3 July 2017: The WorldEnd of SukaSuka ~Air/My Purest Love for Leprechauns~
The happiest girl in the world.
Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii desu ka? completed its 12-episodes admirably. There's basically no way to talk about it without going into spoilers, but I'll try to avoid major details beyond what's revealed in the first 60 seconds of the first episode. That prologue does test the theory that spoilers don't matter. Personally, I think spoilers absolutely do matter for comedies and punchlines, but I'm willing to entertain the notion they don't matter for drama. In the case of SukaSuka, having an understanding ahead of time about some major developments in the final episodes by having them revealed in the opening prologue did not detract from the show, and I have to admit the revelations likely improved the anime as a whole.
Well, keep your feet and knees together, but beyond that, you're on your own.
What then of the framework from which SukaSuka derives? The anime is an adaptation of a series of light novels, and a cursory glance reveals how many volumes there are, and where the anime did or did not leave off. Likewise, cover illustrations reveal who the lead characters are in the later volumes, and make it easy to deduce who might or might not be around anymore.
Amazingly, all the shrimpy kids in this show were all right.
Moreover, many of the volumes have been translated into English. I skimmed through a few bits and am pleased to see the text is a lot more readable than what I'm used to seeing in fan-translated light novels (my experience admittedly may be years out of date at this point), and there are definitely aspects of the anime which took a few liberties during the adaptation. For example, there are at least two scenes in the final episode's epilogue which are deliberately misleading in the anime. The corresponding scenes occur in the original light novel, but the anime scenes omit or change the context.
Air power.
Now, is this good or bad? Should fans of the SukaSuka anime read the original light novels? I believe this is an open question, and while in most cases I will default in favor of the source material, my high degree of skepticism regarding light novels in general (even if they are well-regarded) calls this practice into question. Additionally, I think it is valid to regard the two properties separately, even if they do not necessarily contradict. That is, you don't have to appreciate one in order to like the other, although I can't rule out the possibility that I'm promoting this view here simply because the SukaSuka anime turned out so much better than I could have hoped. That said, I'll probably still read the light novels anyway.
