REVIEW: ‘Love Unseen Beneath The Clear Night Sky’ Fumbles The Ending Of A Near-Masterpiece

Love is one of, if not the most talked about, aspects of human life. It’s no wonder that wedding vows include promises to love and cherish in spite of bad times, financial ruin, poor health, and more. Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky (Toumei na Yoru ni Kakeru Kimi to, Me ni Mienai Koi o Shita) is a tragic though awe-inspiring look at what it means to truly live out love.

Directed by Joe Yoshizaki and adapted for anime by studio MAKARIA from the light novel series by Nanigashi Shima, Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky follows a group of four friends as they navigate school life until being rocked by the biggest challenge they’ve ever faced. Amid it all, true love blossoms despite the hardship around them.

Sorano Kakeru (Miyu Irino) is a quiet and shy college freshman. More than that, he’s not particularly fond of people in general. He likes to keep to himself. His roommate, Narumi Ushio (Yôhei Azakami), is, by contrast, an outgoing athletic young man and the life of the party. When Ushio drags Kakeru out to a party early in their first term, that decision changes both their lives forever.

The first half of Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky is a slow-burn romance.

At the party, they meet Hayase Yuko (Konomi Kohara) and Fuyutsuki Koharu (Saori Hayami). Yuko is the overachieving type and immediately bonds with Ushio. Sitting beside her is the more reserved Koharu, who also happens to be blind. Despite his attempts otherwise, Kakeru finds himself drawn to Koharu.

Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky is structured like a slow-burn romance for the first half of the season. The stakes are clear: Koharu is blind, and Kakeru is a grumpy old man living in an 18-year-old’s body. Still, he keeps finding himself more and more drawn to Koharu, eventually softening and looking forward to spending time with her.

Then one night, after the two spend the day together shopping and dining out, Koharu, emboldened by her growing affection for Kakeru, kisses him before they part ways. Taken aback by what just happened, Kakeru goes to Ushio and Yuko for advice. After some nudging, Kakeru professes to his friends that he’s fallen in love with Koharu and wants to date her properly. Yuko takes a video of the moment and sends it to Koharu.

In the darkest times, a person may want to give up; they may push people away, but they still need love.

When Koharu immediately ghosts Kakeru, he assumes that it’s because of the video. Yuko is apologetic, but when the truth comes out, it’s far worse than any of them could imagine. The series moves from a slow-burn romantic drama to an incredibly emotional and heartbreaking story.

Despite the turmoil and trauma, the three friends band together to do what they can. Kakeru, Ushio, and Yuko all start showing the true power of love, even if it doesn’t look the same for each character. In fact, it’s refreshing to see that Kakeru’s acts of love are completely different than Ushio’s or Yuko’s because each character has a different level of affection for her.

The message is clear: in the darkest times a person goes through, they may want to give up; they may push people away, but they still need love. Even when things look bleak, Koharu’s friends still show her love and, in the process, even help a lot of others in need of love too.

The epilogue completely ruins everything that came before it.

An incredibly important thing that Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky does is show the perspective of Koharu’s blindness instead of only focusing on the world as the rest of the characters are able to perceive it. When the narrative calls for it, the series switches the art direction and style to show the much less detailed, overly white vision Koharu describes.

Instead of sympathizing with Koharu, the audience empathizes with her because they’re not merely hearing about her blindness but seeing it in real time. Even more importantly, they never treat her blindness like something that makes her less than. Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky affords Koharu the dignity of being a person first while her blindness is an important but secondary component of her character.

Unfortunately, as good as Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky is, the anime completely botches the ending. So many important, tear-jerking moments in the first 11.9 episodes get completely undermined by the epilogue. Honestly, the series would have benefited from stopping just short of the epilogue and letting the credits roll.

Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky is a powerful, profound look at true love.

Instead, Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky cramps an additional 25-30 years of story into a single montage at the end of the finale, which takes away from the amazing, slower storytelling of the rest of the series. More than that, the anime sets audiences up for one incredibly emotional moment at the end of the series but doesn’t deliver it. For a series that’s almost perfect in every other way, the ending takes away its most impactful element right at the last minute.

Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky is a powerful, profound look at true love. While examining love from multiple angles, the anime sets up what could have and should have been an enormous finale with gargantuan depth. Instead, Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky pulled a punch at the eleventh hour and refused greatness right before its grandest moment.

Love Unseen Beneath The Clear Night Sky is streaming now on Crunchyroll.