hontou ni sou omou?

The concluding episode. Lilith lashes out at Eve for abandoning her in the Great Library for what seems to be tens of thousands of years and Eve tries to make it up to her. Lilith notices that Eve misses Hazuki who seems not to have returned to the correct book-world. Alone again, Hazuki reflects on her dreamlike adventures but suddenly sees Hatsumi returning to the house. History repeats itself - like a universe reset but Hatsumi does not glow and disappear at the stroke of midnight. Instead Hatsumi and Hazuki share a passionate kiss and then a cuddle. Hazuki awakens the next day not remembering anything but notices the signs of Lilith’s future rebirth as her child.

I recalled some comments that Kannazuki “totally owned” Yamibou by having a full-on yuri kiss in the first episode while Yamibou left it right at the end. To that, the “real” kiss between Chikane and Himeko was only in the final KannaMiko episode and Chikane’s existence is also erased shortly after that.

Hatsumi’s seriously awful hotcakes were used to good dramatic effect in this episode even if it was a bit of joke at the start of the series and this episode. Hatsumi said in Ep 12 that no one in any of the worlds has ever loved her as much as Hazuki. I suppose Hazuki must also be the only person in the entire collection of worlds in the Great Library was has ever sincerely praised Hatsumi’s pancakes - even though they tasted awful, she could still taste Hatsumi’s love. -_-;;

On this second viewing, the first and final kiss between Hatsumi and Hazuki was quite gratifying and I think I better appreciated the scene as a result of screencapping it.

Overall, the series presented a fairly interesting range of worlds tied by the common theme of Eve’s appearances in them but the WTF quotient was pretty high even with Miyuki Fansub’s valiant attempt to explain as much as possible. I guess one has to have played the ROOT game to fully appreciate the series. E.g. I was confused right to the end - is Ayaa the Hat? Or is he just reading the Hat’s independent thoughts from the book? Is the Great Library itself a world within a book-world as well? Where did Yami go? Why does Hazuki have some of Yami’s essence - if so, why couldn’t she join Eve in the Great Library for as long as she wanted? And after the kiss, was Hazuki exposed to the door of Eve again? And why oh why is Eve reincarnating as Hazuki’s child? It spoils the yuri relationship and, if Eve also disappears again upon reaching 16 years of age, wouldn’t just be too cruel to Hazuki?

I have griped about KannaMiko’s weak ending and plot holes but Yamibou is really in its own league when it comes to those problems. On the other hand, there’s no hideous mecha or serious sexual violence in Yamibou. I’d probably only recommend this series for the hardcore yuri fan and those who have played the game before.