I think people are too concerned with being good "critics" and aren't enjoying life enough. Really pay attention to the musical score when Misaki confesses to Nejima. That one musical piece redeems the entire existence of this creative endeavor, from the manga to the anime and everything related to it. It evokes the illogical nature of love, how someone can inspire us for a singular moment in our lives and we are changed forever. If you forget about being all crabby and critical for a moment and let yourself feel what these two must be feeling in that scene, you will not fail to be moved unless you really do completely lack any sense of romance. In my mind's eye, I could imagine walking down one of those wooden walkways through a forest of bamboo hand in hand with youthful love. All of the heartbreak and hardship in the world seems to have not been in vain and everything is OK because this one person loves you, too.
Forget for a moment that it's hard to root for Nejima's milksop character; he is not intended to be someone we can obviously say women would find attractive. He's made that way on purpose. Misaki doesn't love Nejima because he's cool or rich or can do special things for her. She loves him because she was moved and thinks his courage and spirit are beautiful. And it's not hard to fall in love with Misaki despite her flaws: after all, her voice actor is Onadera from Nisekoi. (My God, if someone confessed to me with Kana Hanazawa's voice I would break down and propose on the spot.) Nejima is meant to be the protagonist, the one the reader is supposed to experience the situation through.
The central choice in this story presented to us is basically: "Do you love with your heart or with your mind?" Do you choose the one you've loved all along for no single reason you can place your finger on, or do you pick a person who ticks all the boxes, someone whom everyone thinks would make a great match for you? I get that a lot of things could have been handled better. I get that the anime adaptation we got contains a lot of awkward moments in it. But as an artistic endeavor, many of the scenes are rich with symbolism that evoke people through the ages asking themselves this very question: Marry for idealistc love, or pursue career, political gain, material riches?
Things get complicated when Ririna enters the picture. The choices are not quite so straightforward anymore when real people are involved, because Ririna is presented as straightforward, earnest, thoughtful, and beautiful. Nejima can't help but be attracted to her, and honestly we are meant to understand why with our heads how Ririna would make a fine life partner. Life is like that: we can talk about the red string of fate all we want but the person we end up with often is NOT the childhood crush. Maybe it's timing. Maybe it's lack of opportunity. Maybe it's some evil government policy which seeks to put people together so they cut down on the incidence of violent crimes and depression. Whatever the reason, we're SUPPOSED to be sympathetic to Ririna, who doesn't do anything wrong and is very appealing in her own right.
I want to write about Yuusuke, but that whole situation just seems kind of tacked on and unnecessary to the main theme here. Maybe the writers were thinking that unrequited love needed fair representation. After all, in the beginning Nejima and Misaki are on exactly the same page. Personally, while I understand his inclusion I thought this just muddied the waters and was a poor attempt to expose uglier parts of Misaki's character, making choosing her less obvious for the viewer.
If you still hate this anime, you might just be one of those people who can only tick all the boxes and doesn't take a moment to get in touch with your romantic self. That's fine, the anime itself doesn't try to ram a choice down our throats, saying one is better than another. And maybe that's also a reason why people are upset or disappointed: they themselves feel there is an obvious choice (for them) and don't understand why everyone else doesn't see it that way. Personally, I found the work to be beautiful, but I'm a bit biased. I think sharing your eraser in elementary school is a perfectly fine basis for everlasting love.
