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Rather than watching the series from its first release date, I’ve watched episodes 1-12 over a few days. I think watching them all in one shot helped me understand the themes of the story better. At the beginning, the main characters each seem to have problems to overcome. Shin’s problem is not being confident of his abilities and his lack of will to do the things he wanted to. He gets easily discouraged, as shown with his relationship with Hiromi and his desire to draw his picture book. He knows that something is bothering Hiromi and wants to be the one to “wipe away her tears”, but he doesn’t move forward to do anything about it. He wants to draw but after one failure, he is ready to give up drawing. Hiromi’s problem is her fear of being alone. After her parents passed away, she wants to move into Shin’s family because she doesn’t want to be alone. However, she feels more alienated due to Shin’s mother’s behavior towards her, as well as the possibility that she and the person that she loves could be siblings. Noe’s problem is that she’s unable to cry after her grandmother passed away. I think in order to have a satisfactory ending, all their problems must be resolved in some way.
With one episode left to the series, I think the one who had made the most progress in resolving his/her problem is Shin. With the revised ending to his picture book, I think he had finally found his resolve and confidence “to fly”. The last episode will probably show how he faces Hiromi and Noe (either to reject or confess to one or the other) and his decision to draw. On the other hand, Hiromi, despite having already being accepted into Shin’s family and knowing that she and Shin aren’t siblings, is still the little girl who is afraid to be alone, as shown by her reaction to Shin’s leaving her at the festival. Noe’s problems seemed to have increased. Besides not being able to cry, she feels more confused and lost than ever before because she had never realized the feelings of the people that surrounded her (Jun’s, Hiromi’s, and Shin’s).
I think the last episode will deal with resolving both Hiromi’s and Noe’s problems, and Shin’s role will be essential. Hiromi will have to grow up and mature from the little girl she once was. She has to overcome her fear of being alone, either by knowing that she will have Shin around and trusting him to be around when she needs him (ShinxHiromi), or realizing that she will be okay even if she is alone (ShinxNoe). As for Noe’s problem, in one of the earlier episodes, she mentioned that she might be able to cry again if she takes the tears of someone precious to her. Her precious person is Shin. She had already seen him cry earlier in the series, but she said they were worthless tears. I’m not sure if she meant they were worthless to her because he didn’t cry for her. In the last episode, I think Shin will cry, this time for her, and thus it will enable her to cry again.
From a shipper’s point of view, ShinxHiromi and ShinxNoe are both quite possible, but I prefer a ShinxNoe ending. I think Shin and Hiromi’s relationship is based on Hiromi wanting to rely on Shin so she won’t be alone and Shin wanting to be her knight. The support is pretty much one-way, with Shin caring for Hiromi. I think a better resolution to Hiromi’s problem will be to realize that she could be alone and be okay, even without Shin. As for Shin and Noe, I think they complement each other better. Noe inspires Shin and helps him find his will to do the things he wanted (“to fly”). Shin keeps Noe a bit more grounded and helps her to live life with feeling again (I think she shut her feelings a little after her grandmother’s death. That’s why she couldn’t cry.) Overall, I’ve really enjoyed watching the series and I’m looking forward to see its conclusion.
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