The Dangers in My Heart Season 2 ‒ Episode 25

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©Norio Sakurai(AKITASHOTEN)/The Dangers in My Heart Committee

No one who has made it this far should be surprised about what I’m about to say. I could throw you for a loop and be contrarian but I’m not sure what the point of that would be. I loved this finale even though it was exactly what I thought I was going to get. There was no major twist or subversion. Instead, we got the payoff that has been a long time coming and it felt like the proper resolution to the setup that we had last week. Maybe there were more climactic ways of going about it but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about what we got and what we got was pretty damn good. If I haven’t made it abundantly clear already, The Dangers in My Heart is now one of my favorite anime of all time.

The series ends exactly where it starts, in the library where these two ended up crossing paths. It’s fitting considering that these two are very different now compared to how they were at the beginning of the show—especially Kyotaro. It’s funny that he explains his entire character arc in the show but that in and of itself demonstrates how far he has come as a character. We go from somebody who was very quick to give up and withdraw within himself to someone making a stand and sacrificing his immediate happiness for the sake of somebody that he likes without completely giving up on that happiness. If anything, he proved to Anna and himself that he would be ok without her around because he’s managed to grow up as a person throughout this past year. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want anything to do with her anymore. It’s because he’s gone through all of this growth that he’s realized he doesn’t necessarily need her to get by anymore. It’s just further solidified how much he likes her. He wants to be a part of her life because he wants to, not because he needs to—and that is a lesson that I feel even a lot of adults today struggle with.

Looking back on it, I do wish we got a bit more of Anna’s perspective on things but her character arc is also clear. While she is, in a lot of ways, the quirky beauty, she is just as easily misunderstood by those around her. People know she’s a hard worker but they don’t understand the internal struggle that she deals with, the pressure that she puts on herself to grow up, and the struggle of figuring out what it even means to grow up. In a lot of ways, she had to be pushed to make a grown-up decision here, putting her love life on hold for the sake of a professional career—but she only decided to come on this trip because she was insecure about her relationship with Kyotaro. Despite all the progress that these two have made and despite it being very clear that they like each other, she was scared of losing that—or she was worried that something bad would happen if she wasn’t around.

Anna realized just how mature she was which helped her appreciate the hard work that she had already put into everything. It makes sense that the climax of this episode would be him validating her choice to go to the audition by saying that he loves her. And it makes sense that Anna would validate Kyotaro hoping to be a small part of her life by saying that he is the most important to her. These two have finally reached a point where they shouldn’t have much to fear about each other or themselves. I mean it’s not that simple, these two are still preteens and will have various other things to deal with—and I like the subtle hint of Kyotaro looking to get back into his studies for high school entrance exams. There are going to be plenty of external things that will test these two but I think they finally reached a point where most of their internal struggles are satisfied and now that they are officially together as a couple, they can be more open with each other in their support for tackling those external endeavors.

The lighting, the soundtrack, and the perspective directing are all top notch—but you all know this. The show has gone above and beyond to portray the preteen ups and downs perfectly. I know there’s more manga material past this point and I’m very curious about a potential season three that goes into what their life as a couple would look like. But, I’m also more than satisfied with what we’ve got. Thank you all for being a part of this journey with me as I got to experience this journey with Kyotaro and Anna.

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