They completely turned the original anime's story on its head with the beginning of Mirai-hen. Yay, but also Nuuuuuu. Both Mirai and Aki suffer so much in this and the feels .... were intense, but they did not cause me to cry. Which suggests to me that the character development and explanation were not significant enough, not deep enough to cause me to fully hurt for them and for that hurt to physically manifest. (note: I cry easily).
I wanted more fluff at the end when this whole thing resolved, but I should have seen that not coming. There is a bit, but perhaps not enough. We see little of the slice-of-life genre that we grew to love in the anime and I think that's a shame. I wish it weren't so.
But, I do love the characters, and I am grateful that some more background knowledge was revealed to us. Things about Mirai's past and Akihito's Mum (although again, wish they told us more about that).
I love these characters and they hold a special place in my heart, but I wish this was done in such a way that I would have felt complete.
Perhaps the mystery of it all is supposed to be its charisma, but I'm a person that likes complete closure - and well.. that's not what I get.
