| ... Because the only thing I've heard is that people hate the characters and the story pisses them off, but that is an invalid criticism. That's like hating water for being wet... if that makes sense. There is a difference between hating the characters and the characters being bad. |
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| It wasn't a typical rom-com and has a negative outlook — this is enough to put half of the userbase off, their fragile sensibilities were upset. |
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| Yeah of course, the points about null personalities, cheesy soap opera development, unimpressive artwork, etc. have absolutely never been made. |
Candy said: It wasn't a typical rom-com and has a negative outlook — this is enough to put half of the userbase off, their fragile sensibilities were upset. It's not a rom/com to be typical or not in the first place. School days is more akin to the cheap western/latino soap opera drama where cheating is the biggest plot device. In that sense sure, it's not typical by anime standards (thankfully anime doesn't have this kind of garbo). Doesn't make it any less awful and generic in terms of story and characters. |
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| I watched this so long ago I can barely remember any of the finer details but it certainly had more going for it than trying to create drama for its own sake like those typical soap operas. The characters were evidently thematic props and ignoring this aspect to say they were depthless and basing that as the reason why the anime is shit is missing the point of using them like that, equivalently so would claims of unrealism. Unless you have a problem with that style, in general, or think its execution is poor in relating whatever themes it had going on you shouldn't use it as the excuse. |
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Candy said: I watched this so long ago I can barely remember any of the finer details but it certainly had more going for it than trying to create drama for its own sake like those typical soap operas. The characters were evidently thematic props and ignoring this aspect to say they were depthless and basing that as the reason why the anime is shit is missing the point of using them like that, equivalently so would claims of unrealism. Unless you have a problem with that style, in general, or think its execution is poor in relating whatever themes it had going on you shouldn't use it as the excuse. I see it in a kind of different light. The series stems from a quite promising and interesting premise and the execution doesn't live up. You claim that the characters don't need depth or exploration but I'd say that this made the emotional impression basically non-existant. The series doesn't take advantage of its own chance to catch the viewer off-guard and all we have is a blank exposition of ideas through vehicles (characters) who don't feel organic, relatable or just human beyond their preset roles. Instead of making this "harem turned dark" idea attractive, it is reduced to the minimal expression, therefore becoming just a matter of finding this premise admirable enough to sit through 12 episodes of emotionally drained nothingness. |
jal90 said: Candy said: I watched this so long ago I can barely remember any of the finer details but it certainly had more going for it than trying to create drama for its own sake like those typical soap operas. The characters were evidently thematic props and ignoring this aspect to say they were depthless and basing that as the reason why the anime is shit is missing the point of using them like that, equivalently so would claims of unrealism. Unless you have a problem with that style, in general, or think its execution is poor in relating whatever themes it had going on you shouldn't use it as the excuse. I see it in a kind of different light. The series stems from a quite promising and interesting premise and the execution doesn't live up. You claim that the characters don't need depth or exploration but I'd say that this made the emotional impression basically non-existant. The series doesn't take advantage of its own chance to catch the viewer off-guard and all we have is a blank exposition of ideas through vehicles (characters) who don't feel organic, relatable or just human beyond their preset roles. Instead of making this "harem turned dark" idea attractive, it is reduced to the minimal expression, therefore becoming just a matter of finding this premise admirable enough to sit through 12 episodes of emotionally drained nothingness. I honestly don't think those things are necessary, imagine if they tried to add emotional hooks all over the place with those characters, sure they're dry but they fit the role, just for viewer appeasement going out of their way to make the characters more warm and 'human' would make a farce out of the story they're pushing, since that would then seem out of place. The style they used would obviously only work if the themes are interesting to the viewer, you didn't appreciate it all that much and therefore also not whole show. I'm sure you can think of another show (not necessarily anime) where you did 'put up' with emotionally barren characters because you were otherwise hooked with the themes. That's kinda my point here, enjoyment or not for these types of shows lies in the thematic element firstly and then spreads to the other parts . Even if the execution is shoddy you'll at least not dislike it then given interest there. Emotional attachment to 'soulless' characters don't seem so improbable with thematic interest. Neither for any of the other superficial factors, like plot movers for instance. |
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DerTwist said: "Try and hook you to the characters to appreciate the 'psychological' element to it", isn't that the same as trying to push the theme on to you as a primary objective? Also since you do recognize a theme in there how can you say that it was "just for shock value" at the same time? Isn't that simply your stance because you disliked the execution and the "synthetic" characters? I don't disagree with the rest of what you said.Candy said: I honestly don't think those things are necessary, imagine if they tried to add emotional hooks all over the place with those characters, sure they're dry but they fit the role, just for viewer appeasement going out of their way to make the characters more warm and 'human' would make a farce out of the story they're pushing, since that would then seem out of place. The style they used would obviously only work if the themes are interesting to the viewer, you didn't appreciate it all that much and therefore also not whole show. I'm sure you can think of another show (not necessarily anime) where you did 'put up' with emotionally barren characters because you were otherwise hooked with the themes. I would agree in some cases, but not this one. It seemed like the premise of this show was to try and hook you to the characters to appreciate the 'psychological' element to it. The ending happened because Sekai was pushed too far, Kotohana was falling apart but still pretty disturbingly obsessed with Makoto, etc, the themes of how Makoto's supposed care-free harem was actually tearing people apart was one of the things I have seen people try to justify about it, how ignorant cheating can push people to breaking point. The fact that the characters all felt so synthetic though made it completely lose that element to it and make it look like an angsty teen's wet dream and made the ending for a lot of people feel like some cop-out bullshit which came from nowhere. Emotional development would have helped this show at least a little to try and get a psychological element across instead of come across as painfully obviously try to be as shocking as possible. |
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