Out of nowhere, Yui reveals that she was almost raped in middle school. Boy, I didn’t see that coming. I wonder if there’s something like Godwin’s law but for storytelling and rape. Oh no, interest is fading fast! What can I do to get people’s attention again? I know! RAPE.
No, no, I get it: the rape backstory explains why she has a fear for men. You’d think, however, that her trauma is serious enough that a simple kick to the balls wouldn’t fix everything, and maybe it doesn’t! Maybe Yui will still find herself uncomfortable around the opposite sex in later episodes. But if that’s really the case, then what did this episode accomplish?
Anyway, I dropped Oda Nobuna no Yabou from the list, because I just can’t bear the ridiculous charade anymore. History deserves better. Moyashimon Returns and Tari Tari are also missing, but I’m not opposed to them returning to the list next week. I just never got around to watching their episodes. You can blame Guild Wars 2 for that. In fact, I don’t know what I’m going to do when the game finally does launch (in about a month’s time).
As a reminder, I’m ranking shows by how much they interest me. I am not ranking these shows by their supposed quality.
* * * * *
13. Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate — Last week: 14
At the moment, this has to be the most boring show of the season (that I am watching). The trashier harem shows will at least revel in their depravity. Chocolate doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s either a romantic comedy or a critique of the electoral process, but at the moment, it just does neither well. Hell, that’s an understatement. Chocolate barely even registers a pulse.
* * * * *
12. Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai — Last week: 15
The same thing happens every week: an enemy gets the upper hand on Lisara, she reluctantly accepts the harem lead’s horniness, she wins, so on and so forth. The only difference is that you might get to glimpse a different pair of boobs in every new episode. It’s like watching Star Driver all over again, but there’s no hip shake to save the day.
* * * * *
11. Hagure Yuusha no Estetica — Last week: 16
One of these days, a plot’s going to emerge. One of these days… in the meantime: “Just smile more. And scowl more. And cry more. If you do that, then the High School sector will naturally become a place where you belong.” Deep. Deep shit.
* * * * *
10. Campione! — Last week: 11
Of all the narrative techniques you can employ, infodumping has to be the laziest method of storytelling out there. At least do something interesting with the visuals. Maybe the talking heads could banter in front of a visually-arresting background. Perhaps you could frame the scene in a way that adds characterization to the participants. I’m not saying that my ideas are original or groundbreaking, but unless I’m mistaken, anime is a visual medium, yes? You should probably tell a story through visuals then, yes? Unfortunately, two talking heads are exactly what we got this week. It’s as if the animators just decided to give up after the showdown between Athena (who’s apparently a loli-ish character) and Erica. The only halfway interesting thing about this week’s ending is that Erica probably isn’t Erica judging by the cut on the back of her hand.
* * * * *
9. Arcana Famiglia — Last week: 12
Sealed memories, orphans, human experimentation — this week’s theme is angst! One of the pretty boys has a painful past, because you just can’t win the girl without life first taking a massive dump on your childhood. Anything else would just be, pfft, unrealistic. Ahem, this is all just fanfiction fodder for shippers anyway. These shows are more like sandboxes for ravenous fans. Is the show faffing because a second season is just on the horizon? Maybe. Or maybe the show never really wanted to give us the goods. Instead, we are supplied with the tools necessary to craft the next 90-chaptered Liberta/Chickpea slashfic. Oh wait, that would be too mainstream….
And yes, there are still no signs whatsoever of the tournament that would decide Felicita’s fate.
* * * * *
8. Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita — Last week: 7
I kept waiting for the episode to deliver the savage blow to manga that it seemed to be building up to, but the moment never materialized. Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita is just very literal about its observations. Whatever criticism you can currently make about manga, you will see it played out in this week’s episode. Unfortunately, the absurdity or cynicism never ramps up from there. The result is a deconstruction that doesn’t really amount to any satisfying conclusion. The show refuses to offer any additional insight that isn’t already readily apparent to anyone immersed in the animanga subculture. What we have is thus self-referential masturbation: “Look how aware I am about the problems inherent within my subculture!” Yeah, well, what about it? People have been making the same criticisms for a long time now. Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita lacks that extra step that would make it truly incisive.
* * * * *
7. Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse — Last week: 8
What a complete bait-and-switch job. First, lure us in with the the spectacle of bloodied shoujos and gruesome violence, then pile us high with generic mecha action and mundane interpersonal drama. There are a billion series out there that can do mecha better than Muv-Luv. I want to see annoying characters die. I want that feeling of utter despair and hopelessness that permeated the entirety of the second episode; it almost reminded me of Mass Effect — almost. On the other hand, I don’t want to watch the asshole lead chase a loli around until she finds her goddamn teddy bear.
Also, sudden anti-Japanese sentiment.
* * * * *
6. Sword Art Online — Last week: 3
A few disconnects in this week’s episode render the story just short of tragic. First, if the girl is really that afraid of dying, then why even bother? Why even go on quests? Why not just wait for some poopsocker to get the job done and save everyone?
Secondly, you need not look further than Diablo 3 to see how players actually cope with the finality of death. Players will overfarm until their brains turn to mush. Is this the second week in a row that we’re farming goblins? Why yes, yes it is. When do they attempt progression, they play extra cautiously and avoid any dangerous situations that aren’t mandatory. They do not assume that they are simply ready for a dungeon when they’ve only been doing easy grinding. They do not dive into a suspicious room to open a random chest. As a result, when they do eventually die, death stings even more.
You tried so hard to be careful, but you met your end anyway due to a fluke (in case you couldn’t tell, the guy’s follower warped to his side at the last second instead of eating the enemy’s projectile). Dammit. In Sword Art Online, however, people meet their end because they’re just plain-fucking-stupid. It’s really hard to care for idiocy.
Finally, characters meet their end just as soon as you get to know them. Besides last week’s heroine and Klein, everyone gets just fifteen minutes in the spotlight then immediately bite the dust. It’s not that I can’t sympathize with Kirito for his failure to protect this week’s girl-we-are-destined-to-forget, but the anime is doing itself a disfavor by giving the audience such a short time to connect with its characters. Stories with a little more guts are not afraid to kill off characters that viewers have gotten attached to. That keeps you at the edge of your seat. In Sword Art Online‘s case, the deaths are ho-hum.
I would’ve also liked for the anime to elaborate more on how higher-level players tend to withhold information from the rest of the player base. I used to be in a guild that would deliberately camp mobs it no longer needed drops from just to prevent the rest of the server from getting their fair share. Why did I join them? Well, as they say, if you can’t beat’em…. Social interactions in MMOs are not always fun and games. This week’s episode briefly broaches the topic, but as with everything else, Sword Art Online takes only a cursory look at some rather interesting scenarios inherent to the MMO genre.
* * * * *
5. Binbou-gami ga! — Last week: 4
I didn’t find this episode all that funny. Yeah, yeah, it wasn’t supposed to be funny, but the anime’s attempts at drama didn’t really do anything for me.
* * * * *
4. Eureka Seven: AO — Last week: 5
All of a sudden, it’s en vogue for anime to mute the dialogue completely at critical moments in the narrative. Y’see, this makes everything even more mysterious and poetic! Actually, no. Y’know that emotional scene at the end of Lost in Translation? What did Bill Murray whisper to Scarlett Johansson anyway? The technique works there because it doesn’t really matter what he said. After watching the unlikely couple connect for an entire movie, the sentimentality of the moment can be conveyed through the visuals alone. Naru, however, isn’t whispering something sentimental to Ao. The anime is simply withholding a critical plot point from the audience just because. The result is a show that’s trying too hard.
I like the new OP though.
* * * * *
3. Kokoro Connect — Last week: 6
This week’s episode swings wildly from comedy to “I was almost raped!” The haphazard tone feels inauthentic, and whenever you’re inauthentic about a subject matter as serious as rape (fuck Daniel Tosh), it feels exploitative. Anyway, you don’t solve years of androphobia by just kicking somebody in the balls. That’s just not how it works. The result of Kokoro Connect quick-fix solution is that it makes light of a problem that many women do face everyday.
Also, I really hope we’re not bodyswapping just to demonstrate how the women in our lives are always mere seconds away from a hysterical breakdown. Unfortunately, all of the hints regarding Iori’s situation just seem to reinforce the dichotomy that the guys are cooler than they appear and the girls all have issues.
On the plus side, the anime is finally getting serious for once.
* * * * *
2. Natsuyuki Rendezvous — Last week: 2
This show is getting better by the week. Why aren’t you watching it?
* * * * *
1. Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru! — Last week: 1
Incestuous and hetero-normative? Damn, just exactly how deep does the rabbitshit hole go? This week’s episode has got to be the most egregious example of homophobia to recently grace anime. For those who haven’t seen the episode, two of the girls are afraid that the rich harem lead might actually be gay. They thus set out to “fix” him by pretending to be his imouto. ‘Cause, y’know, homosexuality is an incorrect choice and you can simply seduce people back to “normality.” I won’t deny that this train wreck makes for one of the more compelling anime this season to watch, but still, this episode was tough to stomach.
* * * * *
Your moment of zen:
No words…
…are necessary.
It’s really interesting how different perspectives are. I consider the characters of ChocoKoi fairly amusing, and their interaction interesting. On the other hand, Imouto ga Iru put me to sleep in the middle of the first episode as a total borefest.
I find Imouto‘s characters fairly psychotic, which gives the ol’ harem genre a bit of a twist.
Going a bit off topic, how was your gw2 experience ?? Did you like the new races and what class did you play as? Nice review btw
I thought the asura were ugly. Not sure I’ll be playing that race at launch. I tried out the sylvari, and I guess they were okay. Their personal stories didn’t enthrall me, but neither did anybody else’s, it seems. I dunno, I guess it’s boring, but I usually play as the human race in MMOs. For this BWE, I tried to understand the in’s and out’s of the mesmer class. I like the idea of the class, but I think there are serious problems about the class that will seriously hinder it in PvP. I won’t write a treatise here though.
The female asura looks alright, least they don’t look like goblins. I think the Charr personal story was pretty interesting, a lot of arguments and decisions.
The mesmer is a very interesting class, I suppose you have to trial and error for traits to have a decent build for PvP . Haha maybe do a posts about gw2! that would be something interesting and looking forward to ;)
Yeah, but my girlfriend frowns on me playing a female character.
It’s probably the best out of the five races (with Norn ranking at the bottom for me). I just wish all the male Charrs didn’t pretty much talk with the same rough inflection.
Are you saying that my other posts aren’t interesting and worth looking forward to?! *shock*
>I would’ve also liked for the anime to elaborate more on how higher-level players tend to withhold information from the rest of the player base.
They are not actively withholding it, though they are not doing much to spread it either. Due to the fact that they can’t log out, the only ways to learn anything is through experience, NPC gossip and hearsay. Thus there are people who have taken the “job” of information brokers (like the girl with the rat whiskers we briefly saw). The top players have the most money > they get the most information > they farm most efficiently > they have the most money.
When people literally die over whether or not they have accurate information, higher level players have a moral obligation to spread what they know. So you might be right that they’re not actively withholding it, but still, it’s pretty shitty not to actively help others survive.
Yeah, if I were in SAO, I’d be that ass-hole who just goes off in the woods and doesn’t do jack shit, knowing that someone’ll succeed in getting the entire thing broken open again so that my consciousness can go home. Coat-tails all the way, baby.
I’m loving Arcana Famiglia, but this week’s episode was pretty bad. It just lacked that extra spark of stupid necessary to make me find the tragic past entertainingly cheesey instead of just boring.
Past show you should do a post on (because you ignored my previous suggestion!): Elfen Bride. And if no hentai, fine, hmph, then Hanasakeru Seishounen.
I answered you! Who wants to see a fair skin, i.e. light skin, competition?
As for Hanasakeru Seishounen, well, this doesn’t sound horrible:
But Sakamichi no Apollon first!
But you want to see it because it sucks!
Also, whoever wrote that description of Hanasakeru Seishounen was giving it way too much credit. I’m just gonna say, the lead girl in it is attracted to this dude because he reminds her of her dead pet leopard.
Dude should’ve reminded her of Def Leppard.
“Out of nowhere, Yui reveals that she was almost raped in middle school. Boy, I didn’t see that coming”
Sarcasm, or failure on your part to read the signs?
“You’d think, however, that her trauma is serious enough that a simple kick to the balls wouldn’t fix everything,”
It does not and the episode shows that she is getting better, but is not “cured”.
“But if that’s really the case, then what did this episode accomplish?”
To steer her in the right direction.
Maybe the issues should be developed more, in one ep it tries to wrap the androphobia business in one go. There might be chances Yui’s problem would be revisited but it has to wait due to the line up of the rest of the characters problems.
As much as I’m loving Kokoro and didn’t find the androphobia episode that bad, I agree it could have been developed more. All of the problems except Inaban’s could have been turned into a whole slew of episodes instead of just one.
Iori’s gets revisited in the latest one, but Yui’s was easily the most serious and is getting the least coverage. Mind you, it’s likely because they are setting up a bit of a love struggle between Taichi, Iori and Inaban (who so far has been giving rather kinky endings to the last few episodes).
Sword Art Online is suffering from the same problem, in the sense that it’s moving way to damn fast. There’s nothing wrong with slowing down and taking a few episodes to deal with a single problem.
It’s strange. I find Arcana’s fourth episode it’s strongest so far, while Kokoro Connect… well, I do think that you are being harsher on it than other shows.
Anyway, would you be doing the Harem Hill again? You know, if you really dislike Kokoro Connect, perhaps you should also put it into the Harem Hill Rankings, since it’s seems that with Episode 3, Taichi’s gathering a harem around him. (=
I focus on the negatives. When a show is decent-ish or better, people will extol its many qualities. There’s no point in me repeating the same exact thing everyone else is saying.
With Kokoro Connect, I see a strong premise being wasted, and I have to admit that I find that a little annoying.
Check back in a couple hours.
I never said I disliked it.
Hohoho, it takes me long enough to do a single Harem Hill post as it is.
Esthetica is even worst at wasting it’s premise than Kokoro Connect IMO.
Ultimately, Kokoro Connect, Tari Tari and indeed Chocolate lives and dies on Characterization. If they FAIL at that, the show falls apart. The trick of course, is not to turn their stories from Dramas to Melodramas, and that’s often a very fine, and subjective line to toe.
Rendezvous is good- enough said, but ambiance wise, it has all the feel of Apollon.
Just like how the first episode Bimbouni Ga reminded me of Haiyore Nyaruko.
Muv Luv : TE seems to be a testing of the waters. It shows. Alot. It’s the symmetrical opposite of Muv Luv – Extra (both are generic exemplars of opposing genres). Which I find quite ironic. That being said, the Animesuki thread burst into flames over whether Yui or Yuuya were more in the right, for some strange reason.
SAO’s pacing issues again affect it. Still, if they are going by the chronological approach, it should start slowing down soon. SAO is very tricky to adapt in an anime format, because of the way the LN was written.
Still, it seems that the anime has done wonders for the LN sales, so we’d likely see the later novels in anime format, with none of the big pacing issues in the second and third episode.
Well, that depends on whether or not one takes Estetica‘s premise seriously, but we’ve had that discussion before.
I’m not sure what this means. Is that supposed to be a bad thing?
For the sake of the fans, they better hope A-1 doesn’t get the rights again. ;v
“Rendezvous is good- enough said, but ambiance wise, it has all the feel of Apollon.”
It’s a good thing – Apollon was a good show, a contender for the best of last season, but Rendezvous is generally in the same category of shows with the likes of Apollon.
However, in the Romance Category, it’s a rather rare and dying breed. Let’s face it, most anime romances begin before the confession, and end at the confession. A few brave souls go beyond the confession, and actually explore what it means to be in a relationship. Even fewer go beyond Marriage.
Rendezvous has the impressive and laudable cheek to kick of the story beyond the point Clannad After-story reached. So, the female MC has gone passed the confession, relationship, marriage and being untimely widowed. Now what?
“For the sake of the fans, they better hope A-1 doesn’t get the rights again. ;v”
The later novels are much easier to adapt. Though I suspect half a decade from now, they’ll retell the entire Aincrad Arc in 50+ episode, since the author himself plans on Rewriting the entire First Arc in detailed chronological order in a new set of books called “Sword Art Online: Progressive.” -, as opposed to a series of scattered Side Stories (and one Main Plot) . I have a suspicion that if the anime does better later on, it might well be remembered like the first Full Metal Alchemist adaptation.
I think it’s too early to throw stones at A-1 yet. It cleared most viewers 3 episode test, it seems, so the next hurdle would likely be the state of the adaptation and the One Cour mark, where the issues plaguing the first half cour hopefully would be absent. Once the plot becomes continuous (ie: No Time-skips), that’s really when SAO adaptation will either Shine, or perish.
For me, the verdict is still out.
While I do enjoy the show, the fact that the romance has progressed beyond these events you list neither surprises or impresses me. Good stories don’t adhere to this trope-driven narrative that seems to captivate a lot of people’s mind as to what constitutes proper storytelling. It’s too bad that a lot of people actually believe a story is just a shuffling of various generic tropes until something half-assed finally falls out.
In other words, I think reading TVTropes is fun when taken with a grain of salt, but I think it’s sad when people try to describe their stories in terms of just the tropes they utilized. For example:
“This Dark Chick is a Bully Hunter with a case of Dark Is Not Evil and Loners Are Freaks, but despite her friendliness, she is rather aloof and of course, her “darkness” intimidates others. She, too, had been bullied, and had lost a friend to such torment, leading to her Start of Darkness.”
So yeah, thank God Natsuyuki Rendezvous isn’t some boring buildup to a played-out confession.
Well, I’m not the one currently up in arms about A-1’s creative liberty. Granted, I think the show barely musters an average rating, at this point, but the fact that they’ve edited the original story isn’t really my beef with the anime.
My point on Novelty perhaps could be rephrased in another perspective:
Romantic shows in anime sadly cluster around certain low hanging fruits, and the overmined Pre-Confession phase.
Because Rendezvous choose such a little tread field, it’s easier for it to be more “original”. There are less rubbish stories for it to unconsciously rip off.
The Pre-confession field unfortunately has been over-run by too many terrible, generic, boring, cliched harems and uninspiring Rom-coms. That’s why romance set before a Confession have a harder time of being as good as Rendezvous. For every Apollon, you get five Harem Hill entrants at least. For every Rendezvous, you don’t get that same kind of rubbish- probably because that field hasn’t been very extensively tapped out, there are no Lowest Common Denominator Pandering cliches to tap out off, there’s alot of unexplored ground and directions,etc.
I think the common factor here is maturity. Apollon and Rendezvous has a rather…. more realistic, less escapist take on the nature of Romantic relationships. Interestingly, I’d say that Mysterious Girl Friend X has more in common with such animes than those Teenage Juvenile Rom-Com fantasies, with bridges and entire relationship tunnels to nowhere.
So ultimately, I won’t be surprised if Good stories cluster around certain premises, in part because so little feels tired, well trodden on or overmined. I am of the view that even Rendezvous is “trope” filled, and if the field it was on was more crowded, certainly victim to some cliches. But ultimately, the execution is good and the premise fresh, and that’s a winner. And it has a benefit of having few stories with the same premise. The more a premise is tapped out, odds are, the more difficult it is to be original, and the more writers may be constrained to the cliches over-running the field.
Generic Tropes are anyway frequently recurring story patterns that have been used so often, that it feels very derivative, and it would take a very good author, or a thorough pounding deconstruction to avoid that. Else, they won’t be generic. Mind you, most of the Harem tropes would be considered rarities if not for the existence of the Harem Otaku Sub-culture.
The Harem Hill exist because it’s built upon a Rubbish Heap of an overused, tapped out genre that I think many are hoping will soon collapse, and be discredited.
That of course, doesn’t detract from the fact that Rendezvous smells fresh because it’s in relatively fresh ground. Now, if there were 60 anime stories in the past decade on the same premise as Rendezvous on the other hand….
I’ve never said that stories can avoid tropes altogether. My only contention is that proper storytelling doesn’t worry about whether or not it contains such-and-such tropes. As a result, we don’t have the rigid sort of narrative that often plagues anime. Lazy storytelling seemingly begins by mapping out a list of tropes that the story must satisfy, then filling in the details later. Identifying tropes in our stories isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. Unfortunately, people fail to take the extra step in realizing that a trope-driven narrative is not be lauded unless it can be done in a subversive wall, which is a tall order by itself.
Granted. Rendezvous story telling is very organic and spontaneous, to it’s credit.
But, if there were 60 other animes like it in the span of the last 5 or 10 years, things might be different (=
If there were 60 anime series with organic and spontaneous storytelling, we would start begging for harems?
No. I mean if there were 60 Josei Stories animated in the space of 5 years, ALL of them revolving variations of a Widower or Divocee finding love again. At that point, the quality of such stories will likely start dropping, and lesser stories would be organic and spontaneous.
Actually, this leads on to an interesting thought: can Harem be Organic and Spontaneous? Well, I think Clannad managed to do that, though granted, the field wasn’t as crammed with a hundred clones and rip offs just five years ago.
“Widower or Divocee finding love again” is a reductionist way of looking at Natsuyuki Rendezvous, and this is what I’m trying to get at when I say that people are too unnecessarily caught up in identifying tropes. We try to simplify and categorize storytelling elements far too much. This constrains the art of storytelling and leads to your example of “60 Josei stories.”
In any case, Rendezvous seems to be that kind of story that’d could just as easily be an adequate Live Action Drama. I guess more appropriately, how does Rendezvous stack up against similar stories (with similar aims and themes) outside the anime medium itself?
Aside from the incessant voiceovers on Hazuki’s part, I think the story could translate well to any other medium.
Hmm, interesting, Yes it will translate well, but when compared to similar stories in other mediums, would it work well as a drama? Say, a Korean Drama, for instance?
Just thinking. Doubtlessly, Rendezvous is a very strong show, but it’s up against a very sparse field in anime
I wouldn’t be the right person to ask. I abhor Korean dramas. Their movies are okay, but good lord, I cannot stand their TV series.
I don’t think I’ll be able to take her seriously if a nutshot solved all of her problems. In fact, why are some problems already being tackled anyway? If they’re starting on the main groups issues right now, it seems like they’d only have enough content for like…5 more episodes, maybe…?
Also, it seems like a hero just isn’t a hero without a gigantic sword….
With Binbou, I’m just wondering why they’d start out so funny with the first episodes and immediately transition into trying to be taken seriously. I mean yeah, that was in the first episode, but it was done on top of the comedy whereas this just seemed like it was…well like you said, drama. It makes me wonder if this is going to turn into person of the week until she ends up with a bunch of friends we never meet again…or that somehow help her do something later. I dunno. Whatever it is, though, I can’t say I won’t be sticking with it to find out. I still definitely like the show.
SAO still hasn’t made me feel like the deaths of any of the characters have been any different than someone trying to use the example of “People are dying in xxxxx over there!” People are just people if you don’t know them, and so far we still haven’t really “known” very many of the characters. Not even Kirito, really. I suppose the only character they’ve taken at least a little time introducing was Klein and I don’t know if he dies or not, but I feel like with how they’ve done this so far, that’s the only character they can kill and expect us to feel certain way about it.
Arcana honestly feels like I’m starting at episode 10 of some extremely long show or something. It’s like they expect us to know all of the characters and we’re supposed to go forward in a bunch of arcs as they take their sweet time introducing characters’ backstories every once in a while. I don’t know what this is adapted from, but I feel like it’s just plain…missing something. It’s like we suddenly have a bunch of people and we don’t even know why we’re supposed to care.
Jinrui is just…itself. I think I might start to just go ahead and watch this every 2 weeks just so I can feel like every episode is completed. It’s weird though. This week it’s like they took two episodes and then, like you said, didn’t even really give it a punchline. Or if there was one, it certainly wasn’t as…uh…jarring as skinned chickens trying to take over the world….
Also, I think I’m at my limit with “Nobuna-chan” too. Seriously, I think I’m going to develop a permanant eye tick from all of the cringing from these ridiculous tsundere hijinks from characters with almost no traits apart from that characterization. I mean I know they were trying to make this appeal to what its main audience is used to, but seeing someone who’s supposed to be at least some kind of powerful figure flake over some random due trying to marry her and then to have the show try and tell the audience that women aren’t tools for conquest…? It just seems to not know what it wants. It’s basically flooding us with messages that women can’t do anything without someone else and it’s just stupid.
Iknowrite?
My thing with the show is that I find it appealing through its relentless energy. When the show gets serious though, all of that energy goes out the window. I actually get sleepy when I watch the show try to take itself seriously.
My big beef with the show is that it’s just so as-a-matter-of-fact. Where’s the savage cynicism? As you said it yourself, where’s the punchline?
I don’t have much to add to everything else you said.
After watching the first episode, my greatest problem with the main male is that he isn’t subtle. A couple of years back there was a HK drama I watched with a similar plot. The MC was sent back in time (and trapped there) in the Warring States Period. In order to survive, he had to learn how to fit into court politics before he help in the rise of Qin Shihuangdi.
In Oda Nabuna, the MC is given a free ticket to Nobuna’s court (save the girl stuff) and influences the story by impressing celebrities with his future knowledge.
Ironic thing is that while it makes for a frustrating viewing experience, I would probably behave the same fanboy-ish way if I were transported to my favorite historical era.
So yeah, I’m kind of behind on a lot of shows. So I can’t comment on too many. In fact. I probably shouldn’t comment at all since
Imouto is still amazingly #1 and you put Binbougami-Ga at #5. But you’re cool, so I’m doing it anyways :pI still need to catch up to Natsuyuki. I am probably not going to catch up to Tari Tari. I watched the first two eps, was eh, planned on watching Ep 3, but I have a nice list of shows I want to catch up on (Natsuyuki, Eureka Seven AO, Accel World, Muv-Luv, Humanity, Kokoro).
I think I just have two questions for you (no, make that three)
1. What are the chances Chocolate will be in your rankings next week
2. Is it safe to say that you will be sticking with Arcana until the end
3. When you said this:
“Stories with a little more guts are not afraid to kill off characters that viewers have gotten attached to. That keeps you at the edge of your seat. In Sword Art Online‘s case, the deaths are ho-hum.”
This is SAO’s biggest problem: the characters. I really can’t care for any one of them. I mean, I think even if Kirito dies, I…would say dang and move on. I’m starting to think Ep 1 was a trap; I find the show hasn’t been as attention grabbing since then. Agree or disagree?
That last Binbougami-Ga episode was pretty weak. And c’mon, you can’t tell me you’re not curious to see how ridiculous Imouto gets?
The less buzz there is for the show, the more cryptic my posts will get. It’s like, “Only a few people want to comment? Fine, I’ll make sure nobody comments.”
As long as I can finish an episode of the any anime, it’ll be on the list. Unfortunately, I watch Chocolate for Harem Hill, so it’ll always be on this list. Well, I could always drop it from Harem Hill…
Not really, but it is rather inoffensive. It just happens to be incredibly bland at the same time.
I dunno, maybe. If any show’s a trap, I’d point to Muv-Luv. I didn’t personally think the first episode of SAO was all that strong anyway. People keep thinking that my interest in the show means I think the show is any good when I’ve repeatedly said that I only watch the show because I play MMOs. I will also add that the first episode wasted a lot of potential in my mind.