Inu x Boku SS – 11-12 [END]

 “And so we’ll remember it again and again – the story of long, long time we’ll live out together.”

…I haven’t even been following this series as closely as I would have liked to and I’m still sad to see this go. T-this anime was amazing (prepare for me to say so many, many times) and I’m glad that I can join in for the last two episodes in this post “ヽ(´▽｀)ノ”

You know that feeling when you’re incredibly excited for something, and yet you dread it at the same time too because it means the end is near? Yeah that’s how I feel right now ;_; Inuxboku has given me so much joy and DAWWW this season I really can’t bear to part with it <3 After this I’ll probably have severe withdrawal symptoms and I’ll have to buy ALL the manga! Tagging with lovely Kara for this wonderful finale, and here’s to a beautifully presented anime!

Episode 11

The truth behind Soushi’s past is finally being revealed to us, and it’s pretty darn depressing. Unlike Ririchiyo, who was carefully raised under the excessive care and protection of her family, Soushi was raised up confined in a little room all his life – the Miketsukami family believed that it would gain prosperity only by fully controlling the reincarnation of such immense power. This responsibility fell onto Soushi’s shoulders, and he was never ever allowed to properly interact with anyone else throughout his life. What he really wanted to obtain was freedom – so he achieved that by cheating, lying and seducing his way up to the highest position he could’ve possibly attained. And that was when he came across Ayame Shoukiin (a.k.a Kagerou’s okaa-san), who saved him from the chains previously bounding him and brought him into the family as a servant for Kagerou.

I think I still prefer you to be a lolicon for Ririchiyo, rather than a shotacon for pervy old ladies, Soushi

Kagerou, being arrogant and busy and all, got Soushi to do a bunch of things for him, and here’s the mindblowing part – guess what comes under that bunch of things? That’s right, Kagerou ordered him to write those letters on Ririchiyo on his behalf as he “couldn’t be bothered”, and that’s how it all began. Soushi realized that he couldn’t rely on his own personality – he had no emotions. And so that’s precisely why he began to craft an idealistic image of Kagerou in his mind, using that as a basis for all his letters to Ririchiyo. As they continued exchanging letters, Soushi felt being more and more attracted to this girl he had never even met before, but whom he knew was delicate, sensitive and clean. The first time he met Ririchiyo was when she had travelled over to Kagerou’s for a short stay, and although Soushi was looking forward to their meeting, he found that the Ririchiyo in his letters didn’t quite seem like the tsundere in front of his eyes. But by continuing to watch her, he realized that no, Ririchiyo was different under that cold façade of hers – she wasn’t void of emotions, but who noticed that? Since then, he’s dedicated himself to watching over her, keeping that feeling of protectiveness, of pure love for this little girl close to his heart.

Sometime later, he decided in the heat of the moment to write to her about himself, despite it being a blurred picture, even while knowing the risks he was taking of ruining her image of Kagerou. But her reply had stunned him once again – she was glad, that he seemed closer to her now, more real, and more precious. For someone who has never been loved by the people around him since he was born, imagine how it would have felt like to hear someone say that? It touched his heart, and he made a decision to enter Ayakashi Manor as a SS Agent, so that he could be the one closest to the Ririchiyo he knew so well.

As we return to the present, Kagerou reveals to Ririchiyo that it had never really been him writing the letters to her. To this, Ririchiyo states a matter-of-factly that she already knew – I mean, how could such an uncouth person like Kagerou have such sophisticated insights? Kagerou then pushes her into the lift, and has a one-to-one talk with her. Surprisingly, he begins to apologize for his actions and his attitude towards the young Ririchiyo, and even states that he regrets not having participating in the exchanging of letters, albeit in an incredibly unabashed way. Then he drops the bomb onto her – it was Soushi who wrote all those letters. That was why he seemed to know her so well, that was why he said that he had been waiting so long just to see her. And when the lift doors open once again, the two envelop in a tight embrace… because they had both noticed each other when no one else did.

And that day, there was a flood of fangirl tears

Episode 12

We’re off to a lighter start this episode, as Renshou and Natsume approach the bartender’s son, who appears to be particularly troubled. A pop of the questions reveals that he is actually worried about the fact that people who carry supernatural blood are reincarnations of their ancestors – if that is true, will his father in the future still be his father, if he marries somebody other than his mother? That’s when Natsume brings up a brilliant solution! A time capsule, where he can write a letter to his future dad to tell him whatever he has bottled up in his heart. As Natsume goes around inviting people, this eventually spreads to a manor-wide event and everybody decides to participate in it – that is, of course, including Ririchiyo.

Hmm, something looks like it doesn’t belong in the time capsule here…

Ririchiyo writes two letters – one meant to go along with a box of cakes as thanks for Soushi, and the other, a private letter to her future self for the time capsule. She grabs a letter and the cakes and heads to Soushi’s room and well, you can guess what happens next, can’t you? Yup, she ends up wonderfully passing the entirely wrong letter to Soushi, and only realizes it when it is too late. She frantically calls Soushi and yells at him to PLEASE NOT READ IT… only to find out that he already did. “…And stay by Miketsukami-kun’s side.” Ririchiyo is unable to deal with the fact she had just let Soushi read her sort-of confession, and runs away to hide in a playground, trying to come to terms with the current situation.

When she finally gathers up enough courage to turn her phone on, she gets a call from Soushi immediately, and frantically tries to deny that the letter had contained any feelings other than simple gratitude. Again, contrary to her earlier predictions, Soushi brushes it off and says that he hadn’t even expected anything in the first place – after all, as a lowly servant, he was in no way worthy of Ririchiyo’s affection whatsoever, and could only dream to do so. Ririchiyo realizes that Soushi has always hated himself, slighting himself in so many ways – and she understands this, because she’s been there, she’s hated herself too. But because of him, simply falling in love with him, gave her the courage to try to change. And that’s why when he comes in front of her, she throws away every other thought in her mind – all her embarrassment, pride and honor out of the window and just – I love you, I love you, I love you even if you can’t love yourself. And thus the most beautiful confession scene ever has been created. Soushi scoops Ririchiyo into his arms and whispers soft “I love you”s over and over again. There’s no happier feeling in the world than this, and the day is sealed with a kiss.

After the ending credits, we get a glimpse of Ririchiyo and Soushi lazing on the couch, fingers intertwined in each other’s. Soushi says that he only has one dream, and that is to have a child and a family of his very own. But they have all the time in the world for that, and for now, they have each other, and that in itself, was more than enough.

Every fangirl’s dream come true

Miyu has a ton to say, so I’ll keep my part short. I marathoned the entire thing in a day and I think I’ve broken something over all of the fangirling I’ve done in such a short period of time. This much HNNNNG can’t be good for the heart. Anyways, like everyone’s been saying, this anime was amazing. Yes the romance was nice and the visuals were great, but to me, this is truly a story of two lonely people coming to understand one another. It might have taken some of the events from the manga out of order (…from what I remember), but they ended it in THE perfect spot. Hell, this entire adaptation has been perfect. I can’t think of a single thing I could possibly complain about.

That ending was just beautiful. Like Miyu, I absolutely love the line “I love you, even if you can’t love yourself” and even though Ririchiyo says it, I’d say it applies to the both of them. They both loved/supported one another in their own way and it’s that mutual support that brought them together. IT’S SO FREAKING BEAUTIFUL щ(゜ロ゜щ). These two seriously have THE best relationship I’ve seen in a very, very, long time. I could go on and on about these two, but I should probably talk about the supporting cast. They were amazing. Every single one of them. Obviously Soushi and Ririchiyo were the stars of the show, but I definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much without Kagerou’s constant S&M, Karuta’s airheadedness or the employee’s…. whatever they did. While I’m sad that they skipped over some parts like Karuta’s past, I can’t complain in the slightest. Not when the rest of the series was that good.

….Have I mentioned how good I thought this was already? This anime had everything from comedy to serious stuff to…uh, ecchi (I guess) to romance and it did everything fabulously. Even that last scene that they threw in there with Soushi wanting a child (which I don’t think happened in the manga. I would have remembered it if it did) was amazingly touching. While I don’t think that Ririchiyo really grew as a person as much as I thought she would besides the transition between episodes 1-3 (I just kind of saw her interacting with people as her being less tsundere) (….though that’s probably because I knew how she would open up to people), the relationship between her and Soushi was something that I really enjoyed watching. Anyways, a big thanks to Miyu for letting me fangirl all over the place here <3.

HOW AM I EVEN SUPPOSED TO EXPRESS MY FEELINGS WITHOUT BREAKING INTO SOBBING FITS OR MELTING INTO A PUDDLE OF FANGIRL GOO? The producers really went all out with the finale and these two episodes definitely contain the best moments in InuxBoku history. I’m so glad we got to find out about Soushi’s background story, and that they did an excellent job portraying it and invoking pathos in its viewers – who else here cried? ;_; Turns out my prediction for Soushi’s involvement in those letters was true, but I wasn’t expecting his past to be that depressing. Just like Ririchiyo, receiving those letters became an important part of his life and he just- couldn’t- stop- his inexplicable feelings for the girl he didn’t even know personally. That scene with Soushi looking at Ririchiyo’s tiny back view and saying “but who notices that about her?” was so touching – yes, who did? How many people even bothered trying to get to know her better, underneath her rich, snobby front? Only he knew, and that feeling alone was his and his alone. No, he’s not just a heterochromatic bishie (a pretty damn hot one at that), he plays an important part in this story that may be overshadowed by the rather “perfect” first impression that he gives off. We’ve been able to learn more about him through the course of this anime and the finishing touch of his past just adds so much depth to his character.

And you can just imagine how terrified, how scared he must have felt at the prospect of having to tell Ririchiyo that all this while he had been lying to her, that he had knew her inside out since the very beginning, that he had harbored something stronger than just a sense of gratitude when they had first met in the manor. What if she took it the wrong way and lost trust in him, what if she never wanted to see him again – would he be able to live life without her? Of course, it would’ve never turned out that way and that hugging scene between them was so daaaaaw I had tears in my eyes. :’) Yes, because they had noticed each other when no one else did, they had saved each other in their own special ways. That confession scene was also one of the sweetest I have ever seen (oh and trust me, as a hopeless romantic, I have seen many) even though it was just that simple. Ririchiyo said the words that Soushi never thought he’d be able to hear in his life – I love you, even if you can’t love yourself. You can’t deny that that is the most adorably breathtaking thing you’ve ever heard. (<

I look back at how much Ririchiyo has grown since the first episode and I’m just like woah. My first impression of her can be summarized in one word(?): mehhhh. I thought she was your typical tsundere that probably wasn’t going to contribute much to the anime other than being all angsty and stuff. After understanding more about her unfortunate childhood and disposition, she grew closer and closer to my heart and now she’s definitely one of my all-time favorite female characters. She went from totally being unable to express her feelings to everyone around her, over-paranoid and anxious that she would say something wrong, to coming to terms with accepting that yes, she has flaws – but that be improved one step at a time, can’t it? In the last episode, she was freely interacting with all the residents of the Ayakashi Manor, even despite the risk of her lashing out at somebody. Because she knew that people will come to appreciate her for who she is, even below that façade that she was trying so hard to get rid of.

And that just really shows, you know, that at the crux of all the supernatural elements and the adorable humor, this anime is really just about two very imperfect people building on each other to overcome their weaknesses. They are so broken in different ways, but the way they came together and the depth at which they finally understood each other was so heartbreakingly moving. It is really difficult to find an anime that beautifully touches on such a simple, yet grossly underemphasized part of reality – the courage and the process of overcoming personal flaws! And Inuxboku makes it all the better by crafting two very special people that we slowly come to find out about, and gradually discovering the subtle similarities that they have.

Truthfully, I really wasn’t expecting Inuxboku to have real romance between Ririchiyo and Soushi going on because my other experiences with anime of the sort just left me hanging with vague, unexplained elements. However, I must say here they did it impeccably, in my opinion, and the ending just felt so right. The relationship between Soushi and Ririchiyo has never been normal in the first place, with the whole master-servant/age difference/youkai-thingum going on, but this anime just allows me to forget everything irrelevant and just focus on how pure their relationship is. They even made Soushi’s request of “I WANT TO HAVE A CHILD WITH YOU” sound sweet and precious, and Ririchiyo’s response was perfect – they had a whole life ahead of them to spend together, and that was enough. It was a wonderful wrap-up for the series and it also gives us more to fantasize ponder about, and I guess it leaves us viewers happy too, knowing that they have a long, long time ahead of them. I’m honestly overjoyed by how the anime has turned out and I’m definitely going to be catching up on the manga series afterwards. Now I can say without a doubt that InuxBoku is my favorite anime of the season, and also one of the best romance/hurt/comfort shows I’ve ever caught. I’m so lucky to have been able to blog this show here on Metanorn and I hope you’ve had as much of a fun ride as I did! <3

We’ll remember, forever and ever <3

About Tag Team

We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.