English Dub Review: In the Clear Moonlit Dusk “The Empty Room; In the Clear Moonlit Dusk”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Ohji’s sudden confession ripples through Yoi and Kohaku’s remaining insecurities, but because this is the season finale, they make amends and resume dating. The end.
OUR TAKE
Ugh, I was worried that Ohji would throw a spanner in the works with these two, but I guess with this being the end of the season, there needed to be some sort of conflict for the two of them to overcome to make it a satisfying enough ending. And as they make clear later, Ohji himself wasn’t necessarily the problem, he just ended up setting off some character flaws that had gone unaddressed and unresolved, like Kohaku tending to be a bit of a brat when he feels like Yoi is getting distant, or Yoi when she thinks Kohaku isn’t treating her as specially as he claims. That said, Ohji’s not off the hook for this, considering just throwing out a confession like that was honestly kinda manipulative on his part, and then getting on Kohaku’s case when he brought his female childhood friend to the restaurant when Yoi just didn’t happen to be there, and most certainly not helped by him saying cryptically, “Yoi and I have already talked about it”, which only drew more questions and just made things weirder. And then there’s the aforementioned childhood friend who I’m not gonna bother naming because she matters that little.
However, the weird interim between the misunderstandings does present our protagonists with what their lives were like prior to meeting one another and taking a chance on this relationship, but now with an idea of what they gained and how empty things would feel if they went back to the way things were before. It’s pretty standard “all is lost” moment territory, but it’s necessary enough for the structure to make their coming back together feel like a proper resolution. Yoi would go back to being seen as just a safe masculine figure to her female peers and Kohaku would go back to being a reluctant playboy, neither of which they want. And thank god that restaurant doesn’t have an HR Department or Ohji would be out of there the next day for the shit he pulled. Well, actually he might be more likely to be fired since the boss is her dad. Anyway, alls well, they make up, and it’s happily ever after with a realistic but still romantic signing off. And with that, we’ll sign off too, as this is now the end of the review. But tune in next time as we try to summarize all twelve episodes in about six hundred or so words for the Season Review!
