Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Jun Maeda Goes for the Jugular
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BenDTU
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Here’s my question about that last episode - are we meant to be frustrated at Youta because he’s clearly not handling the situation well and causing Hina pain through his selfish approach to trying to connect with her - or are we just supposed to be sad at that overall hopeless situation in front of him? For me it was absolutely the former, but the motivational phone call makes me think the show was actually aiming for the latter. If it was deliberately showing how delicate and hard to deal with a situation like this is then I’d call it genius, but Youta is framed as the hero we're supposed to still be rallying behind which makes me think it’s still going for the route of “Terrible adults ruining everything for the kids”.
Also I love that the wider community has officially decided that his name is “Hackerman” because nobody can remember his name otherwise. Last edited by BenDTU on Thu Dec 24, 2020 5:50 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Shay Guy
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Image here is 404'd. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11593 |
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I have a lot of mixed feelings about the last couple of episodes, but in general, I'm getting a strong vibe of the film A Woman Under the Influence. That concerned a housewife who was bipolar (?) or schizophrenic (?) or something (either I don't remember or they never specifically said) who was committed and treated for six months. When she returned home, considerably recovered, her family didn't know how to deal with that. She was no longer the eccentric, unpredictable and fun mom and wife they'd known and they wanted that person back. It was heartbreaking watching them sabotage her efforts to be "normal," i.e. more in control of her own self, and seeing her slowly reverting to her former dysfunction to meet their expectations.
So while pre-surgery Hina was objectively a happier person than post-surgery Hina, the former may no longer exist, nor be recoverable, and Yota is not willing to accept that. I can't wholeheartedly say he's entirely wrong, though he's entirely wrong-headed in his focus on how he feels about it all, rather than looking at what's possible for her rehabilitation. Like, I don't think his bringing videogames in was wrong. It seems like a reasonable approach to me, since children often respond better to people behind the tv screen than to people in their physical space (they're tv-sized and not scary like adults). But his outbursts in response to how she played showed where his priorities were. I also didn't like how Shiba was portrayed as being possessive of Hina. Rather than simply being motivated to help children like her own, she's suddenly suspect in how she's framed, as not just wanting to help Hina, but to substitute her for her own child (I'm not clear if her child died or not - it seemed rather like it did). Overall, I feel like it's devolving into a huge mess, and I'm not sanguine about the next episode salvaging anything. |
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Yuvelir
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Honestly, I didn't feel much for Hina's situation because you could see something like this coming from a mile away before even starting the show, because Maeda has One Trick.
So being certain that something deadly/dire/hopeless was in the horizon, seeing the show waste most of its time AGAIN on whacky hijinks while rushing the Serious Bits was more annoying than anything else. Honestly I was more invested on Hackerman proving how these adults painting themselves as righteous and selfless were just as awful and egoistical as his hoodlum parents - only for Maeda to fail to realize that. At least it's better than Charlotte.
The trick is to look for a list of most common Japanese names and surnames, then you get a 25% chance of getting it right. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
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^ I'll see that Charlotte and raise you a Rewrite...Have to say, however, that whoever the artistic team members were on this, their artwork for Hina's facial expressions was superb! And the "I'm so loli.." gag was an instant classic!
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2372 |
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Charlotte was good though. At least until spoiler[the meme imouto came back from the dead.]
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4158 |
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I think I dropped The Day I Became a God as I just stopped caring about Yota after his backstory with Izanami came out and it turns out "study buddy" was the least possible point of connection between the two.
So Yota's a walking plot device and Hina is as well, the entire cast is... the same thing happened in Angel Beats but at least there... no, wait, I don't like Angel Beats and I dropped Charlotte early, why was I watching this series again when I have no respect for Jun Maeda's ability to structure a story? Because it was there? I don't know, it looked good but in the end, anime shouldn't have cartoon characters. Oh, Angel Beats again. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15574 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I genuinely thought the show could be hilarious, like a number of Jun Maeda shows have been, Kanon, Clannad and Angel Beats. But real question is how it might stick the landing, especially considering how Charlotte went. At this point, it does feel like we need some more realistic and not over dramatic ending. Hina did well a little well in the game when he was not yelling at her, it would be good for him maybe to see that there is a person in there, through maybe some expression in the game, even if she is not entirely the person he knew. I am sort of reminded of some things I have seen of non verbal autistic people who when given the ability to communicate through an electronic device taking their own time could be surprising.
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Nate148
Posts: 509 |
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Yea he fell on his sword sadly
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Tanteikingdomkey
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So anyone here going to address the issue of the 18 year old and the pre to very young teen being in a romantic relationship...I mean he has poked the lolicon genre before (Kud wafter) but this is a bit much
OH and also the 13 year old is mentally disabled.... and being paired up with the 18 year old by the author.... |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4627 |
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I will say that I had hoped it wouldn't go down that path, especially since it is so predictable. I think it would have been a bit refreshing if things with Izanami worked out, especially since some of her episode was about accepting that it is ok to move on and she was making a choice not to date Yota. But unfortunately, that obviously wasn't going to happen when Hina mentions feeling uncomfortable at the prospect of her efforts to get them together working. I had already figured it would follow the usual trope of the boy's efforts to win over the girl he likes fizzling only to discover he actually loves the one that dropped into his life, but it was disappointing to have it confirmed. |
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