[Kaoru Chujo]

Well, not the ending I wanted, but a good one nonetheless, with lots of over- and under-tones for the future (although I don't really see a sequel).

Spoiler for episode 12:

Hazumu chooses to stay by Yasuna. Most of the episode is Hazumu and Tomari showing their friendship and love for each other and coming to terms with Hazumu's decision. Tomari's pain and love are just great, as are Hazumu's. When Tomari revealed her long-held vision of a future as Hazumu-the-guy's wife, it just about broke my heart. Yukarin and Kana! Hazumu finally catches up with Yasuna as she appears to be leaving town (for medical treatment?) Hazumu embraces her and says she loves her, and Yasuna's vision suddenly clears so she can see both women and men. The little scenes playing under the end credits leave us with views of the whole gang together, playing and joking. Two big questions for me. Ayuki comes up to Tomari after her big scene with Hazumu and embraces her. Was Ayuki really after Tomari all along? And at the end, after a scene of all the friends together, Yasuna lets go of Hazumu's hand and is about to say something: is it that she would welcome Tomari into the relationship? (My preferred ending.)

This series more than fulfilled my hopes for it after I fell in love with the manga. The voice acting, the backgrounds, the animation, the character design, the music -- all excellent. But above all the emotions of the characters worked just great, for me. As usual, I want to give enormous credit to the voice actors: Tamura Yukari, Ueda Kana, Horie Yui and Asano Masumi, in particular.