I absolutely LOVE the way she didn't show all of Yuu's left hand until page 15 when she waves to Touko and then you see the Promise ring, followed immediately by the picture of Touko with her ring on the next page.
All in all I thought this was a well done final episode. It showed enough of the future of the main couple to give us a HEA in progress feeling, while giving updates on the side plots as well with the obvious expansion of Echo; the open discussion about Riko between the manager and Touko about her not being able to go to the acting troupe as much as she used to; Sayaka's new girlfriend announcement, which I presume is something that we'll read about in the light novels about her; Rei living with Hiro and advocating for Yuu to move in with Touko (without telling mom that they are more than roommates), Koyomi's first novel being published; Yuu being out to at least a portion of her friends, since Natsuki teases her about wanting to finally meet her girlfriend, though evidently Doujima is still in the dark; Akira and Doujima appear to be dating at this point, which was expected; and Maki is still Maki, though possibly a slightly more mature version of himself... still the observer, just not quite so meddlesome.
It would have been nice to have the story cover the two young women moving in together and confronting their parents together as a couple. It seems that Yuu is not out to her parents yet, but, really, unless Yuu puts her ring on after leaving the house or Touko doesn't wear her ring when she goes to Yuu's family's house or store, it's almost certain that her mother will have seen the two of them together wearing the promise rings, or "couple rings" and it's clear that Yuu spends the night at Touko's apartment on a fairly regular basis. So unless her mother is completely naive, she should have figured out by now that there is something going on between the two of them, especially since her daughter has never mentioned any boys she was interested in throughout high school and college...
And on that note, it's clear that Yuu is getting close to being done with college, possibly quicker than Touko because of Touko concentrating more on acting than classes, since she's going to job fairs. (I liked the little dig that Sayaka got in on Touko about whether she was keeping up with her studies.) Job fairs are usually something you do starting around your junior year. Not something Touko needs to do, of course, since it sounds like she's already getting professional jobs, at least occasionally, in addition to college club performances and such.
It really wrapped things up well, with that one exception of not dealing with their relationship being open with their parents... But you can't have everything... Maybe that's in the bonus chapter in the volume?
That color page at the very end really got me
Yeah! It was super-effective!
EDIT: I'm trying to decide now if this is my favorite yuri manga of all time, or if "Girl Friends" is still in that spot... ("Whispered Words" was also very close...)... I'm thinking this one might just have bumped the rest down a notch...
last edited at Oct 2, 2019 12:08PM