Tasogare Otome X Amnesia – 12 [END]
The radioactive background made it that much more romantic
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So I got Hyouka out of the way early with every intention of having this post out Monday and Jormungand out yesterday …but then course registration happened. AND NOW I’M SUPER STRESSED BECAUSE A FEW OF THE CLASSES I NEED TO GRADUATE APPARENTLY DON’T EXIST THIS YEAR! YAY! …Excuse me while I repetitively bash my head against my desk. |
A good deal of this episode was committed to showing life as normal for Yuuko and Niiya, which was kind of nice to see considering all of the crap they had to deal with to get to this point. It was satisfying to see this for a bit before the show started the drama up again, just to show that a ghost and a human COULD actually be happy together. Plus, it made the goodbye scene that much more depressing. SILVER LINK was also kind enough to add in one more groping scene, just because they could. It’s interesting to see Yuuko having her other emotions back. She seems like pretty much the same person, but like a normal girl, she could get embarrassed over her boyfriend coping a feel. It seemed weird having her react like that after having the same thing happen so many times before, but I guess they wanted the emphasize Yuuko’s newfound range of emotions.
The show also went back and explained a few things that I was wondering about. It was Shadow Yuuko that first called Teiichi to the mirror and not because he was related to Asa, but apparently she knew him well enough to like him. …I wonder if this was just an instinct thing or if she was stalking him for a while. Yuuko also talked a bit about why there weren’t any other ghosts, which was something I just attributed to the fact that ghosts in this anime world can only be seen if you’re expecting to see something. It would have been interesting to see more paranormal things in Tasogare (as opposed to Yuuko being thecause of pretty much everything), but Yuuko is the important one here.
Yuuko’s body was finally found (…it wasn’t exactly hidden well in the first place in my opinion, but whatever) and the whole story behind her death seems finally put to rest. I kind of wish we could have seen part of the funeral (or at least Niiya’s reaction while in the funeral), but I guess they wanted to dedicate as much time for Yuuko as possible. Of course, with all of the drama solved, it means that Yuuko was going to be moving on as well. Niiya’s reaction to Yuuko telling him goodbye was probably the strongest I’ve ever seen him react to anything. He never really showed it before (it was mostly Yuuko showing her affections to Niiya), but damn the guy really loved Yuuko. Even when she wanted a clean break, the guy refused to give up on her. That goodbye scene took FOREVER (read: half an episode), but damn it was effective at being depressing. Yuuko’s final request was really sweet and in the end, Niiya looked like he was doing okay at moving on with his life. I doubt that he would have ever completely forgotten Yuuko, but I have no doubt that he would have tried to live life how she wanted him to.
…And then the REAL end happened, making all of my tears COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT. So Yuuko is still dead, Niiya is still alive, the two are together and life continues on as normal. This seemed half assed to me. I mean, I’m happy for the two of them and everything, but it seems like just as Niiya got used to life without Yuuko, she came back. Why the time gap? I suppose that since Yuuko’s regret involves Niiya, she might be able to leave the school now, so that solves that problem, but there’s still the problem of one of them being dead. Niiya is still going to grow up some day and when that happens, he’ll be a necrophiliac AND a lolicon (since Yuuko will be forever underage). Yay. I guess we won’t have to worry about that though since the ending here seemed conclusive enough. I doubt there will be a second season. I can’t say that I really like SILVER LINK’s solution to the whole ghost problem, but Tasogare has been rather straightforward and simple all of this time, so the end is fitting in a way. I probably should have seen this coming, but I was just hoping they wouldn’t go in this direction.
End Thoughts:
Like a lot of people, I thought this was going to be more horror and less romance (and I’ve read the manga). However, like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Tasogare skipped over quite a few arcs containing the more supernatural things and went straight for the parts with Yuuko and Niiya’s relationship. Even Shadow Yuuko was made to seem more human (though that’s probably because they needed Niiya to sympathize with her to get her and Yuuko back together) and less… frightening. I did enjoy what they did though with the storyline (…to a certain extent) and it was nice to see a couple actually get together before the last episode of a series. In the end, Momoe and Kirie were more like extra characters instead of full out harem members. Neither of them had any real development in the series (…though to be fair, Niiya didn’t really have any either), yet they were still enjoyable to watch when they weren’t annoying the hell out of me. Both of them improved by the end of the series though. Long story short, the story and characters were handled okay by SILVER LINK. Sure, there are things I would have changed, but overall, they didn’t completely butcher the storyline for me.
As for the visuals, those were pretty great. The backgrounds were always extremely detailed and the metaphorical imagery they used (like with Yuuko and the spider web in episode 3) was fun. …Though there was a lack of quality when it came to the actual character animation. Nothing as bad as C3 ever was, but there was some pretty obvious QUALITY in places. It also seemed like when SILVER LINK went off from the manga storyline around episode 9, they stopped experimenting with the visuals so much and just reused things that they had already done. In place of that though, they seemed to place more importance on the soundtrack (or to be more specific, vocal tracks) in order to push the theme/mood/emotion of a scene towards the end. A touching moment between Yuuko and Niiya? There was a vocal track for that. Not that that was a bad thing though, since the OST sounded nice enough. The OP to this was one of my favourites this season and while the ED (and the alternate ED) weren’t really my style, but I could enjoy them regardless.
Well, besides the iffy first episode and iffy ending, Tasogare was actually pretty enjoyable (though I wasn’t expecting much in the first place to be completely honest). At the risk of sounding like a manga snob, the manga was better in terms of horror and complexity, but the anime had it’s perks. …Thinking back to the other SILVER LINK series like C3 and Baka to Test, they’ve never seemed to make very good first or last episodes. Hmm. I have little to no interest on any series that SILVER LINK is animating next season (minus that crossdressing yuri OVA or whatever it is), but hopefully they work on that.
About Karakuri
University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, I spend the 10 minutes after the break watching through drippy eyes and using up kleenexes, and just as I’m getting past that, they drop that on us! And honestly, I can’t get too mad, it’s the result I wanted, and it worked plot-wise for me. It faked us (the audience) out, but it wasn’t a joke at our expense.
If we’re constructing plausible futures, I think you’ve provided the keys to happily and ghosty ever after. Yuuko’s ghost is obviously not tied to her physical remains, since she’s still there after the funeral. So why couldn’t her focus of ‘regret’ shift to Teiichi? Then she can ‘haunt’ him forever, and because she’s not constantly offloading her emotions and memories to S. Yuuko, she can grow with him. Also, because she appears as what people believe they’re seeing, she can ‘age’ with Teiichi. And at death, as her source of worldly regret passes away, so does she.
I thought it was a successful show through the end, and didn’t have any problems with how they finished it. I still thought the scenery was nice through Yuuko’s attempted breakup. And I like how they connected through that, with Teiichi convincing her that he wants to spend every possible moment with her.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I don’t think anyone can possibly get mad at the end since we all loved seeing Teiichi and Yuuko together. I’m sure there are people going hysterical over it. They’d easily overlook that bit of information. Their break up scene was beautiful. We won’t hold anything against anybody if you suddenly break down and cry from this well done drama.
I thought it was successful as well even though I was skeptical at the beginning which is only natural. SILVER LINK is proving itself. Tasogare Otome x Amnesia is definitely a winner for Spring season. Despite all the creepy elements and grand visuals of the series, it was Teiichi and Yuuko’s relationship that was the soul of story. This couple would win effortlessly if compared to others.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I think most people’s problem with Niiya and Yuuko being together isn’t the fact that they are, but instead the way SILVER LINK went about doing it.
…SILVER LINK certainly had the drama part down and overall, I’d say this is one of their better anime thus far, if not their best… though really they’ve only animated 4 or so series, so that doesn’t really mean much. They are getting better though.
They really told the story of Niiya and Yuuko well.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
All of my tears. The more I think about it, the less angry I am about the ending result. I guess this way, they explored both possibilities of how the couple could end as opposed to us wondering what might have happened. I’ll admit, it was a good troll on their part.
Hmm, I don’t know about her aging, but I guess it’s not entirely out of the realm of impossibility. Oh, that is a good point. When Niiya dies, I guess Yuuko will move on, meaning that they can enter heaven or wherever together. That actually sounds pretty adorable when put in those terms.
Yep full marks for background art during the entirely of this anime, but towards the end, I kind of missed those more artsy shots like they had towards the beginning. In the end, I can’t really complain about how they ended it, but it just wasn’t as satisfactory as I thought it would be.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
The shot that stood out to me in this episode was the really wide shot of the two of them on top of the building at the pool (in the breakup scene), in the snow, with the buildings taller than they really were, giving a sense of isolation that really added to what was going on.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I agree. It’s like they were cut off from the rest of the world while confessing their feelings before they eventually drift apart. The scenery and background music made it a lot more emotional. The settings were well done to pull on the right strings. You can’t believe the mass comments of guys saying they were fighting off and succumbing to manly tears during this entire episode.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Heh, I can’t make any claim to manly tears. I cry at everything. Hell, almost every time I hear Tenshi ni Fureta Yo from the last episode of K-On!!, I cry. Just the song, not even watching the video.
But I felt a great part of this was that neither ending, either Yuuko disappearing or coming back, was straight up heartbreaking. She was gone because she had achieved peace for her soul, she didn’t just get released. To me, it’s a big difference.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Don’t feel alone about the K-ON thing! I totally cried at that too!
Oh yeah, I guess neither of the endings was a tragedy, but both were happy in a sense. One was just more obvious then the other.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
So ends another excellent series from SILVER LINK. Definitely one of the best of the season. I was hesitant to watch this episode because I knew it was the last and didn’t want it to end. The visuals are always a plus especially with that radioactive neon green background when Teiichi and Yuuko were having their final moments together. The studio deserves an award.
Wow, this was sad yet beautiful. A real tear jerker no one can resist. It was so well done that I was actually trying to hold back tears when they were saying their goodbyes and overjoyed when Yuuko came back. It’s good to see characters who have developed a sweet relationship without such things as sarcasm or any other gimmicky stuff that could’ve poisoned it. Now THAT is how a ”paranormal love story” anime should end. This is why anime can pull off romances. Speaking of romances, Twilight, are you taking notes?
I was expecting a bittersweet ending because of the genres and settings that were used but I totally accept this one even if it meant getting trolled in the process. So her lust for him was her regret and kept her on earth. Ironic, isn’t it? And it’s an interesting excuse. How do they plan to make their relationship “progress” from here? If Yuuko has permanantly possessed Teiichi, that means she can follow him wherever he goes and leave the school area.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
But wait! It’s not the end! There’s still episode 13. Even if it is a prologue, it’s still more Tasogare! I have doubts that it will be a prologue though since Yuuko is still around and nothing has really changed from how things were mid series minus Shadow Yuuko.
I told myself that I wasn’t going to cry, but I still ended up doing it anyways. They did that scene amazingly well emotion-wise. Yeah, they did manage to develop a pretty solid relationship without many gimmicks. It was just a (somewhat sudden) attraction between two individuals.
Er, not so sure if it was lust (I’m just going to go with ‘love’ here), but hell, even Kirie assumed they were going to do something more.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I don’t even care anymore if the next episode is a prologue or not as long as it means there’s more Tasogare on the way. True that there hasn’t been much change except for the possibility that Yuuko can leave the school grounds since her body has been moved and she has permanently possessed Teiichi.
I doubt anyone can put a strong resistance against this kind of drama. Seeing their sweet development, especially Teiichi’s confession to Yuuko after regaining her memories made it harder to resist. Why is it supernatural romances can reach these kinds of achievements but regular ones seldom do? The exception for the regular ones would be Nazo no Kanojo X.
I’m considering both love and lust. Since Yuuko is solid to Teiichi, are we looking at the possibility of half ghost children? There are a lot of half breeds in anime but this would definitely be a strech. I wonder exactly what was going through Kirie’s head at that time.
POWUH: iLurker with 14 comments
I think this is one of the better shows of the season, but, not to put too fine a point on it, I was disappointed with the ending. I’m probably overthinking the story a bit, but I was hoping for a Kirie/Teiichi ending. All through the show Kirie was the one I thought really understood Yuuko and actually helped Teiichi and Yuuko get together. I was hoping for Yuuko to finally get her rest, but give a ringing endorsement to Kirie that we already know has a crush on Teiichi. In a way, Kirie would just continue Yuuko’s feelings. Pushing it further, this plays into the family ties in this show, i.e. Teiichi/Asa and Kirie/Yuuko. With a T/Y ending are we left with a ghost baby to continue the family line? A T/K offspring could have been an atonement of sorts for what Asa and Yuuko went through by continuing their family lines. Overall, I thought Kirie’s character was more important than Teiichi.
I feel like this post sounds a lot more negative than it should. The “original ending” for the anime was nice and romantic. And yes, I was a bit teary-eyed at the end. When it really comes down to it, this anime adaption was about Yuuko and getting herself together (sorry for the bad pun). All the other characters became secondary, even Teiichi. After Karakuri said that the anime skipped some of the more supernatural arcs from the manga, I want to check out the manga even more to see how that changes the story I’ve seen especially what Yuuko is as a person/ghost.
@Karakuri – I enjoyed your writing on this series. Good job.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
If Yuuko really was gone for good, then Teiichi being with Kirie would’ve been the next best thing. The trouble with that possibility is that, just like Momoe, there wasn’t enough on her as there were with the two main leads. So the pairing of the two wouldn’t be as nice. Kirie was more like a guidance counselor or a voice of reason whenever Teiichi was in a slump over Yuuko’s troubles. But on the other hand, there were times where she had her shining moments.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, I agree like we talked about last week. There just wasn’t enough Teiichi X Kirie romantic development to make it a satisfactory result from this show. It would have been “Well, the person I love the most is gone, who’s still around?” at least in the time frame we could see.
Kirie was a great character at times, but she was a supporting character, and she never really moved into that harem member role. I think Momoe made a lot more progress in that direction throughout the show than Kirie did, and it’s probably a really small minority of people who think Momoe x Teiichi is the best end pair.
POWUH: iLurker with 14 comments
I don’t disagree at all that the Teiichi/Yuuko ending was really the only one the show was going to allow from the direction it was taken. The story needed to focus on Yuuko and that it did. Actually, I think if any other character was developed or a harem was built for Teiichi it would have lessened if not outright ruined the show.
@Highway – Interesting take on Momoe. I really thought she was only there for “comedic relief” and had nothing else. Even when she was pursuing Teiichi (the lunch dates) it was only to show the bad emotions beginning to stir in good Yuuko.
FWIW, I thought ep. 10 was the best. Making Teiichi see and, more importantly, feel what Yuuko went through was interesting filmmaking.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I’m trying to remember, did Momoe actually confess to Teiichi, probably somewhere in episode 9, or was it shortcut by her asking if there was someone he likes? Either way, I thought there was a point where she made it clear that she liked him and hoped he liked her as well. I think that Momoe’s feelings for Teiichi were sincere, and her pursuit of him through the middle of the series was just her style, not just for comedy. She was definitely set up as a foil to both sides of Yuuko, and she never had a realistic chance at Teiichi, but I think both Kirie and Momoe were used effectively to show that it’s not a harem show, but an OTP story. They both had the feelings, showed them differently – Momoe open and brash, Kirie more tsun – and both got shot down.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Er, I think Momoe confessed…? She did for sure in the manga. …I think it was just heavily implied by her friends and such though in the anime during that episode where Yuuko forgot Teiichi. They definitely wanted the audience to assume that she did like him though.
POWUH: iLurker with 14 comments
I think it was ep.8 when Momoe and Teiichi are having lunch. Momoe leaves to get drinks and Teiichi finds her notebook. While paging through it, he discovers some “Momoe + Teiichi” doodles in it. Then a couple of her friends come up and make it very obvious she likes him.
I guess I see Momoe as more a fan of Teiichi than a serious love interest. With her interest in the supernatural, she’s crushing on him because she thinks he can see ghosts even though he can actually only see Yuuko. As I was watching the series, I thought there was a much better chance she would ask him for his autograph than a proper date. So, yeah, it is her style. It’s who she is and it pushed the OTP line. I think ep. 8 was the confession episode for Yuuko and Teiichi after they had forgotten each other. Actually Momoe’s “confession” helps Teiici remember his love for Yuuko, IIRC.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
The ending was disappointing for me as well, but I can accept it as being the best choice for the series to keep the majority of viewers happy. I’ve never really been a fan of the whole Niiya/ Kirie set up, mostly because there was never much of a romantic development between the two. I do think that the family ties theme would have been interesting to see going though. Hell, without the whole Yuuko thing, I can see that being the OTP (since no Yuuko= no Momoe in the picture since she met Niiya indirectly through Yuuko). Kirie definitely had waaaaay more character development then anyone else in the show minus Yuuko.
There is a lot more that they could have done for the ending, but a simple and straightforward answer was probably what was best for the show. …I just like complaining. Oh, do check out the manga! It’s pretty good.
Thanks! I did a lot of experimenting with this series, so I’m glad someone enjoyed it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Let me add my thanks for the posts as well.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
@Karakuri: I agree. Thanks so much for the well done posts.
@Highway: And I thank you for being an interesting conversationalist throughout this series with your comments. I look forward to them as much as I do with Karakuri’s. You bring up some well thought out topics.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Thanks, BlackBriar, that means a lot. I’ve really enjoyed the chance to have more in-depth discussions, something I just haven’t seen on most anime discussion sites. And it’s not possible without the good posts to start off with, and other good commenters.
POWUH: iLurker with 14 comments
Not just in-depth discussions, but insightful and, more importantly, respectful. My thanks to everyone for the discussions. Hopefully they’ll continue next season.
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
I was actually pretty mad when Yuuko came back in the end. It pretty much negated all of the sadness that had happened only five minutes before and I think the ending would be stronger that way. However, apparently there are rumors out that there is going to be an S2 so I guess that’s why they needed Yuuko back.
Overall, I found it enjoyable and I was surprised that it was more romance than actual horror.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I was mad at first, but I’m gradually getting over it. It certainly did make me feel stupid for getting so emotional over the goodbye scene though.
There is going to be a 13th episode, but I don’t know about an S2, unless it’s anime original or just a bunch of self contained episodes showing things they skipped from the manga. The main conflict was between Yuuko and herself though, so I don’t know what else they could focus on.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
One path they could go down because of the way they’ve taken the ending to this series is to animate the rest of the School Mysteries that were left out of this run, like Karakuri says the manga has. That might be the kind of thing they could do for ONA’s (like the follow-up episodes for Ore no Imouto) or Special Edition BD’s.
Something else I’d love to see is a full animation of the fan dance that Yuuko is doing in the OP.
POWUH: 400-499 with 428 comments
The end of a wonderful series…having expected a mystery thriller but turning into an awesome mystery romance, I loved the way Niiya and Yuuko communicated with each other with the notebook (no movie reference intended), since they could no longer speak with each other at that point.
I’m half and half on the ending; one half felt a bit great that they got to be together again (the perfect romance ending I guess?), but the other half was like, but he was at peace! (?), definitely wasting the investment of tears that had been given to the ending. I just can’t help but compare it to ef a tale of melodies, how Homura and Yuko had their last talk similar to how Teiichi & Yuuko did, but Shaft (I think it was Shaft…) decided not to put them back together, especially with the emotional investment at the end…but I guess if Silver Link is going to do a second season (won’t be bad as long as it’s quality than quantity), having only one of the two protagonists might detract some fans I guess…but regardless, it was a wonderful ride, and now onto the manga! (Good thing I haven’t red them yet!) 🙂