To paraphrase George Costanza, I could use the break.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>First off, no \u2013 we didn\u2019t get an official Season 2 announcement here. So technically this post should have been labeled as a \u201cFinale and Series Review\u201d. But we all know it\u2019s going to happen. Ao no Hako<\/em> is a commercial hit and a WSJ<\/em> property, and those don\u2019t just stop. This season used roughly 80 of\u00a0 the current 181 chapters, so there\u2019s plenty of material. It\u2019s not the first time I\u2019ve bent my rule a little on this score, but I think it\u2019s justified. And I\u2019ve never wound up being wrong any of the earlier times I\u2019ve done it\u2026<\/p>\n<\/a>Contributing to that impression was that this episode made basically no effort to be a finale. Maybe we\u2019ve achieved partial closure with Taiki and Hina, but apart from that there was nothing transitional or final here. The ep just stopped at the end, as if it were any other week. Even if we were getting the next season as soon as summer, I would have preferred at least some effort to acknowledge the reality. Season finales are still finales and it\u2019s nice to feel like you\u2019re reached a milestone.<\/p>\n<\/a>What we got was basically the aftershocks of the Ayame-caused earthquake between Hina and Taiki. In the end this is probably better \u2013 Kyou is right that Hina should understand the reality, though his assertion that she\u2019s \u201chappier\u201d is transparently wide of the mark<\/a> (for now). None of that excuses Ayame whatsoever of course. She\u2019s still completely insufferable, irresponsible, and selfish. And what makes it worse is that even after doing the bare minimum and acknowledging that she caused the pain Hina is suffering, she keeps right on meddling.<\/p>\n<\/a>What this means for Hina and Taiki is complicated. He\u2019s right that he can\u2019t just say \u201clet\u2019s go back to being friends\u201d. What she did forever changed the dynamic between them. And frankly if being friends was her priority, she should have respected his feelings and not pursued him romantically. I don\u2019t think time heals all wounds, though there are instances where it dulls the pain sufficiently for people to get past them. The awkwardness between them is the price they\u2019re going to have to pay for a while, and there are no shortcuts to get past it (if they ever do).<\/p>\n<\/a>I have to wonder if the hangover from all this impacted Taiki when Haryuu challenged him to a game<\/a>. He obviously wasn\u2019t at his best, though he never considers the idea. And this really meant more to Haryuu than it did to Taiki. Taiki needed that win over Yusa to restore his confidence, and Haryuu needed this win over him. That Haryuu was willing to admit he was afraid of challenging Taiki is a big deal \u2013 it\u2019s testament to how down on himself he was. He was building himself up for this moment, which took Taiki completely by surprise.<\/p>\n<\/a>As for the main event, there are no big finale leaps forward here. It makes sense to think that if Hina is in a sense freed by knowing unambiguously that it\u2019s not going to happen with Taiki, he\u2019s freed by having finally settled the issue. There are still obvious and myriad reasons why he hasn\u2019t formally confessed to Chinatsu yet, but now he has no choice but to acknowledge them and not blame it on Hina. Inviting Chinatsu to \u201cgo somewhere\u201d<\/a> on the weekend is a step forward, even if \u201cshopping for a tracksuit\u201d is a hilariously schoolboy follow-up suggestion. Fortunately Chinatsu is a little more tuned in and suggests something a little more appropriate as a tandem.<\/p>\n