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ファイト／ステイナイト 
Yes! What a perfect ending for a good series. Please don't kill me! :P I can't help but feeling happy about the ending. I watched this series with certain expectations and that expectations were precisely met and I am sorry if it wasn't for some of you, I really do. This episode also confirms once and for all that a second season is out of the question. Not surprising really, especially after the previous episode. The manga itself is near to the point of completion so it'll be interesting to see how that one resolves the storyline as well. Anyway, unfortunately this means my credit card is going to suffer more damage since I'll definitely order the R2 DVD over the net. Oh well, I really like the story and the offer of getting a soundtrack on top of the DVD is an incentive.
Wow, I sure picked the wrong time to take a break from watching anime because I just realised now that I have a lot of titles to go through before the end of the week. Anyway, I'll just start with this episode of Midori no Hibi. I find that this episode has all of the important elements that a penultimate episode should have. I am, however, disappointed with the writers' decision to alter the last half of Days 11 and their attempt to include stories that are similar to Days 54 and the current manga chapter (Days 81). As someone who has read the manga, I feel as if the writers cut half of the materials that were in the manga and just jump straight to the conclusion. I also wonder if this means that second season is out of the question. Now that everything is out in the open, there is a big likelihood that everything is going to be resolved in the next episode.
Updated - see Comments. It looks like the series is going to be a 13-episodes series for now. This is actually one of those times where I wish that I'm wrong because the manga shows all signs of wrapping up its storylines. So if this had been a 26-episodes series, I think it'll be possible to end the series neatly. Oh well, I hope there will be episode 14 or at least a second season in the near future. But judging from Animage TV series listing, it does look like this is one of the few series which haven't got any schedule beyond the 13th episode which will be aired on 27th of this month. Other shows such as Tenjou Tenge, Kyou Kara Mao, Monster, and even Madlax have been confirmed to have their 14th or 15th episode which runs all the way to July.
Well, I was obviously wrong when I said that Days 21 would never be incorporated into the anime because the writers finally decide to squeeze it in this episode along with Days 10 and 20. And it's about time they do this because this chapter contains the character development that Midori sorely needs right from the very beginning. But my guess is, they intentionally wait until this episode in order to create a mini-arc which will probably lead the series to its season finale. Speaking of the finale, it seems to me that unless there'll be another season, the series will end up pretty much the way Fruits Basket ended. I don't think it'll have to make up an ending like that series since there are already four good manga chapters that they can use to end the season. Never the less, it'll have the same 'not much is resolved, but life must goes on' feeling to it.
This is a rather light episode, which includes Days 38 and 46 of the manga as well as a storyline that is similar to the one featured in Days 76. Thankfully, despite its filler nature, this episode is an improvement over the last one. It has a lot of comedic moments, most of which come at the expense of Takamizawa. Because of this though, the one character development the writers managed to give to Takamizawa in this episode ends up destroyed at the end of the story. Interestingly enough, just like episode 4, this episode once again shows the darker side of anime/manga fandom. At any rate, it's kind of amusing to see this particular episode using the Midori hand-doll as a base for the story, especially given the fact that said hand-doll is actually on sale in Japan at the moment. Does that make this episode a cross-promotion attempt for the doll or an ironic take on the merchandising part of the series?
Noooo. I can't believe that they ruined Midori's character development from Days 21 and turned it into this mish mash of a small part of that said chapter, plus an entirely new story and a little bit of dialogue from Days 72. It's bad enough she hasn't got her own episode up until now. But when she finally gets one, this is what she got? I know that the anime writers probably want to incorporate Seiji as often as possible in the series. But the strength of Days 21 is the fact that it is mostly about Midori trying to deal with her shyness on her first school day. I can't believe that they end up making normal-sized Midori acting all cute and noisy in this episode when she's not like that in the manga.
After watching this episode, I doubt that Days 21 will ever be completely incorporated into the anime since some of the dialogues that appear in that chapter have been used in this episode. What is worse is that despite its attempt to inject some humour, this episode is very boring in comparison to the more serious Days 21. The Chibi-Seiji element of this episode has its moments but at the end of the day, it feels repetitive and unnecessary. I think the animator should not attempt to make every episode comedic especially when the original story didn't have many comedy elements in it. And especially not when it is forced and ends up making the episode feels as dry as this one.
Unfortunately I don't have any comment on this episode that does not in some way includes spoiler, so I think I'll use this space for a little trivial fact. Every time I watch the opening of this show, I can't help but noticing the monorail tracks that are featured in it. I've always liked monorails and I think the use of this method of transportation helps to differentiate the setting of this show from other anime out there. I also noticed that the monorail seems to be a peculiar kind but it's definitely not a futuristic design or anything like that. It's actually a French Safege system type of monorail. So, I decided to google the term to see if there is such monorail in Japan.
The search yields two places that have similar monorail to the one on the show. The first is the Shonan monorail while the other is the Chiba City monorail. The Shonan monorail runs from the Ofuna rail station to the coastal area of Enoshima, which is 20km from Tokyo. The Chiba monorail connects the suburbs in Chiba prefecture to the downtown main rail station. Between the two, I think the one in Chiba prefecture is closer to the design of the monorail in the series, especially with its dual beam design. Anyway, if you're interested, you should check out the official site of Shonan monorail and Chiba monorail.
I just found out that for the time being, Midori no Hibi will only be a 13-episodes series. If this turns out to be true, then I can understand why there have been major attempts to cover as many manga chapters as possible ever since the first episode. This episode does not exempt from the attempt either, although thankfully, they have done some minor editing to make the episode flows better. If I remember correctly, I think this episode combines the beginning of days 8, while modifying the story in days 19 and 27 to make the story shorter. But unfortunately, the episode also features Shiori in many scenes. The problem is, she's one of the less interesting supporting characters in the series and quite an annoying brat to boot. Thus, she ends up making the episode a bit grating at times. I'm also surprised that they still haven't given Kouta an episode considering that he is more important to the plot of the series and that he's a funnier character as well.
This is probably the first episode that I don't like thus far. I think the episode feels busy and convoluted due to the amount of manga chapters that are included in it. The '3 manga chapters per episode' format worked quite well back in episode 2 and 4 because there weren't many sub-plots or characters inside the chapters used by those episodes. On the other hand, chapter 7, 9, and 16 of the manga are some of the most hectic chapters in the series. As a result, the combination of these three manga chapters makes the episode feels convoluted and all over the place. It also doesn't help that they tried to insert additional mini-plots involving Ayase and Takamizawa into the episode. I am also disappointed that the emotional scenes in chapter 7 and 9 of the manga end up looking less important in the anime because there are too many plots that they need to cover in this episode.
Just like other previous episodes, this one combines three chapters from the manga (Days 5, 18, and 35) and adds some extra scenes to make the anime flows better. This time around the anime introduces Takamizawa Shuichi, a hardcore otaku with a scary fetish for dolls and their accessories. And in my opinion he's even scarier in the anime. There's some kind of creepiness about him now that he has that sleazy voice. In general, however, this is another enjoyable episode and on top of things, there is no overt fanservice to be found anywhere in the episode. So that should alleviate the worry that some people have about the anime looking like a version that is created only to fan service the viewers with nudity.
The writers chose to focus on Seiji and his childhood life for this particular episode. This is a good thing because I always think of Midori no Hibi as the story of both Seiji and Midori and not just either one of those two. So I'm glad that Seiji does not become a second fiddle to Midori unlike other anime male characters in this genre. Anyway, as expected, the anime ended up reshuffling some of the manga episodes while making them compact at the same time. This time, it's chapter/day 6 and 14 of the manga which are compressed into one single anime episode. I think at the end of the day, this works to the anime's advantage because chapter 6 on its own is too short to be made into an interesting half hour anime. Having said that, the changes obviously creates a few minor alterations in the anime but rest assured it's nothing that will upset the fans of the manga.
Gah! I really hate technology sometimes or rather I hate video codecs technology. I just downloaded this episode and realised that I can't watch it on my Macintosh computer because the video was encoded using WMV3 codec which Macintosh can't recognise. So I had to actually open the file on PC (which also has to have Windows Media Player 9), watch and screen grab the episode there, then process them on my Mac. Thankfully the episode really worth all of the troubles. Having said that, I hope next time I can find an episode that's been encoded with DiVX 5.1 or anything that is not WMV3 codec so I don't have to go through the same problem again.
Wow. Now this is what I called an excellent premiere episode. Everything that I wish the producer will retain from the manga are here. They've also added little touches here and there that make the anime a rather new experience for those who have read the manga. The opening theme itself is perfect. I think I've played it for at least 6 times in a row by now. The opening somehow manages to convey all of the important elements from the series: Midori's longing, Seiji's loneliness, the happiness that the two share when they are with each other, and the wonderful supporting characters. It's also accompanied by センチメンタル (Sentimental), a powerful song by CooRIE that makes the opening images even more meaningful.
