Well, I went ahead with the raw today and I can’t say that it was a mistake considering that even someone that didn’t know Japanese would likely get what was going on in this next episode. Both the resolution of Nanaka’s story and the unveiling of Sana’s past caught me off guard. The concert was also a clever ploy since I was expecting to see what we saw in the opening. However, considering the twins’ predicament, I guess I should’ve figured that that wasn’t going to happen. I also thought that Sana would go and man the piano but that was also a no go.

In any case, I think that I’m quite satisfied with the ending. This final episode seemed a little rushed given the need to bring closure to everything but I can wave it off in this case in light of the big picture when examining the entire series as a whole. While there were some fillers in the series that weren’t exactly necessary for the advancement of the main plot (like Hinako’s episodes) that perhaps could have been replaced to add more meat to the story, I can’t say that I personally resented or yawned through any of those episodes. So while I wished the pacing could have been better, I’m not really going to complain too much here.

So, If you like romance dramas, a genre which I am very, very weak against, I would definitely recommend that you give this one a go. If not, then, well, I don’t know what to tell you. Let’s just say that while there are some clichéd scenes in this show typical of any romance drama, I think that the plot twists sets this one above the average fare. Also, I must admit that I have been pleasantly surprised by Myself;Yourself throughout the series considering the fact that I wasn’t even planning to watch it when the season started and I wasn’t really expecting anything when I actually started watching.

Anyway, that’s all for this entry, take from it what you will.

So, I noted yesterday that Final Fantasy XII’s battle system was different than the ones we’ve had in the past (excluding Final Fantasy XI, of course), and today I shall note that this battle system is surprisingly fun. It wasn’t really all that exciting to me when I was just fighting miscellaneous enemies but my opinion quickly changed during my second boss battle with the flaming horse in the sewers when I realized how engaging this system was. I was moving different characters here and there around the screen and issuing commands to them in real-time, it was simply a joy to both play and watch.

I haven’t really done much with regards to the customization of my characters’ gambits but I’ll be sure to blog again once I get a handle on it. I’m pretty comfortable with controlling my characters manually right now but I presume that that will quickly change once I start fighting more difficult enemies and bosses. Hell, every character that’s joined my party thus far, guest or otherwise, has always been higher level than my main party…which probably means I should spend some time leveling up. Alas, but I’d really rather get on with the game than to spend my time leveling up. ;)

Well, this arc certainly ended with a big bang. There weren’t really any “fights” since all these people just dropped down immediately but I still think that these “action scenes” were done quite well. The conversation of Rena with Takano was also very nicely executed. I simply must commend the production staff in their voice casting choices as they all fit their role very well.

There were a lot of sappy scenes in this episode with our group of protagonists dropping left and right but it didn’t really feel all that clichéd in my opinion. The bit after Rika died was kind of weird though with all that chit-chat about faith and trust in your friends. It seemed as if they were simply placing the blame of their loss completely on Hanyu, har har.

A new arc will be starting in the next episode and it looks like it’s going to talk about Takano’s life as a child which means many mysteries will be uncovered with new ones surfacing. I’m hoping to ramp up a bit and go through more episodes in the next couple of days since I’m rather far behind in this series (I mean, hell, the series just ended recently on episode 24). I haven’t spotted anything next season that I’m planning to blog about, so this should hopefully give me some leeway to play catch up.