Grow Up Show: Himawari no Circus Ep.13 - What? Maria?! Stop, that's...

Episode 12 of Grow Up Show: Himawari no Circus completes the series with pretty much the outcome I was expecting from the competition. Yes, the girls lost to Nanami, but she was impressed enough to allow them to continue their journey as a circus, and maybe have another match together in the future.

It's a classic development, and an important one considering Nanami is still Maria's sister, making her something akin to family for the girls. They also explained the reason Nanami is so obsessed with the circus: a childhood promise she made to Maria to perform in her stead.

Would you guess the small one was the old sister one all along? I couldn't believe me!

Apparently Rin keep switching outfit every few scenes, first nun, then caretaker, what's next? Is she a spy?!

Yeah, it's an old and overused trope, but I don't mind it that much because it didn't take center stage for too long, keeping the spotlight on the girls of the Himawari Circus. Nanami and Maria managed to talk as well, which should resolve their family issues.

Mizuka is now officially the leader of the group, but there's no clear picture of what Maria's role will be when she returns, assuming she does come back in the future. You might say, "Of course she would come back once healed," and believe me, I was thinking the same thing.

Then the end of the episode arrived. I was already spacing out a bit, wondering about the upcoming anime season, when they delivered that final surprise: Maria married Mizuka's dad while recovering from surgery in the US. Wait, isn't Mizuka's dad like 15+ years older than her or something?!

Overall, I think the series was good, and it's refreshing to see an original anime turn out this well. Some of the elements could've been fleshed out better, and I could talk for ages about what a jerk Mizuka's father (and his friends) was, but I still really enjoyed the journey and would recommend this to others.

The girls in the middle don't seem much impressed and I agree with them for once. What are you doing?! Stop it!

Svetlana is the fanservice center of these last few episodes. I honestly liked more the funny fanservice from Mizuka and Ouka though.

Now I'm going to take a break for a few days until the new season starts. I have quite a few series that I want to follow, and hopefully they'll deliver. Many are second seasons of shows whose light novels I've read, which will be an interesting change compared to what we've covered so far.