Ashita no Kita Yoshio eps 9-11

The main reason it took me so long to write about Kita Yoshio (besides gaming and NHK yokoso) was how underwhelming the ending was. I guess one could see it coming. They revealed the secret plot 3/4 way through the show and Kita Yoshio finally Manami in episode 10 and won against Negative. The only thing left for the show to pull the audience in with was whether Kita Yoshio would die in the end?

My, why lovely eyes you have.....

I think the biggest blunder of this whole show was the demise of Negative in ep 10. Negative is the final boss, the main villain. The ultimate obstacle. The cause of Kita Yoshio's problems. How can he just be so easily dismissed? Especially after building him up so quickly. There has to be an epic struggle between Kita Yoshio and Negative at the end.

Nakanaide Shinobu-chan!

Negative is unpredictable. His existence is to end Kita Yoshio's life thereby ending his which is an interesting conundrum not explored in the show. What better twist than Negative realising at the end that he doesn't want to die? Another thing the writer could have done at the ending was for Kita Yoshio to realise that negative had taken over him for long periods and set the whole thing up including killing Mizuho's husband and Daisuke only took advantage of the situation.

Just because my bro was in Liar Game doesn't make me a liar!

Actually, I'm not disappointed that the show didn't go for either of the endings I propose above. Its just after 10 episodes of excitement, coincidences and red herrings, the writer had exhausted all climaxes leaving nothing for the end. I was so hoping that Negative would come back at the rooftop scene but alas we just had a simple scene of Heita convincing Kita not to do it.


In a show about unrelated people who just happen to get swept into the main storyline, spreading the individual story climaxes over 2 episodes is a huge mistake. So much better to end everything in the final episode. Put the fates of all the characters in the hands of Kita Yoshio.

You can almost see Shinobu's pantsu......

Still, after recovering from the ending, I still have to say I had fun with the 10 episodes and would not hesitate to recommend the show. I also appreciate that the writer managed to weave Shinobu into the story for the last few episodes despite her character arc basically being over. Writing this post got me thinking, what if the last episode was not about Kita Yoshio but rather Heita. Kita had faced his demon at ep 10 and ep 11 was about Heita facing the ghost of his father. Hhhmm... If I could read Japanese I would have loved to see how the book handled the ending.