When it comes to "end of the world" stories, there's only two ways to finish things. You either destroy the world, or you don't. Of course, leave it to anime to occasionally find a way to break this rule, GAINAX being a repeat offender.

But not this time.

I can safely say I'm completely satisfied with how the show ended. It's a little bit happy, a little bit bittersweet. Final, but open-ended enough to leave me secretly wishing for more. There was a certain amount of introspection on the part of the main characters - to be expected of a GAINAX show, I guess - but rather than being there to take up time or plug plot holes, it worked to resolve many of the key themes of the story. And it even made sense!

It was a fun ride. I liked the characters enough to get a kick out of the filler episodes early on, and the primary story, trite as it may be, had enough little twists and turns to hold my interest. The ending may have been a bit drawn out in the grand scheme of things, but my satisfaction in the ultimate conclusion makes up for it. Yes, the show could have been more (isn't that a universal truth?), but given my low expectations early on, I have a difficult time finding anything to honestly complain about.

And no matter how much abuse Mari suffers at the hands of her detractors, I shall defend her to the very end!

Which would be the next time Hikari shows up, I guess...

While I liked the ending, I was really, REALLY looking forward to seeing Hikari wipe out humanity. Ah well.

And Akari was too good for this show, she deserved a better series. And without her, who will Kimi have HLS with!?

Out of curiosity, have you checked out Melody of Oblivion? The other GAINAX show of the season. It is...Utena-esque.

This is actually not a bad ending but I was certainly disappointed that they didn't wipe out the world. That is too bad. Everyone needed to die.

Except Akari and Kimi.

akari is the evil
mari forever!

Mari? She is the stereotypical annoying female and personally I would found if great if Takeru ran over her on his bike in his "dream" at the end.

I'll be nice and say that I think Mari was given enough punishment at the end of the series. Her new haircut itself is more than enough to invoke pity from me. :P

MoO is Gainax? *blink, blink*

there was still a hole @ the end of the series.. there could be a special , ova or something alike coming up :)

because she said she would come back , and there are a few possible things that can happen..

1. she comes back while Takeru's still alive
2. she comes back years after Takeru's death