Not exactly the ending that I was hoping for.

— Clair and Shuichi call the team together, but they’re barely a team anymore. Only Chihiro and Yota bother to show up. One bad day in the woods and they’re pretty much done. I guess I can’t really blame them. They’re normal kids; they’re neither physically nor mentally equipped to play heroes. And this is exactly why Clair wants the rest of the group to hand over their coins.

— Chihiro is very heavily invested in Shuichi despite only having met him once. More specifically, she insists that he’s a kind person who shouldn’t fight either. Why? What did Elena tell her about Shuichi? How come Shuichi is not allowed to fight with the rest of his old friend group? Why is he the odd one out? Well, the story isn’t ready to give us the answers to those questions just yet, which is a bummer.

— Later that day, Clair wants to come over to Shuichi’s home, but he is hesitant about it. As a result, she threatens to put an expiration date on their relationship. This leads to him embracing her and saying how he’ll do anything to protect her. Hm. I dunno, I’m a bit puzzled as to why he’s so attached to her. My best guess is that she reminds him of her sister, whom he actually has a deeper relationship with. As for Clair herself, I really don’t know. He saved her, then she saved him. Sure, you’re always grateful when someone protects you, but lately, he’s been acting like she’s his eternal life partner or something.

— When Clair finally gets to Shuichi’s home, she finds it full of dust and cobwebs. The potted plants have long died. Nevertheless, Shuichi acts as if everything is normal. He claims that his parents simply work late into the night, but it’s obvious that he hasn’t actually seen them for a long time. Elena didn’t just erase his memories; she’s messed with his perception of reality.

— Still, I don’t really like this sort of plot twist. I mean, how has Shuichi survived on his own for so long? If his parents are long dead, who’s paying for the food? Who’s paying to keep the lights and water running? Wouldn’t his school have tried to arrange parent-teacher conferences? Wouldn’t one of their relatives have tried to get in contact with them? Wouldn’t the neighbors have said anything? But whatever, just pretend that these issues don’t exist so we can move on with the rest of the story.

— Clair feels guilty, because Shuichi’s life has been ruined thanks to her and her sister. As a result, she starts giving off some weird scent. As soon as Shuichi catches a whiff of it, he suddenly flips and tears off her shirt. Um, I guess he gets horny off of sadness. Before anything can happen between the two of them, however, he starts recovering his past memories.

— Immediately afterwards, they get a call from Sayaka. She tells them that she’s releasing everyone from their bonds, and more importantly, the group will hand over the coins in their possession. That’s only what she says, though. It’s clear that Chihiro is calling the shots this time, and she has no intention of letting Shuichi continue going after the coins. Why is she so insistent on him staying on the side lines? Well, we’re about to get a partial answer to that question.

— The story cuts to Naoto and Elena discussing recent events. At the start of the episode, Honoka’s apparition appeared before one of Aiko’s old classmates and killed her. Apparently, Elena could’ve saved said classmate by erasing her memories much like what she had done to Shuichi, but she held back. Naoto continues by saying that if Shuichi recalls his past, then the world will end. What…? You’re gonna drop this on me now? But why only Shuichi? How come Naoto and Elena can continue fighting and not him? Sadly, they’re not gonna explain that. Clearly, last week’s extended flashback isn’t the whole story. After all, Shuichi felt somewhat peripheral to the original conflict. He didn’t really have much to do with the whole Aiko-Honoka-Kaito debacle. But something obviously happened afterwards that we just didn’t get to see.

— The next day, we see Chihiro hand a bag of coins over to Elena just as she had planned. She never had any intention to give those coins to Clair and Shuichi. Speaking of the latter, he wasn’t supposed to show up, but Yota had told him the actual location anyway. Meanwhile, Clair is lagging behind, but she actually gets a hand from Nana of all people. The latter isn’t important to this story at all, but apparently, she likes Shuichi so she’s going to help Clair out even at her own expense. Um, alright. Whatever. I don’t really know what to say about her, because again, she just isn’t important to this story. Maybe the author has big plans for her down the road.

— Shuichi starts confronting Elena over his memory loss. Apparently, Honoka had killed his parents, and Elena had to erase his memories in order to protect him. He tells her, however, that he no longer wanted to be protected. That’s all fine and dandy, but he and Clair are no match for Elena. And if they can’t even beat her, what chance do they have against Kaito? Maybe if they could become one like he did with Chihiro, it’d be another story. Nevertheless, Clair always insists that the two of them complete each other. Well, something’s missing. Maybe someone is still holding back. Maybe someone isn’t being entirely honest with themselves. But who?

— And now that he’s slowly starting to remember their shared past, Honoka suddenly shows up to attack him. So we get some answers, but this only raises more questions. Why does Honoka immediately go for Shuichi? How come Naoto and Elena are spared? Were his parents somehow involved in Aiko’s bullying and subsequent suicide? In any case, Shuichi has ironically been saying over and over that he isn’t the main character of this story, but he remains the most important character nonetheless. No one, however, will say why he’s so important even though this adaptation is about to end any minute now.

— I’m not exactly sure what happens next, but it looks as though Honoka is invading his mind? And try as he might, he can’t stop her. As a result, Elena ends up having to use her powers to seal his memories once more. This spares him from Honoka’s assault… but it doesn’t actually solve anything. It’s just a semi-reset button.

— After all, Shuichi still insists that he and Clair are going to end this “game.” If he managed to regain his memories once, he surely can do it again. It’s painfully obvious that Elena’s powers are not foolproof. Nevertheless, she proceeds to walk away from him and Clair after replying that she and Naoto will end the game. It just doesn’t make sense to me. If Shuichi regaining his memories can cause the world to end, then shouldn’t Elena do more to prevent him from participating? He’s not going to give up, and she should know that. And if he keeps pushing forward, then he’ll likely recover his memories again.

— The next day, Clair and Shuichi meet up with Tadanori, because the two of them are not gonna give up. As expected, they’re going to head deep into the woods and try to find the crash site. But for us, this anime adaptation is over. Obviously, I knew that the story wouldn’t be wrapped up in just thirteen episodes, but I was hoping for a bit more closure than we just got.

— Maybe we’ll get a sequel at some point, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. I haven’t touched the manga, but I did take a look at its progress. Unfortunately, it isn’t very far along at all. There certainly isn’t enough material for a second season. So yeah, this is one of those series that isn’t really that good, but you still wanna know what happens next. But as always, you’re gonna get blue-balled because the story is nowhere close to being finished. And that’s the biggest bummer.