Yesterday I finished watching season 3, and I haven't been able to put it out of my mind since. I don't like that, it's just a high school romantic comedy after all. Hopefully writing a few lines about it will make that go away.
They really surprised my by committing to a definite conclusion. The way the story resolved, the way the love triangle resolved, was not unexpected in my opinion - what we got was what the story had been building up to, what had been telegraphed from the beginning. But given the ambiguous endings of the previous seasons and the often bittersweet conclusion to minor arcs, I didn't think they would play it completely straight in the end. Fully expected them to either leave the matter unresolved again, or end with everyone-losing-but-growing-from-the-experience. But they stuck the landing, and for all intents and purposes the story has concluded, the curtain has dropped. This too was made clear before the actual finale of course, with the repeated references to endings and conclusions in the dialogue, but that doesn't sink in until it has happened.
Maybe that's what's irking me - I've gone a couple of years living with this as something that promised to be forever unresolved, and now I'm faced with abrupt closure. I didn't want it to ever be really over.
Still, I have a gripe.
Call it team-Yui sour grapes if you want. Story-wise, the love triangle obviously resolved as it "should" have, if it was to have any positive resolution at all. No need to go into the details of why that is, a blind man can see it. But it leaves a taste that's not just bittersweet but straight up bitter.
What the story builds to is an unironic Hiki-Yukinon power couple. The culmination of their on-screen relationship consists of them coming together to do [b]event management[/b], which had become a bit of a repeating trope in the latter half of the series. The girlboss of the wealthy family wins, and acquires an utterly loyal and at least moderately competent future husband who will help her take over and run the family empire. We are expected to have sympathy for the rich girl; how terrible it is for her to be burdened with all these expectations and these exacting family members, and how much of a savior her future husband proves to be… Frankly I don't like it, and I don't have as much sympathy as the story would want me to. Fuck the rich and their problems. Post too long. Click here to view the full text.