Kimi ga Nozomu Eine (The Eternity You Wish For)
It's been a while since I've watched an anime that put me in an emotional headlock and rammed me headfirst through a couple of walls. Obviously it's not a feeling that one usually wants inflicted when watching some sort of entertainment (masochists excepted), but I haven't had this kind of experience since... well, I'm not sure. What made it even more unexpected is that this came from a genre (Japanese PC dating game) that typically isn't known to embody stories with this type of emotional impact and story depth (at least not when converted to anime form).
Intrigued that it was ranked #2 overall at AnimeNfo, I dl'ed it and I gotta say, I haven't felt this satisfied with an anime ending in quite a long time. Lot of the stuff I've seen recently have all had either rather vague endings, or endings that left some things still unresolved, or just simply non-endings, which gets rather annoying after awhile. But with stories like KgNE, a good ending makes or breaks the series and after all the gritted teeth, fist clenching, and scowls, KgNE does not disappoint. Very much like the endings for the ol' favorites, KOR & MI. It's one of those endings that ultimately leaves you with the "all's well with the world", "balance has been achieved", "boneheadedness has been made up for" kind of feeling. MI's ending I feel was much better dialogue-wise but a good ending nonetheless.
Of course, KgNE isn't for everyone. As opposed to MI & KOR which were romantic comedies, KgNE is strictly a romantic drama, with a teeny bit of comedy to occassionally lighten the otherwise oppressive mood. It's odd, I typically scoff at soap operas and the J and K dramas (won't touch 'em with a 10 foot pole), BUT... you put a similar story into anime form and I have zero problems watching and enjoying it. =)
KgNE utilizes the tried and true plot device of a good number of romantic anythings out there, the love triangle. Everyone enjoys a good love triangle right? Actually that's probably not true, love triangles rarely end well, that's just the inherent nature of a love triangle. And it throws in a couple of more mature situations than you would normally find in a story with characters of this age group.
Detractors (what few there are) call the story cliched, populated with characters that lack common and/or relationship sense. Well... duh... Love is a primary theme here. And when love is involved, all bets are off. Reason and common sense are the first things to fly out the window. Anybody who has had to deal with sob stories from friends should know the deal. Whatever the romantic problem may be, the answer may seem obvious to everyone else, but it's never so obvious (or easy) for those involved.
Anyhow, I enjoyed it. I guess mainly because the one character whom I sympathized the most for, whom I felt gave up, and suffered the most throughout, had a fitting ending. It eased the heart. And you can't not like a story that gives you that type of a feeling. =)
Now that I think about it more, the ending of KgNE is quite similar to KOR, which isn't that surprising I suppose since there are only a few ways that a love triangle can resolve. Very bittersweet.
Comments (2)
where did you d/l those anime?? Kimi ga Nozomu Eine AND Haibane Renmei???
Posted by lvl4 | May 9, 2006 12:05 AM
Posted on May 9, 2006 00:05
Mm, well Haibane Renmei's available on DVD already so I rented those through Netflix. KgNE used to be available through anime BitTorrent sites but I believe it's also been picked up for US distribution so those fansubs have probably been removed from general distribution and you'll have to wait for the DVD releases.
Posted by Ben | May 9, 2006 12:13 AM
Posted on May 9, 2006 00:13