NouKome – 10 [END]
I’ve been wanting to use this image all season
And we come to the end of the first show this season since, like Mondaiji-tachi a couple seasons ago, Diomedea has only given NouKome 10 episodes. How did the series end? And what’s the overall impression?
Complicating the Ending
Even had princess carries as well
They tried to fit a lot into this last episode, and even though they didn’t try to make a full resolution, they still tried to get to some semblance of completeness. And along the way, they apparently tried to fit in a callback to pretty much Every. Single. Thing. that happened throughout the entire series. Including some stuff that only happened in the audio drama short that came along with the ED Single. So we had a return of the Onii-chans vs. Pig Slaves, Ouka’s mom, Konagi’s protectors, Daiko, the popular guy chasing Kanade, and even Class Rep chasing Natsuhiko-san (the audio drama I mentioned). This really made this last episode feel tremendously hectic. Maybe that was the point, to kind of deflect from the reality that Kanade, faced with the ability to get rid of Absolute Choice by picking one of the three main girls to fall in love with, punted and went for the fourth option.
Has Kanade chosen poorly?
Kanade’s not alone in this, tho. Utage apparently picked the exact same thing when she was faced with it, and was completely unprepared for what happened next, but this time she got a lot more prepared, and took quite a large advantage of the happenings. But the net effect was to pretty much bury this episode in a metric ton of WTF. As an all-singing, all-dancing grand finale, it wasn’t so bad, but as a resolution to any of the issues that the show raised, absolutely zilch.
Helping Ouka up, typical of Kanade
Perhaps the biggest message that came out of this episode, and maybe the whole show, is that Kanade is a good guy. Repeatedly shown to never pick a choice that would harm others or trample on their feelings, or at least as little as possible, he sticks to that tenet by keeping Ouka from being tormented longer in the haunted house, and then by picking the fourth choice, even though had he picked a girl, he would have been in love with her, and she with him. He’s still an oblivious guy, but at least he’s a good guy. I think Seira was probably about to beat him over the head for being dense, but it never got there.
More of laughing Ouka is always good
All in all, I was pretty disappointed by this episode. I didn’t really care for Ouka’s being not herself, I almost always think haunted houses in anime are pretty stupid, and even didn’t like Furano mistaking their discussion of the town in Hokkaido for Kanade calling her by her given name. It all kind of worked, but wasn’t all that funny, and wasn’t all that interesting.
The Big Picture
Seira wants you to fall in love with someone
I think overall, NouKome was a successful show, although with a better finale it could have been a lot better. I guess it was too much to really ask for Kanade to fall in love with one of the girls, but in the end, there just wasn’t much progress made, a lot of noise made but not much movement. I could have wished for more explanation of his condition, or for more outright romance, but in the end we didn’t really get any of that, just a continuation of the status quo. Maybe Kanade realizes how much these girls like him, but I doubt it, and that may be the biggest disappointment of all with the show.
Chocolat tried to make the first move
The production from Diomedea was, on the whole, pretty average. Generally well done, there were definitely some areas of iffy animation (especially characters coming towards or away from the camera), and there were some art shifts I didn’t like, like the closeups when girls would eat something. The music was definitely something better about the show, and I like both the OP and ED songs, with S.M.L. by Afilia Saga being a fun ‘throw everything at it’ song, and Taiyou to Tsuki no Cross a nice way to end most episodes, as they were mostly somewhat cliffhangery, so you got a good mood extension. I also still like the handstands in the OP sequence. The voice acting for the show was pretty good, no big names, and no real standout performances, but nobody was terrible.
She got over it quickly
I think the biggest thing that this show had going for it was the flow that I’ve mentioned a few times. It was very good at moving from one thing to another, one setup to another, one joke to another. There were sometimes it would get stalled a little with something dumb, but would always seem to be moving towards something else, and sometimes it would really chain three or four things together for big laughs. The other thing I found interesting about the comedy was that it was all over the map. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes just atrociously bad. Some of the jokes fell so flat that you wanted to just look away for fear of embarrassing the show. But on the whole, it was an enjoyable experience, and a show that I’d recommend to people looking for a few laughs.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
ERABE.
1)Eat ultra-hot wasabi to declare support for a Season 2
2)Snort ultra-hot wasabi to declare support for a Season 2
3)Shoot ultra-hot wasabi up your bu*****e to declare support for a Season 2
ERABE!!!!（｀ー´）
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I would watch a second series, but this wouldn’t be my first choice for a property to get a second series (it wouldn’t even be above Mondaiji-tachi). I enjoyed it overall, but unless it really moved one or more of the romances forward, I think it would lose steam really quickly (like not much more than this one series).
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Yeah, needs more Mondajii.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
*Pulls out the chinese translation of the LN* Mwa-hahahaha!
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 104 comments
Yea,it certainly wasn’t the best ending but it wasn’t like we weren’t expecting this.In the end,I guess NouKome stayed true to itself until the very end: random,silly & pretty hilarious(most of the times anyway).
Most importantly though,there’s been one thing on my mind when watching this episode: HOW THE HECK ARE THEY NOT COLD??? I was getting shivers just watching them! 😀
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, I don’t know what else they could have really done for an ending, to be fair. It just ended up really random and silly and didn’t work as well as I’d hope.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Speed-watched this, got some good laughs out of it.To think Kanade could have become a famous pop star if he’d just sexually harassed the white haired girl…
But I recall they said they had a Reject 5. Including Kanade,the 2 reject girls and masked guy, that only makes 4.
Does the 5th only appear in the LN?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
As I’ve said a few times, the other two in the Reject 5 are completely unimportant, and therefore aren’t ever going to be dealt with. I was actually surprised they put as much of Yumeshima into the series as they did, and that was almost nothing. Basically, he just showed up, bailed on them, and they filled in with Chocolat, which you knew was going to happen the whole time anyway.
The series was definitely good for some laughs, especially in a season without much in the way of comedies (I think it’s this, Non Non Biyori, and that’s about it). There were some great gags, and a lot of fun with Ouka especially.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I guess the show stuck to it’s guns. To commit, there has to be someone you want to commit to. I think he knows what’g going on now. Well, he knows more than he used to. Well, he’s knows a bit more.
But, status quo maintained! The hallmark of any anime romcom.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I do like that they kept Kanade be of good character throughout. One question would be, knowing now that the girls are interested in him, would he be interested in falling in love with any of them? Would it just happen? It can definitely be different when you know someone else is into you.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Food and homos? Hard relationship, but she don’t hesitate.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Sore wa sore, kore wa kore…
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 110 comments
10eps of this yea still ova ep coming up as well for it.
yet series give bit hmm sure like kanade being bit of chew toy give multi-choice effect.
yet same also happen bit be like a Clueless Chick Magnet aka Ichika Orimura give reasons for kanade he don’t want hurt chocolat, furano, & ouka feelings.