There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless...

Episode 12

That certainly wasn't the note I was expecting this entire season to end on. Still, this show has been full of surprises. I knew that this was going to be the natural conclusion to Ajisai's character arc. The show isn't always subtle, and Mai literally explains the entire arc that she needs to go through to her face when the two of them are at the aquarium halfway through the episode, but just because a show isn't subtle doesn't mean that it's bad. I was very emotionally invested in Ajisai's character arc because I personally relate to it, and I feel like it is the least messy character arc that anyone has had in the show so far. It's also an arc that relates to Renako the most because it mirrors her. Ajisai is so afraid of overstepping and being seen as a bad girl that she is willing to compromise herself constantly to appease other people. She is not a passive character by nature because she wants to be more selfish and outgoing, but she is a passive character by choice, which is the opposite of Renako's character, who is very passive by nature, but needed to learn to step up.

The show isn't super direct with those parallels, but they're there despite Renako being barely in this final episode, which was a bold choice. This episode was primarily from the perspective of Ajisai, and that was actually pretty welcomed. In fact, it's something that I wish the show did more of. I do feel like a lot of character growth was cut out of this adaptation, even if I'm not overly familiar with the source material. It's nice seeing how Ajisai looks at everybody, how she connects with other people, and specifically how she is holding herself back. At the end of the day, she was rewarded for finally stepping up and being selfish, which feels like the best conclusion to her arc. I don't know how I feel about that being the literal final note of the show, but that's a different conversation entirely, and it looks like this new dynamic might be what the recently announced movie will cover, so we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

When it comes to Mai in this episode, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it's nice to see Mai actually act like a genuine friend. I barely saw her interact with any of the other girls throughout the show, outside of Satsuki, and I will die on the hill that she was a bad friend to Satsuki. If anything, seeing her very patient, insightful, and understanding of Ajisai's situation makes me hate her relationship with Satsuki even more because at least that conflict could've been avoided if they had a genuine heart-to-heart like what went on here. Again, Mai is literally explaining what the point of the show is to the audience while they're at the aquarium by flatly defining some of the differences between a relationship and a friendship. It really feels like this is a Mai who had gone through a character arc I did not get a chance to see, which is weird because I wish I could've seen a lot more of this version of the character throughout the show.

I am a little mixed on how Mai handled the situation, though. She did declare to Ajisai that she is in love with Renako, but she also made the relationship sound very vague. I would argue Mai intentionally made their relationship sound a lot more misleading than it actually was, specifically so Ajisai would not get involved. It's funny that she says she doesn't want to hold back her friend on her account, even though it feels like she was doing so in the last episode. Even here, when Renako asks Mai what's wrong, she is intentionally being vague, despite knowing that she could push Renako to talk to Ajisai, and the situation could've probably been resolved itself. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, and even if you did accept my interpretation of those events, it is understandable why Mai would do that. Mai is still a very selfish person, and I noticed hints about her being scared of Renako being won over by somebody else. I know that Mai declared that she was confident that Renako would choose her, but I saw her hand shaking for a split second, implying that this is all an act.

At the end, when Renako just straight-up accepted Ajisai's asking her to be her girlfriend with barely a moment of hesitation, I laughed at Mai's reaction even though I'm not sure if the show wanted me to. It's a little funny that Mai had so much confidence that Renako would not go along with Ajisai, despite Renako being the most open about being infatuated with Ajisai throughout this entire show. Renako might've been in denial about it herself, but it's not hard to imagine that all she needed was a little push to potentially be intimate compared to the massive push that she has needed so far to be intimate with Mai. But the question is, what the hell do we do now?

Is Mai just going to be dropped while Renako and Ajisai go on being the new main couple of the show? Are the two going to enter a similar agreement that she is in with Mai? Is this the first-ever Yuri-only poly anime I think I've ever seen? I don't know, and that's kind of exciting. Despite a lot of my issues with this show, I did enjoy my time with it. There was a lot of thoughtful character writing here with some good humor. I like the second half with Ajisai way more than I did in the first half of the show. It's hard to say if any of my issues with the show come down to being lost in translation or issues with adapting the original material to an animated form. I am very curious what a movie would look like with this type of story or what the next arc of the show would even be about. But the show has amassed enough goodwill with me at the very end that I can firmly say I am excited and looking forward to what it has in store for these crazy goofballs next.

Rating:

There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless... is currently streaming on YouTube.