I didn’t post episode 89 because I didn’t have any real comments on the show because…well I’ve already basically said it, haven’t I? Lulu didn’t fit. And things turned out exactly the way I predicted they would when she first popped up.

A quote from the episode 53 post:

Oh, and anime-original villain girl showed up at the end and ultimately, she will have no impact on anything either.

Exactly right. Somewhere along the way I know I said that Lulu was probably just going to end up going back to France. After they started Ikuto’s arc while Lulu’s shit was still going on (something that still often strikes me as stupid, even if it made us less bored along the way)

I mean, I’m sure this was a good episode. It had all of the makings of one. I just can’t see it as enjoyable. It was a decent way to wrap up Lulu’s arc. The only problem is one that I’ve been hung up on forever. Lulu really serves no purpose to further the story in any way.

The episode didn’t even quite feel like one of those big arc-ending fights from Shugo Chara! either. Something was missing and it just really solidified Lulu as being a character that doesn’t fit in this series. Now matter how she was mishandled or whatever, the fact is that it all happened and Lulu doesn’t fit. I’m glad she’s gone. Though of course there’s problems with that as well.

Basically, this episode was impossible to enjoy once I got through it (and before I watched it) because of that filler syndrome. You realize that the stuff you’ve been watching really has no purpose at all and it bothers you. Especially when you watched it all for…well constant complaints about a character you just can’t really find the love for. Then you add in that every time that character interacted with a real character, things would often go off-track.

Now, while I watched the episode (and many others) there was small things to make up for the stupidity because they were enjoyable, but I don’t know. I guess I’m too much in my story-writing mode lately for me to see any good in fillers and bad characters.

Yes, they ended Lulu’s arc as nicely as it would be possible to, but that doesn’t make it “fit” any better. And that flaw destroys the whole thing.

To be honest, I don’t really want to talk about the episode much more. The small specific things just don’t seem to really matter this time around. Like how Amu’s speech about how she’s “the same” as Lulu with not knowing what her dreams are was good. Yes, it was. But it just didn’t seem to matter. Unlike in other arcs, Amu didn’t learn anything for herself. She already knew that. Even the anime-original ending to the first season had more importance than this I think.

It was all focused on Lulu who basically learned exactly what everyone watching the show has been saying all along. God knows how many times I’ve said it. Lulu is being selfish, she should see what her mother really wants. Etc.

It was a lot like Yua’s final resolution…I’m thinking of this being like a movie too where they have to focus on another character because it can’t really have an impact on the real characters in the long term.

Also, a Shugo Chara ending/befriending fight without any epic transformations or attacks from Amu just feels…wrong. It’s like it’s breaking a magical girl rule. Amu just did all of her basic stuff as Amulet Heart. Whoop-de-doo.

So to sum it up: It was a fine resolution. But a fine resolution to something that didn’t mean anything…well, it doesn’t mean anything.

Now here’s the episode’s Rimahiko:

Well, that’s one thing you can just keep coming Satelight. Though they don’t even do Rimahiko right. More stubborn jealousy and suspicion from my Rima-tan and more sneaky trap teasing and such from Nagi!

Hmm…as much as I’d like to talk about the episode that seems to be plot-relevant (even if it’s anime-original) there’s something itching at me. There’s a lot to be suspicious about with this one. Opening, ending, preview…you add what you see in all of them to the fact that we still have no confirmed episode count for Shugo Chara!! Doki and…well. You realize that we have no confirmed episode count for Doki.

Aside from that annoyance though…the episode was decent. Lots of those little small moments from other characters (Yukari x Nikaidou raburabu was such a bonus~). Just feels surreal watching most of it after reading chapter 42. Until one part at the end. That was a nice touch that had my suspicions about Satelight getting little spoilers from Peach-Pit for the first time in a while. When Tadase specifically thought about Ikuto and Amu communicating without words

Of course, having Tadamu fluff is completely unnatural, but not unexpected. This is what happens when you put fillers in a place where they’ll be awkward. *sigh* I told Satelight to stick with just Lulu for 26 episodes and then move onto Ikuto’s arc. It would have been boring, but there still would have been less time on her and then we wouldn’t have had things mixed up. Then there’d only need to maybe be a small pause in between Ikuto leaving Amu’s house and turning into Death Rebel and you know…everything else.

As for “Satelight running out of time” I think that’s just people panicking. -_-; Like I said, we don’t have a confirmed episode count. I severely doubt that Satelight would just run around with fillers when they have all that proper material unless they were saving it for…something. Honestly, an ongoing series is really difficult to adapt and fanbrats jump to conclusions far too easily. Like Satelight being Tadamu or Amuto fans and all the most ridiculous stuff you’ll ever hear. They’re professionals. Which is why I pick at them when they do rotten story-telling. But they know what they’re doing better than a bunch of impatient fangirls. I can tell you that much.

Really, it’s the fans reactions to everything that just tired me out and made me say that I can’t blog Shugo Chara regularly anymore. Even the nice ones. You just have so much invested in it it’s scary.

Ahem. But anyway~ The preview was really the thing that made me go, “I bet there’s more than 51 episodes this season.” It’s either that or Satelight really has screwed up. (Or a movie, which has become quite a big possibility since the second season started and production values didn’t go down all that much. Just the noticable change from 6 months of preparationg to 3 months.)

So, like I was talking about, the preview. Now I was always expecting Rhythm to pop out of his egg sooner than he did in the manga. Then Temari can pop out of her egg later on in the tower (since she’s neither in the new opening or the preview). Or they can just spoil the excitement of the moment and fill it up with Rimahiko-ness. That’s fine too.

But! Now that we’re in what should be the last season of airing, there should have only been a few episodes until Rhythm popped out of his egg. Sure enough after Rhythm there’s a couple of fillers or something.

Really, when I heard Ikuto was appearing again, I was feeling pretty confident that the next episode would be the episode where Tadase tells Amu about the past. There are about 10 chapters now that need to be covered which could translate into 10 episodes fairly easily. When you add in all the action and stuff.

Also, we’ve hit the 3 month deadline. If I’m right, the most recent chapter (or the one before it) should be the last thing that could be adapted. Especially if Peach-Pit is giving Satelight hints (oh this episode was way too much deja vu of a chapter that just came out).

However…no one ever said how many episodes Doki would be. It said another “year” when it was announced, but the first season went from 13 to 26 to 51 episodes pretty quickly (the fact that each of these was a stopping point is noticable when you watch the cheesy “conclusions” of each one). I’m not saying one year will turn into two, but I wouldn’t put it past them to make Doki longer than the original. It just seems stupid with the way they had Ikuto’s arc start up early. It would have been a difficult wait, but it really should have started back in Spring, because now we have nothing but the events from Ikuto’s arc as plot-related (Easter-related) events.

…There better be at least one episode with “taiyaki kid” in there (shhh, names are spoilers).

Oh and of course before we leave off, the episode’s “big moment”

Though I find the bigger moment being how Tadase thought about it later on before taking Amu’s hand. Seriously, seriously so remenscient of the latest chapter and I really need people to stop complaining about the episode because of this and someone special I’ll get to in a minute.

I can deal with a couple I don’t like if Satelight is making things progress realistically. Amu not being able to shout out her feelings but not having a good reason not to was great. Then Tadase thinking about this (noticing before Amu like in the manga) was even more great. There were a couple of bumpy spots and the “never doing anything blushy-blushy” shit is as annoying as ever. I despise any development that happens because of outside help, so if I was a Tadamu fan, I’d be trying to slap Yaya straight off the screen. Perhaps it’s just another one of the reasons why I have unusually strong feelings against Tadamu as a pairing overall.

And now the one who caused the episode’s big moment! Yoru! And he was the best chara ever this episode. I just squee’d up a storm when he said that he did love Ikuto and when he shouted for Ikuto later in the episode he made me tear up a bit. I won’t say that fangirls don’t have the right to be mad, but it’s cruel for them to ignore Yoru being wonderful this episode when they rant about this episode. CRUEL! (Suu’s Eru impressions was also win btw, though it backfired making me roll around wishing Eru was there for the rest of the episode)

lawl. The dramatic ending scene that makes fangirls panic makes Fuyu go “Fuck yeah. OTP.”

YEAH!!! VICTORY FOR AMUTO!!!

I’m tired of being cautious guys. Sensibility popped in when Amu hugged Ikuto and in the back of my shipper mind all I can say is, “There’s at least no way that Amu will end up with anyone else after this point. An open end isn’t out of the question, but come on!!”

Ikuto saying that he can’t see Amu anymore (there are many variations, but “aenai” is in there and that really should only have one meaning), actually proves that we have our end couple. It perfectly leads into the only way the age difference can be solved. As much as people declare that there’s nothing wrong with an age difference, which is true, it doesn’t change the fact that Amu is 12. She’s really too young to be getting seriously involved with anyone.

Of course, Ikuto’s a good boy so he won’t be taking advantage of our young little Amu-chan. But if he’s around Amu…then that’s just awkward, isn’t it? Amu already wants to be “by Ikuto’s side” and we all know Ikuto likes Amu, but now that neither of them have any reason to try and forget about their feelings…what happens? They’re both at two different points in their life and Amu can’t go growing up too fast to catch up with Ikuto.

I always figured that 16 is the age where almost anything can become okay if there’s enough love (yes, even in the real world). It’s just that in the real world, it doesn’t work because there’s bad people who will take advantage of someone. In fiction anything is possible, so that’s why plenty of girls can sit back and say that as long as the older person is willing to “wait” it’s okay. Because it’s fiction, they can really mean it.

And what am I about to say about a maturity gap…?

But there’s still the maturity gap, even if Amu and Ikuto are on a similar level, they’re still not there. So I figure Ikuto can come back when Amu’s 16 and I’ll be a perfectly happy girl. Amu can’t turn older than 16 though. There’s a good fan-based idea of what Amu would be like when she’s 20+ which I approve of, but I’d like for that to stay fan-based.

Also psh to anyone who thinks Amu’s decision is sudden. She’s been moving away from Tadase and toward Ikuto since chapter one where…she literally did that. Sure, she got closer to Tadase,  but it really wasn’t much of a competition if you watched closely. Tadase started something (like taking Amu out for shopping) and then Ikuto came along and topped it (Ice cream licking~). Peach-Pit tricked people into thinking the playing field was level by having Amu be so tsuntsun around Ikuto. But as fans of tsundere know, the more tsuntsun you are…well it means the opposite of what you say.

Okay…now Tadase is forgiven by becoming a completely mature boy. Cute.

Plus, like Xiao has said probably a dozen times (I may have mentioned it a couple of times as well). Amu is a kid who wouldn’t understand what a real feeling like love (where you want to be by someone’s side and hold them) would mean. But a dokidoki crush on a boy who is “your type” is completely obvious. There’s nothing to think about, he’s cute, so you like him.

I really think a time skip is the only way that we get a real end couple. Amu and Ikuto both need to grow up (though I hope they’ll never grow up too much because they’re both so much fun right now) and any chances of Tadamu pretty much ended this chapter. With Amu saying her heart kind of hurt and it felt like she wouldn’t see Tadase again (or whatever it was exactly) and Tadase stepping aside in his mature, but still stubborn (and cute) way. So I think it’s either a time skip or an open end that leans toward Amuto.

Fuck yeah. Hand-holding.

Now then, to wrap this up…another psh to people who complain because it’s cliche. I think more often than not, people who complain about a “cliche” ending are young and fail to realize that the same set-up for an ending can have different outcomes. Wishing that Ikuto doesn’t come back just because it would be different…well it seems silly to me. Are you really reading Shugo Chara for its story? Not the characters? If so, you were always going to be disappointed. Shoujo doesn’t generally run on good stories. It’s emotion-based meaning it’s mostly character and relationship based as well.

These “cliche” shouters also generally use only CardCaptor Sakura as a comparison. Which is very famous, but one series alone does not create a cliche. Though of course, the leaving and meeting again thing is a bit of a cliche. But only because people copy that CCS way! Amu and Ikuto are two very different characters. If Peach-Pit decided to go the “leaving then a reunion years later” route, it would happen differently. I can’t imagine Amu chasing after a bus or something like that. Neither can I imagine her jumping into Ikuto’s arms so easily (it took seeing his whole past for it to happen). What I imagine is Amu getting a little deredere if she says goodbye to Ikuto, then when she sees him, being obviously happy but trying to cover it up with tsuntsun (but she can’t quite manage it because she’d be too happy to see him).

Just because something generally resembles a bad fanfiction, doesn’t mean it’ll be like a bad fanfiction. One thing that would automatically set the manga ending apart if it does go that route is that Peach-Pit is good at dialogue. Scenes they write for Amu and Ikuto interacting feel natural. They’re the creators after all. So I have faith in an ending that is true to the characters and I believe that’s a good ending. Plus bad fanfiction writers miss all the “small stuff” before now you’d only find a handful of writers who would come up with Ikuto catching Amu when she’s falling off of the merry-go-round (if that) now it’ll become common on ff.net. -_-

Now, for people saying Amuto fans can’t celebrate total victory yet because Peach-Pit is Peach-Pit and they haven’t done shoujo before…well yeah. But they’ve done romance before. I never read Dears, but I believe it was pretty obvious where the romance in that was going. The main girl that the story revolved around was the end girl, right? Well, Ikuto’s story was the last and biggest of the main characters, so there you have it. They’re still following the general rules.

Oh yeah also: And obvious (and immature) haha~ to the fans in denial who went, “friends hug their friends all the time” and shit back in chapter 39. Not saying that it’s not true, but if a girl’s never hugged anyone before and then she reaches out and hugs one of the two boys she’s supposed to end up with…yeah. I mean you can say that it doesn’t mean “for sure” but don’t go in the totally opposite direction. You just look stupid and you’re only going to make your bitchfit worse when things turn out in the obvious way.

Oh yeah and Rimahiko got its first hints of canon romance this chapter with Yaya saying that they had that mood going on. I’m quite happy with that. Even though Rimahiko honestly gets more of it’s development in the anime (except when they haven’t done it right ). Just a nice reminder about how an anime can be good for something.

Also, it’s nice seeing Ikuto be so carefree again. It’s been way too long. I miss the spacey, odd Ikuto that we got to see more earlier on (like Ikuto sleeping in a hole of all places) because we didn’t know about his problems. His way of asking Amu to the amusement park was just classic.

Now ends this long ramble and random ramble on the latest chapter. Let’s end it with a super tsuntsun Amu picture.

Oh Amu~ Even if you grow up I hope you still keep your stubborn tsuntsun side for when Ikuto’s being especially embarrassing.