Pretear ep.11-13

March 23, 2004 | 43 Comments

Here comes another series that reaches its conclusion. Just like Haibane Renmei, Pretear is a 13 episodes show so now I have another series that is out of my summary/review list. Speaking of review, I've been entertaining the idea of adding secondary category to group each series together so you can find them more easily. But this means more categories to sort and I'm not sure if it's worth it. But if you think you like the idea, please drop me a note so I can make the decision easier. Anyway, these three episodes themselves certainly have a lot in spades when it comes to actions, surprising twists and revelations, as well as fairy tale references. I like the fact that two characters that normally were not developed much in the past actually get tidbits of development in these episodes. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the Leafe Knights whose name are not Hayate or Sasame.

The eleventh episode begins with a full-scale search for Himeno happening throughout the city in which she lives. This doesn't seem to be a difficult thing to pull off considering Himeno's stepmother, Natsue Awayuki is the richest person in the city. However, even though they got everything covered from the hundreds of posters, ads in a Zeppelin-like baloon, as well as the entire police forces deployed to find Himeno, they still can't pinpoint her whereabout. It is during this search, however, we get to see Natsue's true feeling for her stepdaughter. Despite the fact that Himeno often irritates her, we find out that deep down Natsue cares a great deal for her stepdaughter. At the end of the day, she's not your typical evil fairy tale stepmother. This little revelation makes Natsue a bit more interesting that the way she was originally.

Meanwhile, Himeno himself is doing a good job of staying hidden from the people that she loves so that she doesn't endanger them while protecting the city from Saihi's dark power. She also has been getting closer to Hayate as they spend more time together fighting evil. On the other hand, things don't look as good for Mawata who has been locking herself in her room, thanks to Saihi's spell. Kaoru, Himeno's father (or Mawata's stepfather) starts to worry about her and thinks that he should at least try to talk to his stepdaughter. Natsue, however, thinks that they shouldn't worry too much about Mawata since she's been really good at taking care of herself as well as other people since she were a child. Natsue tells her husband that Mawata was the only person who didn't cry when her real father died. What Natsue didn't notice, however, is the fact that even though the young Mawata tried to put on a happy face for her grieving mother and older sister when their father died, she's actually shaking a lot trying to contain her own grief.

No matter how hard Himeno tries to stay away from the Amayuki residence, at the end of the day she ended up going back there because Saihi has planned to execute a full scale attack on the world starting from the Awayuki residence. One day, Mayune, Kaoru, and Natsue find themselves under attack from the monsters that Saihi created. Thankfully Himeno appears in front of them in full Pretear form and manages to save them. However, without her knowledge, Sasame has slink into Mawata's room, trying to persuade her to come with him to the rooftop. Just as Mawata starts to believe that no one else cares about her except Sasame, Sasame starts to show romantic gestures toward Saihi to push Mawata's already fragile mind and heart into the edge. This attempt drives Mawata to the point where she lost all will to live, allowing Saihi to drain all of the dark power from Mawata to populate the city with Fenrir's dark power.

Continuing from the previous episode, episode twelve shows Mawata being enveloped by some kind of coocon which serves as a power to all of the mayhem that happen around her. A big demonic tree then comes out of the Awayuki's house and countless monsters start to terorrise the city. Seeing this happening, the good guys decide to split up. All of the young Knights get to go to the city to help the citizen of the city to evacuate while the existing adult knights will be helping Himeno to set Mawata free from the coocon. However, no matter how hard they try, Himeno, Mayune, Natsue, and Kaoru can't seem to reach Mayune because everytime they try to get rid of the tree branches that surrounds the coocon, another one comes up. Never the less, they are all resolved to set Mawata free and proceed to rip one branches after another.

Things get worse because Saihi and Sasame then start attacking Himeno & the Knights while a bunch of monster are coming towards the Awayuki family. Go and Kei decide to guard the family from the monster. Seeing this, Sasame changes his tactic and decides to attack the Awayuki family, forcing Hayate and Himeno to confront him. Before Himeno leaves, Natsue once again shows how much she cares for her stepdaughter and tells Himeno to be careful. Himeno and Hayate then tries to convince Sasame to return to them to no avail. Hayate is then forced to face Sasame but before he goes into the fight, he tells Himeno not to worry because no matter what, he'll be back because there's something he wants to tell her. Himeno then decides to confront Saihi to ask her if she really ever loved Hayate because if she did, Himeno wants to know why Saihi wants that makes Hayate suffer? Saihi simply answer that is because she no longer believes in love and friendship and she's convinced that soon the Awayuki family will also give up on trying to set Mawata free.

Through a mirror-like crystal, Saihi then shows Himeno how the Awayuki family is still struggling to set Mawata free with no result whatsoever. Himeno, who can see Mawata inside her coocon through the crytal, attempts to contact her stepsister. At first Mawata refuses but through her own willpower, Himeno manage to put some part of her body into the crystal and attempt to persuade Mawata to return to their family. Somewhere in the city, the young Knights can also sense that the demonic tree's heart is getting weaker. Back to the others, thanks to Himeno, Mawata starts to hear the sounds of her family asking her to not give up on them. A bright light then comes out from inside the tree and the Awayuki family finally manages to pull Mawata out of her coocon. Go and Kei then proceeds to take all of them away from the Awayuki residence so they'll be safe.

This development of event, however, shocks and drives Saihi into despair. Unable to come up with other plan, she begs Sasame to kill all of them. But Himeno pleads to Sasame not to do that because their death is not going to save Takako/Saihi. Himeno believes that Takako didn't really want to become Saihi, Takako simply wants someone to understand her. Hearing this reasoning, Sasame decides to disregard Saihi's instruction to kill Hayate, Himeno and everyone else. This, however, upsets Saihi who thinks that just like the others, Sasame has finally decide to ignore her. Her sadness drives her suicidal and she calls on the demonic tree roots to kill herself. However, before the root manages to reach Saihi, Sasame puts his own body in between the tree roots and Saihi, effectively ending his own life.

The final episode of the series shows Sasame falling to the ground after trying to shield Saihi from the tree root's attack. After a couple of seconds of confusion, Saihi finally realises what happened and is extremely shaken to the point that she returns to her original form as Takako. Takako ends up crying next to Sasame asking him what should she do now that she knows someone actually cares for her. In his dying breath, Sasame asks her to throw away all of her hatred because even after becoming Saihi, Takako never became happy either. Takako agrees and admits that she actually feels something for Sasame and she doesn't want him to die. But it's too late for Sasame and he ends up dead, driving Takako to a complete despair.

The demonic tree senses Takako's despair and immediately captures her and use her sadness and depression to power itself. It doesn't take long for the tree to get its power back and start to terrorise the city again. Elsewhere in the city, the Awayuki family is intercepted by some monsters but Go and Kei manage to quickly overpower these monsters. Mawata and Mayune want to go back to help Himeno but Kaoru tells them that as much as he wants to come back for his daugther, there's nothing that they can do to help Himeno at this point in time. On top of things, Himeno would have wanted them to be safe and sound so even though it's hard to do so, the best thing they can do for Himeno is to evacuate now so they can see Himeno again in the future. The whole family then agree to evacuate away from the city, leaving the Knights to take care the city.

Meanwhile, Himeno and Hayate tries in vain to set Takako free from the gunk that glues Takako to the heart of the tree. Himeno then decides to pret with Hayate so they can beat the demonic tree once and for all and return everything to the way it used to be. However, even in their Pretear form, Himeno and Hayate still can't beat the tree who becomes even more violent and powerful by the minute. Elsewhere in the city, all of the Knights are defeated by the sheer amount of power that the trees and the other monsters possess. In their dying breath, all of the Leafe Knights release their power from their body so that they can help Himeno to set Takako free from the demonic tree. However, even with the additional power of the now dead Knights, Himeno and Hayate still can't beat the powerful tree. Things then get bleaker and Himeno is almost impaled by the tree had Hayate had not come out of their Pretear form and protect her much to Himeno's distress who doesn't want Hayate to die.

After a few minutes of trying to struggle against the tree's power, Hayate finally manages to set the two of them free from the tree's attack. However, the attempt came at a very high price and Hayate ends up dead in Himeno's arm. Himeno is at first sad for the loss of Hayate but she quickly manages to pull herself together and still resolves to set Takako free. Her sheer determination and sincerity allows her to transform herself into a Pretear without the help of any of the Knights. Takako who's still in captive realises that Himeno has turned into the infamous legendary Pretear form that no other Pretear girls ever managed to achieve in the past. Himeno then gives all of her Leafe to the demonic tree so that it'll have as much Leafe as it wants to the point that it'll stop destroying the city. After absorbing so many Leafe, the demonic tree explodes and sets the city free from its power.

Himeno, still in her White Pretear form, then use the rest of her Leafe to restore the city to the condition that it was and to resurrect everyone that she loves from the Knights, Sasame, Takako, and especially Hayate. Slowly the city is enveloped by small snow drops which restore everything back to the way it was. Hayate is then awaken by the footsteps of a person approaching him and when he looks up, it turns out that it's the footsteps of Sasame who has now returned to the way he was before he became Saihi's minion. Hayate then also sees Takako standing behind Sasame in sadness. In his confusion, Hayate wonders how the two of them manage to return to life. Takako simply answers that Himeno brought them back to life. However, before Hayate can find out where can he find Himeno, Takako burst into tears and Hayate realises that something has happened to Himeno. He then sees some kind of funeral happening in the middle of the Awayuki's garden with everyone surrounding what looks like a person sleeping on top of a flower bed.

It finally dawns on Hayate that Himeno has transformed herself into a White Pretear without anyone else's help and has used her Leafe to return all of them to life at the cost of her own life. Meanwhile, the Awayuki family has find their way back to their house and are now standing next to Himeno's flowerbed. Despite the fact that she often plays trick on Himeno, we find out that Mayune actually does enjoy having Himeno as her stepsister. Himeno's death troubles her so much to the point that she becomes hysteric and shakes her stepsister to wake up. At the same time, the rest of the Knights like Go and Kei are trying their best to console the younger Knights who's been crying a lot. Sasame thanks Himeno for all of the things that she's done for all of them. Hayate, who's been crouching next to Himeno's body all of these time finally speaks up and tells Himeno how sorry he is that he is a failure as a Leafe Knight.

Hayate then continues that he's also sorry that he never manage to tell Himeno about his feelings even though he felt it in his heart. Hayate then kiss Himeno on the lips and asks for one more miracle to happen, for him to be able to see Himeno again. After a couple of seconds of no reaction, Himeno slowly open her eyes much to the relief and tears of everyone else that surrounds her. Anyway, fast forward to possibly a couple of weeks or months later, we see that Mawata is making some origami animals to the young Leafe Knights who admire Mawata for her skills in origami-making. It's nice to see that Mawata is not alone anymore and that she now has people who really care about her and who look up to her. We then get to see Himeno's stepmother, Natsue, trying to create a statue of the pink bird from the Leafeania who's trying its best to pose for her. Natsue then happily greets her husband who tells her that he can't operate the laptop that he just bought and therefore decides to take a break and see his wife.

Elsewhere, Himeno and Yayoi are having a talk about how Kaoru, Himeno's father is going to start writing novel again. Yayoi, in her crazy way then says that she wants to become Kaoru's student and starts imagining things that can happen between the two of them. Himeno, who's freaked out by Yayoi's imagination tells her that her application to become a student has been denied. Somewhere in the house, Mannen has become the latest Knight that Mayune has chosen to become her towel boy. The funniest part, however, is when Tanaka the driver finally manage to return to the Awayuki household after being away in foreign area for 90 days. However, he is dismayed upon finding out that his position has been replaced by another person called Yamada. After convincing Natsue that he's the best driver for the Awayukis, Natsue tells her that she'll be happy to have Tanaka back as her driver with a penance of salary cut for 12 months. Hearing this, Tanaka who has finally grown a lot of facial hair suddenly lost all of them in a beat.

We then get to see Go, Kei, and Hayate (whose face is off-screen so that we can't see it) enjoying Leafenia which has now been restored to the way before it was destroyed. Hayate also makes a happy expression which was never seen before by Go and Kei to the point that it freak them out. Hayate then goes towards a dimensional gate which takes him to the Awayuki household. Upon arriving there, he is immediately greeted by Himeno who's been waiting for him. Himeno asks how things are in Leafenia and Hayate tells her that everything is good now. For example, Sasame and Takako have been enjoying each other's company lately. Himeno is happy to hear that the two of them finally understands each other's feeling. For some reason, this particular sentence makes Hayate blushes. He, however, pretends that there's nothing wrong and tells Himeno he's simply there because Mawata is baking a cake. Himeno is not fooled though and immediately latches on to Hayate's hand, making the guy blushes even more. The series ends on a happy note just like one of those fairy tale stories.

Upon reading my own description of the series, I realise how sugary sweet and often a bit cheesy these final three episodes can be. However, I can assure you that when you see the show itself, it's not as bad as if you just read the description. I mean the series based its premise on fairy tale so it's inevitable that the series will have some unusually optimistic and toothache inducing quality about it from time to time. But there are some genuinely touching scenes in these episodes that make these flaws unnoticeable. I do think that Himeno is a bit too perfect in these episodes. It feels as if she can do anything and that she can forgive anyone easily despite what they may have done to her. I guess I just want to see her to struggle a bit to overcome the obstacle in these episodes. I also lament the fact that the majority of the Leafe Knights are severly underdeveloped. I wish the writers have given more background stories to Go and Kei as well as the younger Knights. But unfortunately, they're only used as peripheral characters to support/cheer up/cry for the main characters. Anyway, despite all of that criticism, I still enjoy the conclusion to the series.

© memento 2003