The ending was both good and slightly disappointing. I realize that the primary "relationship" in the show was Karou and Sen, and I applaud the show for daring to have a story that shows what usually happens to high school sweethearts, but I would have preferred a little bit more closure with Ri-chan and Karou than just a smile and blush! (Like an ending montage with the ED showing Sen officiating their wedding, baptizing their first born, and the two guys playing Jazz on open stage nights at clubs while continuing their respective careers.) As it is, it was a bit of a letdown compared to the earlier episodes.

In addition, the fact that Karou fails to deal with Sens departure, messes up what could have been a great relationship with Ri-chan, and ends up graduating high school with no more social graces or self confidence than he had coming in as a transfer student is disappointing. Slice-of-life character drama needs to have character development in order to fully succeed. Ri-chan developed, but Sen and Karou didn't until the "8 years later" crap! In the middle, they seemed to have grown as friends and as men, but by the last episode all of that character growth was shown to be just illusion and they both were the same immature little boys that started out the story.

In a way, the ending took what could have been one of my favorite shows of all time and turned it into merely a solidly entertaining series that with a mediocre ending, at least in my opinion. (Don't get me wrong, I will buy the dang thing on BluRay if I get the chance, for the music if nothing else, but it may be a year or two down the road if there is something else coming out around the same time that I want more. [cough] MGX [/cough]