Yeah, if you reasonably expect something and are disappointed, that might be worth a complaint. Dramatic tension? Interesting characters with personality? But is it even reasonable to expect those things? Looking at the page before the season began, I certainly didn't. It looked like the most heart-on-sleeve generic self-insert vapid wish-fulfillment show possible, which is what it is. Pointing that out is worth a short single post at most. It's like any replies to this post saying "TL;DR" - uh, yeah, I knew it was tl;dr while I was writing it, and it's obviously tl;dr to anyone who glances at it.
"He travels around nonchalantly while possessing powers that rival this world's kings." That's honest advertising, isn't it? Shall we blame them for writing "rival" rather than "far exceed?"
I welcome a relaxed slice-of-life show in a fantasy setting. Maybe people want slice of life to give them a deep emotional experience, like Aria or Barakamon. That has its place, but most of the SoL I like is merely fun and relaxing. This show is fun and relaxing. That's all it needs to be.
It gets worse when people say "The MC is a Gary Stu, and of course everyone with good taste agrees that those are bad and should not exist." I don't agree. (Granted, I don't have "good taste," either, but thankfully the business of television doesn't sell to "good taste.") In the fights over Star Wars' Rey, whom I absolutely loved as MC, the best argument against her was "I couldn't relate to her because she was too powerful." That's unfortunate for you, but I'd rather not have my fiction restrained by the limits of what other people can relate to.
"Even if Rey were a too-perfect, too-talented, unbelievable portrayal, maybe that’s okay. There’s room for some self-indulgent female fantasies after decades of being forced to sit at the kids’ table." https://medium.com/@wewillbethestars/rey-isn-t-a-mary-sue-and-it-s-time-to-retire-the-term-7fb2d9e672de
I can add another layer to the common expressions from others of surprise over their own enjoyment of Smartphone: I looked at the poster and thought, "Look at this harem boy smiling in his pimp coat. He looks so annoying." But in the show, he isn't annoying at all, amazingly.
The worst are probably the Konosuba comparisons. I actually saw a review that tried to make a point by saying "Konosuba parodied shows like this," the implication being that therefore shows like this are over and should not exist. Konosuba was great in its own way, but take these movies for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Friedberg_and_Aaron_Seltzer#Filmography They all "parody" popular films, while being inferior trash themselves. Same with "Re:Zero subverted this;" so what? Should girls in all shows stop making deals with magical animals in the wake of Kyuubei?
I found a comment I wrote about Konosuba back in February:
"Why does that show get such heartwarming EDs? I like it, but it makes me feel bad about the characters' messed up relationships."
Now, Smartphone is still a little messed up because of the polygyny thing, and I didn't welcome the slime scene because unlike in Konosuba, these girls had done nothing to deserve that. But overall, I feel better toward it than toward Konosuba. The ending of the first Konosuba OVA really encapsulates that situation, and it's both hilarious and sad.
Valaskjalf said:the only thing that sucked is that we're in the middle of the season and he still hasn't used the cellphone for anything meaningful
Right, but... is anything in this show really meaningful? :D
I wish the show were actually called something like "Jesus-kun Densetsu," I mean, the dark forces behind it already had the balls to ignore every rule of what fiction supposedly needs to be enjoyable.
I think I've written about this show more than any other except SDF Macross and Rose of Versailles. I figured it'd be amusing to "Adopt a Dumpster Fire" and take it up as a cause to champion. |