Kimiaru Episode 13 (END)- Final Thoughts and Impressions

Sorry, couldn’t resist for the last episode

You’re fired! Well no not really, none of us really thought Ren was going to get fired right? Anyways, here we are at the final episode of the up and down ride that was Kimiaru. With some drama, violence, and saliva trails the show wraps up. Final impressions at the end.

 

Yawn for silly drama, although I guess they had to come up with some way to make the end dramatic. Ren spills some coffee on Shinra’s music sheets, she’s in a pissy and stressed mood so she says he’s fired. I mean it’s somewhat realistic if you accept their situations and stress why they would be acting like this, the concert and Ren’s dad appearing are certainly stress causing events. However, in the context of this ecchi comedy it comes off as cheesy and lame as the rest of the show’s drama has been.

Shinra’s reaction to Miyu’s offer was definitely one of the highlights of the episode. She almost couldn’t resist the temptation of full access, but I understand why a lack of resistance takes much of the fun out of it for her. Miyu may be a bit DFC and loli on the outside for my usual tastes, but in this case I’d make an exception because she does act older and more mature most of the time. She’s one of the characters I was most surprised I took a liking to right away (I think it’s helped she’s voiced by Yuko Goto, a favorite).

Surprise she forgave him! Well fast forward after the reconciliation and Ren’s dad shows up to cause trouble, so they go off to talk. I could dive into a long physchological discussion on how abused children act, but I see no point. The whole scene was a bit weird, but at least Benisu and De Niro beat him up a bit. Oh, and we got to see yet another side of Mihato, the serious, mature, intelligent side. Definitely a candidate for mai waifu.

It’s debatable whether he deserves our goddess, but we can only wish our dear Shinra-sama happiness. Some people out there had issues with the whole saliva trail thing, but it doesn’t bother me. Maybe I’ve watched too much porn, who knows. Regardless, I’m glad to see that it actually gave a resolution of sorts to the “which girl ends up with the guy” question and they weren’t afraid to make such hook up messy.

Well after that things are back to normal in the Kuonji household- Ren walking in on Benisu, Mihato getting raged about it, Miyu teasing Ren, and Ageha attempting to steal him away again. The ole household we all know and love.

Apparently Ren’s father reformed himself or whatever, that was also quite sudden but not really unexpected considering the show. The vacation pictures were pretty amusing, with Chiharu constantly trying to get into the picture along with Ageha and Kojuuro tagging along in extreme ways. Altogether I guess it passes for an ending episode, I usually don’t have high expectations for harem comedy endings (I mean lordy, look at the atrocity that was the final Rosario+Vampire episode). The drama was easy to gloss over and not too imposing, leaving me to spend most of my attention on delicious moments.

Series Impressions:

I was first drawn to this show by the silly concept and tasty looking women, which frankly continued to be one of the reasons I continued to watch the show. The animation quality was nothing to write home about, but the designs for Shinra, Miyu, and Mihato were especially attractive. Obviously this show has a lot of ecchi, but not done in the corny way all the panty shots were in Rosario + Vampire done. I’ll stake my claim that it was done in a much more sensual and sexual way, rather than just for the shock value of a lot of panties and boob shots.

While the girls were attractive, the main draw for this show was the comedy, and that’s what kept my interest enough to continue blogging the show. The first couple of episodes really grabbed me with the straight up humor they were able to provide. They didn’t rely heavily on parodies early on, just the introduction of characters and situations provided a lot of laughs. After that, they eventually switched to the parody barrage in episodes 6 and 11, with some of the highlights including Shuffle!, Fate/Stay Night and School Days. And who could forget the Kamina pedobear who took from the elite and gave to the NEETs? The show was at it’s best when it was indulging in straight comedy episodes, rather than the drama.

Speaking of the drama, yeah it was pretty lame. There’s little to say that I haven’t already said about it, but yeah, I could have done without a couple of those stupid Yume episodes which were the worst offenders. I accept and understand the need for drama to wrap up the series, but what the hell were they doing sticking Yume crap in there in the middle of the series. Sigh.

Let’s finish up here on a positive note with a quick character discussion. The stars of the show were definitely Shinra, Mihato, and the Colonel for me. I love the sensual, dominant ojou-sama type Shinra embodies, in both appearance and a delicious sounding voice. Mihato drew me in because she was a hilarious twist on your standard big breasted maid. She had the usual bubbly and ditzy stereotype, but then she often revealed the shit-faced killer alternate personality. I’m not a fan of pseudo-incest or brocon in a serious sense, but this didn’t have any of those problems because it was just for pure hilarity. Then there’s the Colonel, the epitome of GAR and manliness, a shining example of how to create a great supporting character. I will remember him far into the future as something we should all look up to be like. As for the rest of the characters, I mentioned earlier how I found Miyu and Benisu to be surprisingly interesting characters, and Anastasia was good for a few laughs when necessary. Ren was pretty mediocre for a male lead, but I wasn’t expecting much. The rest of the characters were pretty forgettable, with Yume rounding out the bottom of the barrel.

Final Verdict: When the focus was on comedy, it was a great ecchi-style comedy that could keep me laughing for an entire episode. When the focus was on drama it was a crapshoot of epic lameness. As I tried to gloss over and zone out during the drama as much as I could, I’ll rule on the side of the comedy. 7/10.

Here’s some scans to send you all off.