Forum - View topicREVIEW: Say "I love you." Blu-Ray
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I totally agree. It needed more time to flesh out the cast more. But even with its short running time, Yamato acts like an oblivious jerk so much it gets annoying. He apologises and says he understands her now then goes and ignores her again, making her feel inadequate once more. Geez does that boy learn slow.
She was a good heroine. Pretty by-the-book in terms of concept but the execution of her personality and fears/trauma was well done. She was convincing in how emotionally stunted she was, and it wasn't easy for her to learn to open up to people. I really felt for her (plus she had some spunk which is always nice to see). That said, I did laugh at the gag with the killer cookies.
Oh god yes. I wanted to get a pair of scissors and get to work on that dead possum on top of his head. |
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king 47
 Posts: 264 |
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This show is not the type of show that I would like, but surprisingly I did enjoy it.
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kakoishii
Posts: 741 |
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I wish I would've liked Say I Love You, since shoujo offerings from season to season are so paltry, but this was such a sad offering.
For me, no one was likable. I get being an introvert. I'm an introvert. But Mei is not an engaging heroine. She was suffering from serious Bella Swan syndrome where everyone was inexplicably drawn to her for no good reason. If you want me to care about your problems and root for you, you've gotta work for it, and Mei didn't do that. She just kind of floated by through the narrative without really changing. And though the review notes that as a positive aspect of her character, I don't see how. I wasn't looking for a total 180, but at the same time there has to be a reason why she suddenly has a boyfriend and friends by the end of the series but neither of those things in the beginning of the series when she's virtually the same person from beginning to end. How does that work? And Yamato just came off looking incredibly slimy. "Too nice" are not the right words here. There was something seriously wrong with him, and the show suffers because it's never explored. This show would have been infinitely better if everyone's psyche was properly explored because just about everyone in the main cast and the periphery are a bunch of head cases. |
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Sylpher3
Posts: 85 |
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I’m a fan of shoujo anime (Skip Beat, Kimi ni Todoke), but I very much disliked this one. The fault lies with the characters: Mei is, except for the first episode, a completely passive and spineless girl full of insecurities and angst whose existence is only defined by her boyfriend while Yamato is a possessive, condescending jerk with anger management issues who treats Mei like a pet in a restaurant and doesn’t learn from the consequences of his choices (like the modeling gig).
I also didn’t like the fact that every outsider started to meddle in their relationship but I guess in hindsight it was necessary for the show, since the most boring scenes came from when the two were together. They have zero chemistry or compatibility with each other, which are pretty much the most fundamental part of shoujo series. Each time they walked home there was this aura of discomfort, fear, restraint and they hardly talked to each other or had fun. I never understood why they actually were a couple. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2656 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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I can see how it could be difficult to understand this as a positive. I, as a person who spent my school years in terror of being noticed or forced to participate in social activities, always hated the sort of story where the shy, introverted heroine just needed friends to show her how awesome being social all the time was to completely turn her character around. It felt, and feels, very inauthentic to me and also like an invalidation of being a shy introvert to begin with. Mei opening up to a few people but not the whole world felt very realistic to me. I'd say she's more Fanny Price from Jane Austen's Mansfield Park than Bella Swan. |
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puppy1843e
 Posts: 101 |
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I remember watching this as it aired. It's a sweet and lighthearted romance anime, nothing too deep or noteworthy. But it does what it set out to do right at least. I'll have to re-watch it to see if I wanna buy.
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asckj1
Posts: 46 |
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Sums it up nicely. Never really enjoyed these kinds of shoujo anime in the first place. Kids trying to act mature and cool and doing "it" just to feel secure, safe and connected to their partenr. ugh... but then Probably that is the mindset of an average teenager I guess. There's absolutely nothing that stands out in this anime really. quiet surprised as to why such a story got animated in the first place. There are many more shoujo genre manga out there which can be adapted to anime form like for eg. a second season for Skip Beat!, Dengeki Daisy, Akagami no Shirayuki Hime, Shinobi Life. |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2324 |
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I remember seeing a theme of "A lot of people out there will be little more than fair-weather friends to you... but not all of them." Did anyone else get that sense?
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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I felt like this show did a really good job of capturing the typical High School romance in the sense that everything was melodramatic as hell, and the majority of the characters were extremely insecure and fickle. If they were going for realism they pretty much nailed it if my own High School experience is anything close to the norm.
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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Complaints against the use of honorifics in a dub? Thanks
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phoenixalia
Posts: 1408 |
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Out of the three shoujo anime which came out in Fall 2012, Kamisama Hajimemashita was the one I enjoyed the most. TnK was good but not anything great and Say "I love you" felt incredibly rushed and in the first two episodes I didn't understand why Yamato started dating Mei in the first place neither did I understand why did Mei fall for him? Just because he helped her? Just because he kissed her? I'd get flustered too but to fall in love just like that?
Shoujo manga rarely get adapted because they always fail in Japan and beggars can't be choosers but I wish they'd adapt good ones like the incredible Joou no Hana, Dengeki Daisy, Taiyou no Ie and Last Game. Now THOSE are amazing shoujo manga. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14889 |
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This is the type of high school dating ya could see a breakup a mile away. 
Some shy girls in high school are really that easy. 
It didn't use to be, when they used to broadcast on waking hours. |
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phoenixalia
Posts: 1408 |
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I know that. How I wish we could get back to good old days... |
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kakoishii
Posts: 741 |
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The problem is she barely does open up to the few friends she acquires. Like I said, I was never expecting a 180 from her, of course that wouldn't ring true, but she has to work for it. Her friendships have to be earned, and because they aren't they ring just as false as they would've if Mei had suddenly just become bubbly and boisterous. Mei doesn't put the maintenance and upkeep into her relationships, yet these people continue to be her friends and go out of their way to check up on her when she doesn't return the sentiment? No. That doesn't happen. Generally speaking, especially with new friendships, if one party in the relationship is doing way more to maintain the friendship than the other party, then the friendship doesn't last. That's just real life. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4159 |
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I didn't like the series since I thought Mei was a bad character, anintroverted lead who could sum up all problems in those around her just after talking to them. Oh, and then they become her friends because of it.
Take My Romantic Life SNAFU and imagine how unbearable the series would be if Hachiman was right all the time and people liked him for it. I cant finish this series, no matter how much I try as I just can't swallow the lead's "faults". On the other hand, I don't dislike Yamato; He's there to like the female lead and that's about it. He does his job, I guess? Male characters in shoujo can occasionally be tough to pin down, starting with why they like the female lead. At least part of Yamato's reason can be summed up as "it amuses him" which is a little better than Kimi No Todoke where the guy likes the lead because otherwise there'd be no series. Honestly, the same problem is present in every shoujo series about the "unpopular" girl who's likable once you get to know her ... but no one gets to know her until after the series starts. At least there's The Wallflower, where the lead's absolutely unlikeable for a reason. Because she's unlikeable and she likes it that way. That works. |
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