Quote:
Originally Posted by DragoonKain3
The way they should've done it is that his confession scene shouldn't have been as strong. Something along the lines of him still feeling a bit for Noe still, but in the end it's Hiromi who he feels more for and he'll try to think only of her in the future. Either that, or they have them not hook up then, but in a timeskip show that they get together in the future. Or even *gasp* a Noe ending, as long as he doesn't do the same proposal jibberish with her. However, essentially proposing to Hiromi was a very big mistake on the animator's part, as doing that requires almost absolute dedication to a girl in the protagonist's heart, and the animators have shown anything but for the last 3 episodes.
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Personally, I think you're putting way, way too much weight on this idea that it was meant as some sort of "proposal". It really wasn't at all; Hiromi was being dramatic. It's all in the tone. Shinichirou turned his sadness into a front of determination -- of course he was still hurting inside, but he was pushing it all aside (a.k.a. "taking it like a man") by focusing on
the reason he did all this. That's why his "confession" had all of the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and when she started feigning resistance, he just kept making his determination absolutely crystal clear. And of course, her resistance was
because of this sudden extreme insistance that was so out of the ordinary. It was sort of as if Shinichirou was saying "I'm making myself absolutely clear to you, and I already know how you feel, so don't mess with me now". That's why it was a hug and not a kiss. What he (and she both) needed was comfort and acceptance to make up for the fact that he (she) was still in a lot of pain due to what he just had to do (and all that she had gone through). But he had to do this precisely to offset that pain; he had to make things clear, as that was what everyone wanted, including Noe.
So, yeah, that was no proposal. That was just determination born out of necessity. He made his decision, he went through that incredibly painful ordeal, and now he had to finish the job by making it clear to the one he loves that it's Over even if he still feels it (Over with a capital O, so as to avoid the mess his parents went through). I felt it fit perfectly with the preceding scene, and was totally connected to it.
About the on-going conversation regarding the depth of Shinichirou and Hiromi's friendship, I can see how this confusion is happening because all that would have happened off-screen and we weren't privy to it. We know that they were close enough that all of Shinichirou and Hiromi's closest friends each thought it was only a matter of time before they started going out. But we don't get to see any of what that looked like. From the point where we pick up the story, Hiromi and Shinichirou have already been estranged for some time, and the only scene they give us to go by is that scene of them being obviously close as children. We also know that the distance Shinichirou was now feeling from Hiromi was dramatic enough for him to really take notice. Also the distance they had at school was also a point the other friends/observers in the school noticed as indicative of some sort of change. We can at least assume that they were in fact more than
just "classmates and acquaintances". You do basically have to extrapolate the rest, though, and I guess that's where the difference of opinion is. Personally, my take is that they had been friends since childhood, since I feel that would best explain why Shinichirou is so troubled by their recent estrangement and why all the classmates and friends took notice of it, but of course that's just a theory based on the snippets of evidence they gave us. I do feel that that theory, though, better explains the depth of their relationship and why it's more than just some sort of superficial/juvenile crush, which in turn leads to my acceptance of the way the plot developed. But we all see things differently, I guess.
. I've never thought any relationship built up on memories of childhood to be a healthy reason to move into a romantic relationship. I am sure there are 101 reasons why person A falls in love with person B, but lots of shows don't actually show any of that apart from some memory during childhood. So it looks to me like its someone wanting a romantic/adult relationship based on their memories of a child 
I really liked this scene because it shows that both sides of the extreme pairing-war were right and wrong. He choses Hiromi and he had to make a real effort to leave Noe. It wasn't a case of "going to her, saying he never actually liked her and it was only a deal" which is similar to some (perhaps exaggerated) expressed predictions. It dismisses that common idea that the only connection Shin had with Noe is the deal with Jun, or that it was a one-sided relationship. I would even say some of what he says is pretty strong, "he was able to draw because of Noe, he was able to dance because she was there". Considering these are two major plot elements, it's interesting that they're said to the "losing" girl in the series. Anyways, this resolution made much more sense and I applaud the writers for tackling it that way. 
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