Pin-pon~
Dusk Maiden of Amnesia closed its curtains this week among other shows, and being one of Spring’s more drama-inclined titles (typing that, I realize there isn’t really much drama going around) it stands to reason a bit that it would send us off with a few tears, and in us guys’ case, manly tears. In all honesty it almost made me cave. Almost.
Going by that I’m sure you guys know what I’m talking about, but I’ll save that for later. In its entirety the episode did its job well. This was the resolution episode. The one after the epic confrontation scene (and how cool was episode 11 eh?) where we get, like, a cold opening and some closure and stuff. In Tasogare Otome’s case, this was the episode where Teiichi and Yuuko finally meet the inevitable end of their happy time together. The time when Yuuko passes on, and Teiichi lives his life normally again.
For the most part that’s what we got. We see the “final date”, so to speak, between the two – doing things that they haven’t gotten around to doing yet (I know what you thought about), like eating lunch together as a couple for the first time. That scene was really sweet, and it showed how different Yuuko is now that she’s regained herself. She became a regular high schooler having the time of her life with the man she loves.
But I think we all knew, or at least felt, what was gonna happen next (it was very AnoHana like, actually). We first saw this in episode eleven, when her charm bracelet “phased through” her. It happened again with Yuuko’s chopsticks. She was beginning to fade away.
She planned to just break up with Teiichi in a professional, “this is just how it is” manner, but c’mon, what kind of guy would want that? If there wasn’t a way to make her stay, Teiichi wanted to be with her until the end. Yuuko didn’t want it to come to this, ’cause she knows how sad it’ll make Teiichi, but deep down I think she wanted her “last moments” to be beside him as well.
With Yuuko in the process of transcending the physical world, she and Teiichi roam around Seikyou Academy one last time, before heading to the place where the first met – the storage room we know all too well. The place was a wreck (thanks to Teiichi) but that didn’t stop them from reminiscing all the fun times the Paranormal Investigations Club have had.
Shortly afterwards. Yuuko starts losing her voice. It was time. Sitting side by side, the two communicate through Momoe’s journal one last time. This was THE tearjerker (plus, the insert song “Requiem” was awesome-tier beatiful) I didn’t notice when, but at one point in this scene my hands were just covering my mouth. The mood was near-perfect. The dialogue, although simple, was heavy-hitting. Yuuko’s last request was to be forgotten, so that Teiichi would be able to live a normal life, and he was ready to commit. The two share a last kiss, and just like that, Yuuko was gone.
It would seem that days had past when that happened, but Teiichi survived. He was ready to live a life without Yuuko for the sake of keeping his promise. And it would have been a nice, memorable end…
Until they pulled a fast one on us and gave us a “happy” end (the Super Peace Busters will not be pleased). At first I didn’t know why they did that, unless of course that’s how the manga would actually do it as well. But after lulling about it more I remembered a post I read from another ani-blogger about how bittersweet endings seem to be a fad nowadays. Maybe a happy ending once in a while isn’t so bad?
All in all, still worth the anticipation. 😀
What do you guys think about that? How was Tasogare Otome for you guys?
The ending of Tasogare is one of the few times where I thought that it would be nice if they went for the bittersweet route, because it ties up all the loose ends pretty nicely and it was a dramatic, yet satisfying conclusion.
*But* I still prefer the happy ending they chose in the end, because Tasogare’s best moments lies in its comedy, not its drama. For something that I’ve always seen as “fun”, I don’t want the lasting impression to be “depressing”.
Well, to each his own… but to go for something dramatic to warp up a story that is not… that actually does sounds pretty cheap. (lol)
Well, for a romance between a normal guy and a ghost girl, you can’t really help but expect it to end badly
That said, you’re right – Tasogare has been a solid rom-com as any throughout the season, and it’d seem pretty unusual for such a happy show if they suddenly pulled out an S-level bad end.
I’m alright with it either way, but I believe this show could’ve pulled it off with something bittersweet too, I mean, they kinda built up a bit for it.
I’d prefer if Yuuko didn’t return. It’ll make a better story personally. But it doesn’t really matter now that I think of it (few days have passed, lol) cuz at the end, Tasogare Otome X Amnesia wrapped up the series with a proper ending. There was beginning and end to this series. Plus, the story started to pick up pretty well midway. I really couldn’t ask for more. =)
It takes a while for it to sink in I guess, lol
But yeah, I think whichever way they chose to do it would still make for a satisfying end for Tasogare Otome. The important thing here is that they delivered enough to make the show entertaining. And I couldn’t really ask for more either 😀
How to break a series in only few minutes. Why did they decide to get her back?!
The series was complete with that emotional scene where she disappear…
It’s preposterous! >_<
Yeah, that was such a troll move after that uber emotional scene >.<
Plus, Yuuko is still a wandering ghost.
I see a lot of people objecting to the happy ending, and I have to disagree with them. The bittersweet bit in the final episode was just a feint; the plot up to that point was leading up to a happy ending. The biggest indication of this was the argument between Kirie and Teiichi in episode 11, where Teiichi is ready to accept that Yuuko is gone, and Kirie tells him that he’s only doing it because he’s scared. Had they been aiming for a bittersweet ending, it should have been the opposite — Teiichi should have been unable to accept that Yuuko might leave, and Kirie should have told him to accept reality. Anyone who’s complaining that the happy ending is somehow “bad writing” should have complained about that scene first, since it set up the final conflict to lead to a happy ending.
That said, it’s not really bad writing at all. There’s a common misconception that happy endings are somehow lazy writing. Frankly, it would have been a lot easier to end Dusk Maiden the way every other ghostly love story ends, with the ghost moving on.
If it helps, think of Yuuko as a friendly succubus. She’s a jealous spirit who has latched onto Teiichi and doesn’t want him seeing other women. In the second episode, they hinted that the “curse” was forever, so it stands to reason that Yuuko wouldn’t just go away.
I think it’s not so much as “objecting” the happy end but rather a lot of people didn’t really hope on a cheerful note after such a heavy-hitting farewell scene. I admit that the foreshadowing you pointed flew past me, since my take on that scene was that Teiichi had already started garnering his own resolve.
I agree that what they did wasn’t a result of bad writing, nor was there any indication of bad writing anywhere during the span of the series. And yes, I think a lot of us expected the “moving on” outcome, and it would’ve been indeed easier to write it I think.
Actually, yeah, that kinda helps 😀
just can’t shake the idea of Menma shaking her head from up there, lol
I just finished the manga today… for me, all of the happy moments between Yuuko and Teiichi seemed to build up to their separation (and it was so painful to see them separate). In the manga, instead of her coming back, he leaves the world to meet her on the other side. It seems that for him, whether he stays or leaves, he will be missing something (her or the world). The anime avoids this by bringing her back, which seems too good to be true (I feel that Teiichi has to make a painful choice at some point. Yuuko made her choice to face the shadow rather than wander around in amnesia again, for the sake of her own sense of self; he also has to decide what his sense of self depends on: her or the world? But maybe, having both is possible).
I think that the separation was always part of their interaction; Teiichi’s initial act of ‘recognition’ made Yuuko care for him, but the realisation that this recognition is impermanent, that separation is inevitable, drives the plot forward. By definition his recognition also includes the recognition that she must have a past. In fact, her affection for him as a person draws strength from her unconscious need to find and face her past and her recognition that he is willing to help her do it. This makes the impermanence of his recognition all the more urgent: not only will she lose him when they separate, she will lose her chance to find herself. If they didn’t have to separate, then she could delay that ad infinitum.
I’m not sure what Teiichi’s motives are (lacking the usual “weak and bullied schoolboy” backstory). He seems to act out of pure generosity of spirit. But then again it’s not like he decided from the beginning what his end goal would be. He was drawn in slowly both by her and by the mystery of her past. Does he need more motive than sympathy, curiosity, and love? Maybe not.
It’s probably too much to ask of the author to have more motive than that, like him having an especially strong drive for the truth. In this scenario, he could have been bullied for precisely his drive to find the truth about people, which could lead him to disrupt people’s carefully constructed realities/facades. This would make him wish he didn’t have such a strong drive. But then after meeting Yuuko, and in the search for her past, he comes to realise his own value. When she leaves, having “mourned” for her, he puts his newfound appreciation of himself to good use in the world. Personally I think this would be a better ending: having him bring what he learnt with her to the world. What about the lessons about people seeing what they want to see? But, after all, I suppose he did leave his mark before he left, on those who knew him, and, indirectly, on those whom Yuuko helped. And at least his life was captured in this manga.
Thanks for sharing your insights 😀 (especially with the manga side of things)
After seeing how the manga chose to end Tasogare, I actually think they had to make a really tough call when they decided how to end the anime. Having the manga version of the finale raises a lot of very subjective questions (i.e. Why does Teiichi care so much for a ghost girl enough to follow her on the “other side”?) and the anime had very little leg-room to work with.
I think we’re supposed to interpret Teiichi’s actions to be motivated by both love, and an allure of mysteriousness; resulting in a sort-of fantastical romance that generally appeals to a lot of people, like Teiichi. Of course, we can also just let that one slide as he really does love Yuuko unconditionally.
On the topic of “recognition”, I agree that Yuuko’s case was that of self-actualization (or I guess in a more extreme spectrum, existentialism). Yuuko loved Teiichi because he sees her, feels her, hears her; affirms her existence. A side-conflict results in the now-dual existence of Yuuko – the authentic, real Yuuko, and the detached Yuuko Teiichi met. The former and the latter cannot co-exist, simply because one negates the other.
That, I think, seals the deal as to how much their romance should’ve not became as it should. In a way it was a forbidden romance really; not that it was immoral, but it was just destined to meet some end.
At the very least, and at it’s very core, the main thing Tasogare wanted to get across (in my opinion) is that there does exist an all-encompassing love – and I think the anime/manga’s respective endings cater to that romantist thought 😀
what happen if teiichi end his school and need go to work ?, yuuko can follow him outside the school too since the she want to stay because the kiss, right ?