^ I thought Yuri's emotion was pretty forced too. It kind of came out of nowhere, which I suppose was the point, but it felt too unnatural. :/ Also did I miss something? Where did her obsession with becoming Kanade's friend come from?
And what was with that subplot with the person turning themselves into an NPC because the person they loved moved on or something? Did I miss some closure there too? 'Cause I didn't understand the point in bringing that up if they weren't gonna find that person and set him free or something in the last ep. :(
Also the entire series confuses me. What was the point? Each episode was good on its own, and I liked when they started the subplot of trying to get every member to move on, but they stopped it abruptly with the random shadow stuff. :( If they'd stretched it into a 26-episode anime, maybe they could've fleshed out episodes for each person finding closure, which would've been awesome. So many characters were left very flat because they had no real chances to shine. (TK is the prime example, imo. What was his story? D: He always amused me and I wanted him to be my favourite character but he had no character besides randomly being weird and spouting English lyrics.) I was just so, so disappointed that in the last episode, they pretty much just said "Oh yeah, everyone left already." But how!? If it was so easy for them to up and accept their deaths, how come it took a whole episode for Yui to accept hers and accomplish all her dreams? How did they do it with Shadows everywhere? How did whats-his-face come back from being an NPC? Just. fffffff.
But back to what I was saying... I really fail to see the plot that strings everything together. I thought it was gonna be their fight against Tenshi but that plot ended halfway through when Kanade became "one of them" to some extent. Then I figured it might be about Otonashi's lost memory but, again, it resurfaced and kind of stopped being important. Naoi lasted one whole episode as a good antagonist (and I was v. disappointed with how suddenly he came around and was accepted by the group), so he wasn't much of a plot starter. Tenshi clones lasted... two episodes and then disappeared again? As mentioned, the "find everyone their peace" plot lasted an episode or two. Shadows, one episode. (Or was that two?) And then the last episode was kind of... idk, tying up loose ends. Not really plot.
If it were just a slice of life sort of anime, I'd be fine with the one or two episode long plot arcs but this series just had so much potential to be so much more and it just... didn't. Guys, at the risk of being lynched, I am very disappointed. :/ I watched this all the way through and the more I think about the anime, the more I start to dislike it. *sigh*
