Miku’s so 2000-and-late.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Miku and Futaro try looking for Itsuki at Ichika’s request, though Futaro’s cold begins to get the better him. This doesn’t seem to be something from last night either, but the cold that Raiha got spreading to him and likely Ichika. Still, they need to find Itsuki, which becomes much more urgent when it becomes possible she may have wandered into an unmaintained area of the ski resort. But Futaro, even in his fevered state, notices something up with the Ichika in front of him and goes with her to look for Itsuki…only to reveal that this Ichika WAS Itsuki (but not the one that asked him to look for Itsuki, because that was the real Ichika…it’s complicated). Futaro first picked up on it when she called him by his last name while skiing, when Ichika only calls him by his first name.

Seems she did this as part of her observations on whether Futaro was really a good guy or not, something Ichika chalks up to some bad experiences with their father, but it looks like Futaro is the real deal. And also, really sick, as he passes out next to Itsuki on a ski lift. When they get him back to the hotel, all the sisters are worried enough to watch over him, but he tells them all to have fun. So naturally, they all end up sneaking in and watching over him anyway. Though before that, Miku finally accepts that she’s in love with him and tells this to Ichika (who seems to be still coming to terms with her own feelings) but also says she’s going to win.

So, all five sisters end up holding his hand by the end of the campfire dance. Though by the time they get back to school, he’s back to his studious self, much to their dismay.

We then jump ahead to the future the season started at, with Futaro’s wedding to one of the sisters about to begin. An older Raiha is given a last minute job of bringing the forgotten wedding ring to her brother. He eventually heads to the ceremony, with Maeda and the girl he ended up dancing with (now his wife) in attendance. And as his own soon-to-be-bride walks down the aisle, Futaro thinks of all the bittersweet moments of his time in school fondly because all the sisters were there for him.

OUR TAKE

And that’s a wrap on what will hopefully be the first of at least a few seasons! However, when it comes to feeling like a proper finale, I’d say this feels like a bit of a thud. The constantly ongoing nature of manga is not always easy to translate into an anime adaptation with only a small portion of the story to work with, hence why a lot of short adaptations have to make up an ending of their own to give things a sense of finality. I don’t know how this show would try that, but I’m glad they didn’t try to force an ending. That said, while there were some considerable developments for a lot of characters over this big trip, it also doesn’t feel like a good cut-off point for the season since not a whole lot feels resolved.

They’ve made some academic progress with their midterm, Miku and Ichika have mostly come to terms with their feelings, and Itsuki has more or less gotten all the sisters to see him as a good guy, but this doesn’t feel like much of an ending to leave on. Not that I’m going to sit here and lie to you by suggesting I care more about these girls getting better test scores than I do about the romantic hi-jinks, but I guess I would have liked a more “full circle” approach, and the only thing that really gave it that sense was having a scene from the future wedding again, which shed a bit more light on things and gave some small hints towards the mystery of who the bride might be.

There’s also the bumps in adapting this story in particular from a black and white manga to a color animation with audio. Specifically in that the twist with “Ichika” turning out to be Itsuki is a lot easier to see coming if you’re listening to her voice, which I imagine was harder to pick up on in the manga. Then again, having seen this episode in both sub and dub form, it DID catch me off guard when it came to the Japanese voices I usually can’t tell apart, but the dub’s voices are far too distinct to miss. Then again, it didn’t take me out of the episode or anything, it’s just something I noticed and thought was worth bringing up.

I can say that I’ve been having fun with this series pretty much the entire time and this episode didn’t do anything to change that, but it just doesn’t feel like a proper ending I would have liked. Though I am once again in a position where the things I could say about this episode in particular would be better served in a review about the season as a whole…so I’ll do just that and save those thoughts for when we do the Season Review next week!

Score 7/10