Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches | Episode 12 (Finale)
GingaDaiuchuu: Well we’re sure not getting any more of this. While I’m sure it would’ve been a lot better if there was some way to faithfully adapt the manga, at least it pulled off its compromise of a conclusion pretty well. There really couldn’t be a more fitting ending than the witches losing their powers and Yamada and Shiraishi getting to kiss each other without anything supernatural happening.
Overall the series was very fun, and a lot better than I would’ve expected from such a premise. The manga is almost certainly better but the anime definitely pulled off the kind of tone and timing that made it all flow nicely.
Hitsugi Amachi: For an ongoing manga work (I’m not reading it, but some quick research shows that there is quite a lot more story to go), this is how I like an anime to handle an ending. It’s a definitive ending that, if you only ever see the anime, gives you good closure and is not “f**k you, read the manga” if you want an ending.
EmperorBrandon: Yeah, I was pretty surprised about that. I assume (since I don’t know anything about the manga at this point), given the manga is ongoing, that this is an anime original conclusion. But it’s one that works nicely as a definitive conclusion. So rare to see that in adaptations these days. I am still curious to the read the manga. Thankfully, this is one of those cases where it’s particularly easy to do, with the manga being available on the same online service as the anime.
Hitsugi Amachi: There definitely were pacing issues, but that’s likely because they were trying to reach this point by the final episode. In retrospect, it’s too bad we’re not in earlier days when it was slightly more common for two-cour “seasons” to be greenlit. It definitely would have helped to be able to give a lot more context in a gentle manner, which would avoid some of the unpleasantness, especially Yamazaki’s constant yo-yo-ing between trolling manipulator and annoying antagonist. We learn all too suddenly why he’s been acting the way he has, so that his change of heart seem more arbitrary than it would have to seem if they had more time to unravel things. Same for Saionji, whose sudden switching of sides came far too quickly. And Asuka is kind of all over the place and worked more as a plot device than a character.
About the best part of the show was the relationship between Yamada and Shiraishi. There was by the end a kind of nice rapport between the two. I also warmed up to Odagiri quite a bit as we learned more and more about what makes her tick.
It’s an uneven show, but at least it manages to stick the landing well enough.
EmperorBrandon: Huh, funny how I was wondering if Leona didn’t wear anything under her shirt, and then not too long after I was thinking about that, we get a reveal 
(so, she does wear underwear under it…)
Yamada2: Well then, they managed to give us a conclusive last episode. That’s nice. Yamada having all the witches abilities removed.
Overall this was a fun anime with its comedy being its strong point. The problem is the pacing. It got super fast at times, especially after they started to search for the witches. The way they handled the witches was terrible. Apart from Yamada, Shiraishi and, to some extent, Odagiri, the rest of the characters didn’t get much development at all (I mean, who was Asuka again? I couldn’t care less). The witch of the week format didn’t work out well at all, mainly because they didn’t have much time. They should’ve given each witch two episodes so that they can become something more. The lack of enough episodes really hit it hard. They also had problems with giving us the relevant information. They threw stuff at us suddenly and told many things in such a matter-of-fact way.
They did manage to pull off something wonderful with Yamada and Shirashi’s relationship. That was done well. The two got their happily ever after ending. Too bad for Odagiri since she couldn’t get her happy ending with Yamada.
This had many problems along the way. Some major, some minor. But at least it was funny and we don’t need to read the manga for an ending.
General Hentai: I was disappointed by the ending, as I thought the final episode was far too rushed. I understand people are pleased that it did have an actual degree of resolution, but this really needed to have been spread out over two episodes. I felt it did fairly well for episode 11, but that the pacing issues reared its head again in this episode. It was just too rushed! Shiraishi, of course, is utterly adorable, but dang, we could’ve used some more time with her this episode. What we had was great, but it wasn’t enough. Yamazaki’s change of heart was just too sudden, considering what a manipulative bastard he’s been.
And of course, this rush job never answered the most important question: Was Saionji was wearing panties this episode? 
Despite all the rush issues, the show does still manage to be good. But it easily could’ve been great. It rates B-/B for me, as there’s just too much choppiness after episode 5 for this to reach B+ or above. Sigh, what this could’ve been with 24-26 episode
