Tonight I watched the last disc of Samurai 7, the anime adaptation of Kurusawa's Seven Samurai. The well-known Old West film The Magnificent Seven was also derived from the same storyline. Anyway, that's pretty much how I feel right now. It's so annoying. I was very much looking forward to enjoying the series' denoument when I got the disc in the mail from Netflix this week, and now, *poof*, all my pleasure in the series is gone.
I suppose it was a mistake to watch The Magnificent Seven before getting to the end of the series, because it affected my expectations somewhat. But even apart from that...I think I still would have been annoyed by the very strange characterization-related plot twist that showed up in the last few episodes. That, coupled with the resolution of the young samurai's storyline that didn't take on the swords-to-plowshares theme that it did in The Magnificent Seven, added up to the romantic pairing I wanted getting destroyed. And all of that together led to me being disappointed enough in the ending to retroactively taint my enjoyment of the whole series. BLARGH!
*sigh* Now I want to find something to take my mind off of it. This makes me even more glad that the ending of Furuba is shaping up to be so deeply satisfying.
BTW, I don't always have to have happy endings, it's just that if there are unhappy endings they have to be fitting, and they have to be well-foreshadowed enough that I don't feel like the rug is pulled out from under me completely.
Joie