English Dub Review: Stars Align; “Episode 12”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Maki and Toma’s tennis match against the prodigious Itsuse brothers heats up.

Our Take

The finale begins with Rintaro continuing to chase after and find his birth mother, but he loses sight of her. Starting off with this made it seem like this subplot might be receiving its due diligence. Unfortunately, it never gets brought up again.

The main event begins as Maki and Toma face off against the Itsuse twins, immediately losing two games right off the bat. All the while, Toma allows his nerves to get the better of him, throwing him increasingly off his game as he gets overpowered. Additionally, unbeknownst to him, the Itsuse twins are disparaging him in their heads, comparing him to his older brother.

Despite having their backs against the wall, Maki is successfully able to calm down Toma. With their newfound composure, they match the twins’ pace. With nothing else left to lose, they deploy a hastily constructed, but comfortable plan. They take advantage of Maki’s speed and begin to rapidly swap positions mid-hit in order to throw the twins for a loop. 

The animation during this final tennis match is at its peak. Once again, all of the techniques the anime had mastered and used to build up to this point are in full effect. The rallies are fast and fluid, each one carrying a thrilling tension. 

Maki and Toma’s stratagem proves effective right away as the twins rapidly start to get confused and frustrated. Maki and Toma readily take advantage of this and deftly carry the game to tied points. 

Their roles now reversed, the twins also employ a similar pep talk in order to rouse each other. They smack each other’s faces, ensuring that they’re both putting on the same look. With this, the Itsuse twins then handily win themselves the game. Even while they are losing though, Maki and Toma are able to find the fun in simply playing. The crowd also joins in on this positive energy, creating a satisfying ending. 

At least it would be a satisfying ending if you only counted what happened before the credits roll. The actual ending is more complicated.

After the match, Toma calls Ryoma in order to tell him the results. His mother picks up with a hop in her step. Toma tells her the results, but she is eager to change the subject. She has made a decision that will make her happy; she is getting a divorce, moving out with Ryoma, and finally telling Toma that she hates him. When Ryoma finally arrives to see Toma, the damage is already done.

There’s a lot wrong with this picture. First, you do not tell your son this kind of information over an accidental phone call. Second, even in an appropriate environment, you do not tell it to him like you just won the lottery. The number of horrible mistakes far exceeds three. 

Then there’s the bevy of warranted questions, chief of which is, why exactly does she hate him? This is my best guess: Toma was an unplanned pregnancy, the stress of which combined with his aggressive attitude and Ryoma being a much more successful person earned him his mother’s scorn. We may never truly know the answer, though.

Then there’s Maki’s situation. After the match, he comes home to find Shou in the company of shattered glass and a torn money envelope. As he exits the house in silent rage, the clouds become red and stormy. He ominously buys a kitchen knife from a store and takes it to his father’s house, verbally resolving to end it all. 

In this case, the entirety of this picture is absolutely wrong. Maki certainly hates his father and recently found the strength to confront him. But this is taking it way too far based on way too little. He escalated from boisterous shouting to summary stabbing in a nanosecond. This also betrays the calm and calculated personality that was forged through tennis. 

This is an incredibly disappointing ending as it essentially takes all of the goodwill and narrative conceit the audience had given it and throws it into the garbage. Frustrated with this conclusion, I employed Google and fortunately found some answers. 

After the final episode aired in Japan, the creator of Stars Align revealed that the anime was originally supposed to be 24 episodes, but was cut in half down to 12 at the very last minute by the producers. He has promised that the second half of the story will be presented in some form. 

On the one hand, it’s great that this egregious stab in the back isn’t the intended ending. On the other hand, it’s truly sad that such a promising show got the shortest end of the stick like this. Perhaps some of the positive reviews will bring forth the second half in anime form. Otherwise, it seems we’ll have to be searching elsewhere. 

Ultimately, I don’t think I can completely blame this anime entirely for this bad taste in my mouth. While the final tennis match was spectacular, the sudden betrayal of character at the end brought us down from that high horribly fast. And at the same time, the fact that it had to abruptly abandon 10 subplots isn’t its fault. 

The victim of mismanagement and misfortune, it seems the stars don’t completely align with this one.