For the past 11 weeks, I have been contemplating what kind of ending will the TV anime adaptation of Fortune Arterial has? Like I mentioned before, there are two possible endings with Erika Sendo in the visual novel, a “Normal End” which is less than ideal, left a bit unsatisfactory taste in your mouth; and a “True End”, which bring about an all around happy ending. For weeks I have speculated that we were heading down the “True End” but for the past two weeks in a row, we have been seeing elements of the normal route which had certainly cast some doubt in my mind over my earlier projection. Now that I have seen the supposedly final episode, I can tell you that the TV anime ending is a modified version of the “Normal End” but it has left enough room to maneuver back to the “True End” route. For now, let me cut over to my usual routine and I will wrap this up with some final thought.
In the last episode, we got to the point where Erika gave up her freedom and went back to the Sendo Manor.
Poor Erika, the suffering wouldn’t stop even when she locked herself up. Now up to this point, this is all part of the normal route end; however the timing of the event is different. I suspect they do that on purpose to allow them to come back to finish the story on another day.
Obviously, Kaya was not at all pleased….
Back in the school, Kohei finally found out the Erika had returned to the Sendo Manor….
And Iori was not shy to point out that Kohei was partially responsible for Erika’s condition (all part of his scheme really).
Kohei felt guilty for being responsible for driving Erika away …..
Eventually the “Tea Party” members were able to help Kohei back onto his feet …
And to bring Erika back!
It seemed like Iori already knew this was going to happen and was already waiting at the gate.
Up until this point the progress is still closely matching the original novel, although the timing is a bit different.
And right here is where Iori finally showed his true intention, he wanted to see whether Erika and Kohei together could find a new way for them to live. And this is also where the TV anime diverge from the original story…. click the spoiler if you want to know what really happened afterward…
In the “Normal End” path, this is where Kaya fatally wounded Kohei and left Erika with little choice but to turn Kohei into her servant, in order to save his life. As you can see, if they really followed through with that path, there will be nothing left to turn to. I suspect they choose to do the story this way in order to show all the possible elements of the story in one pass through~ More on that subject later~
Luckily Erika arrived just in time to save Kohei from his certain death.
While Kohei hasn’t ruled out the possibility of him becoming Erika’s servant one day, but they would rather decide that for themselves!
Is this the end? But clearly there are enough hints suggested there will be more to come.
Most unexpectedly, Kiriha was sent back to Shuchikan Academy to observe the behavior of Erika and Kohei.
I guess the TV anime adaption never got around to explain the significance of Togi family…. but since it’s tied directly to the “True End” of the story, may be we would hear more about them at some point.
The paratrooper scene is also an integral part of the visual novel ending.
Is this the happy ending we were hoping for?
Now that the anime has come to a closure, I am happy to report that they did a decent job in telling a story that can only be told in two pass through. At the beginning I was actually worried that they would cut right into the “True End”, while the “True End” would definitely give us a wholesome happy ending, it would undermine some of the hardship and bittersweet of the “Normal End”; which in turns make the “True End” that much more enjoyable. Now, it’s pretty clear to me that they intend to come back to wrap up this story at some point since an OAD is already scheduled to be released with the 6th volume of the manga. I have no idea what’s going to be in it yet, but I have a feeling that I will be talking about it at some point 
Until then~ Thank you for reading my blog entries for Fortune Arterial~
And before I go, allow me to show you the new Fortune Arterial BluRay Disc set that just arrived this morning from Amazon Japan~
Which comes with the Volume 1 Blu-Ray disc, sound drama disc and
a 1:1 scale Haruna cloth!
And now I got spend more time with my newest Dollfie Dream daughter Saber Lily now XD, I have been trying to get more photo sessions going and was finally able to take her outside for a quick snap yesterday.
Hopefully I would be able to get more done today XDDD
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I enjoyed Fortune Arterial quite allot.
As i never played the visual novel (just started last week) i cant really compare/complain about any differences. I think the only thing that got me is the series didnt seem like it actually “ended” and seemed like it could continue to show Erika and kohei in their new “Relationship”? and how Erika learns to control her blood cravings or just bites him. Either way it seemed a weird way to end, but i suppose thats what makes it unique, leaves the rest up to your own imagination.
O.o the Blu-ray disc set looks nice just wondering how much the whole series is going to cost as Blu-ray as its usually £40-50 per volume (Only hate i have with anime is the cost of Blu-rays from japan) time to check amazon i guess
Like I explained in my afterthought, they are trying to do this story in one pass, connecting both the normal end and the true end together.
Liked the series but was a bit disappointed in the ending. Having followed your posts, I expected a rather dramatic or a very happy ending, definitely one with lots of revelations.
Now it seems they went for an open end without resolving anything to leave room for future episodes (possibly with that AOD you mentioned).
Actually, I am a tad disappointed as well… I had expected more but why wrap up the story where you can make more money by selling the OAD? Seem like that’s the current trend of the anime industry anyway…. not that I am in agreement with the strategy but I am looking forward to see the OAD to cut back into the true end path of the story.
I enjoyed most of the anime, but I’m with Smithy in thinking this last episode fell a little flat. I personally think they needed an episode between the last one and this one, to really ramp up the tension; to me, the ending could have been satisfying as it is IF there was more leading up to it. I really hope that OAD manages to make up for it, but given the wonky pacing in the “third act”, I’m not really certain how they’d pull it off. ^^;
Also, that shot of Saber Lily is absolutely GORGEOUS. The light just came out perfect!
Yup, it certainly fell flat on the story part of it. I am looking forward to seeing how they would try to wrap up the story since they modified the normal end to leave room to go back to the true end.
Now that it’s over, there’s something I’ve been wondering. In the game, how did the Kiriha ending work? She’s an immortal, amnesiac vampire servant. What the heck kind of note does the game end on for her arc?
Guess I might as well ask if there’s any special about the endings for Kanade, Haruna, or Shiro as well. Do you have to win Seichiro’s approval for Shiro? Does the vampire stuff even come up?
The Kiriha ending has no definite solution to the fact that Kiriha is an immortal, it just sort of ended that way assuming Kohei will die someday and Kaya would just wipe Kiriha’s memory again. Actually it was Seichiro who stepped in and managed to convince Kaya that she should leave Kiriha alone in the mean time.
Actually I skipped most of the Kanade, Haruna and Shiro stuff. The vampire stuff do come up but not as a major component of the story.