So what’s left? I keep asking, because I have no general sense of what we’re building up to. How exactly do we cap off this series?

— The average teen boy would probably pop a boner in this situation, but most shows aren’t ready for that discussion.

— Ah, Valentine’s Day. Well, they actually split up in Japan, don’t they? The girls do all the work first, then the guys reciprocate on White Day? I dunno, I think I prefer one day to two, especially if it’s going to be so performative for most people. But I’m cynical, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I just would find it very strange if someone I’ve never talked to suddenly felt an obligation to give me something on Valentine’s Day.

— Umi initially ducks Maki because she messed up her chocolates. Well, I’ve never worked with it myself, but I hear tempering chocolate can be finicky. And it’s the thought that counts, so just give him your bastardized chocolates.

— Maki got so worried, he left Yuu and Nina just to check up on Umi. C’mon, she’s not missing. She screwed up some chocolates. This is a bit much. Plus, I hope he sent the other two home first.

— Maki thinks to himself that gateau chocolate would be difficult even for him, but I think he’s just capping for her sake. Gotta defend your girl, sure, but this is essentially a flourless cake for beginners. Anyway, judging by the results, maybe she overbaked them. Could be anything, though. Maybe she overmixed the batter so it couldn’t rise evenly. Plus, putting them in a heart mold is cute because it’s for Valentine’s Day and all, but it’s harder to bake them evenly in that shape.

— Maki then suggests that they try to make it together. That’s cute. But I thought the plan was to hang out with everyone together. Guess not.

— So she gets it right with his help, and now he’s spouting corny ass lines. Ugh, just end the series already.

— Then we skip immediately to White Day. Just speed-running the major events, I guess.

— So incredibly violent to the very end.

— Maki made cookies for his friends, but candy for his girlfriend. Candy supposedly means “I love you” for White Day. I had to look this up, because it sounded like nonsense. But apparently, the logic is that candy takes time to dissolve, so it means you want the relationship to last. So extra. Plus, I’d rather get cookies over candy any day.

— Continuing the speed run, we jump immediately to Umi’s birthday. The way time is flowing, I feel like I’m in a Persona epilogue. Anyway, it’s supposedly tradition to celebrate at Yuu’s house, so we get to meet Yuu’s mother. I half-expected her to be blonde like her daughter.

— I was like, “Who the hell are the other two girls?” But then I remembered how Umi made up with those conniving friends of hers. But we’ll save that for the end of the post.

— Somehow, Maki is the only guy here. All these years, and none of these girls have ever made a single platonic guy friend? And why is that? The thing is, this isn’t even a harem anime. Maybe Yuu might have had a crush on Maki, but if she did, she’s doing a bang-up job keeping it to herself.

— Maki gifts her this super blue flowery hairpin. I don’t think I know anyone who actually wears a fancy hairpin. Hell, I don’t even remember the last time I’ve seen one in the wild. So no comment.

— After the party, Yuu is left wondering if she’ll ever find someone who can bring the best out of her like Maki does for Umi. If you ever wanted a spinoff, I guess this is a good starting point. But I dunno if Yuu could carry a show on her own.

— We end the night with Maki reflecting on how much his life has changed. More sappy stuff. Not much to say here. So let’s conclude this post.

— From the get go, I always felt that the relationship between Maki and Umi was a little uncanny. They literally share the same interests from video games to movies to even their junk food preferences. You could argue that Umi was desperate to find something — someone — to call her own. So maybe she found a close match in Maki, then proceeded to mold the rest of herself to fit him to a T. But this plot point never surfaced. They were simply 100% compatible, which I don’t find realistic. They are two different people, so I would have preferred to see some differences arise between them. I would have preferred to see the couple navigate some minor incompatibilities and thus also see how they would compromise. After all, that’s how relationships work and grow.

But instead, the show next dove into Umi’s insecurities vis-a-vis Yuu. This is where I felt like the well was truly poisoned. I hated how everyone talked shit about Maki openly, and he just took it. There was no fight back in this boy. Then when Yuu tried to call them out, she was in turn called out for stirring up trouble! That was mind-bogglingly insane to me. Then we doubled down on this later in the series when Umi made up with her two lying ass friends. They rejoined the friend group like it was nothing! The moral of the story is that if people treat you like dirt, you just gotta accept it! From then on, I just never warmed up to Umi. She and Maki are perfect for each other, but I was never emotionally invested in them.

As for Maki’s issues with his parents, I’m not really sure how I feel about the outcome. First, it served as a barrier between him and Umi. He couldn’t fully commit to her because he had all these unresolved negative feelings about love and how his own family dissolved. Eh, I think you can compartmentalize this so that it doesn’t affect your love life, but fine, we’re all different and Maki doesn’t operate like that. What’s weird to me was the aftermath. Okay, he confronted his parents, poured his feelings out to them, and then… then what? They just disappeared from the story! You literally don’t see or hear from his dad again. Meanwhile, Maki got a high ass fever, and his mom left him to Umi’s mom, a woman she must have met… once or twice? The real sticking point for me was how Maki’s mom felt the need to overwork in order to get her mind off of the divorce. She even smoked a lot as a result. So then what? Is she going to spend more time with Maki now? Is she going to cut back on her hours? Is she going to stop giving herself lung cancer? The show completely dropped this plot thread. Maki delivered his big speech on Christmas, and then… nothing…?

But I suppose this outcome fits in with the rest of the show: people can treat you badly, and you can feel however you wanna feel about it, but you kinda just have to accept it and move on. And I suppose that’s realistic on some level, but when it happens both at home and at school — pretty much a teen’s entire life — then that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

— Last but not least, terrible ass title.