SPOILERS AHEAD

The desire for love, how far would that make you drift in the void? Mengo Yokoyari answers with Kuzu no Honkai that it's endless. Love changes you, but love can also render you motionless. You can see in the characters of Kuzu no Honkai each of these aspects. Protagonists are the core of the story most of the times and the way the two main protagonists of this story connected itself is uncommon. They are both faced with unrequited love, and the way they find to fill in the blanks left is to comfort each other physically. They both see their beloved in place of the other and yearns for satisfaction. But both of them knows that it's not real, and the gloom never leaves them. The often spreading black color on the screen is thus symbolical of their state of minds. To complicate things, not only do they have feelings for others which they know won't get accepted, they are also targets of unrequited loves. The entire story is a tug of war between the emotions of these six. Hanabi's love is not accepted, and she's troubled by the feelings that she develop later. The one who she finds to comfort her ends up leaving her, and the one who was at her side ends up being unable to do that anymore. Mugi knows that the one he loves is not an angel, but he can't stop loving her. Ecchan and Moca are rather pure and tries their best for their love to get accepted, only to be left with nothing but sadness and a few good memories in the end. Akane find pleasure in being loved by others and taking away the love of others. Kanai, quite honestly, is insane. The only thing that connects everyone of them is the love that they hold in the heart, maybe except for Akane, who's never found the love in her heart before.

Love triangles and unrequited loves aren't uncommon in romantic anime at all though. What separates Kuzu no Honkai from everything else from the same genre is the cripplingly saddening depression it shows. You can see that Hana never becomes able to find anyone. Mugi once asks there if she was afraid to be alone, and her answer that she was always alone is simply something that shows what she has gone through. She couldn't get the person she really loved, then she didn't find the person she was able to feel okay with, and she didn't get a chance to really talk with the one who loved her the most. She couldn't move on, and when she finally gathers the courage to, she couldn't find a chance for it anymore. Throughout the story Hanabi isn't able to sort out her true feelings and mindset and ends up alone. Akane on the other hand gets everything she want, and even ends up finding something she love. She casually uses Kanai to show off her superiority to Hanabi and in the ends find her love in him and ends up marrying him. She also takes Mugi away from Hanabi and leaves her to suffer. It's laughable that Akane ends up with all fortunes while Hanabi gets mentally exhausted from everything. The saying by Buddha goes that 'desire is the root of all evil', and that fits Akane perfectly. Her behaviour of taking advantage of everything ruined quite a few people. Hanabi becomes all alone, and so does Mugi. At the very least Mugi went through a phase which satisfied him to a certain extent. When Akane walks away from Mugi finally there's rain, and you can see that it's finally washing away everything from the past. The music then is sad, and probably shows how Mugi felt. The one who was able to change Akane was Kanai and he seemed perfectly insane. Perhaps it's normal for him to say everything he said to Akane, but for an ordinary person it's questioning their sanity. No logic applies to his words except for the fact that all kinds of people exist in the world. For the other two, even though Moca wholeheartedly loved Mugi she wasn't able to receive it back, and even though Ecchan is probably the one who cared the most for their beloved she only ends up with getting nothing. The beginning of the ending song of the series really gives the feel of a song by someone who wants to escape reality and to be free from everything. And the lyrics does say almost the same thing.

I've never really seen anything that could make me passionately love and hate it at the same time before, this truly is an exception. Although there might be reasons and justifications for Akane, I can never like her, never accept her, and I will probably hate her forever. I can't make sense of Kanai. I understand Mugi, but I don't want to like him. Moca for me is a pure emotional aspect of the story. If she served any purpose, that was to enlighten Hanabi. I can only love and feel sorry for Ecchan. And I will always continue to love Hanabi. I've seen all kinds of romance stories from good to bad and happy to sad, yet there were none that was as depressing as Kuzu no Honkai. And that is exactly why I'm not going to call it a romance story. It's the coming of age story of a few people trying to find their self and sorting out their feelings.

The brillaint work of studio Lerche is not to be left unmentioned. From the beautiful visuals to the fitting voice acting, everything is done to perfection. If anything, something that is lacking for the anime is the somewhat abrupt end of the story. Still, Kuzu no Honkai is really different from the mountain of cliche romantic stories and gives a totally fresh feeling. It's sad, but it doesn't lack in beauty. It's a sad memory for me, and I'll continue loving and hating it.