the choco-banana is the key point

So Midori no Hibi ends. It started out in most senses as a run-of-the-mill shounen harem romantic comedy. It features the standard loser male lead, the gathering of a harem, and countless “misunderstandings” where he gets to cop a feel or gets a nice view. There’s even the standard stereotypical supporting cast harem girls: the Shinobu (the underaged chix0r), the Motoko (the chix0r who hates guys until she meets Mr. Loser), and the Suu (the gaijin, at least the manga had it for Midori). Of course, the twist is that Midori somehow becomes Seiji’s right hand. Not only is she his right hand, she’s a different person– open and loud– than the normal Midori. I have to admit that when I first started watching Midori, I thought it would just become another typical harem comedy with some weird gimmick like Maburaho at best or some fetish anime like Onegai Teacher at worst. In the end, the moments between Midori and Seiji set it apart from the standard harem fare.

The ending is one of the better ones that I’ve seen. Whereas the manga seems to go on forever, to the point of repetition, the anime ends with some resolution. It was definitely a weird, yet enjoyable series. First, Midori realizes that she can’t go on being Seiji’s hand so she returns to her own body. She picks an interesting time to do so since Ayase finally gathers up her courage to confess to Seiji. Rest of the post contains spoilers; click on more to continue.

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Spoiler-rific

Seiji, with some help from Ayase and his sister, realizes that he does have feelings for Midori and turns Ayase down. Then he turns into a complete wimp as he cannot gather up the courage to go and meet Midori. However, Midori herself gathers up her courage and finds Seiji, whom she confesses to. The two then happily go about their lives and have some choco-banana ice cream.

I don’t expect anything but happy endings from romantic comedies, and I can’t imagine an ending much happier than this one. Seiji finally found a (many) girl who didn’t reject him, and Midori finally is able to express her feelings. It was good to see the various supporting characters pull together in their own ways to help Seiji reunite with Midori and somehow make the previous dozen episodes not seem like complete filler. It was good to see that her being his hand had some positive influence on them and eventually brought the real Midori and Seiji together.

4 Responses to “the choco-banana is the key point”

  1. Uhh.. you’re forgetting one small detail… (SPOILERS!!)

    MIDORI DOESN’T REMEMBER A THING! Which, altough it was designed to be just dramatic irony, really makes the whole thing unravel very painfully. I for one hope there’s a sequel where she remembers, but that to me, although it may not have been AS important to the plot, basically WAS the plot. Sure, she got there on her own, with no knowledge of how the time they spent together, but… but… GAH!
    Now I need to go find this manga.. ;p

  2. waaaaaaa….. thats it?!!

  3. WAAAAAAH! Why did he reject Ayase!? Ayase was more interesting and isn’t a creepy girl! I mean at the beginning I hated Ayase and though Midori was good; but as it went on Ayase became better. So why did he reject her for a creepy stalker? I have no clue. Stupid Japanese people who made this!

  4. I just love it when old posts get revived by some comments.

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