It was never about the fireworks.
What They Say:
“I Can’t Hear the Fireworks, Part 2 / Kaguya Doesn’t Want to Avoid Him”
After being forced to bail out on seeing fireworks with her fellow student council members, Kaguya shuts herself up in her dark bedroom. Hayasaka, Kaguya’s maid, is worried about her mistress’s depressive state. She tries to cheer Kaguya up, and when that doesn’t work, introduces a plan to sneak out of the family mansion. Kaguya manages to slip past a pair of vigilant butlers and reaches the venue, but the fireworks display is already over. Kaguya is in tears, since she really wanted to see the fireworks with the others, but then she hears a familiar voice: “Then, I’ll show them to you.”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The post-ED segment of the penultimate episode built up this finale so well it’s easy to throw everything else away and see this series as an emotional character drama about Kaguya’s longing for an idyllic youth. In that context, the first half of the finale delivers beautifully. Previously, Kaguya and Shirogane could be seen as protagonists at an equal level, but Kaguya absolutely earns her spot as the titular character in this leading role, and it not only makes her the most sympathetic and endearing character in the series but also makes this sequence of events the strongest material in this adaptation.
It can seem strange for the best part of a comedy to be utterly bereft of humor, but it’s a testament to the strength of the writing in this series that it can be one of the funniest shows around and still turn it around and hit even harder with heart-wrenching drama. Kaguya is a rich girl with servants that do everything for her, but while her problems may be very first-world, they are extremely relatable, and pushed to a particularly poignant extreme due to her circumstances and, I’ll admit, general moe characteristics. Her sheltered life has been the subject of jokes in the past, but now that we get such a visceral depiction of her isolation as she longs for the simple pleasures of teenagers enjoying each other’s company while engaging in frivolous summertime activities that they’ll look back on nostalgically for years.
I like Kaguya-sama as a romance, and that’s often the source of some of the cutest moments within its comedy. However, I immensely appreciate that Kaguya’s thoughts aren’t entirely overwhelmed by the cute boy at school, even if the feelings are mutual. No, Kaguya declares in no uncertain terms that she doesn’t even care about any sense of love or romance, if she could just spend some time with the people she loves – all of them – before her irreplaceable summer vacation has completely ended. It’s because of this that I can accept Shirogane sweeping in as a white knight at the exact right moment. It’s not just about a boy delivering the gift of his presence to a girl crying over him; this is one of several friends lending a helping hand when someone dear needs them most, and they all rush to their next destination as a group, all of them so passionate they’ll yell out overdramatic things without a thought.
This sequence of events plays out with no shortage of clichés, but through effective enough execution, they become a powerful event of youth, the kind of climax that can happen in real life but rarely does. It concludes satisfyingly, cathartically thanks to the degree of disappointment we’re subjected to earlier, and romantically, albeit to a light enough extent that the broader message of friendship persists. No, there’s nothing especially innovative about this, but that doesn’t make it any less heartwarming.
It would appear that it’s not in the nature of such a comedy to end things without a single laugh throughout its finale, though, so we follow that undeniable emotional climax with a lighthearted little epilogue, returning to school for the next term that we’ll hopefully be experiencing more of before long, and most importantly for the longevity of the story, essentially returning to the status quo. This begins with great hilarity as Shirogane recounts the earlier events of the episode objectively (actually self-deprecatingly) and cringes in response to his embarrassing lines in the way that we’ve seen various former chuunibyou react to their past selves in other shows. The irony, of course, is that Kaguya found all of these lines to be incredibly cool, especially given her emotional state at the time, and as she arrives with her own reluctance to interact with Shirogane due to even stronger feelings than ever, we return to a slightly different spin on their usual showdowns.
While this starts off with a lot of laughs, it starts to overstay its welcome a bit, with the plane metaphors that it eventually settles on failing to deliver a solidly comedic farewell that respects the weight of episode’s first half. This is an unfortunate misstep that does detract from an otherwise rather excellent finale, but even in its weaker moments, Kaguya-sama is a fine series that’s only improving as it goes on. Given that, it’s one that I’m extremely hopeful to get more of in the near future, which should be very doable with its esteem and breadth of further source material to draw upon.
In Summary:
Kaguya-sama goes out with a bang at first, even if it ends up settling for a fizzle at the very end. That first half may be formulaic and contrived, but it’s so emotionally resonant and well-executed in every way that it would be a downright perfect finale for a more serious series, and an impressive accomplishment for one primarily focused on humor. The comedic epilogue is a bit long for what it needs to accomplish and undercuts some of the earlier drama, but overall it’s still a strong showing for a series that has a lot of potential to continue and get even better.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
LG Electronics OLED65C7P 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick