Kotoko, Kotomi, and Naoki head to Naoki’s grandfather’s house where he was born and Kotoko recalls the first time they took a trip there.

Impressions:

I was a bit disappointed that this episode wasn’t a giant epilogue. From what we’ve seen so far I really love the scenes with Kotomi in it. She’s cute and the way she interacts with Kotoko and Naoki is great. Still, although I wished for this o be an epilogue, it was a great episode. Even with my initial disappointment that it was showing an event back in time, it was still great.

I thought Naoki’s family I that house was hilarious. It was fun to watch the way they teased Kotoko, then of course the scene where Kotoko gets back at them by telling them all the stuff was great. Plus, just the general setting of Kotoko being at that house and trying to please everyone was great I thought. Very fun to watch, though for the most part the last episode really was the conclusion to this series.

Final Thoughts:

Ultimately, I was surprised with how much I liked this show. I’m a huge fan of romance and hence a fan of shoujo genre shows however after the first couple of episodes of this series I had my doubts about it. I was really put off by Naoki’s attitude, and even though I understood that he’d probably show some signs of changing throughout the series, there was something about him that made me dislike the shot a bit. However as I suspected, they did show some progress with him, much more then I anticipated, and I came to like the show very much. It wasn’t just a simple boy likes girl, girl likes boy, and they dance around the issue for a dozen episodes before saying what’s obvious, it was different and very interesting.

The time span aspect of this show was extremely interesting. Although I wish we could have seen more of what raising Kotomi was like and go even further into the future, the time span they did show was great. Hardly any show follows that long of a time span, the most you ever see in most cases is an epilogue. I love epilogues, as it shows the result of what the whole series was about. The series was about these conflicts and the epilogue shows what the overall result of it is, not just the conflict resolution. However for this instance it was like that cycle continually happened, as if the whole show almost was an epilogue, and it really impressed me.

Naoki must perform his first surgery by himself to save Matsumoto and Kotoko goes into labor.

Impressions:

I thought this episode was pretty good. It was nice seeing things be very warm and not having to deal with things becoming that way. No real problems with Naoki’s attitude or anything, he really impressed me the way he handled everything and it was just nice seeing him interact with Kotoko in a nice loving way. I’m a bit surprised this isn’t actually the final episode, as it seems to have a full other episode right away and not just within a month or something, but hopefully it will pretty much just be an episode long epilogue focusing a bit on Kotomi.

I thought the end of this episode was extremely cute. The epilogue they had, and showing off Kotomi was great. Kotomi herself was extremely cute and I loved the back and forth her and Kotoko. The two of them competing for Naoki’s attention was great. Plus it was nice to see the epilogue bits with the other people, like showing Chris and Kin with their baby, and even going forward to show Kotoko’s two high school friends with what are likely their husbands and kids. I thought things just came to an overall nice end.

Kotoko tries to help Matsumoto and Sudou when they have problems after Matsumoto is admitted to the hospital.

Impressions:

I thought this episode was great. The best part was the conflict that Matsumoto was having with Sudou. For the most part Kotoko’s pregnancy didn’t really affect anything too terribly much. It seemed like this was mostly centered on Matsumoto and Sudou, which was rather nice as they are one of the couples that they haven’t really shown anything happening for. Although they aren’t really together, the existence of Sudou’s feelings has been around for a while, and they did a segment on Chris and Kin, so it’s nice that they cover other couples too. I’m sure that in the future we’ll see them together more, as Matsumoto really seemed to realize Sudou’s feelings.

I’m sure the pregnancy will be the main focus of the next episode. They’ll probably end up skipping ahead to the end of the pregnancy and any problems that come from that. I don’t’ expect them to really show them actually raising the child except maybe at the very end in a kind of epilogue, which is a bit of a shame as that could have been interesting to watch.

Kotoko dreams of what her perfect birthday would be and hopes that Irie will do something similar for her.

Impressions:

I thought this episode was great. The whole birthday thing they had going was very heartwarming I thought. Although Irie has definitely been cold in the past, even after getting married, when they have moments like this that show him really care for Kotoko, its great. The second part of the episode was pretty much to set up the whole idea of Kotoko thinking mothers are incredible, so there wasn’t anything too special there except the announcement at the end, but I really thought the birthday bit was enough to make the episode great.

It’s too bad the series is this close to an end. I really think things could have gotten really interesting with Kotoko being pregnant. However as things are now they won’t really have much time to deal with those kinds of issues or anything. I doubt they will even get to spend any time in the series with the child having been born except maybe the last five minutes or so of the last episode, of the birth or something. I really could have imagined a lot of things that they could have featured with them actually raising the child. The two of them doing that would have been interesting, but at least they did get to the point where we are informed she’s pregnant.

Kotoko finds out the guy who hugged her was Non, from back when Yuuki was hospitalized.

Impressions:

I was really surprised to find out the guy was Non, but I suppose that was the whole idea. I thought it was a great idea for him to come back like this. The entire reason Irie became a doctor was because of him and Kotoko. Seeing as how he important because of that, it would have been a shame for him not to appear again. Not only did he appear again, but the episode was revolved around some serious things involving him. It wasn’t just some fluff episode where there was some comedy about how much he’s changed and so on, there were some real issues there like him having to grow up sick, not having a family, and so on. I’m glad the way it turned out. Obviously he survives the surgery, as he’s even shown in the preview for the next episode.

The next episode seems to break away from the Non thing rather quickly and focus back on the relationship between Irie and Kotoko. It should be interesting to see something a bit more romantic between them. Previous they’ve just overcome hurdles like Irie being cold or jealous but they haven’t really shown them in any romantic situations. This should be interesting, as well as good for the character development.

Kotoko has her nurse’s capping ceremony and hopes for Naoki to arrive to see it.

Impressions:

I thought this episode was done really well. There weren’t any huge events, since they pretty much just concluded one, but it really had some nice moments in it. I’m glad they showed Kotoko getting the cap and all, as it really shows that she has made it far in what she set out to achieve. I was actually a bit surprised at how cold Naoki acted initially, I thought the last episode would change a lot of things but I’m glad at the end they at least showed that it somewhat did, as it was very heartwarming seeing Naoki arrive at the church for Kotoko. The rest of the episode was interesting, but not quite in the same way. I wasn’t quite expecting the time gap like that, this soon, but it’s a good thing for the show that they did, otherwise there wasn’t really a lot they could fit in otherwise.

The end of this episode certainly surprised and confused me. I had thought that there wouldn’t really be any events like this to happen in the series and they would just conclude the anime on the newly established basis that Naoki is a bit less cold towards Kotoko and so on. However it seems like this new guy will at least be in the next episode, as he seems to know Kotoko. Though, I’m curious as to what problems he’ll bring. They’ve already had the bit with Keita and Naoki feelings jealous, so it’s not like they can really do the same thing again with a different guy. I’m not sure what role he’ll play at all, but it’ll be interesting to watch.

Irie deals with his growing feelings of jealousy as he watches Keita with Kotoko.

Impressions:

I thought this episode was great. It was one of my favorite episodes so far because it really dealt with some real heavy and powerful emotions. It wasn’t about just chasing after the guy or anything like that, like the previous episodes, yet it was focus on the emotions of a character who never shows his emotions. It was pretty big and I thought the conclusion the episode eventually came to was great. It’s good to see him open up or at least be able to admit that he has those feelings.

I’m really rather unsure of what this show is going to bring in the future episodes. This episode pretty much concluded the whole jealousy bit. They’ve already dealt with Kotoko getting Irie, and now they’ve dealt with the problem of him being too old towards Kotoko and even though in the general bit about him feeling jealousy for the first time, making him more human. Beyond that, I’m not sure what else this series will have. Conflict is needed for good content but it seems at this point that any content that would be able to fit in this series would be taking something back that they’ve already dealt with in a previous episode or several of them. However they still have a TON of time left to cover if this series does cover ten years. Whether or not this anime will, the manga did/will/does so there has to be something that happens, I’m just not sure what or if we’ll see it in the anime.

Keita shows more and more interest in Kotoko and gets upset seeing the way Irie acts towards her.

Impressions:

I thought this was a great episode. It really escalated some things that were going on in previous episodes like Keita taking an interest in Kotoko. Although I really don’t think anything is going to happen between Kotoko and Keita, in fact I’m sure of it, it’s still a really interesting and good thing that they had something like this come up. An event like this is great for getting Irie to admit he’s jealous or just become less cold towards Kotoko in general. I’ve pointed out several times before that since they got married Irie may not be a jerk anymore, but he still acts coldly towards Kotoko. Since Keita isn’t going to get anywhere I really hope his impact on this has some long lasting effect on Irie acting differently and I hope it just doesn’t turn out to be some story just for Keita.

I’m curious if they will really have much more content after this current issue gets resolved. As I said my hope for these events is that it will make Irie less cold towards Kotoko but after that happens I’m not sure what other issues can be brought up for them to deal with. Irie remaining cold was the biggest one and if this goes the way I see it, that is what will be addressed here. They don’t’ have much else to do.

Kotoko goes to her first day of nursing school and finds out all the other girls are infatuated with Irie.

Impressions:

I thought this was a really good episode. It had a lot of content in it. Not only did it just introduce Kotoko being in this new environment of nursing, it also had some comedy with how bad she was at it, introduced some minor characters, then set in a more serious topic of if she can really do this and if she’s in it for the right reasons, and then ended off with an even bigger serious point affecting the relationship between her and Irie. It was pretty big. They seemed to mix the comedy such as all the girls trying to find out who Irie’s wife was, with the more serious stuff.

What really interested me about this episode though was what it may mean for the next couple of episodes. The relationship with Keita became quite interesting near the end and there were definitely hints of some kind of love triangle again forming, with Keita liking Kotoko. However the look Irie gave when he saw the two of them working was great. It looks like there may be some jealousy there, and they haven’t really had Irie be jealous ever. Hopefully a confrontation by him towards Keita will not only be interesting and exciting, but will lead to a little more growth on Irie’s part in being more open and caring towards Kotoko. Although he’s not a jerk anymore I wouldn’t say, he’s still rather closed off which isn’t the best quality in a relationship.

Chris tries to win Kin over with the help of Kotoko.

Impressions:

This episode was alright, however it seemed like it was trying to mix two stories when it should have just focused on one. Most of the stuff they dealt with involving Irie and Kotoko weren’t that much, or turned out not to be much; however the Chris and Kin thing seemed to be a big deal, though they only spent half of the time on it. I’m curious though if they’ll try and include any more Chris and Kin content. They kind of came to a conclusion with this one. Although it’s not like everyone is concluded with them, it’s at least come to more of a stopping point then it was at before. I kind of hope they don’t focus on them too much, as what they’ve shown now is enough and there’s a lot more they need to do with the main couple.

I was a bit disappointed when they revealed that Kotoko wasn’t actually pregnant. Although that would probably interfere with the whole her becoming a nurse goal she had, it still would have introduced a pretty big thing for all of the character to deal with and would show real progress in the relationship between Kotoko and Irie, that they aren’t just married, they are raising a family and so on. Hopefully they’ll come back to it, though I doubt it will be before the nursing thing is settled.