The End of Asatte no Houkou - spoilers
Dave Baranyi
and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it ended. I had liked the overall
look and feel of the series, and found the magical premise to be an
interesting plot driver, but I was always bothered by the way that the
writers toyed with the audience by making Karada at the start look and act
so much younger than a normal 12 year old. Sure, Karada's appearance before
and after the wish drove the actions of the characters, but at the same time
I still got the feeling that the writers were playing the "loli card" in
order to grab more attention for the show, and I didn't really feel that the
series required that.
Okay, now for some spoiler space so that I can summarize the resolution.
BTW - apparently the manga is still going on, so the resolution of the anime
is not necessarily how the manga will finish.
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To a good extent, "Asatte" could be turned into a stage play fairly easily,
and the ending was structured as such, with all of the main characters
coming together at the beach resort where Karada found work. In episode 11
Karada, as "Satou-san", finally admitted to Tetsu who she really was, which
was something that Tetsu had been subconsciously suspecting. But Tetsu
refused to believe Karada, leaving both of them depressed.
However, two things helped to drive to a resolution. First, Kotomi, the
anime-only character who functions as a female Puck in the story, got Tetsu
to tell her about Karada's confession, then had the story confirmed by
Karada. Then Karada called Shouko from a payphone again, and this time let
it slip that she was at the beach where they had all gone early on in the
series. Shouko then realized where Karada was, and arranged with Hiro to go
there to find Shouko.
Thus everyone met at the beach town, with everyone confessing and
apologizing to each other - Tetsu telling Karada that he liked her, Shouko
admitting that she had wished to become a kid and Hiro finally telling
Karada that they weren't relatives. After everyone got all of this and more
off of their consciences, they all went back home.
But at the very end, Kotomi left Shouko with another wishing stone, and in
the epilogue the audience saw partial glimpses of an adult figure like the
original Shouko, a childish figure like the original Karada, and finally, a
photo of the Hiro, with his hair cut, standing besides an adult Shouko and a
young Karada.
Dave Baranyi