Best girl didn’t end-up with Yuuki… C’est la vie.

Wow, Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate anime just joined the league of Angel Beats!, Code Geass, GaRei-Zero-, Durarara!!, Fractale, and Victory Gundam in the list of the anime I’ve seen. This episode just sealed that as a fact. That I, myself, did not expect to have this highly-unpredictable series in the league of great anime whose respective plots went through the path not favourable to my personal preferences. This series is definitely another Takayama Katsuhiko masterpiece, no doubt about it, considering with what he has to work with.

Yep, another prediction and gut feeling that was practically destroyed by Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate anime finale. Well, at least my gut feeling from the eleventh episode was partially correct about Satsuki getting a role in this finale, down to it ending to a cringe-worthy Chisato finale. This episode is fast-paced as you can get. This fact alone is disconcerting to most viewers enough for them to think that this particular episode, along with the eleventh, is rushed and crammed to fit the 12-episode airing period for the series. The politics in this episode had reached an epic conclusion, hands-down, and the faster pace in this episode is enough to evoke a thriller feeling. However, despite the great writing for the politics, the romance subplot in this episode definitely feels rushed even though we saw hints for this particular subplot’s resolution. Not a complaint but a mere conclusion observation, this episode totally makes it obvious that the moments with Satsuki in the first few episodes are red herrings.

In the end, Yuuki and his clubmates were able to rescue Chisato from the kidnapping and his political speech came in late; it marked his name in the voters’ minds, allowing him to win the elections and to save his club from being dismantled. Satsuki also became a member of the club (is it true that this part was from her route in the VN?!) and as Yuuki’s vice president. Obviously, I would have preferred Yuuki ending-up with Mifuyu or Satsuki but, overall, this entire series is still a great sociopolitical and drama narrative, but only very good as a romance narrative.

Episode Entertainment Factor Rating (EEFR): 85/100

Why didn’t it end with a Satsuki route? ;___;

Yes, Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate anime belongs to the class of the aforementioned titles. They’re all excellent series and they share one thing in common — they went through the plot path that I don’t like. I can give more titles that did the same but these series are the most notable of them all. How this series was made and produced leads us to check into the workings in the media franchise. A PSP port of the original visual novel is released along with the finale’s airing. If the anime’s purpose is to promote awareness of the visual novel, I can say that it did quite well as I got addicted to the story when the anime was released, and to think I’m aware of the title ever since early 2011! If its purpose is to promote the franchise, merchandise, and the PSP game; I can say that it isn’t serving the purpose well. Why? The writing for the romance subplot in the anime might turn-off the fans of the heroines.

It is still amazing how the staff managed to make a great sociopolitical and dramatic subplot narratives while lacking a little bit of proper writing for the romance subplot. Many people would blame this to Takayama Katsuhiko, but to his defense; he still did an excellent job for this anime. And it still baffles me that he was in-charge with Tasogare Otome x Amnesia and MajiKoi anime adaptations. Watching the KoiChoco anime adaptation totally made me remember those two days when I had to marathon his earlier masterpiece, GaRei-Zero-, because of how this adaptation felt thrilling and suspenseful overall. Takayama Katsuhiko is a master of creating a small confusing scenario and overloading each episode with writing themes, and KoiChoco is one example of how this technique could end-up being a “love it, or hate it” aspect. One round of sampling this series for my rating using my standards had the score penalised from 97/100 to mere 82/100 due to the Satsuki red herring, but I think I shall be making more samples to gauge this series more fairly and accurately.

I would be honestly missing Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate even though I might not go back to rewatch this within a year. It is also the first romantic drama that made me go on a streak of sadistic moods; instead of having me in a depressed, self-loathing, masochistic state. There’s indeed something unique to this series, aside from the great drama and sociopolitical narratives. I still have difficulties on summing-up the thoughts I have for this series; what I wrote here is just a small percentage. For these, let’s give Takayama Katsuhiko a clap for the entertaining and stunning, but not so rewatchable, series.

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