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Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

And right there you accidentally stumbled on why I love that part of the ending. Hibiki was conceived as a very atypical Rider show and Asumu not becoming an Oni was very in line with that. I don't think it was some brilliantly planned out conclusion but the series up to that point seemed to support the idea. It fits the coming of age theme in my mind to have him try a path out only to find it isn't really his thing.

I'm largely in agreement with everyone else about Hibiki's second half and especially the finale itself but I'll defend that element of it to the death. Especially the very last scene where Hibiki sums up the point of the whole show by telling Asumu "you don't have to be an Oni to be my student" with Shounen Yo playing for the first time in several dozen episodes.

It may surprise you, but I actually agree with you. The whole point of Asumu's story was gaining self-confidence; becoming an Oni wasn't necessarily an endpoint to that. I still consider the end of episode 29 to be the show's real ending, but I did like that aspect of the apocryphal episodes.