It’s last call, so before closing time, let’s take one final look at the escapades of the employees of Wagnaria in this review of the third season of Working!!~

A lot has happened over the course of the first two seasons, but the subplots that always got lion’s share of the focus were Souta and Inami’s unique relationship, as well as Yachiyo, Kyouko, and Satou’s love triangle of sorts. If you take into account the special, Lord of the Takanashi, both of these situations finally found themselves a resolution, and overall, I think that things ended quite nicely.

Whether it was Souta’s crossdressing, his family’s involvement in the relationship, Inami’s jerk of a dad, or any number of other hurdles, there was a lot thrown at those two, and even though this can’t quite compare to Kyouko x Yachiyo x Souta in my eyes, their story was still very enjoyable and a nice distraction from what was happening elsewhere. I was never really a huge fan of Souta, but Inami more than made up for that. These two were nice and all, but I probably speak for most people when I say that the real attraction was that other relationship….

The writing was on the wall, but the yuri suffered a slow, painful death over the course of the series, and by the time that Yachiyo and Satou finally became an item, I was just relieved that it was put out of its misery. In all actuality, it feels as though the flirting the series did with yuri may have only been to spice up their particular storyline, but for me, it was still the overall highlight of the series. It was bittersweet to see how things played out over the course of the season, and even though I knew that the inevitable was coming, I was still holding out hope that it could be avoided somehow.

Like maybe stopping just short of showing Yachiyo reciprocating Satou’s feelings and just letting the viewer assume (or not) that they made it official, but that wasn’t the case. That said, I think the entire situation was handled pretty well, and it definitely could have been far worse, so at least there’s that. At the very least, Kyouko was finally assertive and cared enough about Yachiyo to let her go, so that was especially nice to see. I don’t really have any problems with Yachiyo and Satou getting together, but it’s yet another instance in which potential yuri romance doesn’t get a happy ending. That seems to happen far too often.

It wasn’t all a het lovefest, however. Other characters have their moments in complementary roles, and the overall chemistry between the cast is as good as ever. In various ways, many of the characters grow and make progress towards their individual goals, whatever those may be. Despite the two couples getting the most attention, it doesn’t feel like the others were neglected at all, so the act of balancing screen time amongst everyone was very well done. Not only that, loose ends of the story were tied up and seemingly everyone got a proper conclusion to their story. If you weren’t interested in either of the burgeoning relationships, you might not have enjoyed this season as much as prior ones, though I don’t think it can be argued that there was still plenty to like.

So even though the yuri was kicked in the liver so to speak, the constant was always these compelling characters and the entertaining situations they find themselves in. The only thing that comes to mind that I would have liked to have seen changed was Maya’s continued lack of involvement, but that’s the most minor of issues, and overall, it’s hard to ask for anything more from a final season.

Despite the nearly four-year gap between the second season and the third season, I didn’t particularly notice a very big difference in the quality of the visuals. Well, the series was never eye candy to begin with, and it never did look bad, so I guess it falls in line with expectations and there’s no need to continue talking about it.

Just like the previous seasons, the playful tone of the background music returned, but with the culmination of the characters’ love journeys, there were also some more pleasant and easygoing musical moments that were a nice break from the norm. More often than not, I don’t really notice the background music in most of the slice of life anime I watch, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It’s usually out of sight and out of mind—and Working!!! is no exception—so I’m not sure what else is left to be said.

All in all, this is an excellent way to close out the series. Yeah, the relatively minor yuri was ultimately tossed aside, but other than that, the characters shone as brightly as ever, and from a story perspective, almost everyone was treated to a satisfying resolution. It’s not the best slice of life anime I’ve seen or anything, but what Working!!! served up sticks to your ribs and leaves you craving more.