Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko – 11 + 12 (Final… sort of)

Episode 11 + 12 –

Well, these last two episodes did try and wrap things up, though I can’t say it was the most ideal way to finish this series. Maekawa, Ryuushi, Makoto, Erio, and the new astronaut girl (Yashiro) all got their own respective bits of devoted time, but in the end all of their stories were left rather open ended. Considering this is an adaptation of a continuing light novel series, an open ended conclusion is probably what suits this best. Things did get more serious towards the end, but there was still a decent number of gags and such. A lot of the main cast acts “too cute”, and it does get a bit annoying at times. For the most part though, everybody’s acting was tastefully handled, with some solid character development as a result.

Episode 11 was pretty much devoted to bringing a bit of development/closure to Mako’s relationships with both Maekawa and Ryuushi. Maekawa’s  part was a bit random, with Mako being randomly invited to Maekawa’s house. Of course, a young guy’s dream is to be invited to a girl’s house where they’ll be alone together, though Mako doesn’t seem to react in the usual manner. He doesn’t show too much interest in Maekawa (well, aside from her appearance in an apron lol), though his massive increase in youth points is definitely indicative of otherwise. Of course, Mako says some some rather careless comments without much thought, and based on Maekawa’s reaction she definitely holds some interest in Mako. It was pretty hilarious to see both Mako’s reaction to the apron, as well as Maekawa’s reaction to Mako’s “be a bride” comment. She’s not very open about it, but it’s nice to know that at even though she’s really odd at times, in the end Maekawa is still a girl.

Ryuushi’s bit of closure was more expected, where we finally get to see her play in that basketball match. She does seem to suck at basketball though, which kind of makes the game painful to watch. It was a surprisingly twist where we learn more about Makoto’s lack of motivation to do things, which in a way was a rather compelling reason for him to cheer on Ryuushi. I’ll admit that I was laughing like crazy at Mako’s serious, over the top yelling and cheering for Ryuushi, but it certainly was admirable that he could do something so embarrassing in order for to cheer her on. Yashiro’s role here, where she once again prods Mako forward, does seem to indicate that she looks out for him, even moreso in episode 12.

In episode 12, we finally got to see that festival-determining baseball game mentioned a while back. Of course, it was pretty obvious that the baseball game was being setup for the end, and the episode itself was predictable and cliche. It was a very good episode for Makoto’s development as a main protagonist, that’s for sure. Once again, we get some focus on Makoto’s lack of motivation in trying to do “go above and beyond”, and excel at whatever he does. This all roots back to a strange soccer incident as a child that killed most of his self confidence at whatever he does. Strangely, it’s a meeting with Maekawa’s father that gets Makoto motivated enough to try in the baseball match, and it certainly paid off with a grand slam home run. Predictable, yea. Cliche, even more so. But satisfying? I can’t quite put it into words, but the moment just felt right, that it just fit the scene perfectly, especially after Makoto’s strangely insightful monologue right before the home run.

What is rather peculiar about these two episodes is that, in every single arc in the past two episodes, Yashiro (Ms. Astronaut alien) appeared in some way shape or form, and each time she seems to have played some sort of contributing role to Mako’s relationships. It’s fascinating to see how her very presence seems to hint that she does have extraterrestrial superpowers of some sort, and why someone like her would even be helping Makoto in the first place. There is the implication here that Yashiro is explicitly on Mako’s side, cheering him on at the basketball game, as well as potentially being the reason why that last fly ball turned into a grand slam home run. Have my suspicions of her alien status gone up? Heck yea.

In the end, these two episodes were a rather fitting way of tying things back up. The events were a bit predictable and cliche, but they did provide some valuable insights to many of our main characters (more so with regards to Makoto and maybe Yashiro). Like I said earlier, though, a lot of questions are left open ended and unanswered, such as if Yashiro is really an alien or not. And not to mention, Yashiro’s connection with Eliot is still rather vague here, and we’re not even sure about which girl is the “canon route” for Makoto (if there even is one, it would probably be Erio 😛 ). All in all, a fun conclusion to the TV broadcast. Now why is it that episode 13 is BD/DVD only again…? I guess we’ll have to wait for a few months before seeing the true final episode for this series.

Overall Enjoyment: 4.0/5

Screenshots are later in the post.