HaruChika Episode 12 (Sympathy Triangle) Review

Ladies and gentlemen, this is it; Wednesday’s episode marks the conclusion of HaruChika! Before I begin, I do want to state that the episode was enjoyable for me. Sure, it had its moments of inconsistency, but it was not bad at all. Let’s get into HaruChika Episode 12.

Spoilers ahead! If you haven’t seen this episode, I suggest you stop here! If you haven’t watched this series, please have a look at my first impression of the show (Spoiler Free).

Honestly, going into this episode, I had conflicted emotions about the finale. It tells a story of the privilege of being young and that is something I appreciated. It showcased this by Haruta and Chika frantically going out of their way to solve people’s mysteries with all their might and knowledge, even when they didn’t have to. In this episode, being young means giving life your all and never backing down. This can be interpreted as living your life to the fullest, especially when you are an adolescent. One conflict I have with this episode is the pacing and the mystery involving Kusakabe. Focusing on the mystery and somehow wrapping up the show in one episode was cutting it close.

The ending of the show left me surprised and somewhat satisfied. The finale contained elements of its mystery genre and the theme of music HaruChika started out on, but it includes other elements the episode needed that helped it end smoothly. For example, it adds comedy by exploring slice of life moments for the brass club. It also created drama by looking into Kusakabe’s mysterious background. While Kusakabe’s reason for leaving the music world is vague, it gives a basic understanding of his actions. However, it fails to completely sell me on the depth of his character. We know he left due to the death of someone he knew, but we don’t know his relationship with her and why it was so important to him. When HaruChika gives character depth, it makes sure to smoothly introduce the person of focus, show their backstory, and give them a motive. With Kusakabe’s situation, it doesn’t do any of that. It would have been interesting to see a backstory as well as get to know more about the person he lost; showcasing how it affected him would have been great too. Because of this, it doesn’t come off as all that moving, especially since the series keeps mentioning Kusakabe’s retirement.

Going back to HaruChika‘s elements, while the mystery aspect was mainly focused on Haruta and Chika going incognito to follow Kusakabe, we did eventually learn something out of it due to Haruta figuring out the clues around him. The episode also had a lot of music as well, but there lies my conflict with the finale. Throughout this episode, the theme of music is not strong enough to make me enjoy it, since music never worked out well for this show, along with the nearly 2-minute credits montage of past events that took place in the series. If there is any good thing that came out of the music, it would be that Haruta and Chika learn a life lesson due to the competition results. What confuses me is why bust out the music now? It felt unnecessary and looks as if it was placed there to stall for time. I also wonder why didn’t they didn’t explore music consistently throughout the show? If they had displayed more scenes of the brass band competing for their music, perhaps the theme of music would have felt relevant. It’s moments like these that makes me question the quality of HaruChika as a series.

I have to mention the character interactions and what Haruta and Chika have been through because of them. This episode felt as if every character, whether minor or major, received their own dialogue that added value to the atmosphere. During the episode, we even see old one-time characters that were involved in HaruChika‘s mysteries come back, along with the obligatory montage of past events that took place within the series. We can see that Haruta and Chika have been through a lot. Thanks to Haruta’s mind and Chika’s perseverance, they have helped solved many mysteries that caused an impact in people’s lives.

All in all, I believe this episode and series were good. Sure, themes could have been used better, and the mysteries needed more depth. The message doesn’t feel too forced since things usually work out well in the end, but sometimes things don’t end too well, causing Haruta and Chika to accept the result. I am not aware of how the novel continues from here, but if there are plans for another season, then you can definitely count me in. I look forward to P.A. Works’ next project!