 This volume of Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~ brings
the series to a close, and a particularly disappointing one at
that. While the first season showed some flashes of brilliance in
amongst all the harem comedy, those best parts were gutted from the
format, leaving a fairly shallow show behind. Was there anything
left in ~Enishi~ to make it worth watching?
9 - White
Kaoru's university professor gives him a gift of two tickets for a
hotel stay - as a thank-you for all the help he's given. After a stern
warning from Miyabi, he decides to take Aoi on a date and to see how
things develop (the rest of the gang are away form the house on various
trips, so no-one will know) - it's the first chance they've had to
spend some real quality time together in a long while. When night-time
comes and they end up in the hotel together, it turns out to be a bit
awkward for both of them...
10 - Bathrobe
Onsen! Scanitily-clad women! Not much else in the way of story! You
know the drill - 1 hot-spring resort, 1 guy, many women, and many ways
for embarassing things to happen - especially when some mischevious
kids change the sign on Kaoru's private bath from 'occupied' to
'vacant'. Meanwhile, Tina has a heart-to heart chat with Aoi-chan...
 
11 - Moonlight
Mayu's overheard a 'phone conversation, where Tina has said she's going
back to the US - but when she confronts Tina about it, she's adamant
the 'phonecall was just about a homecoming trip. Is Tina hiding
something? Meanwhile, she's just bought herself a new digital camera
& is looking for an excuse to make use of it - by roping the rest
of the house into cosplaying for her...
 
12 - Bonds
It's very quiet around the house now that Tina's away - and no-one's
sure if or when she'll be back, they just know it's not the same
without her. Meanwhile, Tina's trying to settle back into her home in
America, but she's finding it's just not for her...
 
It's really not good for someone to be as obsessed about something
as Aoi is about Kaoru. That said, the Aoi / Kaoru relationship
was the one area where the first season of AYA really shone - check the
first and last volumes of the DVD release for proof. There were
many people who watched just those two discs, and were happy with what
they got, as the rest of the series was essentially harem 'filler' -
and fairly average at that.
For ~Enishi~, the producers seemed to take the biggest
criticism of the first season to heart - it was too schizophrenic, too
unsure of what it wanted to be, and they needed to decide between
heartfelt romance or harem comedy. AYA's real strength was
heartfelt romance, so for the second series they decided to stick to...
harem comedy.
D'oh!
For that one reason alone, ~Enishi~ has been something
of a disappointment - you know all the way through what these
characters can produce, but you're stuck with 10 episodes of
slapstick. In episode 11, there's finally an attempt to capture
some of the old emotion and drama, but by using Tina as the vehicle
(and ruining the impact of her departure by having her return the very
next episode), the really lose the attempt to grab your heartstrings
before they've even started.
So. Fans of the fringe characters or of the harem aspect of
the show will have plenty here to keep them going - but they always
seemed to be in the minority compared to those that wanted more of Aoi
& Kaoru. Fans of that relationship sadly aren't going to find
much here, and will instead have to make do with thinking over what
could have been if ~Enishi~ had had a different
focus. There are rumours of a third season - if they come back to
the real meat of the story then I'm all for it, but if it's going to be
anything like this season, then I'd rather they didn't bother...
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