Hi guys, wall of text here.
Like many others, I find the ending to be very rushed. The character development was so sudden and everybody disappeared between episodes 12 and 13 that you would think there was a good 5~10 episodes in there to explain the huge change in character personality and the others moving on. What should have been a 24 episode series was cut down to 13, everything between 12 and 24 was pretty much taken out and they just combined the ending of 12 and the ending of 24 together, with the first few minutes of episode 13 just to follow up with 12.
But enough about the horribly rushed ending.
I believe that Otanashi had feelings for Kanade from the very beginning when they were fighting Kanade as Tenshi. Otanashi constantly wanted to understand Kanade even though they were supposedly enemies. The Mapo Tofu scene just made it more obvious. Skipping to episode 13 without any development, Otanashi knew that there was no time, they needed to disappear. Why didn't Otanashi just not confess? Because all Kanade had to do was thank him for the heart, and she would disappear, leaving Otanashi there unfulfilled. So Otanashi's confession had to be rushed right then and there before Kanade disappears. Thats my two cents.
Now to state some miscellaneous stuff about the series. And I believe there is a God in the whole series. You just never see him, like how a God in real life is suppose to be... fake or not, your choice. The afterlife and the real world run on different timezones, completely unrelated to each other. This is how everybody was able to meet. For all you know, Kanade was the last one to "die". There may be multiple afterlife worlds, seeing how this one is a modern day Japanese school, those who died in the past wouldn't fit into the environment. Possibly why the programmer never got to meet with his lover. Either she was thrown into another world, where it wasn't a modern day Japanese school, or she just lived fulfilled lives one after another (lucky >_>).
For the whole heart problem, I'd like to think of it as Key's magical comas. I believe something similar happened in Clannad and Kanon. Though it's been a while since I watched them so my memory is probably off. After Otanashi died, he lived a fulfilling life, knowing his organs will help someone. Kanade stated that his heart is STILL BEATING, therefore Kanade should not be dead, simply because a heart that's still beating means the body is still alive... unless some occult thing is going on... Kanade's strong feelings for thanking the person allowed her to enter the afterlife, where God sent Otanashi to the afterlife world so that Kanade may meet him and thank him, also letting Otanashi know that his organs did actually help someone. Seeing how Kanade was still alive, she can't reincarnate. Her soul simply returned to her body. As for Otanashi, God may have rewritten his past, allowing him to live and giving another heart for him, or a heart to Kanade depending on how twisted the storyline may be. As far as I see, Kanade was not wearing headphones, so I assume because she was not dead, her memories of the afterlife were still with her when she "disappeared". Otanashi recognized the song, meaning his memories were still intact. If there was a GirlsDeMo band in the reincarnated world, hearing someone hum the song wouldn't be surprising, it's like someone singing a well known song out in the streets these days, you'd think the person was crazy. Otanashi recognized the song Kanade was humming, and chased after her. This may have been a test for Kanade if Otanashi loved her enough, or just plain remember her even after disappearing.
Yui and Hinata supposedly "flashbacks" could have been what happened after both of them disappeared. Possibly Key threw that in to go with the flow, providing more emotional scenes instead of throwing that at the end, when Hinata disappeared and everybody forgotten about Yui after a good 5 episodes or so. Because as it was stated, Hinata didn't actually knock a baseball into her room in the past, so it either had to be after reincarnation, or Hinata thinking what would happen if he did. The whole point is, we all got emotional when it happened, don't deny it. It was placed at the perfect spot, at that point, Yui and Hinata's role came to an end, Hinata not disappearing shortly after and managing to stay til the end, is a mystery. He didn't really do much afterwards except provide comical relief. (lolprincipal)
I forgot the guy's name so I'll just address him as the Axeman (you know who that is). Shouldn't he be in the graduation? He has feelings for Yurippe just like Otanashi had feelings for Kanade. He couldn't have possibly moved on with the regret of not telling her. Though, it seems he was put there for comical relief since episode 1. Infact, everybody was put in there for comical relief except Otanashi(duh), Kanade(duh), Yurippe(duh), Hinata, Yui, Iwasawa and Naoi. Naoi simply because he helped Otanashi get some of his memories back, and had the Student Counsel President for a short time. Hinata and Yui because they actually completed their "route" so to speak. Iwasawa because her life was actually fulfilled. and Otantashi, Kanade, and Yurippe should be self explanitory.
I'm sure I left out a lot of information, but this is my opinion of how everything went in this incredibly rushed series. The ending was pretty good in my opinion, at least if you omit the part where everybody disappeared and the huge change in personalities, which I explained in the first paragraph of this wall of text. I'll contribute more when I actually know what I left out.
P.S. Anybody know where to find the ending song of episode 13? All I could find on youtube is the solo version... It sounds so much better in the anime >< |