The outcome of the series should not be a surprise to anyone. Yamato was bound to end up with Suzuka since episode 1. It just goes to show perseverance pays off. I thought that Suzuka going to Kazuki’s grave with Yamato to tell Kazuki she can’t be with him was a nice scene. That scene made me like the last episode. I found it kind of unfortunate the art wasn’t all that great considering this was the final episode. I would have thought they would mention something about Yamato’s determination to become first after the fact. Anyways, I thought this episode was a suitable ending to the series because afterall this really is just a series about Yamato and Suzuka’s relationship.

Multiple factors made “Suzuka” a good series. For starters, the story was fun to watch. The main characters were flawed, which added a nice dose of realism to the whole story. They also had very good BGM’s for the important scenes. Not all of them were good of course, but I really liked some of the piano solos. I’ve mentioned it many times and I’ll mention it again. The biggest drawback of this series is its highly inconsistent art. I don’t mind the character designs themselves, but when they cut corners and make the characters look completely weird it takes away from the series. This series is a great alternative to those gun-slingin’, giant-breasted schoolgirls piloting robots titles. In other words, if you want something other than the stereotypical anime series and want to just watch a simple love story then “Suzuka” may the be series for you.

I liked how they showed Suzuka’s past before, during, and after Kazuki’s funeral. That scene along with her feelings about the whole situation rationalizes her actions in my opinion. I thought that the scene between Honoka and Suzuka would have helped Suzuka view things differently, but at the moment it seems to have had no effect. Yamato manages to find Suzuka towards the end of the episode. Not surprisingly we’re left with what seems to be even more trouble than before.

Things just didn’t go the way I expected it to in this episode. Not only did Yamato lose to Arima, he lost to the other runners as well. He also ends up confessing to the Suzuka even though he’s still far from his goal. The confession takes its toll on Suzuka and we see her in tears at the end of the episode. With only two episodes left I guess we won’t see him get any closer to his goal of becoming number one. It will probably take Suzuka two episodes to sort out her feelings. I’m pretty certain that the last two episodes will be good.

With Suzuka not able to be honest with her feelings she ends up saying negative comments to Yamato until late in the episode. Towards the end we get a scene where Yamato openly complains about the things Suzuka has been saying. As he leaves we see Suzuka grab a hold of his shirt from behind. I thought that scene was pretty nicely done. Yamato has been training hard to change the way he runs. Will two weeks be enough for him to beat his rival? We probably won’t find out until next week or possibly the week after that.

It took 22 episodes, but Yamato finally has his head on straight. Yamato is now determined to become #1 in Japan. With only 4 episodes left, I’m not sure how much progress we’ll end up seeing. He believes he is losing to Kazuki in every way so he comes up with the idea of becoming #1. With Suzuka’s personality, it’s no surprise she doesn’t show Yamato any signs of her feelings for him. I think a probable scenario is Suzuka ending up with Yamato in episode 26 with her supporting Yamato’s goal to reach #1 where the series will end.

I was thinking Miki may have made a move this episode. At first I thought most of the episode would involve mainly Miki and Yamato. Since she didn’t do anything about she supposedly feels about Yamato it probably won’t come up again. At least I don’t think it should at this point in the series. If they do add it into a future episode, the most it will come to is Miki confessing to Yamato and Yamato rejecting her after he tells her how he feels about Suzuka. Now that Yamato realizes he still likes Suzuka, all that’s left is for Yamato to confess to her once again.

So after thinking it over, apparently Honoka plans on confessing to Yamato again. It also seems that Miki may try something now. We have a couple of episodes to go so things should get interesting. Of course that means we have that many more opportunities to see Yamato screw things up. I think it’s kind of weird to have Miki try anything at this point in the story. We don’t really know anything about her. Based on how things played out towards the end of the episode it does look like Miki may pursue Yamato.

Wow. I’m speechless. I didn’t think Yamato could make himself a bigger idiot than he already is. It’s a good thing that Honoka ended the relationship. She totally deserves better than someone like Yamato who is completely clueless. Besides seeing Yamato make a fool of himself again, my only other complaint with this episode was the art. This was supposed to have some intense scenes yet the art ruined them. Multiple scenes looked extremely sloppy. It’s unfortunate the animation quality is so low for this series.

It sure didn’t take long for Yamato to screw up his short-lived relationship with Honoka. I wouldn’t say it’s 100% his fault per se since he isn’t pretending to act more happily around Suzuka. He just can’t confront his feelings for Suzuka yet and tries to supress it by reminding himself that he is going out with Honoka. Although we all know doing anything half-assed won’t get you anywhere. His relationship with Honoka was doomed since the beginning even without Suzuka in the picture. It looks like the next episode will be the official break-up episode.

We get to meet one of Honoka’s friends from middle school in this episode. As it turns out she’s a celebrity. I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of her, if at all, in the rest of the series. It was nice to see her point out the problem with the way Yamato is doing things. We also see Suzuka having a bit of trouble not showing any interestin Yamato. Things are going to have to unwind between Honoka and Yamato soon.