[Kaoru Chujo]

The problem is motivation. We never even got a clear picture of Sen's motivation in leaving, except that he somehow didn't get along with his father, and felt guilty abut the accident. I can imagine things, but the anime developed relationships quite carefully right up until the last episode, then went for the view from afar. But Sen is the least of my worries. His becoming a priest makes perfect emotional sense.

The main motivation that was missing for me was Kaoru's in never getting closer to Ri-chan. He spent much of the show desperately trying to become her boyfriend -- while despairing it could ever be -- then when they established bonds of affection, he just stopped seeing her. Why?

Once again, I can imagine things. Psychologically, perhaps the loss of Sen simply took away all his joy in living. Maybe with Sen gone he paradoxically felt he could never beat him out for Ri-chan's affection (what an idiot). Maybe he suddenly realized he had to concentrate on his grades if he was going to achieve his ambition. Maybe he felt guilty toward her because he knew he had to go away to college. But the writers never showed us an explanation, except that he was inexplicably unable to make progress after his confession. Even giving us more time to get used to that situation might have worked emotionally, but what they did didn't work, at least for me.

Now I read here that these things were actually explained in the manga, and just left out of the anime. I'll go and read the last few chapters of the manga. But the anime has to stand on its own.

I am forced to imagine that the writers and director messed up their timing, going into too much detail in the first part of the show, so they had to skip a lot of things to get to the end in time. Maybe it was even the producers ripping the thing apart when they saw the timing getting out of whack. Or it was the plan all along, and just an error in judgment.

I don't mind long time-skips. I don't care whether they stick with the manga or not. I just want some motivation and explanation, so the people don't suddenly go from being real humans with real motivations, to being inexplicable cardboard cut-outs.

Unfortunately, the bizarre last episode-and-a-bit simply destroyed all the enjoyment and admiration I had felt up until then. I start to think back over the relationship between Sen and Kaoru and see that it never really went anywhere after the first few episodes. We end up with characters who mean nothing, and about whom I can't care.

But thanks to wandering-dreamer for the tour of sacred sites.