Nonetheless, I just have this rather niggling feeling at the back of my head that tells me that the series is somewhat giving the original manga a huge disservice. I mean, the show is a romp but I know it could have been epic if it tries to be a bit consistent with the timings.

@Otou-san: I cannot disagree with that. The pacing is like a snail trying to run like a cheetah and eventually dropping almost everything in order to get there so fast. Nonetheless, the snail is darn pretty, if you get my drift.

The pace really is starting to seem pretty fast, the source material is clearly a nicely-developed story but I am starting to feel like I’m missing something. I hope they do justice with the ending.

The reason they’re going through this so fast is that they apparently are going to wrap all of this up in 24 episodes, and finally give this series an ending based on the notes the author left behind. (she died before the series finished, so until now it’s never had a proper ending, but they promised that the anime would have the supposed “inteded” ending)

I get that. It’s just that in this series, there’s really no build-up, no anticipation. Naota went from going to marry Chris to asking for Kotoko’s hand in marriage in literally 2 episodes. Then they get married by the end of the 2nd episode. They never even went out on a date first. He kissed her 3 times (2 of which she was actually aware of) and now they’re coming back from a honeymoon with a pregnancy scare.

It just doesn’t add up! The series seems to be venturing into more of a “slice-of-life” romance, which is very odd because it gets a little hard to follow when they fast-forward through all the relationship development.

I am interested in seeing how this series will end though. It’s just weird following it watching it go from A to B to F to Z.

@Ez
Give the newly weds some time…

@Webbmaster62
He could do worse, Jinko is still available…

@Shin
That’s why Naoki finally said yes…

@Halcyon
Unlike most shoujo stories this one chronicles the relationship between Kotoko and Naoki. Beyond the marriage there will be problems, but that is what makes this one so special, they aren’t high schoolers for ever. They grow they mature they change. It’s only moving fast compared to other series where getting together is basically the end, not so here.

@Maipeisu
Yeah Kotoko is not ready to be a mum, but Machiko is ready to be a grand mother. It will happen though eventually…

@L-chan
We shall see…

@D.J
I am sure next time there will be a home pregnancy test available.

Naoki’s never had serious competition before, but now there’s THAT guy! *evil laughter*

I was at first gleeful but then quite disturbed when Machiko made like Kotoko was with child. Something in my brain suddenly contorted and screamed that it was all happening WAY too fast, that it couldn’t POSSIBLY be true. Which it was haha. I’m sure it will happen eventually, but it would have been frighteningly early at this point in the story. Nevertheless, this may have been a clever move on the part of the director/animators, because now we have something even more unexpected to expect in the future… Oh la la my head is spinning @_@

By the way, I really like how Kotoko and Naoki haven’t changed dramatically since they’ve gotten married. Yes, they have become closer, but they haven’t mutated into the TV-perfect married couple. The real relationship, apart from labels like ‘marriage’ and so forth, is still maturing subtly and gradually.

First a sudden engagement, followed by a 2-week marriage, now there’s a pregnancy scare @_@

And Chris comes off as a creepy stalker. She reminds me of Glen Close in Fatal Attraction. I’m happy to see that they’re phasing out Kotoko’s high school friends with her passing the nursing exam.

The pace of this series is at neckbreaking speed. By the end of the series they’ll be celebrating the birth of Kotoko’s and Naota’s grandchildren @_@.

I can’t help but think that the producers are missing out on a lot of moments and potential for romance/comedy by speeding through the relationship. It’s a bit disappointing, imo. But Machiko more than makes up for it. She’s needs her own spinoff series where plays a conniving matchmaker or gives rabu rabu advice.