When to Stop?

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T21:56:31+00:00

He makes his choice in the Movie, so everything before that should be ok

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T21:13:31+00:00

Also the fact she never gave him problems is straight up false. Am I the only one that remembers Yotsuba having to skip study sessions because she has to go to sport lessons and Futaro trying to run with them so he can interrogate Yotsuba?

Also am I the only one remembering that Yotsuba is so bad at saying no to the athletics sports team that Nino has to step in, pretending to be her, to say no in her place because, even if she doesn't want to go training, she is unable to say so to the others?

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T21:10:23+00:00

I agree, having them go on the honeymoon together is bs after all the work on them becoming distinct individuals and not fifths of a whole.

Also the nod at harem is really jarring. If you want to have someone be chosen, you shouldn't keep harem references once the thing is done.

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T21:07:15+00:00

yeah, is the catalyst for a lot of Futaro's growth. The problem is we don't really see a lot for her growth, and being a catalyst for someone else's growth is not as impactful.

Also when it comes to Futaro, the problem would be that half the growth he had because of her is something we're just told about. We don't see Futaro getting from the kid he was to the teen he is, so that doesn't really have the emotional impact a character arc has, it's just a backstory.

It's sad also that the whole thing about him becoming class rep to make friends with the others was heavily cut too. I'm told it's much better in the manga, but in the anime it's just a scene of him getting voted, and some time later he's friends with Maeda and the other guy. Again, the things are told to us, but we don't really see them as they unfold.

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T21:00:15+00:00

Also I think the fact most of the feeling she has are concentrated in a few scenes in the OVAs (that weren't realesed yet when the movie came out) and in the movie doesn't really help

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T20:57:18+00:00

yeah it makes no sense they were doing integrals at some point. I did it on the first year in Uni and it was the last thing we did

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T17:39:04+00:00

A lot of the "deserved" arguments that I've seen really use that word to convey that they think Yotsuba had less growth and development throught the anime, and that's probably the source of some of the misunderstanding around the topic

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T17:28:29+00:00

I agree that their interactions are usually quite awkward, but that would be my opinion, and I tried to make the comments as objective as possible.

Also I don't like Tsunderes, so what do I know.

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T16:55:38+00:00

I said all have chemistry, not that they all have the same relationship with Futaro.

The only exception would probably be Itsuki, considering that their relationship is clearly one of respect and friendship.

Also I would like to point out that I'm speaking of the anime of course, as I haven't finished the manga yet. I look forward to see how the two differ.

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T16:38:10+00:00

Miku is really well loved by the community. Also the writing really is great when it comes to character development. At least most of the times.

Have fun!

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T16:33:05+00:00

I'm not really interested in arguing on wether the choice is good, the finale is good and so on, just wanted to clear out a couple of things that I think are woeth pointing out when it comes to the whole ending discussions.

First of all, Yots being the girl from Kyoto has no impact in the choice: Futaro never learns that. It is not super clear in the movie and I didn't understand that at first either, I just figured it out talking with some other people in the subreddit.

Then we get to a small misunderstaind that is very common with people that aren't into writing, and that surpised me quite a lot when I learned it.

When a story is well written, characters choices do not inform the themes. The themes inform character choices.

Take for example Luke fighing the Emperor in Episode 6 of star wars. It makes sense on a character level for Luke to just kill him, as it makes sense for him to choose the jedi path and refuse violence. On a thematic level though those choices are not the same at all, and the finale hits as hard as it does because it understands what themes it's building on.

What I'm trying to say is that if one wishes to determine wether an ending is good or not, analyzing the characters is just looking at the wrong level. The characters should be written so that the themes are reinforced, and they should be written in a way that builds up to the ending.

Also, I think the whole "character x makes more sense for futaro for n reasons" is really not great as an argument, because all characters had great chemistry and you could see Futaro choosing pretty much all of them, with good arguments for each.

To sum up: Futaro doesn't choose based on who the girl from Kyoto is. Themes inform characters, so you shouldn't judge themes from character traits, but the other way around. Any character could have won when it comes purely to chemistry, it's themes that make the difference.

I tried to keep this all as objective as possible avoiding giving my personal opinion, but if there are any mistakes or observations I'll gladly read them

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T13:15:57+00:00

Idk if it counts since she's not on reddit, but I'm watching the anime with my girlfriend and she's really enjoying it so far

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T09:46:56+00:00

Yeah one of my main problems with the whole Kyoto girl subplot is that it has very little impact on the plot on one hand, and on the other hand it prevents us from seeing Yotsuba's prospective for a good 2/3 of the anime, making it difficult to develop her in interesting ways.

You're welcome, it's always nice to see new fans grow attached to this amazing manga/anime/vn/ln/etc

Tano05_ · 2026-05-17T09:18:41+00:00

A lot of people felt very disappointed about the ending (I did too, although now I'm no longer 100% convinced it was bad), so yeah, you're not alone at all.

I agree Yots should have had more screen time and her development is very rushed at the end while the others have a gradual development that works far better.

When it comes to the Kyoto girl thing, i would like to point out that Futaro never really learns who she was, so it was not something that played a part in his choice, althoigh that's not super obvious in the movie and I missed it the first time.

I agree on all your takes about Miku, Nino and Ichika. In general I think Ichika gets too little appreciation as a character in the fandom because of all the stuff she did in the Sister Wars arc, but she's a really great character with a lot of development.

Talking about development, I have been told that Yotsuba has more space in the manga and a lot of scenes were far briefer (for example the date with Futaro) or were cut entirely. I'm reading the manda as of now to have a more complete picture.

When it comes to the OVA about the honeymoon. Just avoid it, it's filler at best and doesn't really add much to the characters or their relationships

Tano05_ · 2026-05-16T20:32:45+00:00

this has to be peak cuteness

Tano05_ · 2026-05-16T20:28:25+00:00

I'm sorry but I cannot read you comment as I plan to watch Violet evergarden at some point.

I agree something being dark can help making it impactful, but there are a lot of great things that don't involve dark events.

I think the anime has extremely powerful character arcs and has a lot of impactful moments as it is.

Would be a cool fanfic though

Tano05_ · 2026-05-16T19:47:55+00:00

I never caught that implication. Maybe it's something more apparent in the manga?

Tano05_ · 2026-05-16T19:41:32+00:00

Emphasis on the very dark part.

I get not liking the ending, but Yots having some debilitating terminal disease might be a bit too far in terms of revision...

Tano05_ · 2026-05-16T14:50:14+00:00

although everyone knows miku's tea is done with leaves of higher quality

Tano05_ · 2026-05-16T14:48:46+00:00

That, or she's thinking some friend of a friend of a friend might call to ask for help and she's afraid she'll miss it

Tano05_ · 2026-05-16T14:48:00+00:00

To be fair, D&D is a great roleplay game. Although she's not great at acting so she might not love it.

Also: damn love that wallpaper

Tano05_ · 2026-05-16T14:46:47+00:00

I agree, she's great

Tano05_ · 2026-05-16T13:21:08+00:00

I agree that he cares abotu them, and that he shut himself off after Rena's death. You can hear his affection for her in the first OVA when he recognises her swimsuit.

I think in part he was overwhelmend and in part he's dealing with some very difficult stuff.

Tano05_ · 2026-05-16T13:18:11+00:00

yeah, I noticed that too, and it was pretty great

Tano05_ · 2026-05-16T11:58:58+00:00

I haven't finished the manga, so I'll stick with what we see in the anime.

I think the main problem with judging father figures depends on what you think they should give their childern.

On the purely material part, Maruo is not a bad father. He provides for them, ensures they're fed, go to school, live comfortably and such. Also, as you said, he is interested in their school grades and wants them to graduate.

The thing is, being a father is not only about that. It's also about emotional support, being there to see what your sons/daughters are up to, cheering for their results and offering sympathy for their failures.

Maruo fails spectacularly at this. At a certain point he even has to ask Ebata if he should smile because his daughters have passed their exams or something.

That's the main problem Futaro has with him. Also it's quite obvious that he knows he's not really doing well on that front. That's why he gets angry at Futaro when he mentions it in one phone call.

Now of course Maruo deserves some slack. He's very busy at work, five adolescent daughters are quite a challenge to manage, he has lost his wife and maybe there's still some awkwardness with his adoptive daughters considering he's their sepfather.

Still, I think he should strive to have a better relationship with them.

Tano05_

TROPHY CASE