"She didn't jump." Is something I'd like to clarify straight ahead before someone who just watched or will watch it summons the question. Noe can be a very weird girl but she sure isn't a suicidal. It's pretty obvious, but always important to say: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE SERIES YET. Another important fact to clarify about this "Epilogue" is that... it isn't a epilogue. (Please don't wave your fist at me, I'm not the one who named it, I'm just reviewing it.) According to the dictionary, an Epilogue is: "A short addition or concluding section at the end of a literary work, oftendealing with the future of its characters. Also called afterword". Just like this, the problem here is that the scenes shown in these 3 minutes happens after Shinichiro "confession" and before the real epilogue of the series, where we see all the main characters moving on with their lives and Noe finally shed some tears. To be precise, this "fake epilogue" (can I address it like this?) takes place exactly after 19:05 minutes of episode 13.
Besides from not giving a conclusion for the series, this short music video cannot be labeled as an Epilogue because it opens more doubts and raises more questions than the ending of the series. Plenty of ambiguous scenes and the lack of dialogue makes everything a confusing mess. Things will only be understandable when you learn the fact these events happened before the actual ending, then, that's why all the issues aren't still settled (Noe friends, Hiromi tears... I won't give more examples to avoid spoilers).
The lack of dialogue was one annoying part of it. It's fine to turn an Music video into an epilogue if the scenes presented there can be understand with just images but it becomes a impossible challenge when there is actual consistent dialogue into those scenes.
Then, why P.A. Works did this?
My bet: to give fans something "more" in the Blu-ray version and, of course, sell Drama CDs.
Why Drama CDs? Because the dialogues that were suppressed in this video are the exact ones from the three tracks of the drama CD. If you watch this fake epilogue, listen to the drama cds AND have a fair knowledge in Japanese (subs nowhere to be found), you have great chances of understanding what happened. Otherwise, if you're a average western fan like the rest of us, take a look at forum threads, some people did really good analysis of it, or if you're lazy, scroll down a little bit to the end of this review.
Still, it's worth mention that the music chosen was a nice pick. Watch it as an AMV and you'll sure enjoy it.
--This is the ending of this review.--
-The following is a interpretation of the scenes, for those who are confused at what the hell they just
watched. Obviously, CONTAIN SPOILERS.-
As mentioned above, events from these 3minutes video happens after Shinichiro "chooses" Hiromi. After reading lots of forum discussions and trying to interpret the drama cds, I could get the following:
Ai-chan and Miyokichi relationship as friends is progressing smoothy.Miyokichi still loves her and she's starting to see him as something more than a friend, finally giving up on Shinichiro. This is confirmed at the scene when they do a "remake" of the time Miyokichi asked Ai-chan out, dragging Shinichiro along, in order to recreate the situation, with a meaning of "starting all over".
For Hiromi, her dream come true and she is happy for finally being able to be together with Shinichiro, however, she feels guilt for saying those things (from ep 12) to Noe, concerned about her. It's easy to see that it was concerning her because of her basketball performance. Throughout the series it became clear that her performance in game was deeply related to her emotional state specially when it involved Shin-chan. At the same time, Tomoyo (Hiromi's friend) acts the same way, and she's shown doing great plays -in the Drama CD, it can be understand that she was also seeing someone and was having a nice time with this unknown guy-. We can also see some reminiscences of Hiromi's "bad personality", the one she said she was trying to drop, when she's with Shin-chan at the sea house and keep pushing about Raigomaru's tale and how Noe was the first to read it, etc, etc. She states something about how Noe could see a side of Shinichiro that she couldn't, then ending up in tears, but at the same time accepting it, understanding that the relationship Shinichiro had with Noe was different. On the drama CD it's also shown that she becomes the basketball team captain.
As for Noe, she is finally able to interact with other people, and is slowly opening up to new friends (this is confirmed at the TRUE epilogue when we see them together). Although Shinichiro didn't stayed with her, he was a important person in her life, as the one who "gave her tears back" meaning: gave her happiness back. She still reminiscences about him but is okay with it. Actually, they both still cherish each other, as seen through the visits to Jibeta's cage.
About her Siscom brother, she goes visit him from time to time and he's fine doing whatever he likes with motorcycles.
Wrapping up, I feel obligated to include this here as a final consideration: +1 for finally a "The Childhood Friend" victory!!!
