"A Battlefield that Leads to a New World"
That moment when your favorite girl wins... aaaaaannd it's gone.
Harem series for me are a really complicated affair. I'm not particularly overfond of them, and while I do watch them, I tend to get
tired of the conventions very quickly. However, when I find a particular girl or guy to root for, I stick by them; it's like cheering on a friend, albeit one I'd probably rather not have in real life. Masuzu has grown immensely on me from day one of this series, and while I have a lot of issues with her character and with the series at large, I was as ecstatic as a fangirl/fanboy when it looked like she'd won. Hell, I couldn't care less about Ai or Hime, and even Chiwa didn't strike the right chords in me this episode. I just
wanted Masuzu to get the guy (though, he's so indecisive it's infuriating), and got him she did, even if it's simply a continuation of their earlier play-acting.
Or perhaps not. It seems Eita finally wins her over this time, and I can actually understand why. What happens after all this is another story, but at the moment when she needs him, he's there to
tell her that it's okay to be herself. She doesn't have to be a cutesy pandering girl to be loved, nor does she have to stop being manipulative and horrible and pretend to be something she's not. Even if his confession isn't 100% true (though I doubt he's lying completely), it's exactly what she needed to save face, and also what she needed to come to terms with herself as the person she really is, rather than the one she thinks she should be. For his willingness to keep her at his side and
help her despite the way she's treated him, I award Eita some genuine good guy points, and fanservice-ridden as the scene is, I also award him points for promising her that he'll be her boyfriend regardless of the other girls.
That, however, is where my satisfaction with the finale ends. I can't say I like Masuzu in love as much as I liked her when she was being anti-love, but that's not the worst of it; the worst of it is that after Eita promises to stay true to her and reject the rest, he
half-asses all the conversations (or goes about them the wrong way) and ends up only affirming each girl's adoration for him. He would have done much better to forgo Saeko's horrid advice (
"make all the girls except your girlfriend hate you!") and honestly reject each one, but instead he tries to be less straightforward and ends up complicating things. While that's bad enough, his conversation with Chiwa is really where I had enough. While I do think she's the one he probably has the most feelings for because of his past with her, the fact is that he's already promised himself to Masuzu. His hesitation when she kisses him doesn't at all imply that he wants her to stop or move away (he should have broken it and been upset about it, or at least shocked enough that he'd stop it and feel conflicted) and it's
unfair to both girls. I suppose the problem is that Eita isn't really in love with any of them, though that doesn't justify his wishy-washy attitude about it all. Perhaps the light novel wraps this up better, but I prefer a closed route than an open harem ending, and having Masuzu win for all of seven minutes before revoking her triumph is a cruel decision by the studio for those of us who have been looking forward to her success.
AWESOME:)
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