although the non-Watanuki scenes could be him dreaming in third person that he's absent
I meant the bit when he sees them without the gloves he gave them, and it's sort of like they didn't know him. That makes me think the world itself would exist, with or without Watanuki.

I might be the only one in the fandom who thinks so, but if they pull it off well, I don't think it would suck if Doumeki, Himawari et al. are a dream. I like different levels of reality in my fiction, and like Watanuki himself says, that doesn't make it less important. But then again I got hooked because of the Ende-Gaarder stuff. ;P