Celestial Method | Episode 11
Library-chan: And so Noel leaves, breaking everybody’s hearts. It can’t end like this, can it? I imagine that they’ll call her back. I admit, I cried a lot during this episode.
Hitsugi Amachi: Lots of emotional stuff here, but there’s one thing that feels kind of off looking back over the season. Shione’s character development, if we could call it that, has been so unnatural that I wonder if she’s actually an advanced android that hasn’t quite gotten down human behavior. There was just something so artificial about her estrangement from Nonoka and their reconciliation was just as unbelievable.
stardf29: I think it feels that way because there’s been a lot of back-and-forth with her, one moment wanting to be friends with Nonoka again and the next trying to keep her away for the sake of keeping Noel around, even if it hurts herself, and now finally accepting that she doesn’t need to sacrifice her own happiness for Noel’s sake. It’s all in the span of a couple episodes, too, which can make it feel more jarring (though I’d argue drawing it out longer would be worse).
As far as I see it, though, it’s consistent with her character. She is in some ways just as immature as Yuzuki, albeit in the complete opposite manner; whereas Yuzuki acts out however she feels with no restraint, Shione tries to “keep it together”, even if she’s forcing herself in doing so; this makes her prone to making some rash decisions without properly explaining to others why she’s doing them. As for the show’s execution of her character, that’s something that can be argued as to its effectiveness, but as for my own viewing experience, I thought it worked okay, though not as well as Yuzuki’s storyline.
Hitsugi Amachi: So, Saucer is gone and we will see the town without it next time out. It’s proper that the Saucer does not come back, but I have a suspicion that this is the kind of show that will try to find some kind of cop out, a means of having Noel come back into their lives…though perhaps it would be more realistic if she does. After all, the five friends are shortly to be dispersed, with Souta going away and Shione not having changed her plans to go back to living with her father. Perhaps the only way that would not be some massive cop out would be if we have a time skip and the five friends are shown as adults, gathering again in the town for a reunion years later and Noel uses this as an excuse to beg her superiors/whatever controls the saucers to allow her to come back to Earth one last time to see them together again. It could even be played for a certain amount of humor, as after a few years everyone would be used to the saucer being gone and for it to just randomly (so far as everyone other than the five friends would know) show up again could be played for a modest laugh.
stardf29: As for this episode, man was it a feels ride. This was almost on par with AnoHana’s finale for just how well it brought out the emotions of all the characters, as they face Noel’s disappearance, and with the backdrop of the meteor shower behind it all. Just an amazing episode overall, easily one of the best of the season. And we still have two episodes to see how the group deals with the aftermath of it all…
