Twilight Out of Focus

Episode 12

There are several reasons why it's important that Twilight Out of Focus ended on the scene that it did. Certainly, one of them is the all-mighty happy ending; it's one of the reasons why romances are so popular. But it also brings the story full circle: when we first met Mao and Hisashi, they were filming their roommate contract, and one of the strictures on the list was that Mao wouldn't tell anyone that Hisashi is gay. (Another was that Hisashi wouldn't hit on Mao, which went out the window pretty quickly, albeit with Mao's consent for the most part.) Hisashi wasn't entirely comfortable being out, and it's not hard to see why. Even if we discount homophobia, his experiences with romance and sex haven't made him particularly open to new experiences. If you remember, he was sexually assaulted by his stepsister, which led to not only a bad relationship with his family (who blamed him) but also to his equally abusive relationship with his teacher. He may be Mao's first relationship, but Mao is his first healthy one.

That means that when, in the end, he casually says that yes, he and Mao are dating, he's acknowledging both that he's trying to truly move on from his past and that his relationship with Mao is more important than their contract. If Mao is the person he's dating, he's okay with being out, and if the people he's coming out to are the film club members, then that's a safe first step. It indicates how much more comfortable Hisashi has become and how much Mao is a part of that. Mao's drive to reassure his boyfriend that graduating, looming for them in the next year, isn't going to spell the end for them is a major factor in this; his firm words about how they'll be okay because they're Mao and Hisashi are designed not just to quash Hisashi's insecurities, but to make it clear that he's in this for the long haul. And sure, first loves and high school loves don't always succeed, but Mao wants to put in the work to make sure that they have a fighting chance. And he wants Hisashi to know that, because if he does, then maybe they really do have a chance, after all.

The symbolism of the red thread that entangles the boys' fingers at the end of the beach shoot is almost not needed; by this point, Mao and Hisashi have already had their conversation. But it helps to solidify the idea that they're going to be all right. Even if Mao is the anchor and Hisashi is the balloon, bobbing with the waves while being tethered to earth, that's a symbiotic relationship. The red thread binds them as surely as it tied the balloon to its rock.

Would it have been nice to end with an update on the other two couples? Yes, absolutely. But it also is nicely symbolic to go out with the characters we came in with. Twilight Out of Focus' title implies that the story exists in the crepuscular hour between light and dark, when anything can change and nothing is quite what it appears in the soft-focus light. We know enough to hope that everyone is going to continue to be happy together, and since that's the one thing that all romances truly need to fit into the genre, I think we can call this a happy ending.

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Twilight Out of Focus is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.