Episode 12 – “One Wish”

Excuse me while I break down into tears. Okay well, maybe this episode wasn’t that debilitating, but hot damn did it sock me in my weakest of regions. I’m also just trying to fill up the top of the post so that spoilers don’t pop up in the news feed of WordPress. Okay, that’s out of the way. This episode, we find our hero/heroine pair back in the real world, having regained consciousness right after the bus accident.

Much to my dismay, we also got to relive the events leading up to the actual crash. This meant watching all of the main characters have fun, some of which we haven’t seen in forever, right before their supposed death. Then the unspeakable happens, as the bus is hurdled off of a cliff and Riki and Rin are the only survivors thanks to Masato and Kengo.

But wait! Is there be hope that they could be still alive? Maybe they all survived the crash but were killed in the explosion caused by the leaking gas. Maybe the reason Kyousuke created the dream world was to give Riki and Rin the courage and strength to go back into the bus and save everyone. The strength to go against Kyousuke’s orders and the courage to reunite with his friends. Maybe this was the purpose all along; the secret to the world. I can just imagine a choice appearing before Riki in the game: prompting him to choose between moving forward with Rin or going back to the bus, representing the complete culmination of the entire game.

What really made this episode for me was to finally see some development with Rin. Prior to this point, she was kind of just following Riki’s orders and wasn’t even sure about what was going on. Then, we got to see her remember each of her friends and what they taught her during their time in the other world. After all, this was all for her, and I’m glad that they reminded us just how far she had come from being a timid little girl whose heart gradually opened with each new friend she made.

For the first time, I really have to hand it to J.C. Staff because the use of white during the memory scenes with all of the girls was really well done and quite beautiful, if not incredibly sad. These girls, quite literally, filled Rin’s life with color and everything comes full circle back to Komari and the wish they made together. Simply put, Komari’s wish is for Rin to smile and to make it happen Rin vows to bring everyone’s smiling faces back. We’re in the final stretch, and I absolutely cannot wait for the finale. I just thought of something horrifying. What if the happy ending involves Riki and Rin dying along with the rest of the class and having them reunite in the afterworld? That would be awfully sad, but I wouldn’t surprised now.

“I will make one wish for you…for you to be able to smile.” ~ Komari Kamikita

B.W.