life line by line

Warning, if you want good non-biased reviews and final impressions of Futakoi I strongly suggest looking into Stripey’s and Matthew’s blogs. You will not find anything positive in relations to Futakoi in this entry. Expect a lot of bashing, ripping on, and just plain pissed-off biased author ranting in the following entry. Continue on at your own risk.

Wow… just wow. I never knew Futakoi suddenly decided to turn into an frickin’ AFTER-SCHOOL SPECIAL out of the blue! And here I thought all along I was watching a decent harem anime with potential to be actually good. Boy, was I ever wrong!

The cheese factor was up to level 9021384309 while I painfully watched the last episode of Futakoi. I won’t even bother trying to write an synopsis of what actually happened but instead, go straight to all the problems I had. There are many, unfortunately.

Nozomu’s “enlightenment” aka Miyabi bitching at him. I loved how it took Miyabi to make Nozomu realize how much of an arse he was when everyone else has already said it. I mean, come on! Miyabi lays it down straight for the 320th time and now Nozomu gets it?!?! Moreover, he suddenly realized just what he has been doing and has an solution to his problem? Man, he can dump the girls quick if need be! But you know what made it all the worse? The sunlight reaching Miyabi and Nozomu has he has his enlightenment. You cannot get any more cheesier than that!

Nozomu’s chase to save the Sakurazuki sisters. Just straight out NO. I understand the “climatic” scene of Nozomu giving it his all to save Yura and Kira, but on bike? They’re in a god-damn limo for christ sake! Even taking into account the apparent hilly area, there shouldn’t be any possible way for Nozomu to not only catch up with the limo, but almost out-speed it! Unless Kenmochi was driveing like an old lady, which I doubt since he was trying to get rid of Nozomu. Stunt coordinators around the world would be turning in their graves if they saw this scene.

Kenmochi getting the Smackdown. Too corny for words. I don’t think I can describe how annoyed I was with this scene without laughing my arse off thinking how entirely stupid it was.

Studying is Fun Kids! Total cheese. Everyone jumping up in the air? Are they filming a commercial on the positives of friendship and studying? I loved how out of nowhere now that the Sakurazuki sisters were saved, they all suddenly remembered they have exams to study for! Blast being an secondary school student (9th grade), not only do you have life-or-death car chases and constant problems with your harem, but you also have to balance those grades too! I just couldn’t see how much more cornier Futakoi could have gotten until this happened. I almost fell off my chair at the sear craziness of it all.

Happy Ending. Okay, I can understand everyone was happy they got into high school.. nice to know no one was a complete moron in the group. But everyone becoming so friendly? er… right. I mean, doesn’t everyone become best friends with rivals for the same love interest? I know I do. And Nozomu’s new confidence when Yuuya “challenges” him? Made absolute perfect sense in this after-school special of course; Nozomu’s ego is back and boy has it grown! Not even the goodness of the Shirogane twins or Momoi twins in cosplay could make up for the total crap-shoot ending that was presented. The ending was just so sweetly perfect that I felt my teeth rotting while watching. Not only did nothing get solved but Nozomu now has the perfect harem at his beck and call. Good job Nozomu!

Seriously, the only way Futakoi could have topped off how cheesy it got was if Nozomu’s dad came back from Hawaii, bringing along a new set of twins that’ll be his sisters in-laws!

I hated the ending of Futakoi, there is no doubt about that. The fact the staff totally copped out at the end left no excuse for whatever the thing they called a final episode to be made and aired. Unfortunatley, the final episode left such an god-awful taste in my mouth that it completely ruined my Futakoi watching experience and lowered my like for the series a lot. Initially, Futakoi seemed like a simple standard harem comedy and I was fine with that. Harem comedy are a staple of the anime world, and always worth a laugh or two. Then suddenly, Futakoi started to get good as the staff started to work on the characters’ personalities and whatnot. All of sudden, it was interesting to watch which sister(s) Nozomu would end up. Futakoi then does another twist and introduced a couple more set of twins, doubling the cast out of the blue when it wasn’t needed. Only the introduction of Sara and Souju warrant anything good coming out of the multiple new twins problem. Finally, Nozomu’s playing ways got the best of him and it was evil fun watching him suffer with the slight hope he’ll work things out. But what happened?!?! The staff turned the final episodes into utter crap, plain and simple. I could have lived with the open-ending with hints of Nozomu favoring one set of twins but instead, got something any hack-writer could have written in 30 minutes or less. The worst part, however, was the total feel of it being campy that I almost couldn’t take it seriously. There were too many elements of the classic “perfect happy ending” that anyone within 5 mintues could have figured out.

… sigh. My final judgement on Futakoi though? It was decent at best. If I had to grade it from A-F, I would give Futakoi an C- even considering what genre it is. Watchable and peaks yours interest but becomes a total letdown at the end. Now because of how bad Futakoi ended, I’m going to be pretty weary and critical of the new version of Futakoi coming out this spring. Thankfully, only the girls are the same (though look older?) and the hopes of a decent male protagonist might be good. The fact Souju and Sara are currently the poster children for the show has my hopes up. Then again, I doubt the new season/version can do any more damage that hasn’t already been done by its older sibling.