Myself; Yourself 13 [END]
December 26th, 2007 by Shirukii
Craaaaawling in my skiiiiin, these wouuuunds they wiiiiill not heeeeaaaal, and etc.
Well, it’s not like I didn’t expect some sort of twist at the end but the ending was still rather surprising. It wasn’t the best of endings, it was definitely rushed, but it brought everything together decently, to the point where there aren’t any lingering questions or loose ends. But I can’t believe they did an epilogue time skip, I personally hate them with a passion.
Episode Rating: 7/10 || Series Rating: 7.5/10
The episode starts off with a flashback to Nanaka’s childhood where we’re introduced to a new character, Kaoru, a good friend of Nanaka’s parents, the three of them have been together since high school. After Nanaka’s parents got married Kaoru offered his services as Nanaka’s violin teacher. However, during middle school he fell ill, diagnosed with cancer, knowing his time left is short, he tells Nanaka to find a new violin teacher and continue learning, but Nanaka refuses and says she’ll wait until he is released.
Unfortunately that day never comes, Kaoru passes away, leaving Nanaka’s mother in tears, and her father looking oddly enraged. The reason soon becomes clear, that night Nanaka’s father confronts his wife, having learned the truth, that she and Kaoru went behind his back and Nanaka is actually Kaoru’s child, which explains why she pushed Nanaka to learn violin, so she could put the talent she inherited from him to use and at the same time see her real father. Overhearing this, Nanaka goes upstairs and tries to pretend it’s all a dream, but she can’t ignore what comes next…After hearing a loud crash she goes back downstairs to find her mother unconscious and her father and the whole living room doused in gasoline, he spots her looking in and gives her a dirty look as he ignites the gas. The house erupts in flames, Nanaka grabs the hair tie that Sana gave her at the festival and her violin and jumps out the second story window.
After hearing the story, Sana hugs Nanaka in an attempt to comfort her, but it’s evident that she’s paralyzed from the shock. He brings her home where her uncle sends her off to get some rest before talking with Sana. Sana tells him what he heard from Nanaka, her uncle isn’t very surprised, he had heard the story from Nanaka’s father, apparently not wanting to die having deceived his best friend, Kaoru told Nanaka’s father everything on his death bed. However, he didn’t take it very well, calling Nanaka’s uncle out to vent, even saying that he’d kill her. Unfortunately, his words weren’t taken literally, Nanaka’s uncle had prayed that her memories of that night be sealed off forever, that she not be made to go through such pain again.
Afterwards, Nanaka began to lock herself in her room, refusing to talk to anyone. Sana would visit diligently, everyday, rain or shine trying to get through to her to no avail. One day he knocked on her room door to find it empty, only to realize she was taking a bath at the time. However, as the time passed he began to worry about her, going to check on her he has a shocking thought accompanied by a flashback to a similar experience he went through. And sure enough, he goes into the bath house to find Nanaka passed out in the bathtub, wrists slit and bleeding to death.
Luckily he was able to make it in time to save Nanaka’s life. Afterwards he goes to visit her, Nanaka feels resentful towards him, saying that he has no idea what she is going through right now. But Sana shows her that he does, taking off his wristwatch he shows her the scars from the time he tried exactly what Nanaka did. He tells her the story about how he was bullied all throughout middle school to the point where he couldn’t take it anymore and tried to commit suicide. He explains the reason that he came back to this town and reunite with everyone was to try and regain the life he had before, to return to his former self. After trying to commit suicide and failing he often told himself it would have been better if he had just died that day, but now realizes that it was worth it to continue living if only for the fact that he was able to stop Nanaka from making the same mistake he did.
TIME SKIP, LOL
It’s now ten years later and everyone is all grown up, even though Hinako hasn’t made as much progression in the breast area as she had hoped. Apparently over the years Asami fought against the politicians and managed to keep the park that Shuri’s father was planning on tearing down intact. Aoi and Asami run into each other in the park, a open air concert recital is being held that day, Nanaka as the star. Before her performance on stage, Sana goes to see Nanaka with a little present, an engagement ring (?) He returns to his seat and is congratulated by Yuzuki-sensei, who gives him the customary caramel candy reward. Even Shuu and Shuri ninja their way into the performance, sitting hand in hand in the back rows.
Nanaka comes on stage and introduces herself as well as her original composition that she will be playing on the violin, the first tune that she composed that took a long time to complete. While working on it there were many happy times and equally as many sad ones, reunions and separations, her song encompassing all those feelings, entitled: Myself; Yourself.
Thoughts and Final Impressions
Myself; Yourself’s ending leaves me feeling a little weird. It tied up all the loose ends and left practically no unfinished plot lines, but I felt there was something missing, sort of like after all that build up that there should have been something grander in store for us at the end.
Don’t get me wrong, I thought the explanation of Nanaka’s childhood was pretty good, unexpected at the very least. I should have known better than to stick with the simple theory that the uncle did it, after so many twists and turns in Myself; Yourself, I should have known that such a simple and logical conclusion was below them. While I wasn’t really thrilled at such a late character introduction, with respect to Kaoru, it worked fairly well. I didn’t sympathize with him as much as I should have though, actually I found myself thinking he was an idiot for spilling the truth in his dying moments, it was a very selfish move, it may have cleared his conscious but it tore Nanaka’s family apart as a price. But of course I’m pinning the end blame on Nanaka’s dad for flipping out and beating his wife, then burning her to death, what a bastard.
But *sigh* that time skip was stupid. They could have chosen to do an epilogue consisting of Sana and Nanaka fully realizing the deep connection between them and taking the leap from more than just friends to lovers. I could even imagine Sana giving some sort corny “let’s continue to be together from now on” speech and Nanaka totally buying into it, full dere dere mode. To show everyone all grown up and explicitly show Sana about to propose to Nanaka was unnecessary in my eyes, it’s not as if the meaning behind Nanaka’s song taking so long to complete would have been lost if they had done it after her suicide attempt. And the ambiguity between Shuu and Shuri at the end was also really frustrating, did we get an incest end there or not?
Meh, whatever. Overall I still consider Myself; Yourself a great series, what I thought was going to be a stereotypical harem anime turned out to be so much more. Even if the drama did seem a little forced at times there were still those gems here and there like Shuri breaking down in front of Shuu and, of course, Nanaka breaking down in front of Sana. To truly get the full story one would have to go read the visual novel, and I suppose the incentive behind making the anime is just that. But even as a standalone work, Myself; Yourself went far beyond what I ever expected and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a decent romance drama with some twists along the way.
On a final note, what’s up with all the blood censorship in anime lately. It started with School Days where they had to censor the last episode with black blood instead of the usual red, but it continues to be the trend, as seen with Myself; Yourself. I suppose the issue hasn’t died down just yet, and after hearing about the news of kids around the US making Death Note lists, I can see why they’re doing it. But really, anime is no more likely to influence behavior than traditional TV or video games, ie. in my opinion, almost none at all. And it gets ridiculous when you see shows like Bamboo Blade following suit, having blacked out Reimi’s nosebleed in episode 12.
WHERE’S MY INCEST END D=
~ Shirukii ~
22 Responses to “Myself; Yourself 13 [END]”
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I thought the ending was pretty well done in my opinion. And I would say they did a pretty good job; figuring they only had thirteen episodes to show us everything and conclude it.
A 7.5 for the series overall? I would say that’s about right. :D
Wait, what US kid and DN? o___o
Meh, I didn’t really like this series. I am so disturbed by Asami right nao though.
I gave it a 70%, and I think I was being generous. I ended up liking the Sana/Nanaka story a LOT and almost hating everything else. If it was just about that I’d probably rate it as one of the year’s best. But, alas. And I totally agree with you about the epilogue. It was not only rushed, it was incompetently done.
I’m with Mike on this one. In my opinion, it’s like a student that shows so much promise throughout the term only to do shoddily in the final exams because he decided to do a spot of last-minute cramming and wrapped up a crucial essay poorly. It still doesn’t undo all the good it’s done, but it’s just not that great.
Shirukii, don’t you think it would be better if they didn’t spend too much time in earlier episodes to Hianko? This way, they will have more time to do more developing for other main characters.
Overall, it was a good series. Maybe because I didn’t expect it to be good series in the beginning. I was satisfied because it did better than what I expected.
BTW, Shirukii. What are the anime that you plan to blog for the next season?
I can’t believe that with 10 years passed by, but Aoi’s voice is still very hideous and annoying.
@ magmaburning: Nanaka’s ending was pretty good. Time skip was lame though.
@ Kaelyn: I read some stories from the US about kids who have watched Death Note buying replica death notes and pretending to use them, writing names and methods of death, etc.
@ Mika: Yea, they definitely shot themselves in the foot by chewing off more than they can bite, I’m pretty lenient on ratings though, a 7.5 from me isn’t very impressive, but it’s not terrible either.
@ Owen S: Interesting analogy, pretty much sums up how I fare in my courses XD Minus the essay part, no literature/applied english courses in engineering =(
@ kenshin514: Totally spent too much time on Hinako, they could have shortened her down to like…1 episode at max, given how unimportant she was on the grand scale. And I still hate Aoi.
Next season I will continue blogging Clannad, I’ll probably pick up ARIA the ORIGINATION as well, which leaves me one more to pick, not sure what will take that last spot yet.
Well, I’ll be cornhusked. I got my bloody end, *and* you got your happy end (time skip notwithstanding). I would have preferred if they had 18-19 episodes instead of 13 so they could have fleshed out all of their “out from nowhere” developments.
The “buy our game for the full ending” was written all over the ending. It’s another conspiracy in the eroge-turned-anime business!
Oh well, Nanaka is still love.
And the ambiguity between Shuu and Shuri at the end was also really frustrating, did we get an incest end there or not?
All signs point to them doing the deed. Compare the way time-skip Shuu and Shuri were portrayed with the way Koshiro and Nanoka were filmed during the final scene of the final episode. And me all know how busy the latter two got. I guess it’s some kind of Japanese drama trope to hide the faces of those who did something people would consider shameful.
BTW, why would Nanaka’s father bother using gasoline at all? Since the BS&P monkeys thought it was a great fuggin’ idea to replace real blood with petrol, lighting his own self on fire should be more than enough.
This officially proves that mullets do transfer “I’ll beat my wife and kids” Redneck Gene. GG Narnakar’s daddy.
Btw,
Sana in bathtub. Sexy.
“The “buy our game for the full ending” was written all over the ending. It’s another conspiracy in the eroge-turned-anime business!”
The game has a completely different story. The characters and initial premise remain the same, but that’s about it.
“it would be better if they didn’t spend too much time in earlier episodes to Hianko? This way, they will have more time to do more developing for other main characters.”
Remember that they also wasted a lot of time on random stupidity (like Animenger and the water park) and other sorts of fillers.
Those Hinako episodes serve the same purpose. It’s easier to throw together a story by just presenting the main conflict for each character and then drawing the series out before dishing out fast and simple solutions. The writers created many surprising plot twists, but had no real vision on how to develop the story or characters.
Cheer up emo kids! lol :P….
that’s all I could think of while watching this ep
Episode was good….I definitely was @_@ when Nanaka’s (step)dad set himself on fire….that’s one hell of a way to go! :(
no wonder Nanaka had some serious amnesia going on!
Agreed on the rushed ending, and Sana proposing was completely uneccesary……and ya…..I think the siscon ending was implied methinks….
Overall though, the series was entertaining and had some good drama…..and let’s face it….it gave me an excuse to procrastinate on writing essays…..7/10 for me……the crazy cat lady and rushed epilouge cost Myself;Yourself the extra point
After all i have nothing to say about it since i didn’t expected it to be that great or that bad.
And i was expected to see a little bit more of INCEST END and it still unclear whether the both of them married each other or not. Anyway just do a character-change and everything will be fine.
I agree with most of you except for the incest part. I mean, I have no problem with incest but in this case I don’t really want it. I dunno, I just think that Shuu and Shuri were holding haves cuz they love each other, in a brother-sister way, I mean they are twins arn’t they? they’re bond is pretty deep. I just don’t think that incest is working for me in this case. And as for the ending ending,I just wish everyone and the Twin could have met. I was glad they were there, but You know at the end of episodes it kinda freeze frames? I wish the twins would’ve walked up to them, and then it kindof froze and ended. That would’ve been good. Meh, I loved it all the same.
that’s about it. Glad to get that off my chest. Bye!
@ W4: Yea, this anime could have done much better with more time, or perhaps if they had spent their time more wisely. Nonetheless, it wasn’t bad at all, not great, but certainly not a disappointment overall.
@ SHiN_aKuMa: It’s actually quite a common technique, similar to the censoring of fanservice to promote the sales of DVDs, an extreme example would be Kodomo no Jikan.
@ ItAintEazy: lol, but the fire would still have to penetrate his skin to get to the blood, and would require ample oxygen to ignite. The use of an accelerant was wise.
@ Michael: I…did not notice that, nice catch.
@ Skua: Pretty much, they had the overall idea and all the material was there, but it lacked direction. Whether it was done purposefully to promote game sales or unintentionally because of bad scriptwriting, the anime was probably a mere shadow of the original story. But hey, it was better than getting Generic Harem #10928, so I won’t complain too much.
@ Kanon_fan82: Man, batshit insane Kaji had soooo much potential, I can’t believe she fizzled out like that. She needed to think her plan through more carefully. Assuming she had managed to kill Shuri, how was she supposed to get the body out of the hospital?
@ Siva: Meh, while I’m all for siscon, the connection between Shuu and Shuri didn’t seem romantic to me. Shuu may have been a little confused about his feelings towards Shuri, but the opposite was definitely not true. Shuri had nothing but a pure sibling love for Shuu, she respected, trusted and loved him -as a brother-.
@ JM: Errr…haha, well then. Read my comment to Siva lol. But yes, agreed, I don’t think there was incest vibes coming from the two.
@Shirukii: Those are what i believed thats why i want them to show truth instead some random scenes. And my last question is they keep holding hand each other like that for 10 years, are they going to keep it like that for the forever?
0 out of 10.
Horrible ending. Why did they make Hinako end up with that cry baby? Everything pointed towards the Hinako X Giant Yeti ending.
Roy… your comment made me laugh so hard that I literally fell out of my chair.
I have to question parts of Nanaka’s sanity. One does not run upstairs into ones room, when the house is burning down. Exit through the nearest door or window (on the ground floor, not the top floor for heavens sake) is advisable.
@Bleached:
Well, she would have, except oil-saturated bodies of both her parents exploded.
i completely agree with everything you said and felt about the ending. it was pretty unsatisfying after all the tragedy!
and yeah, i wanted to know what the deal was with the twins. your commentary pretty much sums up the way i feel about it.
I got wrapped up in the first twelve episodes. i thought the randomness was due to the “slice of life” feel about it. I was SEVERELY disappointed when i noticed that Sana never even kissed Nanaka. They were so sweet together. They had that careful puppy love going on. The fact that they almost kissed behind the temple all those episodes ago kinda hinted at a real kiss later. disappointment, but i still liked the series.