Final Year and Graduation

In their last year of high school, the founding members balance entrance exams, future plans and a determination to give Azusa and the club a proper send-off.

The emotional climax of the core manga arrives as Yui, Mio, Ritsu and Mugi enter their third and final year. University entrance exams loom, forcing the perpetually carefree Yui in particular to confront responsibility, and the group must decide what their futures hold. Throughout, a quiet melancholy threads beneath the comedy: the girls are acutely aware that their time together as Ho-kago Tea Time is ending and that Azusa, a year younger, will remain at Sakuragaoka without them. Much of this section is devoted to making memories deliberately, writing and performing songs as parting gifts, especially numbers dedicated to Azusa. The four seniors apply together to the same university so they can stay close, a decision that captures the series' central belief that the friendships formed in the club matter more than any single performance. Graduation provides a tender, tear-stained finale in which the band plays one last time for their underclassman. It is a celebration of everything the slow, gentle slice-of-life format has built: not dramatic stakes, but the genuine ache of leaving behind a place and people you love.