If Fall 2023 has a theme, it's under-appreciated gems.� Read more The post Migi to Dari � 13 (End) and Series Review appeared first on Lost in Anime.
It must be said, Migi to Dari gave us what amounts to a perfect ending.� In every sense, too � it wrapped up the story in a manner it deserved, and it paid tribute to Sano Nami is a very profound and moving way.� I was wondering if and how Mankyuu (who both directed and wrote this adaptation) was going to do that.� The manner he chose could not have been more fitting, and I won�t deny it hit me pretty hard.� It was elegant and understated in a way I suspect she would have thoroughly approved of.
You well know by now my obsession with codas.� They�re rare enough in anime, much less single-cour ones.� But this entire episode was, effectively, a coda � a luxury afforded by having a 13th episode when most shows have 12 these days, I suppose.� All the surrealism and absurdism and pure Dali-ism came to a head last week, and this finale was given over to the aftermath.� There was a time skip � narrated by Akiyama-kun, no less � that had me wondering if Sano-sensei was too much the contrarian to give the boys the happy ending I wanted for them.� But that was mostly a misdirection, so I needn�t have worried.
One also needn�t have worried about all that missed time, because those blanks were filled in admirably.� The gist of it is that Dari (sporting a reminder of his traumatic experience) doesn�t see himself as worthy of coming into the light.� He wants to keep Hitori in the picture, and let Migi bask in the glow of the Sonoyama�s pampering.� Migi�s joy is his happiness, he says � but of course that makes Migi unhappy.� Setting aside the question of whether the secret could even be kept from the Sonoyama�s at this point given how many people know, Hitori is not a secret life Migi wants to keep living when the old couple obviously has more than enough love (and cherry pie) to go around.
As it turns out it�s a moot point, because the Sonoyamas figured it out on their own anyway.� Which is not all that surprising, when you think about it.� They�re smarter than they let on and Migi and Dari are still a couple of children who were playing spy games.� �Yes, they are very different.� Migi is sweet and childish and just wants to live a normal life; Dari thinks too much and can�t let anything go.� It�s a classic �good boy/bad boy� scenario if you like, but that�s life.� Siblings, even twins triplets, are their own person.
It�s fitting that it�s Christmas that both reveals their differences and provided the vehicle to end their subterfuge.� Migi cleverly plays the game of believing in Santa to get more gifts, but when Mom and Dad put two of them under the tree, it�s clear the jig is up.� Of course being a shadow isn�t what Dari really wants � he�s just not capable of articulating what he really wants like Migi can.� One suspects that convincing himself he deserves to be happy will always be a struggle for Dari, but he�ll always have his brother pushing him to get over himself.
And then, the aforementioned timseskip.� To 1993, which would make Hitori about 17.� Maruta has turned into a bit of an ikemen, though still a beaver.� Akiyama is bonding with Osamu over their shared love of birds.� And Eiji, at last, is coming back to Origon Village � having served the lighter sentence Maruta�s video evidence managed to procure for him.� Michan makes her first appearance of the episode (her second is the more memorable), Sali comes out of retirement, and first steps are taken to rebuilding Eiji�s relationship with his biological family.
Finally, the twist ending.� And it�s that the brothers are splitting up.� It�s on the best possible terms though � Dari is off to college, and Migi is staying behind to work on his avant-garde art (though truth be told, I think mostly just to hang out).� The larger point is important � the time has come for Hitori to prove he can live without his alter ego.� I have no doubt their experiment will show the boys that their connection is indeed stronger than distance,� It is interesting, though, to speculate on which of them will struggle more with being separated from the other (I�m pretty confident about the answer myself).
If Fall 2023 has a theme, it�s under-appreciated gems.� The big shows sucked a lot of the oxygen out of the room (and Kusuruiya and especially Frieren are indeed very good), but this season had a pod of series that deserved way more attention.� Migi to Dari was entertaining start to finish, and often quite brilliant.� No matter how crazy things got (and that�s pretty damn crazy), the internal logic of the plot held together and the characters stayed true to who they were.� It�s a testament to good writing and direction that isn�t afraid to take risks, and has full commitment to the premise.
Sano Nami�s passing certainly imparts a bittersweet element to Migi to Dari.� When this anime was greenlit the staff would almost certainly have had no reason to suspect Sano-sensei wouldn�t be around to see it.� One senses that a great deal of commitment went in to making this show special as a tribute to her � when anime have that little bit of extra buy-in you can usually tell.� How sad it is that this fabulously inventive and fearless creator was taken so young.� But as a final artistic legacy, Migi to Dari honors her memory in glorious fashion, and everyone involved in making it happen should take pride in that.
The post Migi to Dari � 13 (End) and Series Review appeared first on Lost in Anime.
