Well, you're right in that there are more arguments for their death than against.

• It's unlikely that Sora could have rescued Haru from the lake. But I know they said somewhere in the anime/manga/game that she was a rather good swimmer.
• The bunny doll that Sora carries on the train even though she tore it to pieces and left it in her room. I guess Haru could have bought a second one (he gave her the first one too) before they left Japan for good but it's more likely that the train scene is a metaphor for their journey into the afterlife.
• "We're alive, right?" - no answer, just a smile.
• The abandoned house with a trashed room and unmade bed suggests they never made it back or left in a hurry (which makes sense though if they had decided they wanted to leave without causing a ruckus)

The biggest hole in the death theory is that text message in the end of course. If it weren't for that then I'd say that it's almost certain they died.
People usually argument against that with some bullshit that Akira or someone close to them found their drowned bodies and successfully faked their deaths to avoid their friends getting sad, but I really don't see how any of them would ever do something that senseless.
The message just feels like it was sent by them and I doubt that the kind & energetic Akira would keep up a indifferent facade like that, deceiving her friends about something as big as their deaths.
We're talking about a fiction after all and while I don't like it much, there is also the plausible theory of the lake's "powers of giving rebirth" saving them allowing them to try to find a place for their love.

There are probably more arguments for and against their deaths but these are the ones that came to mind first.
I think that the death theory is more beautiful since they'd probably never find a place where their love is accepted in life. The point is that they end up together no matter what happened anyway.

This post was edited by GuZ on Feb 8 2012 12:50am

totally forgot about the text message. that indeed makes it ambiguous


i concur


thats probably the intended message, but i'm not really happy with the execution
i dont have a problem with endings that are open to interpretation due to lack of information. not a fan of conflicting facts though

my recollections of this anime are pretty positive, guess i wont go and (possibly) ruin that with further investigations

Finished Mayo Chiki

Thought I would try to watch something alot different from what I usually do, it was okay I guess :/, 6/10 since it past some time. It could have had somewhat of an ending as well rather then just a random last episode.

I think of it more as a open ending allowing for another season

Finished off a few more animes this week. Don't really have much time so just gonna post my score.

a tale of memories - 8/10
a tale of melodies - 8.5/10
Kimi ga Nozomu Eien - 6/10
True Tears - 7/10

Gosick, Zero no Tsukaima, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Kanon (2006) are the next ones on my list Looking forward to'em.



Yeah, you're absolutely right.

I hope there isn't another season coming out, I only watch an anime like that once every blue moon

and if a second season comes out I'm going to have to watch it :/

This post was edited by Fate on Feb 10 2012 06:52pm

I just finished the Yoshiwara arc from Gintama. It was great! Tsukuyo is my new favorite character. I hope she appears again.

higurashi no naku koro ni... words cant describe what was going through my head the first 10 episodes(first 4 made me say WTF) but yeah, overall it was good, i like how you got to see each persons story.

go watch higurashi no naku koro ni kai to "WTF?!?!" all over again.

tbh, i dont think it will make me feel like that, only the begining was shocking mostly, due to the sheer confusingness and fucked up ness. and the final episode where (spoiler alert) rika says it happens for as long as she wants it to.