We’re just under the half-hour mark in terms of time left for the brilliantly normal and delightfully split-threaded romance KimiKiss, and still there is no end in sight, something that’s quite distressing given how much has to be done in how little an amount of time.

It’s a strange thing that reminds me of when I was watching Myself; Yourself a while back, yet this time coming from a show of much different style and feel. Whereas Myself; Yourself was fast and furious from pretty much the middle point on, KimiKiss has moved all the way from a crawling pace to a brisk walk. It’s kind of ironic, because even the characters in the show have a definite deadline on their time (with the end of the cultural festival marking many things), yet neither they, the animators, and arguably we don’t realize just how close things are to coming to a sudden stop.

Perhaps that’s something that’s significant of high school life as a whole, something that as a senior I can identify with, that creeping feeling of “the whole world is about to change upside-down and I’m still refusing to accept it”. Wouldn’t it be nice to be with your friends (and possibly, lovers) forever?

Of course, that’s not a reality, and so the sudden shift that’s about to hit at least half of KimiKiss like a out-of-control car clobbering a hot anime mom with two thousand pounds of plot is going to be something that will be wildly emotional, and different, if nothing else, to witness. We can be with KimiKiss not much longer than certain characters in it can be with each others, and so it’s time to look forward to a lot of coping and with any luck, one hell of an ending next week.

But until then, it’s time to fire up those analytical engines one more time as KimiKiss gears up for its final lap, and take a look at what business has to be done in the last episode of this anime.

Surely you didn’t believe that white flag was anything more than racing’s symbol to signify the last lap of a race? Surrender is the last thing on this uptight fan’s mind, even with the sink sinking, explosions surrounding the inevitable Titanic wreck of the Kouichi and Yuumi relationship.

It’s difficult to tell what’s going through Yuumi’s mind at this point, but it’s easy to tell that it’s something hard. She seems to be taking a route that might end up being more painful in the end in trying to wring every last drop of enjoyment from the cultural festival, making it one final memory between her and Kouichi before she is separated from him, both physically and likely emotionally.

Kouichi’s sudden consideration of Mao as a romantic object is something that’s far too apparent to Yuumi, and it seems like she will be the one in the end to back down. Things would be so much easier if Kouichi would admit this to himself and to Yuumi as well, but from both this episode and the preview, either things aren’t what they seem, or Kouichi too is trying to make his time with Yuumi drag out as long as possible.

It’s a sweet feeling but one that’s rather inconsiderate if not emotionally wracking. Like watching a close person lie on their deathbed, or perhaps on a lighter note, staring down a school project on a Sunday night, there is a large sense of finality overshadowing all else, one that can consume individuals who are not stout of heart. The mere presence of an event like this really distracts people from living for the now, instead causing them to worry about the future, yet many times it’s not something they can easily comprehend. It’s a paradox, plain and simple, and one that needs to be solved quickly.

Like in Kouichi and Yuumi’s case, it might be safer to put the blinders on, it might be better to try to stay on that path until the very end, but it will just end up in a case of delusion and one giant shock at the end of the line. In extreme cases such as those which would define the ranks of yanderes (girls gone crazy) for years to come, such ignorance of the truth has caused some rather messy - both emotionally and physically - resolutions.

Maybe this is boiling down to too simple and too blunt a message, but accepting the truth is what needs to be done here.

If everyone acted the way jaded anonymous advice givers on the Internet suggested (”get over her”, “just do it”, etc etc) it would be a much simpler show as Mao would have jumped Kouichi a lot earlier and Yuumi and Kouichi would have resolved their complicated true feelings a lot easier.

Of course, this isn’t going to happen, which is what gives KimiKiss an edge of complexity. Nobody - especially not hormone-charged teenagers with as much experience as a generic RPG hero after the opening cutscene - can act with that almost machine-like emotional sense. I mean, just look at me, wearing my Yuumi baseball cap and sporting my Yuumi fanclub uniform and waving my Yuumi flag shouting stupid things like “YUUMI FIGHTO!”.

It would be frankly disturbing if anyone could be that coldly logical about dropping relationships especially at this stage. Although sometimes it’s really gut-wrenching to see how Mao has somewhat accidentally, somewhat purposely lodged herself between Kouichi and Yuumi, it’s really exactly how’d you’d expect a realistic high school romance to turn out, with that fine-tuned conflict between “what is right” and “what I want”. Hopefully, at the end, there will just be some meaningful resolution to this story, just like I hope there will be a meaningful resolution to this long rant.

Speaking of being coldly logical Eriko is demonstrating the other side of the coin, as while Kouichi and Yuumi are busy ignoring the truth, Eriko is actively fighting it in trying to distance herself from Kazuki like she originally did. All these new revelations in the form of her feelings for Kazuki are something that frighten her as much as Yuumi is distraught about Mao, except the rival in Eriko’s fight is not Asuka but herself.

Eriko sets Asuka up as the “better” choice for Kazuki in the previous two episodes, but that is rather just a misrepresentation of her own fears, and her own paranoia of becoming warm to the world. The part of her that is resistant to change is rejecting Kazuki, in the same way that protective parents become agitated when their child first starts going out with the opposite gender.

There’s that sense of losing familiarity, of change, and as mentioned before, change is scary to people. Eriko used her ice queen shell as a sort of protection, a two-way mirror between her and the world. Both could see either other, but neither could effect each other. Kazuki took to that barrier with a sledgehammer (which actually describes him in a lot of ways, including his density regarding Asuka) and put a hole in it, one that Eriko is suddenly trying to patch up.

The other side to Eriko’s withdrawal could be another issue regarding the unfamiliarity of love. Since it is undoubtedly her first time, she really has no idea what to expect, something that clashes strongly with her analytical mind. Her definition of love is highly bound by what she observes of it what she hears and what she reads, and when she does actively strive for Kazuki she tries to meet these rigid definitions of love.

Similar to how an anime fan might wonder where all the heart-throbbing, full-body-blushing, and romantic violin music is when they encounter their significant other (potential or otherwise), Eriko is throughout confused by how subtle at times love can be. Eriko could very well be playing by the wrong book (hey, does that sound familiar?), and, seeing how her feelings for Kazuki don’t match up, rejecting Kazuki (or her feelings for him) as ‘wrong’ or ‘imperfect’.

This of course might be striving for a bit too much order in her life, as arguably Eriko and Kazuki have some decent dynamics with each other, and can definitely teach each other a thing or two, having an important contrast that can make a relationship fulfilling and rewarding. While it might be unfair to turn Asuka down based on the inroads Eriko and Kazuki have made, in the end an Eriko x Kazuki ending is fully justifiable.

How we get there is a strange question; it might come down to Kazuki playing the naive but strong-willed idiot again and knocking some sense into Eriko with a killer monologue, since Eriko seems to be running away from herself again at the end of episode 23. (Although, the first time I looked at the final scene, I asked aloud, “Why did Eriko jump out the window?”)

Asuka might have a chance to do what she did earlier in the show and help these two together, but I think she did a lot for herself in her emotional confession scene (completely ace, by the way, I could not have asked for her to react better) and for Kazuki in showing him where his heart needs to be, and this is likely an issue that Eriko and Kazuki need to solve themselves. At this point Asuka is down to scoring one for the gipper in the Kibina soccer team or whatever, but hey, not everyone needs love (even if they do deserve it) in the form of a person; it’s easy to see Asuka’s other passion of soccer being rewarded equally.

Touching on what’s going down between Kouichi, Yuumi, and Mao in the final episode is something that you will notice that I haven’t really mentioned, if only because at this point it is fully all over the map, not least thanks to Owen’s prodding and musings (linked above).

The logic bets on a Mao ending, at least in part - she was the one there for him as a friend from the start, and she will have to be the one there for Kouichi when Yuumi is finally gone, and he is left in despair as shown from the preview. Most everything in the series, one way or another, is beginning to fall Mao’s way.

The heart hopes for an outside bet on Yuumi pulling off a Tokimeki Memorial finish, if only because she still has refused to let go, and since Kouichi looks to take Yuumi’s departure really hard. Reasonably, Mao could convince Kouichi that the one he wants is Yuumi, not herself, pulling off a stunning double-reversal in the closing moments.

The conspiracy theorist says, what if neither happens? Owen might almost be on to something, considering how Kouichi looks in the preview to be in one heck of a deep funk, one that can’t be solved by “I love you, now be happy k?”. It seems awfully melancholy for Kouichi to realize he missed two chances, but there could be a non-ending another way, a sort of “time goes by” - to steal a song from the show - theme where perhaps Kouichi loses in the small picture, but realizes that this is not the end for him in any means, as Mao and Yuumi will still be there with him in some part…just not in the way you would expect.

And the clock watcher says, where is the time for all this? It can be assumed that both the Kazuki and the Kouichi conclusions will take equal amounts of time as things are nothing close to finished on either end, but it feels like it will be a large crunch for space with all the revelations, emotional monologues, and afterthoughts to be done. It’s a point that worries me because the show has been distinctly slowing down in the last few episodes, storing up energy for one final soul-rocking event, and if KimiKiss goes down with bullets still left in the chamber, it will be an awful waste of great potential.

The optomist sees no reason to start doubting now, at least, but with the scope of KimiKiss being great as it is it will be something to behold if it all can get worked out in a reasonable manner, that is, without shipping half its characters off to the green room never to be seen again.

Speaking of, let’s go over a few of the side characters before closing this out.

I’m not sure how anyone could pass up Kai at this point, he could easily have landing a starring role in any number of shoujo romances with the amount of sheer perfection he is pulling off. He’s musically and artistically talented, he can cook, he has a cool but not cold demeanor, and he’s easily understanding, forgiving, and emotionally strong. I’m not sure why he’s being characterized as this all of a sudden, unless we’re really supposed to hate Mao for ditching him in favor of the more typically weak harem-lead-type Kouichi, but it really makes me wish for happy endings for him.

Hiiragi and Kuryuu…are you kidding me? Maybe I was hoping too hard for Hiiragi to get his loose ends tied up too, to lift him up out of comic relief status, but it was kind of dissapointing that Mitsuki continues to get passed over completely in favor of bringing Lay Down The Law girl back from episode 2 to jump Hiiragi. Did the order for KimiKiss call for a tsundere or something, and the animators just forgot to stick her in for 20 episodes? At least they didn’t stuff her into Kouichi or Kazuki’s box.

And the Udon Association is a good example of how characters can succeed without being romantically or dramatically involved. Perhaps it was not as interesting to see their cooking ability evolve, pushed by their desire to be great chefs, but I still gained a smile out of seeing the grandfather’s approval of the Ultimate Udon. It’s all good…at least until they start pulling out those frogs again.

-CCY

(Incidentally, if kissing was equated to sex in a less tame show, as mentioned by a commentator in another post, would Asuka suddenly laying one on Kazuki be the equivalent of her coming to his door in a lace nightgown and shoving him into bed? Ooh, that’s going to earn me another lifetime sentence to hell.)

(Do I still believe in the cause? I don’t know, but I will still shout YUUMI FIGHTO to the end~)

(Oh yes, and, I know you’ve seen this already somewhere, but in case you haven’t, there’s some “by bloggers, for bloggers” Anime Blog Award event going on, so please do participate)

If you liked this post, try...

• May 17, 2008 -- Harem Personality Quiz: ask your blogger what harem anime is right for you!
• March 29, 2008 -- Series Review: KimiKiss Pure Rouge … love, where is thy sting?
• March 12, 2008 -- Emperor and Slave: The Mindgames of KimiKiss 22
• March 7, 2008 -- KimiKiss 21: Holding ‘em and Folding ‘em
• March 5, 2008 -- My Show Is Better Than Your Show, March Madness Edition

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 am and is filed under KimiKiss Pure Rouge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.