Special A 23 ~SA•FA~ & 24 ~Hanazono Hikari•Takishima Kei~ (END)

Episode 23

That’s what home schooling is for, brats!

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Under Aoi’s pressure, the chairman of the school disbanded SA. Kei felt something was wrong and everyone voiced out their protestations, but of course, Hikari was still optimistic about being part of the regular classes of Hakusen. Anyway, they start being real brats about the whole thing. When they were hanging out during tea break, Ryuu voiced that just because SA has been disbanded, they’re still like family which is why SA is important to all of them. The twins were sent home because of an emergency at home. Akira also went home after receiving a call from home. Kei figured out Aoi was behind all it and was told that it all for his own good. The next day, they find out that the twins were leaving the country and Akira dropped out. Apparently, the twins were pulled out by their parents because they were allowed to Hakusen because of the SA system. Akira’s parents were pressured by Kei’s group to pull her out of school. Ryuu admitted that he was also allowed to enroll in Hakusen for their families to be connected to Akira and Kei’s families.

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Hikari’s probably thinking “Everything??? I’m ‘poor’ and you’re a frickin’ bazillionaire.”

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Kei snuck in Akira’s house and he learned everything was his group’s doing. Akira thought it was OK for her but she was most worried about was Hikari because she’s naïve enough to think that all good things are only a matter of hard work. She told Kei that if he was that in love with her, he would leave. Kei found Hikari outside Akira’s house and they had a talk about the importance of SA to Hikari. Then Kei picked flowers by the riverbank asking her to look after them for a day and that as a challenge, if she can protect them all day tomorrow, then a miracle will happen and if she loses, Kei will take her everything. As he left, he asked her to wear the SA uniform. The next day, Kei’s jacket is folded on his usual chair in the greenhouse. They learned that Kei is on his way to London in return for having SA reinstated.

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You know… people get arrested for lesser offenses than what she did. And what the hell??? If Kei’s such a bazillionaire, why is he flying commercial?

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Thoughts:

I though that the SA kids are nothing more than spoiled rich brats. Oooh! We can’t have tea anymore… Awww, my pets will get ronery… Waaah! We have to socialize with people. Gimme a frickin’ break. If all they wanna do is hang in a greenhouse to self-study, it’s called home schooling. But yes, they had their deeper reasons and they love to highlight the importance of SA as a protective shell for them. But they seriously need to understand that parting is a way of life between people and if you can keep in touch, then more power to you. It’s just a fact of life. Anyway, I also had a hard time sympathatizing with the super rich children who can at the drop of a hat just get on a plane to fly to where their friends were.

By the way, I never figured out what FA means. Failed Anime???

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Episode 24:

Sorry about this. I was in WTF omake mode.

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Kei reminisces about Hikari would always have a present for him for her birthday. A full year has already passed and the next day was hig birthday. Hikari is mad at Kei for not keeping their promise for the challenge and swears to follow him to London. Sui dropped by her house in a chopper asking her to bring her brother back. Aoi comes to stop her but everyone in SA is there and they have a helicopter and he has armed guards and a car. Hikari announces to him that Kei’s special ability is that he succeeds at everything on the first try, but her special ability is to work hard or something like that.

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It’s so disappointing that someone as worldly and as well-traveled as Akira wouldn’t know that the London Bridge is now in America when two guys bought it in the 1800s. That is the Tower Bridge.

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When they arrived in London, Kei refused to see them. Akira explained that his grandfather may be behind all this. Tadashi becomes guinea pig for all the security measures around Kei’s London mansion.

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When a man is about to meet his end, he always thinks about the important things in life…

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That night, on Kei’s birthday party, they sneak in as catering (or something). Ryuu fights off and tames an evil doggie. (Inner) Jun holds back the maids with his Inner Jun charm. Megumi has traumatized guys who are just doing their jobs (as security) with her voice after much encouragement from Yahiro. Tadashi cockblocks Yahiro just as she was about to kiss Megumi (damn it!) and flew off a ledge with Akira and Hikari on it. Hikari flow into a window in Kei room. I don’t know how Akira and Tadashi survived without being a heap of wreck.

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Aww… shame on you, Tadashi. Cockblocker.

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Hikari landed in Kei’s room. Kei figured out she was hiding there. When she tried to get her Yappy costume off, he stopped her. When she asked him why he refused to see them, he just said that it was because it would be harder if he did. She ended up giving him a gift, like clockwork, for his birthday. Kei was so happy that he removed the head and asked if he could open it. It was little dollies of the seven members of SA. After that, Hikari asked Kei to continue their challenge. If she wins, he’ll come back to Japan without complaint. If he wins, weh, read my episode 23 summary. And they run around London. Aoi called a stop on the search. They ended up in Big Ben and Hikari said that he was special because he’s someone she respected because of his intelligence, strength and her eternal rival. The flowers he asked her to watch over flew off her pockets and she jumped to catch but Kei in front of her, hugged her and kissed her.

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Tomorrow’s headline in The London Times: Two Japanese kids fall off Big Ben, Skulls intact as made of rock.

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Thoughts:

Unless there’s a second season, I really didn’t see the point of saying anything about Kei’s grandfather as it turned out to be an irrelevant tidbit since the guy never showed up in the episode anyway. He wasn’t even the one who wanted Kei in London, Aoi did. The redeeming factor for me here is Yahiro and Megumi. Yeah, yeah, I did say that Tadashi and Akira were my favorite pair, but they just reverted to their pre-relationship selves so they turned boring. Megumi and Yahiro’s story was sorta open-ended and it kinda ended there. I would have loved to see what happens in the tea party that Hinano wrote about, but I knew it was never gonna happen in the anime.

As many people discussed, it’s an anime-only ending. I really wouldn’t know because I dropped the manga around the Yui thing. Although Hinano has been posting more juicy chapters… I’m being enticed to read again. But of course, those chapters are far more ahead than the ones that have already been scanlated. I’ll probably pick the manga up in a few months.

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Overall Impression:

It was a series that was being compared to Ouran High School Host Club in terms of it’s humor. I started reading the manga a couple of months before this was released as an anime. I loved the manga and was excited when I learned there was going to be an anime of it. But then *dun, dun, dun* GONZO appeared as it’s producer. I dropped my expectations of it being anywhere near Ouran already.

The first episode was weh… but I had hope for it. Of course, one bad episode after the other, I was started to dread watching it but it sorta became a guilty pleasure already. Yes, more than Itazura na Kiss. And anyway, the story was *gasp!* actually starting to have a story after the Tadashi date episode. And I went along some more. The thing about the show is that my expectation was leaning more on the love relationships of the characters since it’s the most highlighted thing in the manga – seven friends and their journey (??? is the right word) in their pursuit of love. But the anime tends to swing from love to friendship to love to and so forth. While the major premise of the story was supposed to be the Kei being in love with Hikari since they were children, it’s been transformed into a side story that the love parts are almost filler-like. After much frustrations, many people considered it blasphemous to compare the show to Ouran.

The characterization lack depth in character development is very frustrating. Despite this being placed as a journey of friendship, none of the characters really “improved” or developed in any way. In the anime, Hikari’s still a dense moron; Kei’s still a cool cynic; Akira’s a tempestuous sadist; Tadashi’s gluttonous cutie; Jun’s still a shy bed wetter; Megumi’s still a sketchbook writer and Ryuu’s still a bestial onii-san. Seriously, the anime has opened doors to many character development which never happened. Generally, they explain why a character is a certain way, but never went forth with any development in them. The storyline went to making things implied, but it was executed poorly, not a loaded kind of implied scenarios. Up to the last episode, the dialogue mixed up the theme of friendship and love too much that when Hikari actually confessed to Takishima was kinda gray and that if it wasn’t for that kiss, you wouldn’t know what to think of it. It all just ended… kinda superficial.

Also, there are a lot of episodes that could have been done without – like that onigiri episode or Ryuu episode. (Well, Ryuu will never be highlighted without the introduction of his love interest which was never shown in the anime so he needed an episode.) Such a shame, they could have done so much more with it. The way the show was written was not so impressive. Most of the time, the dialogue states the obvious so much that it could make a good drama CD if you removed the moving pictures. The humor was also more slapstick than intellectual.

So did I waste 24 weeks on this??? Definitely not! I had other things to watch. Ha! They call Geass a trainwreck??? Try this show. Nah… it was ok considering the genre. It’s not something I would recommend to other people to watch. Unless I really, really hate them, but they might think I have bad taste in anime. I’m really writing this part really slowly because I’m thinking of good words to write… I think the show would work for 12-year olds, not for jaded people like myself. That’s all I can say.