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Posted by Tom:
Midori no Hibi

   All good things must come to an end, and the spring anime season is no
   exception. So it's time for me to review the final episodes of the
   shows, and give a final judgement on them. Since I still have yet to
   form a coherent opinion on the ending of This Ugly and Beautiful
   World, I'll start with Midori no Hibi.

   For the past few weeks, a portion of my monday activities revolved
   around MnH. Sometime in the morning, I would begin checking to see of
   the new episode has been posted. Around noon, it would be, and so I
   would ssh home from work and kick off the download. I would drive
   home, eat dinner, and start watcing the new episode of Midori.
   Twenty-something minutes later, I would watch the nifty end credits
   start rolling, and go off to do something else, satisfied.

   And I really did enjoy Midori no Hibi. It took one of the strangest
   and perverted premises one can think of (the guy who has his right
   hand as his girlfriend), and turns it into a very good romantic
   comedy.

   The creators struck the right balance with Seiji, the male lead. He
   had to be at the same time the fighter type, noble, and oblivious to
   the attraction of the various female characters to him. If he was any
   smarter, some of the things he did to Midori would have come across as
   cruel, but instead we manage to have an interesting story without him.

   There's also a good cast of minor characters, including various love
   interests for Seiji and Midori. I really like how they resolved, at
   least to some extent, their stories in the final episode, and the way
   in which they gave the final push to the leads. In fact, I liked all
   the minor characters with the exception of Seiji's sister. Be sure to
   watch to the end of the credits of the last episode, as the cat that
   makes appearances throughout the show gets his story resolved under
   the closing.

   Midori no Hibi, though, is primarily about Midori, and the final
   episode makes that abundantly clear. It's really about the way in
   which mini-Midori, can do all the things that real-life Midori
   couldn't bring herself to do, like confess to Seiji. The finale does a
   good job of showing how the experience changed Midori and Seiji.

   Midori no Hibi had a good premise, good characters, good episodes,
   good animation and a good ending. That's all I can ask for in a
   series. I'll rate it a very strong good, with the distinct possibility
   I will, after an eventual rewatch, give it a great rating.

   The only question is, what will I be doing on my Mondays? Well,
   there's always the manga...