Always a Catch! ‒ Episode 12

Is it better for a series based on a long-running title to cobble together an ending that feels kind of conclusive, or should they take the Witch Hat Atelier route and just stop at the point they reach in the source material? Having seen both approaches in quick succession (largely due to the fact that I was out of the office last week), I'm not sure that either is an adequate solution. Both have their merits, I suppose, and Always a Catch! did the best with what it had – and I think “what it had” was pretty darn good. We get the reassurance that Mimi and Renato are going to be fine, that Mimi has been accepted by Renato's family and the nobles of Rubini, and even her dad seems okay with the way things turned out. For a temporary (in the sense that there's more manga and novels out there) ending, it's a pretty good one.

For my money, the most important piece of it is that Duke Annovazzi finds a sort of peace with Mimi's choices. Given what he did in terms of throwing her under the bus so Teo could be his heir, I'm still not sure that he deserves that peace, but Mimi's opinion is more important than mine here, and she's pleased that he's found it. I've always been more concerned with her history than she's been, and that's an interesting position to be in. But the way she frames it in this episode is important: like Renato, she always felt at least a little burdened by the expectations of being the heir. It's not that she was unhappy with it, but it did take away her choices, much as his position did the same thing to him. Both of them, in choosing each other, found a way to assert themselves and follow their hearts. When Renato chose to denounce Aida, it was because he couldn't bring himself to marry the woman his brother loved, but also, in his heart of hearts, because he wanted to marry a woman he loved. And when Mimi packed up her skirts and moved to Rubini to study, she was doing the same thing: making a choice based solely on her wants. That these similar choices led them to each other is beautiful, not just because it's something of an ideal romance, but because they really understand each other on a deeper level. Too many romances rely on love (or lust) at first sight; this story gives us romantic interests who recognize something in each other that speaks to them.

The episode also confirms that Raimondo travels through shadows like an evil wizard, but that's less important. (Or is it?) It's not quite a series of vignettes, but it does feel like it at times, switching from wrapping up the Ireneo/Zaira storyline to the ball to Renato flashing back to why he chose to confront “Aida” back in episode one – and how he was instantly attracted to the woman he later learned was Mimi. If there's a mini-theme to this story, it's that too much pressure on children isn't a good thing, which is part of the point of both Renato's and Mimi's thoughts about their pasts. None of their parents wanted to do that to them, but they did it nonetheless. The queen is more comfortable with admitting it than the duke, possibly because everything has worked out in the end. And for a comedy, that may be introspective enough.

I wish we'd had more of the Rubinis and the Annovazzis interacting, and I'd have liked Ireneo to get a bit more resolution. I'd also have loved for those brass knuckles to have looked like actual hairpins just once, although I'll possibly overlook it for the elegant swirling of Mimi's skirt as she danced. I had fun with this show, and I'll continue to have fun with the manga (and the novels if they ever get translated). Not everything has to be a masterpiece, and this is a good example of a series that took what it had and ran with it to good effect.

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