Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata ♭

Man, I can't believe I suffered through 4 episodes just to write a review but apparently you have to...thanks MAL

Well, well, well wasn't this an unfortunate mistake. If there's one thing I hate, is anime series that are pretentious and lure you in with false promises of an enriching story (granted this was pretty much NOT that). The story continues off the 1st season where...oh who cares, the plot is in the description...I'm just here to tell you it's awful. Some find this show enjoyable but I'm not here to argue taste, you have yours and I have mine.

This show is as shallow as it ... gets from the plot to the characters to the melodrama. Shows like this try to give the impression that they try to build on the story and develop the characters but all they do is try to give random ecchi moments and who is going to sit on the MC's rod first...sounds like a masterpiece at work here. Why do these series keep pandering to the beta-male, where it's one bland, awful, dense mary-sue with the personally of chalk character get to have 5 beautiful girls fight for his attention? If the point is to make relatable characters, what's with all the heavily unrealistic situations? When will someone like the MC ever succeed in real life by being the way he is? I guess you have to pander to those with these traits and if being pathetic sells, I guess you have to cater towards your target market but I digress...

The female characters don't do much to the series...it's like the only time they feature is when they bicker amongst each other for the MCs approval. Their personalities fall into the common trope of:

Eriri - flat-chested tsundere with blonde pigtails and MC's childhood friend...I could reach into a bucket and pull out 10 of these

Utaha - miss perfect, blessed with intelligence and beauty trying to give off an imposing figure of a lion with her cold attitude but is reduced to a kitten when the MC drops a compliment

Michiru - basically there for incest fanservice, always very physical with the MC much to the despair of the others, often very flirty as well

Megumi - the plain, soft spoken type, always tries to help others rather emotionless girl that opens up slowly with the help of her friends, some might say the perfect girlfriend

And last but not least...the MC: Tomoya Aki...there has to be a reason why girls are attracted to him...is it his pasty skin? His bland appearance? His barely existent personality? His density or the fact that he's a hardcore geek that spends his money on games and anime? All these things make up the boy girls want...that's what they tell us so it must be true, right?

Everything that takes place, each thing these girls achieve is just to please the MC in the end and try to earn his affection. They serve no other purpose other than being the MC's romantic interest, ending up in questionable situations and random ecchi moments to appease the fans and sell BDs. A true shame since many good characters in series like this just end up as sex objects and shipping fuel.

This show is a special kind of bad. I've known this since the first season but I stuck around like fly on shit seeing if it gets better but in the end you realize, like the fly, you're literally wasting time and being entertained by a turd.

This review exists purely for the purpose of aiding those who watched episode 9 and are wondering why you feel the need to throw up at the nearest toilet seat. So if you arrived here after watching the particular episode, or is the unfortunate soul that decided to start watching this show, you have come to the right place. Now you may be wondering what exactly happened in episode 9 to force me to create a myanimelist account and write a review for the first time in my life, but I will get to that in a moment. Before we get to my most hated ... moment in anime history, I will expand upon the rest of the show first.

Episode 1~ 8

Story : 6 Art : 8 Sound : 6 Character : 7 Enjoyment: 8 Overall : 7

Now the story is nothing to write home about. It involves our good old protagonist Aki Tomoya who decides to actually finish his ambitious game with talents that go way over his head. He messes up a lot as usual and fixes the broken parts with the classic harem protagonist appeal.

So in order to justify my enjoyment, the art and characters have to carry the rest. Art is standard most of the time, but there are unique flare moments mixed in, which enhances the show immensely. The fact that it isn't completely covered with this style is far better in the theme of this show of ordinary (= boring) developments that lead to moments of beauty (= heroine).

The characters themselves are not out of the ball park either, but they make sense and are funny at times, which I believe to be the most important feature of any show driven by the characters and their interaction. Any action a character takes must make sense in the context of the character, which is established beforehand by the various interactions that the character makes with other characters. For instance, if character A has consistently avoided character B, we establish that A probably dislikes B. Now, any action A takes that involves interacting with B must have a solid reason. It could be a misunderstanding (A only avoided B because B had a cat with him always and A is deathly afraid of cats), a specific B-achievable goal (A needs B's help to do something), or even a deux ex machina (A gets hit by a car and loses all memory. Note that this kind of plot device is often referred to as garbage, complete bullshit, etc. But it's still better than nothing, because the writer is acknowledging that it wouldn't make any sense for A and B to interact for no reason).

I have no comment to make about the sound design other than that it complements the show, but does nothing memorable.

So, ultimately, the rating resolves to overall 7, the closest it gets to my enjoyment rating while still considering other elements of the show.

Now, you may be wondering, what went wrong for my previous rating of 7 to turn into 2 over the course of one episode. That's where you would be wrong. This swift downturn happened in the course of approximately 30 seconds.

Episode 9

Story : 1 Art : 8 Sound : 6 Character : 2 Enjoyment : 2 Overall : 2

Now, for those of you who are worried about possible spoilers, don't worry about it, I won't spoil anything so you can finally understand the feeling of your stomach turning inside out.

To summarize it briefly, imagine having your entire show built around a single thing, and then smash it on the ground and make the viewers watch the remains of what was the basis of the show just get flushed down the drain by the rain. The execution of this episode was exactly like that. You could have the exact same scenario happen without the characters adding the unnecessary drama. The entire "turn" happened only to create drama, which is the antithesis of the whole show.

So yes, that is why you are disgusted with this show all of a sudden.

Should you watch this show? No. Should you feel bad about watching ep. 9? Yes.

Do yourself a favor and just drop this show right now like me.

Saekano.. I can't say I had high hopes for season 2, but I was definitely hoping for at least an improvement from season 1. And boy was I disappointed. If anything it's a downgrade, which is frustrating considering so little romcoms get a season 2.

First off, the show picks up after the events of season 1 which, is fine and all until the events unfold and you realize there's no development of any of the characters.

Tomoya Aki- The same seemingly passionate yet also dense, boring, pet MC who continues to rely on girls who only want one thing from him: his c o c k.

Eriri ... Spencer Sawamura - The same overdramatic childhood friend who cries for her prince charming to worship and cater to only her...Despite not giving a hoot about his own aspirations.

Utaha Kasumigaoka- The same "older" character on this show who also doesn't care about the MC's aspirations and is only good for......fanservice?

AND the best girl on this show(not much of an accomplishment) Megumi Kato-
.............. not much to say about her, she's still the same emotionless 3rd choice who's only relevant when the other two girls aren't in the picture.

Season 2 is a repeat of season 1 which is a downgrade because it's like watching an already average TV show for the second time.. You can't help but notice all the bad and overdramatic/lackluster plotlines. Add that to increasingly unlikable characters, an unhealthy amount of fanservice, flat out wasted screentime, and a random/rushed plotline 9 episodes in and you'll come to this conclusion: Saekano season 2 is horrible. On a positive note, the art is done well so at least they didn't cut the budget for the one thing they had going for them. It's a shame that the art was wasted on such a dumpster of a show though.

**SPOILER***
In case you're looking for a summary of the plot it's as follows: Tomoya wants to complete a project. Needs the "prodigious minds" of his two waifus to do so. They each claim their own work is more important yet simultaneously cry and moan that the MC is essential to each of their well-beings and ALREADY successful careers(WAIFU GOALS RIGHT????). The MC being the dog he is then helps each one until they're satisfied(thus consequently neglecting his own work). After being satisfied, they both leave the MC in the dust suddenly for a once in a lifetime joint opportunity(funny way of saying thank you). Option # 3 says some words and is there for the MC. Happy reunion a couple days later. Tomoya smiles at the sight of his dream crushed by his two girlf--- frien---acquaintan---..masters. And they all live happily ever aft...Zzz............

Conclusion: 3/10
Acting job of Eriri Spencer as a damsel in distress: 9000/10

Quick Thoughts:
Attempts to add drama and depth to basic harem fell flat.

Story:
This season covers some backstory between Eriri and Utaha, the completion of Blessing Software's game, and plans for the group going forward. Central to all of this is the group (Namely Eriri, Utaha, and Megumi) putting pressure on Tomoya to make his priorities clear, both business-wise and romantically. There's little to no subtlety put into how this is presented, and the end result is something frustrating to watch. Whether it's through direct communication or subliminally through the scripts they write for the game, the girls feelings and expectations are in plain sight for Tomoya, ... yet they use the typical oblivious harem protag cliché to stretch this drama over a full season.
These flaws aren't made up for by other aspects of the story. Fanservice is fairly minimal this season and comedic moments are mostly non-existant. They tried to add some romantic tension, but it's been obvious from the first episode who Tomoya would choose (if he ever does decide to choose). I felt that the ending invalidated attempts to change up the dynamic between the group.

Character:
My opinions on the main cast haven't changed much. The heavy focus on Eriri, Utaha, and Tomoya didn't do much but increase the amount of melodrama while putting their worst traits on full display. Megumi basically just played team mom the whole season, and Michiru had almost no screentime. The only relevant new side character is Akane Kosaka, and she doesn't do much but add to the pile of melodrama.

Enjoyment:
I didn't enjoy this season very much. I'd imagine if you found Eriri and Utaha's backstory compelling, maybe the rest of season could be enjoyable as well, but I couldn't find it interesting.

Spoilers from episode 9 onwards, I wrote in Portuguese and just translated into English with the Google translator




The anime has a very light and relaxed atmosphere most of the time, I thought about quitting at the end of the first season but it had a satisfying ending and made me watch the second season, during the initial episodes the protagonist receives some hints about his personality and in the episode we have the shock of reality and a direct criticism about his lack of "steady pulse", the world of the protagonist collapses and then you believe that there will be a character development, that the ... protagonist will make a choice and evolve as person, however, in the end the anime puts comedy moments to lighten the mood and all the drama previously made loses all meaning, if it hadn’t done the drama it would be a standard anime with a 6 or 7 note, if it had enjoyed all the drama done to evolve the protagonist would have taken a 10 but as the drama was totally idle and breaks the pace of the rest of the anime he does not deserve a score higher than 3

Original review in Portuguese below:




O anime tem um clima bem leve e descontraído a maior parte do tempo , pensei em largar ainda no final da primeira temporada mas ela teve um final satisfatório e me fez assistir a segunda temporada, durante os episódios iniciais o protagonista recebe algumas indiretas sobre a sua personalidade e no episodio temos o choque de realidade e uma critica direta sobre a sua falta de "pulso firme", o mundo do protagonista desaba e aí você acredita que vai haver um desenvolvimento de personagem , que o protagonista irá fazer uma escolha e evoluir como pessoa, porém, no final o anime coloca momentos de comedia para aliviar o clima e todo o drama feito anteriormente perde todo o sentido, se não tivesse feito o drama seria um anime padrão com nota 6 ou 7, se tivesse aproveitado todo o drama feito para evoluir o protagonista teria levado um 10 mas como o drama foi totalmente à toa e quebra o ritmo de todo o resto do anime ele não merece uma nota maior que 3

i think, i hate season 2 of this anime , but i will wait for season 3 , and If the animation is no season three , i will hate this anime forever......
and this is the the best anime i ever watch....

i will always wait for season 3........

Story - 3
i hate it , when i watch eps 9 and after that i lose my mood to watch eps 10-11 , but i still watched it until end....
Art - 10
Too perfect if that just for this suck anime....
Sound - 10
... perfect , good combine
character - 100
tooo perfect just for this anime....
Enjoyment - 6
i can calm down when i watching it , i just want to know the end of this anime quickly....
Overall - 1
Because the eps 9-11, i'm forget the story of this anime from eps 1 to 8

i hope there will be season 3 of this anime...
thanks....

#Saad