don't let my 'completed' on this fool you: i'm never wrapping this game up and i'm never seeing the ending. i don't know how this ends, and i don't want to. in my world, boku's going to get that ultimate wish and live out a truly endless summer as long as i have a say in it. he's going to draw pictures and catch bugs and sit on logs and explore the sunflower fields for as long as his little heart can take it, until his smile sticks on his face for good.

ozu's 'good morning' and home movies of the summer of your first kiss, wrapped in a deep embrace in a sleeping bag surrounded by the buzzing of the august cicadas. this is one of the games i started learning japanese with the hopes of playing and now that i'm here, i can say it was worth all that work. this is the grateful dead's 'ripple' of video games - one of the few genuinely perfect, genuinely, overabundantly loving and tender experiences in its medium. truly in the league of katamari damacy and earthbound in that regard. just dear... just precious.