I’m terribly grieved by the end of this series. I have come to love it ever since it started back in Fall, but I can’t help but notice that the series went on a steady downward trip after the Chizu-Tooru arc.

Truth be told, I thought that the pace of the anime seemed awfully slow and that…

I just finished this as well, along with the third and final series for ‘Nodame Cantabile’, and then of course ‘Cross Game’. Hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to go ahead and use my reply to your post as my own final review here for the series.

I must say that I share your disappointment in the ending, but to a slightly lesser degree. Let’s face it, based on these two characters’ personalities (meaning Sawako and Kazehaya), this is about the best we could’ve hoped for. There was no way that anything more could’ve happened without seriously screwing with the space-time continuum, tearing their character-types apart, and then MAYBE satisfying a few people in the process of destroying the reality we’ve come to know from ‘Kimi ni Todoke’.

When Sawako said her final words, most of the disappointment I had in the last ep disappeared. Her realization (as obvious as it is to everyone else) was something she thought of and accepted all on her own, and that was huge for her. All the same, this anime should have been an extra 5 episodes longer, or even (do I dare hope?) get an OVA to continue a bit and reach that point in the story that all of us were waiting for since episode 1. I’m sure I don’t have to say what that point is ^_^

I’m sure I’ll like the last few episodes a lot more when I get to re-watching the series (straight-through this time) in a couple of months. My objective view says that the ending is exactly what it had to be, and my emotional side feels betrayal that it didn’t give me everything I desired from it… well, usually the emotional bit falls in line with the objective bit the second time through, and then I’ll finally come to terms with this anime being finished.

*sighs*

As for the Production I.G. thing and cutting corners, I don’t believe it. I think that they used the style that they felt best expressed the feel in the manga, and there really didn’t seem to be any more or less sparkles and still-shots in the last few episodes than any of the eps before them. ‘His and Her Circumstances’ and ‘Honey & Clover’ both used a similar artsy approach and I don’t recall the production company for those getting bad-mouthed for it >_>;; I might be wrong though, maybe they did, but in any case I personally was nothing short of impressed with the stylistic backdrops, clean character art, and a few sparkles here and there. ^_^ That’s just me though. This series had me going misty-eyed in almost every episode, especially with Mamiko Noto’s amazing voice in my ears, and that alone is enough for me to give this an 8.5 or 9 out of 10, even if the ending was emotionally lacking for me.