazumi never checked to see if this was actually him or if he'd be receptive to seeing them? Little strange. Takuto's pretty torn about all this given his own feelings towards Mitsuki and Meroko's bummed that he's so focused on Mitsuki and not her. They do some reminiscing about a Christmas party, apparently the one where Eichi announced he was leaving. She regrets not being able to say she loved him then. They meet the doctor behind this new surgery, Herberd. He recommends she do the surgery and we even see a success case. Lot of reason to be hopeful, but nothing appears in the book even now. We get some rollerblading on the beach, some time at a fair, and celebrate the new year. Mitsuki remains focused on what she didn't say to Eichi, who felt he'd burdened her in their last days together with his feelings. Soon to be rectified. |
whiteflame55Jun 5, 9:59 AM
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| Episode 39. During the intro they mention something about Mitsuki's actions conveying her feelings to her grandma, and imply this must be why she let Mitsuki go. So I don't think they needed her permission per se, but more that as her legal guardian, she could've stopped Mitsuki leaving the country if she wished. But she evidently chose not to. We finally get a lead on Eichi, someone who knows his adoptive family lives in Roslin city near a lake in Nevada. So it's not actually Eichi's location, but someone who can point them in the right direction. I've heard of Nan Madal and Lemuria, but not the long lost continent of Mu, had to look that one up. Basically a mythical continent and lost civilisation in the Pacific. A 6 year age gap is quite a lot for a young romance. You don't usually get 16 y/o's and 10 y/o's falling for each other, a 10 y/o having a crush on an older boy/girl yes, but it's weird for it to be reciprocated. Why didn't the writer make Eichi a bit younger, say 13 or 14, or Mitsuki a year or two older. Coz now you've got a 12 y/o Mitsuki and 18 y/o Eichi, which is inappropriate, a fact non of the adults mention, although not sure if Wakaouji and Ooshige know Eichi's age. Seeing a 16 y/o Eichi tell 10 y/o Mitsuki 'i love you', and appear to mean it in a romantic way, just gives me the ick, apologies for the horrible modern vernacular but it fits here. Sounds like the surgery is proven so far, and Herberd says they are welcome to get an introduction to the hospital anytime. So she's not booked for surgery yet, but it appears that it could work if she choses to go ahead with it. NR's little pink book showing no warning indicate that, as of now, Mitsuki still won't survive, and they'll get to collect her soul as scheduled. Takuto has decided how he feels about Mitsuki, and yeah he likes her (again with the falling in love with such a young girl, but this is written for an audience of young girls, who want older guys to fall in love with them, so I do get it, just don't like it, found it equally weird in Negima, who is 10 but has a whole harem). So I really hope he doesn't turn out to be the reincarnation of her dad. A lot of the ep is Mitsuki regretting that she couldn't tell Eichi how she felt about him before he left, especially after he told her he loved her and wanted to be by her side forever. She resolves to tell him how she feels when they next meet. |
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| @23feanor I hadn't heard of Nan Madal, Lemuria or Mu, interesting to look them up. And yeah, the age difference is still weird, particularly given that he reciprocates her feelings. Maybe he meant something different in his "I love you," as I know there are multiple ways to say that and different meanings in Japanese, but I don't think that's in play here. Episode 40 Time to head out to find Eichi. Takuto seems particularly down about it, knowing his feelings for Mitsuki won't be requited. Still ew. They go sightseeing en route (fun to see Meroko play a bit of tour guide with an extensive knowledge of a canyon) and run into a gang of pickpockets, one of whom takes Mitsuki's pendant. Considering how important it is to her, Mitsuki teams up with Takuto to find it, staying down in the canyon past the point that she can return on the tram. Everyone misses their bus and a park ranger rappels down to get Mitsuki (nice guy, almost gets tackled by Takuto in human form, lets them stay the night in his cabin). She eventually shrugs off the lost pendant, saying she'll see Eichi again soon. Always resilient. Mitsuki and Takuto end up having a heart-to-heart where she tells him how much she appreciates everything he's done for her. However, he cannot express his own feelings and just gets angry. On brand for him. The following morning, they end up finding the dude who stole her pendant because the idiot just wears it openly. Also, he apparently has a warrant out for his arrest. They corner him and he throws the pendant into a canyon. Takuto jumps in after it (I don't know why Mitsuki's worried, he can fly), dude gets decked by the ranger. Mitsuki chews him out for making her worry (again, not sure why she was), and he reflexively tells her he likes her in response. Meroko flies in at this moment and hears his declaration. So that will go well. |
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| @whiteflame55 I've been following Ancient Aliens and alike for years so am familiar with all the old stone ruins around the world, but hadn't heard of Mu. There was a really insightful documentary on Netflix recently, Ancient Apocalypse with Graham Hancock, which explored all the issues around pre ice age history and why mainstream archaeologists steer clear from ancient stone sites which can't be dated. Not sure if it aliens (I mean it could've been in the far past) or a lost civilisation, but there's lots of lost history that we don't know, likely a lot of it under the sea. I had the same thought about Eichi's 'i love you', but he followed it up with 'i want to stay by your side forever', a stock Japanese phrase to mean I want to be your life long lover and partner, and implies marriage. I guess my issue arises from the fact 16 y/o boys are at an age where sex and sexual attraction factors in, whilst 10 y/o girls aren't sexually active yet and still in the unicorns and rainbow phase, with the change coming around 12 y/o into pubescent girls. The idea of a 16 y/o me trying to date a 10 y/o girl is all sorts of wrong. Just make Eichi a couple of years younger and it's not so much of an issue, the author screwed up there. Cardcaptor Sakura did it right, exploring Sakura's feelings for the older Yukito (ie a crush or infatuation) in a very mature and sensible way, that makes sense. No other show that I've seen has come close to that level of sophisticated writing around the subject of young love. Episode 40. Only one cour to go after this ep! I just find it hard to buy into Takuto's feelings for Mitsuki. What might've been more interesting is if Takuto fell for the older looking FM, or Mitsuki when she was FM, but not Mitsuki herself, being you know, 12 y/o and a moonstruck kid in love with some guy. And Takuto lives with Mitsuki, so he sees all of her childish side. If Mitsuki was aged up to say Usagi's age from Sailor Moon (14 y/o), this would've worked a whole lot better for me. This was the first ep that didn't feel like fun antics, but as if the show is stalling for time now we're getting nearer to the final stage. Mitsuki thanks Takuto for always being by her side and helping her, and mentions the fact he always gets angry when she mentions Eichi. It's like the author is writing from the point of view of a 10 or 12 y/o girl 'oh wouldn't it be wonderful if an older guy fell in love with me', and Mitsuki has 2 older guys who like her. But there's issues with that, which would be apparent to the writer, and to any girl who grows up and realises 'wait a minute, an older guy falling for such a young girl isn't a good thing', but it's portrayed as normal and ok, even desirable, here. And yeah, why is Mitsuki worried when she knows Takuto can fly. Forced melodrama. And then Mitsuki berates Takuto for worrying her (baka, baka, baka.....), and he ends up confessing that he likes her (romantically), at which point Meroko comes along and hears his confession. Didn't feel this ep, came over as forced and like the show is dragging things out. |
23feanorJun 6, 3:18 AM
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| When Mitsuki draws Eichi's (or her own?) words into the sand in the dream/memory sequence, they are すき (suki). This is on the lower end of the Japanese "I love you" scale. |
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| @23feanor Ancient ruins is not a rabbit hole I've gone down (especially as they relate to aliens, though I've watched a few videos on ruin architecture), but one I'd be interested in exploring in more detail. And yeah, it's always going to weird me out to have a relationship like the one between Mitsuki and Eichi, and that especially goes for her relationship with Takuto. No matter who he ends up being, an X-year-old older male death god having romantic interest in a 12-year-old girl is not exactly kosher. I get that he can't help his feelings and that this isn't going anywhere physically (my theory right now is that he's mistaking his feelings of paternal affection for romantic love and just isn't aware of the difference atm), but it's still frustrating to watch and creates a weird love triangle with Meroko that doesn't really serve the series well, not to mention leaving Meroko feeling jilted which I cannot abide. Episode 41 Unusually, they rehash the ending of last episode for the first few minutes of this one. Guess they really want to remind us of this emotional beat. Mitsuki immediately undercuts this tension by putting his declaration in the context of a close friendship. Good on you Mitsuki, even if that's not how he meant it. He lets her believe that narrative, though it's clear that Meroko got his meaning. The person who is supposed to connect them to Eichi isn't around, so the living gang goes searching for clues in town. No one seems to know Eichi. Meanwhile, Takuto shuts down while Meroko tries to help him bounce back. He does resolve to help find Eichi, if only so that he can put his feelings behind him, though that's not likely to grant him solace. Mitsuki collapses mid-search. It looks like she was just exhausted. She realizes what Takuto was actually saying, but she cannot reciprocate his feelings. She pushes herself to see the stars for some reason (I guess she sees them as her connection to Eichi, doesn't make a lot of sense that she thinks Eichi doesn't want to see her just because she currently can't find him). Meroko rightly tells her to get a grip and have some faith in both finding Eichi and having him want to see her. Oshige finds an opportunity to track down their lead at a conveniently timed Japan Festival and take a short boat trip to a small town where Eichi lives. It's nice to see Meroko being so caring about Takuto's feelings and asking him about them rather than trying to manipulate him like she would have at the start of the series. She also discovers from the book that Eichi is somehow going to hasten Mitsuki's death. Minor quibble: why didn't the book show this up to now? Seems like she was on a collision course to meet with Eichi as soon as she took the flight to the US, so why did it wait until she was on a boat headed to his town to warn Meroko about the threat to her life? Very particular timing that prevents meaningful discussion or preparation. Anyway, Takuto scouts ahead of the ship. He finds he way to Eichi's room and is immediately assaulted by an oppressive feeling of death. He finds Eichi's parents and, sadly, a shrine to their dead son. Guess that reunion isn't happening. Maybe the timing of his death added the entry to the book? I understand why this would hasten Mitsuki's death, since this is bound to send her spiraling. |
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Reply to whiteflame55
@23feanor Ancient ruins is not a rabbit hole I've gone down (especially as they relate to aliens, though I've watched a few videos on ruin architecture), but one I'd be interested in exploring in more detail.
And yeah, it's always going to weird me out to have a relationship like the one between Mitsuki and Eichi, and that especially goes for her relationship with Takuto. No matter who he ends up being, an X-year-old older male death god having romantic interest in a 12-year-old girl is not exactly kosher. I get that he can't help his feelings and that this isn't going anywhere physically (my theory right now is that he's mistaking his feelings of paternal affection for romantic love and just isn't aware of the difference atm), but it's still frustrating to watch and creates a weird love triangle with Meroko that doesn't really serve the series well, not to mention leaving Meroko feeling jilted which I cannot abide.
Episode 41
Unusually, they rehash the ending of last episode for the first few minutes of this one. Guess they really want to remind us of this emotional beat.
Mitsuki immediately undercuts this tension by putting his declaration in the context of a close friendship. Good on you Mitsuki, even if that's not how he meant it. He lets her believe that narrative, though it's clear that Meroko got his meaning.
The person who is supposed to connect them to Eichi isn't around, so the living gang goes searching for clues in town. No one seems to know Eichi. Meanwhile, Takuto shuts down while Meroko tries to help him bounce back. He does resolve to help find Eichi, if only so that he can put his feelings behind him, though that's not likely to grant him solace.
Mitsuki collapses mid-search. It looks like she was just exhausted. She realizes what Takuto was actually saying, but she cannot reciprocate his feelings. She pushes herself to see the stars for some reason (I guess she sees them as her connection to Eichi, doesn't make a lot of sense that she thinks Eichi doesn't want to see her just because she currently can't find him). Meroko rightly tells her to get a grip and have some faith in both finding Eichi and having him want to see her.
Oshige finds an opportunity to track down their lead at a conveniently timed Japan Festival and take a short boat trip to a small town where Eichi lives. It's nice to see Meroko being so caring about Takuto's feelings and asking him about them rather than trying to manipulate him like she would have at the start of the series. She also discovers from the book that Eichi is somehow going to hasten Mitsuki's death. Minor quibble: why didn't the book show this up to now? Seems like she was on a collision course to meet with Eichi as soon as she took the flight to the US, so why did it wait until she was on a boat headed to his town to warn Meroko about the threat to her life? Very particular timing that prevents meaningful discussion or preparation.
Anyway, Takuto scouts ahead of the ship. He finds he way to Eichi's room and is immediately assaulted by an oppressive feeling of death. He finds Eichi's parents and, sadly, a shrine to their dead son. Guess that reunion isn't happening. Maybe the timing of his death added the entry to the book? I understand why this would hasten Mitsuki's death, since this is bound to send her spiraling.
And yeah, it's always going to weird me out to have a relationship like the one between Mitsuki and Eichi, and that especially goes for her relationship with Takuto. No matter who he ends up being, an X-year-old older male death god having romantic interest in a 12-year-old girl is not exactly kosher. I get that he can't help his feelings and that this isn't going anywhere physically (my theory right now is that he's mistaking his feelings of paternal affection for romantic love and just isn't aware of the difference atm), but it's still frustrating to watch and creates a weird love triangle with Meroko that doesn't really serve the series well, not to mention leaving Meroko feeling jilted which I cannot abide.
Episode 41
Unusually, they rehash the ending of last episode for the first few minutes of this one. Guess they really want to remind us of this emotional beat.
Mitsuki immediately undercuts this tension by putting his declaration in the context of a close friendship. Good on you Mitsuki, even if that's not how he meant it. He lets her believe that narrative, though it's clear that Meroko got his meaning.
The person who is supposed to connect them to Eichi isn't around, so the living gang goes searching for clues in town. No one seems to know Eichi. Meanwhile, Takuto shuts down while Meroko tries to help him bounce back. He does resolve to help find Eichi, if only so that he can put his feelings behind him, though that's not likely to grant him solace.
Mitsuki collapses mid-search. It looks like she was just exhausted. She realizes what Takuto was actually saying, but she cannot reciprocate his feelings. She pushes herself to see the stars for some reason (I guess she sees them as her connection to Eichi, doesn't make a lot of sense that she thinks Eichi doesn't want to see her just because she currently can't find him). Meroko rightly tells her to get a grip and have some faith in both finding Eichi and having him want to see her.
Oshige finds an opportunity to track down their lead at a conveniently timed Japan Festival and take a short boat trip to a small town where Eichi lives. It's nice to see Meroko being so caring about Takuto's feelings and asking him about them rather than trying to manipulate him like she would have at the start of the series. She also discovers from the book that Eichi is somehow going to hasten Mitsuki's death. Minor quibble: why didn't the book show this up to now? Seems like she was on a collision course to meet with Eichi as soon as she took the flight to the US, so why did it wait until she was on a boat headed to his town to warn Meroko about the threat to her life? Very particular timing that prevents meaningful discussion or preparation.
Anyway, Takuto scouts ahead of the ship. He finds he way to Eichi's room and is immediately assaulted by an oppressive feeling of death. He finds Eichi's parents and, sadly, a shrine to their dead son. Guess that reunion isn't happening. Maybe the timing of his death added the entry to the book? I understand why this would hasten Mitsuki's death, since this is bound to send her spiraling.
whiteflame55 said: Pacing pacing über alles, tehehe. Of course they could show a week's search, with a little luck with some help by the local police and bureaucracy. Every director comes to points where boring things happen, and how well those little plot conveniences become visible is part of the craft. In FMwS, they in my opinion handle plot speedups well but are not the least trying to hide them. track down their lead at a conveniently timed Japan Festival |
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| @inim I think the pacing, overall, has been pretty good so far. That was the first ep (ep 40) where I felt the show was actively trying to drag the plot out. @whiteflame55 I was hoping it was Takuto mistaking paternal feelings for romantic ones, but I don't think so now. If there was a brother in the picture I would be certain that Takuto was the brother, but there isn't one. Given the revelation of Eichi's death this ep, could Takuto be Eichi maybe, but that makes his jealousy over Eichi a bit pointless, although ofc Takuto wouldn't know he's Eichi, until and unless he regains his memories (we saw something about being a musician and Eichi wasn't a musician from what we know). I agree, the love triangle Meroko>Takuto>Mitsuki hasn't worked well for the balance of the show. It feels like the writers included Takuto's feelings for Mitsuki (and Meroko's feelings for Takuto, and hence the lacklustre love triangle) to give the show some romance, as without Eichi present, there really isn't any. Episode 41. Mitsuki purposefully misunderstands the meaning behind Takuto's confession, replying that she likes him as an important friend also. Takuto starts to correct her, but ends up mumbling his agreement that he's just her friend. Poor Meroko, she can see Takuto really likes Mitsuki and is acting like a sulking kid after being rejected, so tries to cheer him up. It is a tad convenient for the plot that Eichi's name suddenly appears in the book now. And then the hammer falls, Eichi is already dead. I had an minor spoiler for Eichi's death about half way through the series from a youtube comment (either on an ep or music video for one of the EDs), it just said something like it was sad that Mitsuki never got to speak to Eichi again, which sounded ominous. Even without the spoiler, the fact that we haven't seen anything of Eichi was becoming more and more conspicuous as the series went on. How will Mitsuki take the news, not well, but how badly will it affect her health and maybe hasten her demise? |
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| @23feanor yea, curse the cutter of the #1 youtube video search hit who cut in this major spoiler, and many more. Don't watch that AMV unless you want to be spoilered. I was really low-key by my standards and tried not to reveal anything, because this show is one of those where spoilers really hurt the enjoyment plenty. But rest assured, there are a few more surprises down the road and the grande finale itself. And I agree episode 40 is filler. Episode 39-41 The cat is out of the bag, Eichi died in 2000 at age 16, very shortly after he had left Japan as can be seen by his tombstone (see episode 42 or that dreaded fan-AMV of "Eternal Snow"). There's massive foreshadowing in episode 39, mainly in the beach/pendant scene. There are many more dream/memory scenes, which visually are marked by using overexposure. In the scene where Mitsuki recalls her last christmas with Eichi, this is done to a degree where all facial expression is so overexposed you can't read the faces anymore. Cheap but effective technique. The beach scene is almost like his ghost saying farewell to Mitsuki, just rewatch it with the knowledge he is dead. The other development is Shinigami-Jesus supressing his growing love to Mitsuki. We can discuss the age gap later, too spoilery still. But yea, I really hope 12 year old girls really like older men that much, but given it is a shoujo probably yes. Let's call it infatuation to be safe. There's more foreshadowng here, when Mitsuki wins a cat (sic!) doll at the fairground, followed by another Takuto monologue. And of course the confession scene in the canyon, saved by the Queen of Friendzoning only very unconvincingly. In the end we now have a resolved love triangle of a twelve year old with two dead people, of which Eichi is is "more dead" than Takutko. With the fomer out of the race, a solution was possible if only it wasn't forbidden love. With this change, will Takutko be able to keep supressing his feelings? Which was his solution and after many internal struggles he gave in, but never felt well about it. |
inimJun 7, 7:47 AM
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| @inim that was the one, that AMV of Eternal Snow. One of those times your eyes automatically starts reading something and then your brain kicks in a moment later, recognising that the content is spoiler territory and you rip you eyes away from the text, but too late. Same thing happened to me with the ending of Code Geass, although that spoiler was posted in the first line of a mal review! I think both younger boys and girls of ~12 y/o have crushes on older guys/girls, but only older teens, maybe early 20's. If Takuto isn't the dad, or Eichi who we now know is dead, then I'm struggling to think who he could be, that we've met, or know about. Will be interesting to see his identity revealed. See you've been watching Hakumei & Mikochi, lovely little show, very relaxing, @filifjonkan recommended it to me years ago. I picked up the special the other week, something about drinking and gambling and sitting inside when the weathers bad. |
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| @23feanor @inim I'll admit, I had a feeling she wouldn't get to see Eichi for some reason and the complete lack of contact by him raised some concerns, though I wasn't spoiled for this one (I specifically avoid comments sections and AMVs like this, been spoiled for so many shows through those) so I could see a chance that this was the result of something else like a prolonged, debilitating illness. Death will do it, of course. Lots of little bits of foreshadowing looking back through as @inim pointed out. And yeah, while it's possible now, I don't think it's likely Takuto is Eichi since he remembers being a singer. Still think he's her father. And... yeah, kind of absurd that both of Mistuki's love interests are dead, with one a Shinigami and the just gone. Love triangle's buried in the ground. Not sure how NR can delay, let alone avoid entirely, Mitsuki's revelation of Eichi's death. That's going to be a real spirit breaker. She's hinged so much of what she does on reaching him. My money's on him making an appearance at some point either as a ghost or a Shinigami. Episode 42 I'm unclear on who this couple is, but Eichi died with his parents in an accident. And this was approximately two years ago given that he died at 16, so are they sitting here crying because it's the anniversary of their deaths? I initially thought it was odd that no one local had seen this in the newspapers or that their single contact knew nothing about his death, but since it was a while ago and the remainder of his family seems to have largely kept to themselves afterward, I suppose it's not out of the realm of possibility. And yep, Takuto knows just how devastating this will be for Mitsuki. He slows their progress by giving them a flat tire. He tells Mitsuki they have to turn around without explanation, which he has to know won't work. All it does is make her obstinate. He tries to skirt around saying it, but it's understandable that she thinks this is just part of his pattern when she mentions Eichi. Mitsuki arrives, meets the couple at the house (who are his adoptive grandparents), and learns that Eichi died in a car accident. Eichi left a message for Mitsuki, one that assumed he would still be alive to send it because he did not provide any means to get this to her (it just says "to Mitsuki," but I guess if a girl named Mitsuki shows up at your house looking for Eichi, it must be her). As the reality of his death sinks in, Mitsuki's coughing worsens and she's put to bed... in Eichi's room. Damn. So of course she leaves that room and wanders out into the snow with the letter. She eventually opens it, and the latter confirms his love for her, but also says he doesn't plan to send it (guess that's why it says "to Mitsuki" on it), so I guess this was more of a journal entry detailing his thoughts and hopes. And yeah, it's a lot for Mitsuki to take. She stumbles upon a church and a graveyard. And yeah, this is where that scene from the video @inim posted earlier comes in because she finds his gravestone and collapses on top of it. Yeah, it's a bit heavy-handed, but it really hammers home just how hard this loss hits for her, as Eichi is now impossible to reach and the drive for her singing is gone along, apparently, with her will to continue living. That's dark. |
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| Episode 42. 10 eps left, so there's more to tell after Eichi's death, will Mitsuki continue being FM and sing, guessing we're taking this story to her eventual death, will Takuto be able to reap her soul and continue to be a shingami. @whiteflame55 I also wondered why this couple, who we now know are the adoptive grandparents, were randomly sitting there crying, ofc for plot reasons, but was it an anniversary, or have they been crying for 2 years, which would be very sad and despairing. Mitsuki finally hears the news, collapses, is laid in Eichi's bed, then walks out into the snow to read his letter and collapse on his grave. The tragic side of shoujo on full display here, it did tug at the heart strings, but was a bit over the top, but then that's a large part of the shoujo writing style. But then, I'm a sucker for the overblown melodramatic side of shoujo anime and the grave scene was a bit of a tearjerker 'Eichi, come and take me already.....', poor Mitsuki. What I find really weird, is that the pic of Eichi and Mitsuki that we've seen countless times, and he has on his desk when he's writing the letter to Mitsuki, with him standing over her shoulder, makes the age gap so very apparent. She looks like a very young kid with pigtails, she could almost be his daughter, or younger sister. How can any guy over 12 look at that picture of a young girl and have romantic feelings swell within them. Wrong on so many levels. So, where does the story go next, will Mitsuki sing again, will she reconnect with grandma, what about NR shinigami duties, not forgetting Izumi and Jonathan, and will Takuto be able to collect her soul given his feelings, and who is Takuto? Plus does the Wakaouji x Ooshige ship set sail? Stay tuned to find out! |
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| Episode 43 They're on a plane back to Japan having found Mitsuki. God, that thousand yard stare on Mitsuki's face is just devastating. This is a girl whose ability to bounce back has been almost boundless, but this has clearly broken her in a way even her revelation of her one year lifespan didn't. So obviously, Fuzuki's furious, since she didn't want her to go in the first place, and refuses their help and support, even dismissing Prince as her doctor and the hospital itself, which is... certainly a choice. That seems like going too far, even if she mistrusts them. And yeah, going to a new hospital with a new doctor and seeking more test results is time-consuming and exhausting. Later, she tries yet another hospital, and I'm unclear what the aim is at this point. What does she hope to accomplish by getting yet another opinion? Mitsuki says she won't sing again and agrees to be obedient. All she can do is stare at that poster she got from Eichi, and still, his name remains in the book, suggesting that her life will end early because of all this. Izumi chooses to step in at this point and blackmail NR into taking her life ASAP because he's a jerk as always. I know he genuinely doesn't care about Mitsuki and is only doing this with the aim of getting Meroko back, but that's still dark. "Just kill that child already." Oshige's in a tough spot given FM is now MIA and missing shows, ending up taking the responsibility. Prince comes to her aid, helping her shoulder the burden. They want to not just help FM in her career, but help Mitsuki when her heart is broken. Yeah, I can easily see these two ending up together. NR decide to encourage Mitsuki to sing without telling Prince and Oshige that she's decided not to do so. I agree that she may find a reason to sing again, but a lot of her reason for singing was specifically tied up in trying to reach Eichi. Her desires and drive are just drained from her, something Fuzuki recognizes, but is ill-equipped to address since she just keeps reinforcing the anti-music perspective. Eventually, her new doctor resolves to pursue surgery. Despite everything, Mitsuki refuses since it will harm her vocal cords, uncaring about what happens to the rest of her life but valuing the one thing she has left, even if she only wants to use it in the abstract to reach someone who is beyond her now. She's even lost the will to transform into FM, rendering Takuto's efforts powerless. Still, he can't stand to let this go, refusing to let her give up music entirely, briefly recalling his past on stage. In the end, Fuzuki's efforts lead her back to Prince and the American procedure. New ED is more somber, suits the new tone. |
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| Episode 43. I suppose from the grandma's view they were supposed to go to America for the surgery, not chase after some boy and Mitsuki's dreams of singing to find him. Wakaouji and Ooshige bear the brunt of her anger. Ooshige must've known the day was coming when FM wouldn't be able to make appearances anymore, and she would have to make up some excuse as FM would essentially disappear when Mitsuki dies (suppose they could've planned ahead and done a farewell messgae by video in readiness, saying she got sick or something and has had to retire). But it's happened sooner than expected and now she's fumbling for a reason why FM isn't keeping her schedule. You feel for her saying she wanted to be there for Mitsuki as a young girl going through this traumatic experience and trying to live out her remaining days searching for love, not just as FM's manager. Most of this ep is about Mitsuki having lost the will to live and carry on, not wanting to sing, not eating, not doing anything. After visiting some new doctors, she's told she should have the surgery, but she still wants to keep her voice, and says it doesn't matter anymore. I wonder if grandma knows what happened in America, I'm assuming she does as Wakaouji said he called her before they landed. Takuto gets some fragments of his human life and singing flash back to him. Bits like that make me think Takuto could be the dad, but if so then it was a really poor decision from the show writers to try and foster romantic tension between Mitsuki and him. Grandma is told that Wakaouji is the foremost consultant in the field, which she already knew. Will Mitsuki find a new reason to sing, maybe to reach Eichi in heaven with her songs? Looks like we've got Madoka incoming next ep, although she doesn't know Mitsuki is FM, but thinks Mitsuki is a fan of hers iirc. |
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| Episode 44 Looks like Madoka of all people may be the only one who can get FM back in the game. Quite the shift for her character, but it makes sense at this point: it's only because Mitsuki was there to support her that Madoka got out of her own rut. Circumstances are clearly different here, but there's still a similar sentiment. It is still so depressing to see Mitsuki like this. After 40+ episodes of seeing her be a ray of sunshine in dark times, this depression hits all the harder. I commend the series writers for setting us up so well for this fall. It's hard to watch her like this, but that's the point: it's hard for everyone around her. Fuzuki has clearly softened in her worry. Madoka breaks and enters into Mitsuki's property and barges into her room, noticing immediately that something's wrong. She tries to impart both how Mitsuki and FM have been so important to her own development and aims. Mitsuki tells her FM is gone, which of course Madoka cannot understand, before succumbing to a coughing fit. Everyone accompanies her to the hospital, this time the Prince's hospital, where Fuzuki said she would never return. NR is put into a really confusing situation: they want to keep Mitsuki alive despite her clearly being so lost, but only so long as she's supposed to live. A strange position for death gods to be in, but Takuto is adamant that they need to bring back Mitsuki's will to live while Meroko believes she's just living in emotional and physical agony just to die on an appointed day. Both have good points. Madoka and Fuzuki talk and the latter learns of how Mitsuki helped Madoka believe in herself and her music. I didn't expect these two to talk, but this is an interesting way to circumvent Fuzuki's hang-ups about music: Madoka had her own fears and wanted to leave music behind like Fuzuki did, but Mitsuki helped her find her voice and a reason to keep going. Fuzuki would probably have dismissed this not too long ago, but she's seen how Mitsuki despaired at losing her own voice and how, for reasons she doesn't yet know, Mitsuki has lost her will to live in part due to a severed connection to music. I find it entirely believable that she'd come around in this moment and want to hear Mitsuki sing, to bring back what made her granddaughter so vibrant despite her illness. Prince resolves not just to perform the necessary surgery (trying to use their limited facilities to both save her life and her voice) as well as bring back her will to live. Big demands on him. Takuto gets more flashes of his life. They suggest that he had something wrong with his throat and that, in a moment of frustration borne of being laughed offstage, he drove his motorcycle recklessly and died in an accident. He clearly didn't want to die, and now he's terrified by that recollection, leading him to lash out at Meroko. The asshole Izumi is ready to receive her in her pain and uncertainty, offering to end Mitsuki's life for her. |
whiteflame55Jun 10, 5:48 AM
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| Episode 44. @whiteflame55 I agree, the show writers have done a good job setting up this scenario, we've had cheery and bubbly Mitsuki all this time, despite knowing NR were here to collect her soul. As long as she could sing, and hopefully attract Eichi's attention, she was happy. Now all that has gone, there's nothing to live for, and it hits hard seeing Mitsuki in such a position. Had minor surgery this morning and finding it hard to type so going to keep this very brief. I also think using Madoka to bring grandma round to see how important singing is for Mitsuki was a good move. Takuto regains some memories of his life and death and pushes Meroko away leading to her seeking out Izumi! |
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| @23feanor I hope you recover well from your surgery, glad it was only minor! Episode 45 Mitsuki wakes up to see her grandmother asleep by her bedside and Izumi standing over her, offering to take her life so she can see Eichi again, as if he's doing this because it's a mercy. I guess before that, though, he has to walk her around the hospital. Izumi tells her a story from African folklore about a rabbit that was banished to the moon where a rabbit was told by god to give humans eternal life, but the rabbit refused, believing that humans were meant to die, and was sealed on the moon for their trouble. Not hard to put the pieces together here: Meroko may not be that rabbit herself, but she is a Shinigami assigned this task and agrees Mitsuki should die, viewing it as a way to spare her pain. Takuto remembers more of his life and we see a short scene of him meeting Mitsuki's mother and him in the studio with Prince. So yeah, that pretty much confirms it: he's Mitsuki's father, so just ew to all his romantic affection for her. He explains this away as his having "met someone important again," though that doesn't help his case. Also, his name in life was Takuto and no one thought to make the connection!? What's the deal with that? Like Mitsuki, he had some medical problem that led him to losing his voice and, as I said last episode, recklessly drove his motorcycle to his end. Exactly how much of his life does he have to recall before he turns into a ghost? Seems like a lot already. Now his aim is to ensure that Mitsuki doesn't die with regret as he did. Fuzuki goes after Mitsuki while Izumi tells another story about the moon, its phases, and the eternity it represents. It's with this that his plot becomes clear: he's trying to get her to the roof so she can commit suicide and he can harvest her soul. He even projects images of her parents and Eichi speaking to her on a reflection of the moon. He's more of an asshole than I thought, goading her into jumping off the roof. Fuzuki barely arrives in time to stop her, though Mitsuki doesn't recognize her at first. Fuzuki breaks down, begging her to step back from the edge. But Izumi, who is just the worst, gives her a little push off the roof with a sudden gust of wind. Fuzuki barely reacts fast enough to save her... but then slips and falls off the roof herself. Luckily, Takuto arrives and saves her mid-fall. Meroko shows up and admits that she asked Izumi for help (she certainly didn't ask for this, but still, bad move), pushes back on his methods and apologizes. Mitsuki does seem to have come around a bit emotionally from all this, realizing that there are people who will fight for her to survive and thrive. Izumi has one last push to give, this one to Takuto: his full name, and perhaps enough to turn him into a ghost. Side-note: would this really be so bad? We've seen Jonathan several times and, sure, he has a different form, but that doesn't seem to hinder his ability to interact with others or spend time in the human world. Not sure how serious the threat of his turning into a ghost is, really. |
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| @whiteflame55 thanks, it's only a minor thing but still takes a couple of days to recover, not helped by boisterous kids. It's hard to sit up and write so keeping it short again. Episode 45. I don't think Takuto is Mitsuki's dad, he was one of the bands members along with Mitsuki's dad, as he says at one point (14.20 on the youtube vid) that Wakaouji, Aoi (Mitsuki's dad) and I were in a band together. He was the singer, Prince on keyboard and Aoi on guitar. Given what Meroko and Izumi have said previously, you'd think that Takuto would turn into a ghost already. Izumi later says that as Takuto has remembered his past he will turn into a ghost, so looks like that'll happen at some point. Touching seeing grandma tell Mitsuki she doesn't want her to die. So we finally get Takuto's full name, Kira Takuto, a member of Route L. Ok, so he's not Mitsuki's father, but he's the same age as her father, and an adult. He did say something about Mitsuki being an important person, and he was treated like a little brother in Route L, but the show made it abundantly clear he had romantic feelings, even kissing her one time when she was FM, although it was cpr iirc. |
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| @23feanor Hopefully you're still able to recover alright in spite of it all! Also, yeah, clearly missed that Takuto is not Mitsuki's father, but close enough that it's still weird. Episode 46 So, yeah, Takuto's in a bad spot now that his memories are mostly back. Turns out, Izumi assigned NR to Mizuki, so he knew what he was doing, which makes him even more cruel than I thought. He claims that Meroko betrayed Takuto, but that's some BS. Meroko coming to him in her depression and uncertainty and seeking some way to address what she thought was an intractable problem is not a betrayal, especially given how Takuto was pushing her away at the time. Takuto and Izumi fight for a while, with Takuto seeing his returned memories as proof that he was alive. Izumi leaves, saying that Takuto will be a ghost before long. Then we get the discussion over Mitsuki singing again. Takuto argues that she wants to sing and that Eichi would be disappointed in her if she didn't, but Mitsuki continues to deny that there's any point to her singing again. What works instead is Takuto's experience from life, his memories about the tumor in his own throat. When he couldn't sing, even going solo, he lost his will to live. The motorcycle accident was an attempt to physically escape from that reality. We meet a new shinigami, this one with long hair and a cloak with a hood covering much of his face. During the course of this, a cloud of black swirls around Takuto, presumably taking away his shinigami form as he continues to remember. Still, he persists, telling Mitsuki about the time he played with Route L, how Eternal Snow was meant to convey their feelings as Mitsuki tried to do with it, and how this is her connection to her parents. There's also a connection between the name they gave her and shining like the moon, a positive presence that will always return. Then Mitsuki remembers all the people who have supported and encouraged her, and recognizes that singing is how she is true to herself and conveys her feelings to others, not just Eichi. After this revelation, Takuto starts to disappear in earnest. Mitsuki starts to sing, which comes through clearly despite her throat cancer. Fuzuki and Prince, who just arrives, both listen to the song enraptured, as does NR. Guess Takuto just... stopped disappearing for some reason? Not sure why. Also, Eichi's name disappears from the book, so she's got her will to live back. |
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| Episode 46. Izumi revealing his true colours and the fact he arranged Takuto's placement with Mitsuki. He deserved the punch he got. Takuto recounts his regrets at not being able to end his days singing and passing away with those regrets. Wait a minute, Takuto says that he was 'a 12 y/o singer' when he was in Route L, was a this a child band, or did they have a kid on vocals, that makes very little sense, unless Aoi and Wakaouji were also kids, but it doesn't appear so as Aoi and Hazuki have a child. In the following scenes of Route L, they do come over as a bit younger than I envisioned, maybe teens, but Takuto being 12 at the time seems implausible, but not impossible. Takuto tells how Eternal Snow ties Mitsuki to her parents and their shared past. Sing for yourself. Mitsuki recovers her will to sing after a touching montage. Mitsuki sings, as herself, not as FM and it connects with her grandma. Touching scene. She's now resolved to sing for whatever time is left to her, will there be one final concert as FM. I sense emotional damage incoming. |
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| @23feanor Yeah, Takuto joining the band at 12 seems a little strange. I guess the idea is to give him sort of a youthful perspective so that he's not too far apart from Mitsuki, though he clearly died significantly older, having done so riding a motorcycle, so it doesn't really help. Just a weird tidbit to learn about him. Episode 47 So how is Takuto still around exactly? Would be nice to find out why that Sword of Damocles just vanished in an instant. Meroko certainly still seems nervous about it, but that also might just be her thinking that Takuto blames her for how things went down. Mitsuki is back to her mostly cheery self. It's nice to see that she still leans on Eichi, but now as more of a guardian spirit watching her from afar. And Fuzuki does seem a little more talkative than she has been of late. She even invites Mitsuki to live in the main house so that they can be physically closer. Oh, and there she is wearing the shawl Mitsuki got her. Yep, very different grandmother, nice to see the shift. Mitsuki also returns to work with Oshige, who initially wants to keep her return low-key, but Mitsuki's gung ho about it. Nice to see her back at school too. Finally, a triumphant return to FM (been a hot minute since she was on screen). Sometime before this, Meroko and Takuto appeared to Prince in their human forms and have a heart-to-heart over their duties as Shinigami and their shared aim to prevent Mitsuki's death in the face of that. Graduation's coming up and everyone's thinking of the future, which is still as sore spot for Mitsuki. She confesses to Takuto that she wants to live in spite of everything, but she's clearly afraid of what seems inevitable. Takuto resolves to protect her and Meroko doesn't push back on him. She also rejects Izumi totally, siding with love and compassion in the face of the inevitable, no matter how much it may hurt, and yes, before their jobs as Shinigami as well. Izumi can't understand, but as she says, that's his misfortune. That conversation did far more to knock him off his high horse than Takuto managed with his punch, and it's nice to see Meroko fully embrace their small trio as a family of sorts. In the end, Mitsuki decides to stay in her room despite Fuzuki's invitation, and Fuzuki accepts the decision, though she doesn't know the reason is that sense of found family in their own space. Takuto writes his own name in the book, resolving to change Mitsuki's destiny himself, and Meroko adds her name as well. Yeah, that's a sweet scene. |
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| Episode 47. Funny how Mitsuki singing sounds exactly like FM. Made me wonder whether FM is an aged up version of Mitsuki (with blonde hair), or an off the shelf idol. It is sweet seeing the grandma trying to engage with Mitsuki, and equally fun to watch Tanaka observing them both. I did wonder why Mitsuki was living in an annex all on her own whilst there was a massive house right there. It is gratifying to see Mitsuki back to her usual bubbly self. Takuto reveals his human identity to Wakaouji, who I hadn't clocked, but knew Takuto as a human when they were band members. Seems like the theme of the ep is a determination to thwart Mitsuki's impending fate to die from the throat cancer. Even NR are on board, contrary to their duties as shinigami. Meroko's speech to Izumi about compassionate and gentle love was another touching moment. After a long build up over the course of the show, letting the characters settle in, the emotional beats are now coming thick and fast. Love that painted still with Meroko hugging them both and the 'love you bunches..'. NR put their names in the pink book vowing to change Mitsuki's fate. Looks like Takuto's powers go awry next ep, so maybe his change into a ghost if slowly taking effect? |
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| I can see why @inim loves Meroko so much. She's had a real journey as a character over the course of this series from just being infatuated with Takuto and wanting to help Mitsuki largely to keep her happy before the end to genuinely finding family and purpose in this little trio. She worked well as a comic relief character smashed together with the elder shinigami who has been through stuff like this before and learned to keep some emotional distance from her charges (largely implied, but you get that distinct impression from her), but she works all the better when those emotional walls she's put up are torn down. Episode 48 Into the final 5 episodes. Much as I don't want to see a child die, I'll admit, I'm hoping the series goes through with it. It's taken us on a ride through many of the stages of grief, and I think it would lose something if Mitsuki somehow survives at the end. They may come up with a way to make a happy ending palatable, and given that this is a story for younger audiences, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a bittersweet farewell to NR with Mitsuki eventually growing into a full-time FM. I wouldn't be upset about that since I know that can still be powerful, just a little disappointed. Onto this episode. Looks like Mitsuki wants to perform a live concert literally called LIVE (its partially as an affirmation of her desire to keep living). Looks like there's a plan for her surgery exactly one year after NR's arrival (really pushing this out as far as possible). which is also when she wants to perform this, so she's really cramming it all in. Do they have the timing down to the hour? The minute? As they're preparing for the concert, Takuto's vision starts to fade and suddenly, FM's transformation fails. Meroko is required to act quickly and put the person they were meeting with to sleep temporarily. Takuto struggles with bringing back the transformation and it appears that necklace facilitates him a bit. He tries to make flowers bloom too and they just wild and fall off and he collapses in pain, becoming transparent. So yeah, he's losing his Shinigami powers. I guess the transition to ghost just takes a while. Not sure why the delay, but here we are. Takuto seems at peace with it, only frustrated by the FM problem. They resolve the manage things to the best of their ability - overcoming a drive to suicide really improved their outlook. For the time being, Meroko takes on FM duties for photoshoots so at least they can keep up appearances. Mitsuki's health is largely stable in the interim and they try to keep Takuto from overdoing it, with Meroko looking after him. She puts on a brave face, but it's not easy for her in particular to see him like this and know that it means they'll likely be separated. Mitsuki happens to spot Jonathan wandering by for some reason and follows him to Izumi, who has been in a bad mood since his conversation with Meroko. She asks him if there's a way to keep Takuto from turning uinto a ghost, which he claims to have, but he sets the condition that he take her soul in return. Yep, still an asshole. She offers it willingly, afraid of losing someone else she loves, and he demands a kiss to seal the deal. Creep. |
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| Watching Meroko develop from comedy char to someone who's having to deal with the reality of her duty weighed against the dreams and hopes of a child, mixed with acceptance of Takuto's feelings for Mitsuki, has been a positive for this show. I also don't want to see Mitsuki die, but think she's going to, or she'll become a shinigami maybe, or as @whiteflame55 suggested turn into FM for good (although that relies on Takuto's power). I'm reminded of the dream sequence we opened on with Mitsuki singing to Eichi, which we now know can't be real as he's dead. Was it a portend of events to happen in the afterworld? Episode 48. Timing the surgery for the day she met NR but a year doesn't sound the best idea, and guessing the show is setting up a dramatic curtain call. Takuto's powers are waning so guess he is slowly losing his shinigami power and becoming a ghost. Mitsuki starts asking herself who is this persona of FM that she created. FM has grown into someone separate from Mitsuki, as if she's different when she's FM. She was a lonely girl who wanted to sing and now she's made lots of connections and friends, and is an idol. Nice little bit of introspection there. Mitsuki seeks out Izumi who professes to know a way to save Takuto from becoming a ghost, but his condition is to collect Mitsuki's soul himself as payment. She agrees, but he wants to seal the deal with a kiss. Yeah, creep. |
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| Private life takes its toll again, my mother's health is detoriating which triggered long standing family conflicts consuming a lot of energy suddenly. Time for hobbies and fun is sparse again, however this is the last pending major step into a self-determined and normal life I hope. I may finally become a boring adult. Episode 42-48 @whiteflame55 Very concise summary of Meroko's evolution, and it's not over. She will continue to grow literally until the last minutes of the last episode, and while not being fate personified - she can see fate's house from where she lives. She called Takuto "half-man", which I tried to put as "Shinigami-Jesus" born into the flesh. She asked him "We are fate, aren't we?" in one of their rooftop dialogues. She loves Takto, but in ep 47 or 48 takes back her own desires in favor of Mitsuki's happiness and Takuto's soul's eternal life. She even deals with the temptor himself, the Shinigami devil, the torturer of souls und universal creep Izumi. That's a lot of burden on her little bare shoulders, and a lot of people in her flouncy gloved hands. Stay tuned. Regarding Takuto, I just ignore the age math in anime because it's almost always weird and lacking logic. A 12 year old singer to a national level music act even beats Nana's Shinichi Okazaki (15). He must be at least 18 as he has a heavy motorcycle driver license (checked Wiki here) when he died, and he was 12 already when Mitsuki's parents confessed. He sang "Eternal Snow" in Route L, so it's the song of a lot of people. Takuto, Madoka, Mitsuki, and her parent's. He sang it as a Shinigami too when nobody was watching. It binds a lot of fates together, and the little music box is the song's artifact. Also note that ED3 is a duet with his male voice doing the backing vocals, nice use of music once more. On a side note: just me, or doesn't his cat hat resemble an old fashioned motorcyle helmet? Story wise, Mitsuki collapses after learning of Eichi's death. Grandma joins team "they help me to shine" Mitsuki in another dramatic rooftop scene. Boy, the writers love rooftops. Meroko and Tatzuko join the team by writing their names into the book of fate, well knowing that they both will be punished hard for this act of rebellion. Rage against the machine. Madoka joins the team (and convinces grandma to join) because she is genuinely grateful to both her fan Mitsuki and Full Moon, heavily suspecting they are connected. Manager-san and Prince are founding members anyway. So all main and secondary characters are now challenging fate. Fate currently comes personified as the main villain Izumi and his plot device-comic-relief-sidekick. EDIT: The whle setup is one from classic fairy tales. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_of_the_Magi Takuto wants to become a ghost so Mitsuki can live and sing. Mitsuki sells her soul to Izumi to find a cure for Takuto. https://quillbot.com/blog/frequently-asked-questions/what-is-cosmic-irony/ |
inimJun 16, 4:51 PM
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| episode 49 |
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| @inim Sorry to hear about your mother, I know how difficult circumstances like that can be to manage, especially with family conflict resulting. Interested to see how Meroko continues to develop right up to the end then! Not sure how this will end, but I'm anticipating some big shifts over these last 4 episodes. And the Gift of the Magi comparison is quite apt. Episode 49 Izumi can't understand Mitsuki's perspective, seeing Takuto as a friend despite him coming to take her life. Just seems like doesn't understand genuine bonds between human beings, only the most superficial forms of them. And, inevitably, he was just stringing Mitsuki along since he doesn't have any way to stop Takuto from going ghost. Takuto is still struggling and having visions of his life. Still, he remains optimistic with Mitsuki. Meroko is looking for any hint of how to prevent Takuto's transformation using a set of books she borrowed from somewhere. She tries a number of different methods over the course of the episode without letting Takuto know what's up. Izumi claims to have discovered a way to manage it with something called the Flower of Forgetfulness, which will get rid of Takuto's memories entirely and thus revert him back to his early Shinigami days. It can also only be acquired during a lunar eclipse in the spirit world (happens to be coming soon), "punishes all who approach it", Shinigami powers don't work near it, and Meroko will almost certainly be punished for getting it. They opt to pursue it regardless, with Meroko headed in and Mitsuki monitoring from the human world, putting everyone else to sleep and have to follow a strict schedule to get back in order to prevent being trapped there until the next eclipse. The journey is fraught with challenges but Meroko finds the flower, taking numerous injuries as she attempts to retrieve it. Mitsuki sings to bolster Meroko, with Meroko even joining in on the song to keep moving forward. She manages to return in time with the flower. They keep it secret from Takuto, who is still focused on and hyped about the concert. Love that they have a little argument about Meroko's injuries over Mitsuki's thoughts at the end, but yeah, dude's going to forget about the concert and all his reasons for doing it if they use the flower. |
whiteflame55Jun 14, 8:17 PM
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| @inim sorry to hear about your family troubles, hope the situation improves. Nothing wrong with being a boring adult - drama, fame and fortune are overrated if you ask me, a plain sensible hobbit is what you should aim for. I'd noticed but forgot to mention the irony of Takuto and Mitsuki both planning to sacrifice themselves for the other, without telling the other, making their sacrifice pointless. Takuto sung Eternal Snow when they were at the lighthouse iirc, and he sang it pretty well. Episode 49. Izumi doesn't steal a kiss from Mitsuki, instead fessing up that he doesn't know any way to prevent Takuto's transformation into a ghost. The lily of forgetfulness, huh. Uncommonly kind of Izumi to share this info, what's his game, or is he trying to be nice. As you point out @whiteflame55, if they use the flower then Takuto will forget everything, even his memories as a shinigami, so Mitsuki, FM, Meroko, all of it. They'd have to use it after the concert. More of the supernatural in this ep with travelling to the spirit world than we've seen thus far. Meroko loses her hat but finds the flower. Now the question is whether they'll use it or not, and when. |
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| Thanks to the two of you for your best wishes, I think it will all work out. @23feanor, I'll be a good hobbit and agree. A former boss of mine called it "insight into one's own mediocracy". It is better to find your place and make it comfy than eternal struggle in lost battles. I had that insight only in my early 40s but now I'm a firm believer in hobbit wisdom as well. Episode 50 An episode of farewells and closure, of confessions and new hope. Mitsuki graduates primary school, celebrates her 13th birthday, and fully reconciles with her grandmother. Meroko tells the story of her past with Izumi and how she met Takuto, and her romance with both (both relations not very satisfying). The American surgeon arrives in Japan to conduct Mitsuki's surgery, and her and grandma in agreement sign the paperwork for this. Takuto distracts himself by organizing a perfect stage show for Full Moon's farewell concert L.I.V.E. and tries to delay his transformation into a ghost to a point after this event. Meroko comes clean with her own romantic past, and expressly in the presence of Izumi challenges the fact that fate can not be changed. Meroko tells Mitsuki that loving somebody new is not treason on Eichi, but that change is the nature of life. The most important plot point is of course the mutal romantic confession of Takuto and Mitsuki, sealed by her first kiss. Then Mitsuki explains to him the magic of the Flower of Forgetfulness in full, and he voluntarily drinks its essence. Well aware of the consequences. Musically, ED1 (New Hope) resurfaces strongly as a theme this episode. It was the ED of the joyful eps 1-6 and used very sparsely after that. It was superseded by ED2 (My Self) when Full Moon was created and peaked (eps 7-26). While drama, loss and tragedy unfolded, ED3 (Eternal Snow) was used with it's sad minor chords. Currently ED4 (Love Chronicle) is used, a duet of Full Moon and Takuto. Mitsuki asks in the confession scene who that FM is, and explains she is the creation of their bond, literally created from Takuto's drop of blood and her sickly body. The stage is set for the grande finale now, all soldiers in the fight against fate are in their optimal positions. The large uncertainty is Takuto's ability to still transform Mitsuki into FM for her final concert. His increasing weakness makes this bet shaky, despite his bold "Ore!" personality being in denial. @23feanor remembered the first scene of ep1, which is of course the L.I.V.E. concert. But in that scene Mitsuki and not Full Moon is on stage, and to make it worse fully winged. Another unsettling fact is that Eichi is there and she goes towards him, when we know Eichi is dead. Ya'll by now can understand those symbolisms, and I always love scripts which so precisely know how they will end that they can create foreshadowing at this level. The dice of fate were thrown, but still haven't landed. I hope it doesn't count as a spoiler to say that episode 52 uses ED1 of the four options :) |
inimJun 16, 4:52 PM
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| @inim That's an interesting note on the EDs and their placement in the series. Definitely seems like they're deliberately placed rather than just covering certain arcs or stretches of the anime. Rare to see an anime use its EDs are more than window dressing. Episode 50 I'll keep this one brief since @inim has already covered the details, more focus on impressions. With Mitsuki graduating, there's a real sense of finality to the series at this point. This is a step for her fellow students, but it's far more consequential for Mitsuki, a mile marker all too close to the anticipated end of her journey. It's punctuated by her trip to her parents' grave with Fuzuki and Prince, plans around the surgery and the impending performance, which absorbs all of Takuto's attention. They're all different ways of handling grief in anticipation. Mitsuki does eventually talk with Takuto about getting rid of his memories to ensure he remains a Shinigami. It's a sort of death to lose one's memories like this - the person you were disappears, at least for you. He'd prefer to maintain who he is to whatever end being a ghost is than go on existing as a Shinigami without what's most precious to him. And Meroko, who would have been upset about his confession of love for Mitsuki not too long ago, sees in him the same unrequited love she has for him and empathizes. Looks like Madoka is "appearing" at the concert with FM. Well, more like crashing it, but she got Mitsuki tickets, so her heart's still in a good place, even if everyone already has tickets. In general, the turn-arounds for characters this series have been far more believably done than I've seen for the vast majority of shows. It's impressive to do that well once, let alone several times. And yeah, despite the age differences, it's nice to see Mitsuki finding a way to move on from Eichi and find love and connection again with Meroko's insight. Also nice to see a bit of Meroko's history with Izumi, even if it's very limited. It places Izumi in a new light as someone who didn't return Meroko's affections, but couldn't stand seeing her dote on someone else. Meroko, by contrast, is initially unhappy that her affections are unrequited, but has become willing to let her love go, even encouraging Mitsuki to clarify her feelings in return knowing that she shares his affections. I do like how Mitsuki convinced him to want to “live” as a Shinigami, accepting the loss of memory to be together longer. Less fond of the shared declaration of love and the kiss, but I guess whatever it takes to get him onboard. Not sure how long it will take for him to lose his memories. @inim yeah, I don’t love the prospect of having Meroko and Izumi together at the end of this story. Interesting to hear about Meroko’s backstory, too bad we won’t get more of that here. |
whiteflame55Jun 15, 9:00 AM
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Definitely seems like they're deliberately placed rather than just covering certain arcs or stretches of the anime. Rare to see an anime use its EDs are more than window dressing. I wouldn't stop at calling the EDs just the music played at the episode endings of this particular show. They always are integrated into the plot, most often in concert scenes. But more importantly, they are varied as themes in the background music. Most often played on the piano, probably for cost reasons. But there is an actual able composer doing it, with all that variations in tempo, rhythm, scale, key and pacing. I feel they really stand for the emotions the show drags its audience trough so well: happiness, ganbatte, sadness and love. I gave one example in an early episode where it starts very atonally in a Madoka scene and was continuously played trough multiple scenes until the pure, original ED2 theme surfaced in all its glory. In terms of OST, this show is really an 11/10. I only wish they had used more than 4 themes, it's often close to fatigue by repetition. Fortuately they just don't put on the ever same tape but really have a skilled musician playing it in a variation fitting the scenes. This is what they also did in the old silent movie days, btw. Each cinema had a skilled pianist, and each silent movie came with score sheets of music. So each showing also was a little concert, and no two showings were 100% the same.Also nice to see a bit of Meroko's history with Izumi, even if it's very limited. Disclaimer: I didn't read the manga (no-manga policy for me in place). Yet I researched it and learnt that in the original ending, Izumi and Meroko are re-united as both lovers and shinigami team. Most comments I read on that prefer the anime ending, and that includes me. As for Meroko's backstory, the anime deprives us of it (or I missed it). The short form is that Meroko was in a love triangle with a musician and Mitsuki's grandmother, thus the "old hag" nagging in an early episode. She is of the same age as grandma. She lost out in the love triangle and was forced into a loveless marriage, and commited suicide by slitting her wrists. That may explain her blood red gloves, and also is teased in a dialog between Izumi and Takuto that they all are shinigami as a punishment for throwing away their human lives. For details, see e.g. here https://fullmoon.fandom.com/wiki/Meroko_Yui#Human_life |
inimJun 16, 4:53 PM
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| Episode 51 The episode opens with a view over the shoulder of a blonde woman, watching the confession and flower essence drinking trough kind of a magic mirror. Ladies and gentlemen, meet fate personified at last, we'll meet her one more time later. The first half of the episode is back to "Idol tutorial 101" and shows how a concert is prepared and rehearsed. I've attended Babymetal in Berlin this May, and I stood in this line, same we see in the episode. Then the concert starts and we are shown Madoka singing Eternal Snow as supporting act. She's interviewed and her answer is still a little egocentric, but that's how she is and how we meanwhile love her. Back in the green room, Huston has a problem. The Flower of Forgetfulness slowly does its magic and Takuto no longer is able to transform Mitsuki into FM. Manager-san buys some time, but repeated tries don't change the outcome. My girl Meroko saves the day by sacrifice, she has a symbolic important haircut and transfers her magic powers to Takuto. I'm not sure what that would mean for her future, but I guess she already renders them worthless well knowing of the upcoming punishment. She too may well be looking forward to a fate worse than death, as she already is a shinigami as punishment. So whatever they do to rebel shinigami, she doesn't care for the details anymore. The transfer works and FM appears on stage. FM sings Eternal Snow as an opener, watched by Takuto and Meroko. The former asks where and who he is, Shinigami dementia has struck. Meroko as so often finds words of comfort, which technically are white lies as of course she knows. Takuto remarks that the singer is really good, and we are waiting for the final episode. |
inimJun 16, 5:35 PM
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| Episode 52 The episode opens straight with the running L.I.V.E concert. It seems FM also has a dance unit and some moves herself, we never really saw her rehearsing that but ... drama is life with the dull parts cut out. We get cuts into the audience, a parade of all the secondary characters we met along the way and finally Eichi's photo. During the second song (ED2), Takuto starts to disintegrate and vanishes into black smoke in the arms of Meroko, who cries for him. Before the 3rd song, FM derives from the script and announces that she will be gone for an indefinite time but they all will meet again. The audience is shocked and silent, until Madoka starts clapping and saves the moment. The next song is ED4, aka the Mitsuki-Takuto theme, during which Meroko notices a black cloud from the sky targeting FM. She blocks it with her body, FM stops singing, but Meroko tells her to keep going and disintegrates as well. Her final sacrifice. Shortly after this FM's transformed form collapses into Mitsuki for a few seconds, but Izumi appears and creates "a simple hologram" of FM with large wings, so she can finish the show. Next scene is Mitsuki being rushed into the operation room, where Prince and the American doc are waiting. She asks manager-san about her shinigami, who gives just a comforting "they watch over you wherever they are". This should be the end, Mitsuki should not leave the operation room alive. Next cut is Takuto waking up on a beach. He is addressed by a nameless blonde woman, the fandom wiki calls her "Great Mother", I'd call her the Shinigami boss or simly fate personified. She explains he failed as shinigami, but the flower of forgetfulness makes a punishment by becoming a ghost impossible. She asks questions about his name and his desire, but all Takuto remembers is that he wants to save "her". Then a severely bruised Meroko is summoned as well. They are accused of the unforgiveable act of resisting fate, stealing the magic flower and sentenced to an unnamed punishment. The Great Mother then comes to the verdict for Mitsuki, when we cut into the operation room. For plot convenience, it is 3 minutes to midnight and her life support machine goes into heavy beeping and blinking. Cut back to the beach, where Takuto doesn't remember names or events, but remembers his strong emotion to protect that person the Great Mother talks about. Takuto offers his life, but as he can not stay a shinigami or become a ghost, he just drops dead. Meroko offers herself to become a ghost instead of Takuto, the ultimate sacrifice in an increasing sequence. It started with her name in the book of fate, then her hair, the the bruises during flower retrieval, then blocking the black cloud, and now her immortal life. She praises Takuto's selfless sacrifice and that she proudly will take his place in the punishment. The Great Mother says nothing and thinks. Back in the operation room, the clock strikes midnight and Mitsuki's vital functions go back to green. The Grand Mother tells Meroko she has changed fate, and tells her to rise. She is expelled from the shinigami. Which in a way means the end of the purgatory for her, lest we forget being a shinigami is already a punishment. Next scene is a dream sequence, where a younger and healthy Mitsuki in a light summer dress chases Eichi. But she stumbles and is catched by NR. They exchange a bittersweet, silent look and walk into the mist. Next cut has Mitsuki waking up after the operation surrunded by her friends. So stopping Mitsuki from following Eichi can easily be seen as preventing her death, shown as a nice allegory. Time skip to six weeks after the L.I.V.E. concert. Mitsuki sits alone in front of her little house with Jonathan teasing her, but she can't see him anymore. There's well done exposition dump in dialogues between grandma and the housekeeper, and Prince and manager-san and producer-san. NR vanished, Madoka became Mitsuki's friend, Prince/Manager de-facto adopt Mitsuki, and they are in a relation which will not hurt manager-san's employment. Izumi and Jonathan conclude they will never see NR again, but their own punishment as shinigami will continue. Next cut is on Takuto, with Madoka and friends doing more exposition dump. He carries a guitar, so he may just have finished a rehearsal. We learn it's two years after his motorcycle accident and they remember him from that time. He simply "vanished" for them, and is back yet amnesiac. Enter the final happy end montage, which is underlayed with the full length version of ED1 - New Future - and very little dialogue. It's show don't tell at work. It starts with a cut on Meroko sitting in a tree, but with a new costume, larger wings, but still short hair. Fate has ended her punishment as shinigami, and for her selfless deeds promoted her to a Tenshi (Buddhist angel), the same divine rank as a Buddha who reached enlightenment. Insert "final form" jokes here. Takuto is found unfit to be a shinigami, but in acknowledgement of his love and selfless sacrifice given a second probation as a human. His soul is literally given into Merokos hands. Meroko even now is happy that he can live, despite the fact she lost him forever to Mitsuki. If you are not in tears by now, you are a senseless clod. At least I cry a river regardless how often I watch that scene, and "New Future" really kills in the background. Meroko appears to Mitsuki in the form of the hand-made bunny she was given for Christmas and leads her to Takuto. On the way they meet a number of side characters, nice way to conclude their stories as well. Meroko kisses Mitsuki good bye and drops a feather, Mitsuki calls her name. Takuto turns around, seems to remember that name, and when he picks up the feather his eyes open wide in surprise. This may be interpreted as his shinigami memories returned. Fin. This is in my short list of the best and most emotional endings in all of anime I've seen. It reapes what 51 episodes skillfully sowed. Yes, it is full of cheese and the canonical age gap is 7 years (18 human + 2 Shinigami years for Takuto) and without cheating even more - and I so don't care. I've watched the finale over 10 times in the last few weeks, and still cry a river each time. Thus I change the verdict from the first review to (9/10). Yes, there are minor plot hickups, a lot of cheese and wish fullfilment, and the occasional filler episode, thus no 10 atm, similar to the Erin league. So what do you guys think? |
inimJun 17, 9:28 AM
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| @inim insight and acceptance of ones own mediocrity, a useful bit of wisdom there and something that I imagine is harder these days for the younger generation with social media and everyone wanting to be famous influencers and posting their best life pics everywhere. Some very good points on the ED's @inim. Often people describe the OP and ED as 2 pieces of music that sandwich the ep, but as demonstrated in this show the OP/ED can be so much more. ED1 left me wanting more, ED2 and ED3 slowly grew on me and matched the broader themes of the show. And the arrangement of the ED's being repackaged and used during the show as the background OST is a lovely touch, often on the piano but it works so well. The music has been competently managed. Episode 50. Now I get why we've been seeing a scene of the flower in a bell jar during the OP's. Flowers often have significance in anime, just like in Victorian times, the language of flowers and all that. So Herberd is coming over to Japan. Agree with you both, watching how far Meroko has come from the beginning of the show when she was all over Takuto confessing every few mins, to accepting his feelings towards Mitsuki and that her own love will remain unrequited, but being happy for him nonetheless. Interesting to hear Meroko's backstory and the manga details from @inim. Sounds like Meroko has a lot of insecurities, a hangover from her time as a human, although she shouldn't be aware of her human life otherwise she'd be a ghost. Makes her acceptance of Takuto's feelings for Mitsuki even more of a personal achievement for her. 'FM is a creation from us both..' I like that. Then we get Mitsuki's confession of love for Takuto and kiss. I know anime ages and logic can be hard to take seriously, and I had trouble accepting Takuto's feelings towards such a young girl, but ignoring my reservations, that was a sweet moment. Takuto drinks the flower of forgetfulness concoction, and Mitsuki says this is the start of their new lives together. How do they know it won't take effect immediately rendering him unable to transform her for the concert? |
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| Oh, I forgot to wish you a Happy Father's Day @23feanor, hope you were able to celebrate a bit. Didn't do much here, though I am only a father to a dog, so it's a different story. Episode 51 Onto the penultimate episode. I'm sure they had some reason to believe that Takuto wouldn't immediately lose his memories, but I don't know why. Also, who is that strange blonde figure looking on as he drinks? Creeper probably watched them kiss too. Preparation for the concert is ongoing and it seems Takuto already has his powers back, so I guess it's started working? Doesn't seem like he's forgotten much. He's concerned about another Shinigami coming to harvest Mitsuki's soul or something else unknown causing her death. Meanwhile, Meroko is resigned to separating from Mitsuki, which will happen regardless of whether she survives or not. Izumi and Jonathan do arrive on scene, but don't seem to have any designs. He does explain that he's been jaded a while, so from his perspective, real love doesn't exist. Nice mentality to bring to a relationship and impose on someone else. He also believes their efforts here are pointless, and explains that he believes they became Shinigami as punishment for giving up on their own lives (i.e. committing suicide, either intentionally or by proxy). So he thinks it's inevitable that they, as Shinigami, will suffer. Takuto rejects that fatalist perspective, and I got the impression that Izumi is trying to understand why he remains optimistic in the face of impending death - because he believes in people in a way that Izumi simply isn't capable of doing anymore. Still, he stays for the concert, so something in him still wants to be here. Madoka opens for FM and seems to be having a good time performing Eternal Snow. Really made a full arc, that one. No sense that she's trying to outdo FM by singing the song first this time. They're rivals, but not antagonistic. Herberd arrives at the hospital and is greeted by Prince, the two of them preparing for Mitsuki's surgery immediately after her concert. A lot riding on this. Seems Takuto also previously lied, saying he'd do a session with Prince after this is all over... though he'll most certainly be memory-less and have to leave anyway. FM has to get on stage, but Takuto's transformation fails at the crucial moment. Guess he's not recovering his powers yet after all. Mitsuki still opts to go on stage as herself, though I don't see how she overcomes the physical limitations of her body. They decide to stall for time, hoping that they can get the transformation to work. Meroko makes the rash decision to cut off much of her hair, turning it into a small coil ring that contains her power (guess she's like Samson, except it's transferrable). He puts on the ring and, for a short time at least, can transform Mitsuki into FM. We get a nice shot of Meroko transferring her powers to Takuto, then FM appears on stage in that beautiful white dress we saw earlier to the chants of a hungry crowd (nice to see Fuzuki join the chants). During the performance, Takuto finally loses his memories, and Meroko tells him he's here to make new memories. He enjoys FM's singing, unaware that he was a big part of why she's up there. Yeah, that brought a tear to my eye. |
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| @whiteflame55 thanks, although honestly the last week has been a struggle looking after them whilst recovering, parenting can be exhausting, but it has some perks. Episode 51. Sounds like fate herself has come to watch over the conclusion to the story as she watches Takuto drink the concoction, not sure I'd have clocked it was the personification of fate if not for reading @inim's comment. @inim a Babymetal concert, very adventurous. Think I'm too old for music concerts, I'd want to smoke, go to the loo, get a drink etc. Maybe an Andre Rieu outdoor concert on a summers evening with some wonderful classical pieces and a chilled glass of white wine or rose. On the subject of fate, sounds like both Takuto and Meroko have accepted their fate; Takuto to lose his memories and time spent with Mitsuki, and Meroko accepting that either Mitsuki will die, or she herself will be punished for taking the flower and breaking shinigami rules and have to leave Mitsuki. So this is the last hurrah, day of destiny as Meroko calls it. Izumi believes they ended up as shinigami for giving up on their own lives, and/or taking their own lives. If this is already a punishment, then what more could they do to Meroko, could be her own line of thinking. I think Takuto is worried that head office will send another shinigami as NR are resolute in their determination to aid Mitsuki in averting her fate to die today. As Izumi warns, if they don't take her soul today, the appointed day of her death, then another shinigami will be sent to take it. If Takuto has his memories taken, could he maybe be the one to take her soul, unknowing of the importance of Mitsuki? That would be a cruel twist, probably too sad for a shoujo. I've liked Madoka as the begrudging rival. Is Mitsuki going to die during surgery maybe? Is Herberd a secret shinigami maybe? Lots of references to fate. 'I'll blow fate away with my singing' Mitsuki says. Meroko sacrifices a girl's treasure, her hair, in order to boost Takuto's power so he can transform Mitsuki into FM for the concert. Yeah got a lump in my throat there at the end as Takuto finally loses his memories. Will Mitsuki get the surgery, will Takuto recover his memories and turn into a ghost, and will Mitsuki survive past 12 midnight and live another year. Find out tomorrow!! |
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| @23feanor Think I'm too old for music concerts, I'd want to smoke, go to the loo, get a drink That's why I switched to vape, you can have a quick nicotine refresh and nobody will notice if you do it discretely. Beer was actually affordable at that concert, dunno for wine. Anime and concerts are the joy of my geriatric life, I'm in Berlin for them a few times a year. It's less than 2h from my native Hannover by fast train, door to (my friend's) door. Hannover is a state capital, but of a rural state. We got Helene Fischer and aging rock acts here, for the fancy stuff you need to go to Hamburg, Berlin, Munich or Cologne. And fancy it was, the supporting acts were Bambi Thug and Poppy. Is Herberd a secret shinigami maybe? Lol, somebody had a clown for breakfast 🤣🤣🤣Find out tomorrow!! not sure I'd have clocked it was the personification of fate if not for reading @inim's comment. Aw, sorry for the semi-spoiler. If you remember, in one of the very early episodes NR talked about "she wants", and that is "her" now. Their boss. "We work for fate, don't we?". I know too little about Japanese mythology and religion to know the blonde lady's divine rank, but she probably had a limousine with driver in corporate. |
inimJun 17, 2:56 PM
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| @inim definitely did not catch that that woman was the personification of fate. That's intriguing. I'm sure she'll play a substantial role in this episode. And Babymetal, eh? Sounds like fun - not the line, but the concert. Episode 52 Looks like FM goes through a couple of costume changes. Love the wide-brimmed red hat with the large feather and blue dress. FM expresses her thanks to everyone in her head as she sings, thinking of Eichi as well. She gives an impassioned speech to the crowd, saying she's going on leave after this concert, which is met with shock, promising to return someday. Madoka is told that she's sick, and even applauds her, starting a chain reaction in the crowd. Takuto collapses in pain. Apparently losing his memories didn't solve everything. The black clouds surround him again. Meroko is desperate for him to stick around, but he vanishes in front of her eyes. FM remains transformed somehow. A black tendril extends from the sky, and Meroko stands in its way, exuding a golden light, before being swallowed up. When it looks like FM's transformation is fading, someone snaps their fingers. Izumi placed a hologram over her, a last tribute to Meroko. Damn, dude had some heart to him after all. Mitsuki gets wheeled into surgery. As the lights go down, we cut to... Takuto, in his human body lying on a beach. And there's Fate. He's told that his forgetting his past has "made the transformation possible," but not what that means. He does seem to recall he has to save someone, but not who or why. Meroko arrives on the same beach. They're condemned for messing with fate and stealing the flower, so punishment incoming: In surgery, Mitsuki flags. Still, despite his lack of memory, Takuto fights to save her, offering his eternal afterlife in exchange. He can't even become a ghost, merely collapsing as a shell. Meroko offers to take his place (why doesn't everyone just get in line and offer to take the place of the person before them? We can keep this chain going, I'm sure of it. Where's Izumi? No one would miss him). As this goes on, Mitsuki stabilizes. Her fate has changed. Apparently, Fate believes NR's shared punishment is exile as Shinigami, so they vanish in a flash of light. Not sure what that means for them. In Mitsuki's dreams, NR arrive to support her as she trips, looking at her sadly before walking off. Mitsuki awakes a day after the surgery, which was an apparent success. Knowing that NR are gone, she falls to tears. Back at the compound apparently after being discharged, Mitsuki reminisces about NR. She should be able to sing now, but she's going through a hard time with it. She can't see Izumi and Jonathan when they visit her, their punishment as Shinigami still ongoing but nothing further. ...who's that on the street? We don't fully see his face, but it's pretty clear that that is Takuto. They even mention that he was in a major accident on his bike two years ago. I guess this is what Fate meant by "exile." You'd have to imagine someone would recognize him, whether that's Prince or any of the people who saw him in his human form pre- or post-death. Meroko watches over him as a guardian angel with full wings and a blue teardrop tattoo, her kindness earning her a different kind of afterlife, guiding him little by little to a better future than he'd imagined before his death. Mitsuki (her throat still healing) watches as the little doll she made of Meroko comes to life and waves at her before flying off. She runs off after it, running past Madoka and her friends before finding her way to the living Takuto on the beach. I'm glad they didn't just have him wander off without Mitsuki ever having known he was brought back to life. She's briefly able to see Meroko as an angel as well and say her goodbye. So, yes, I knew Mitsuki wasn't going to die here. I figured there would be some shared sacrifice, though I wasn't expecting what is almost entirely a positive ending. Mitsuki survives and looks prepared to thrive in a world with Takuto around. Takuto gets a second chance at treasuring his life and making the most of it. Meroko gets to be an angel, a force for good (presumably - it's actually not entirely clear what her mission statement is) rather than an eternal punishment. She's separated from Mitsuki and Takuto, but I wouldn't be surprised if she hung around in their lives. It's a beautiful story. I'll need to tease apart my thoughts a bit, but this was a very strong watch with a lot to love in the execution. I think the character arcs here were particularly impressive, as was the use of music. I enjoyed a lot of the early story (I'd hardly call it "boring"), but this series definitely is at its best in the latter half as it pays off more and more of what it setup. It takes a great deal of time and care to do it, something it can manage exceptionally well with a 52 episode run. I could have done without the romantic elements in the mix, but we've already made plenty of mention of that. I think the bonds that work best here are familial, either those with actual family or found family. And while the ending certainly made my heart grow by a few sizes... I'll admit to being a bit disappointed that it's not more bittersweet. I wasn't expecting (or wanting) Mitsuki to die necessarily, but the personification of Fate coming in at the last second and turning what should be some of the worst punishments possible for the non-living into distinct positives, not to mention relenting on killing the child she planned to kill, felt a bit excessively sweet for my liking. You start to wonder why it's so rare for Shinigami to take this step, though I guess it wouldn't be common knowledge that their "boss" is such a bleeding heart. Still, I can't say it disappointed me. The series as a whole comes together beautifully, and I'm calling out to Takuto and Meroko right alongside Mitsuki at the end. I end up around an 8/10. |
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| @inim wine at a rock concert sounds like blasphemy, not that I've been to a rock concert, saw some bands at Glastonbury. Em switched to vaping when she was pregnant, my issue with vaping is the flavours as all so sweet. I wanted a tobacco flavoured one, but the closest our shops had was tobacco and cream. I've been trying hard to cut down my smoking after my yearly checkup with the cardio team. And don't worry, revealing that person was fate wasn't a spoiler, suppose I'm used to the greco-roman depiction of fate as one of 3 women, either sisters or crone/maiden and mother (Atropos being hte one who determined when and how people died by cutting the thread of life). Japanese mythology is distinctly separate from Greco-Roman influence, although interestingly often shares a lot of similarities. I've read both of your posts of the final ep before watching, and have to admit I'm a tad disappointed we didn't get a bittersweet ending, but lets see what I think after the end credits roll. I thought maybe Mitsuki could've died but become a shinigami, but given that being a shinigami is a punishment for giving up on life, that wouldn't really fit with Mitsuki and her optimistic attitude towards her final year. I love a happy ending, but find the bittersweet ones tend to cut deeper and hit harder. inim said: If you are not in tears by now, you are a senseless clod. This made me lol, senseless clod >.< Episode 52. Good on Izumi, lending a hand there at the end. Ok, it got me by the end. Takuto saying he'll sacrifice everything for Mitsuki, despite already having done so, and then Meroko doing the same for him, Mitsuki realising they're both gone and her little found family has been torn apart forever. Loved the use of ED1 in the final scene, they saved it for when it would do maximum emotional damage. That said, I'm not a fan of bringing Takuto back to life, just seems too easy, and the only reason I didn't have as big as issue with his feelings for Mitsuki, was because he was an immortal shinigami and it couldn't be physical. Now he's an adult human and she's still a child. The age gap romance, for both Eichi, and Takuto was a bit far for me. Not so much the actual age difference, but that Mitsuki is so young (10 y/10 when Eichi last saw her, and 12 when Takuto falls for her). As I said before, just age her up to 15 or 16 and it's not so big a problem. But enough of that. That was a good final ep, but, I think I'd have preferred a more tragic ending, even having Mitsuki die and then reuniting with Takuto (a younger version of him, or her as FM) in heaven, or even Eichi. I'm not sure on my exact score yet, I'm going to have to mull it over. Probably a high 7/10 (7.7-7.9), Mitsuki being so young and the age gap just gave me the ick. Enjoyed the light hearted first half, the deeper themes of death and bereavement in the 2nd half, music was very well managed. I liked all the songs, and although it was a generic J-pop sound, it was very well sung by Myco and the rearrangement and inclusion of the EDs into the OST was very good. Smooth visuals, not especially praiseworthy but nice to look at. And ofc thank you both very much @whiteflame55 and @inim for your time and comments, always a pleasure and thanks for the rec @inim. |
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| Very much appreciated having you around for this one @inim and for the recommendation. Almost certain I never would have watched this otherwise and it was definitely worth the time. And thank you as always @23feanor for your thoughts throughout. I think we landed in pretty similar territory on this one, but I'll need to get a full nights sleep to think on it (suffice it to say last night definitely did not suffice, so the first episode watch for Planet With should be interesting). |
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