Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf
I disagree that the outcome, with Rikuo ending up with Haru, was "manufactured". There have been hints all along that Rikuo was harbouring feelings for Haru that he was trying to deny. For example, in that episode when he was sorting out his old college photos, he suddenly thought about Haru.
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I'm leaning more towards Enzo's postion, here, though I'm not leaning all in. I agree that it's not coming out of nowhere, but there's something about the ending, for me, that says "too much effort on Rikuo's part in too short a time".
I haven't been rooting for Rikuo and Shinako, and I'm not rooting for Rikuo and Haru, either. And as far as I'm concerned, the ending is as much "Rikuo and Haru" as it was "Rikuo and Shinako" when they did get together. That is: it's an open ending. And I'm fine with all that.
The problem I have is that to my mind the show did a pretty good job showing how just a couple of years age-difference can make a difference in life style. Haru and Rou are very obviously a romantic developmental stage behind. And the ending, to my mind, just threw all that together in a hot pot without much of a recipee. When Rikuo suddenly and out of nowhere behaves like a giddy teenager (with his older self retreating into a peanut gallery comment track) it comes across more as a romance-defaultist panic button than anything genuine. And I have two issues with this: (a) Haru deserves better and Rikuo should know better, but the narrative is good enough that it could handle this... (b) if it showed any signs that it was aware of the problem and if there was enough time left.
It's entirely possible that the episodes still to come will somehow alleviate my concerns, but the damage is done. To be sure, the damage, for me, amounts to little more than a scratch on the surface. <i>Sing Yesterday for Me</i> isn't the sort of show that can get ruined by an ending, but yeah, the ending <i>is</i> a minor blemish for me.
It's even worse when we consider Shinako X Rou. I don't think the story set up a romance here, but the framing of that final scene with all the friends talking about romance and us getting to see the drawing, and then the scene cutting off where it did...
Together this gives a sort of parallelism that suggests more closure than the narrative supports. Like putting matching ribbons on shoddily wrapped presents because the birthday deadline arrived surprisingly quickly.
The scenes in themselves were all fine, for me.