NudeBear said: I know said that I was going to drop this but I just can't help myself.
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Anyways I'm glad that so many people are complaining about the sudden and rushed transition to comedy, but where were you guys when the show made sudden changes to a darker and more serious atmosphere? It's the same problem from before, a problem that only a few users pointed out.
This is actually one of my main problems with this show; it feels like it can't decide what it wants to be. The writers know what they want, but their inability to implement it properly makes the show feel messy. The show can't decide whether its light or dark/serious show, and I'm not saying you can't have both in one show, you can; but it's only awesome if it's properly implemented. What this show lacks is a proper sense of unity and continuity, making stuff like the tone/atmosphere to plot progression and character development feel all muddy, messy, and disjointed. The lighter and dark/serious tones feel like afterthoughts from two different scripts mushed into one show. For a show with only 13 episodes, you'd think they have a tighter grip on the script and story-line, unfortunately that's not the case at all. And now we have shameless product promotion to add into the list of things that's wrong with this show.
Now I'm honestly quite keen on finishing this show so I can use it as an example of how lazy, bad, and appalling writing in anime can be. I know, there are quite a lot of shows for that but I kinda feel like updating my list.
Looking forward for the next episode.
There was no such thing as a sudden transition from a light tone to a dark and serious atmosphere in episode 6: from the start, they immediately established a looming threat in the form of Ayu's new power, and there were multiple scenes which foreshadowed the crazy middle school girl's actions and the other guy's obsession with Ayu. All of this happened while the usual comedy was still going on. Before things got really dark, we got a scene where the student council panics for a bit before rushing to save the little sister, followed by Ayu's stalker acting like a creep towards her. All of this was build-up for the transition in tone and atmosphere. The only problem was that they went overboard with the crazy girl's expressions and that scene in general was ridiculously melodramatic.
There's nothing strange about violent middle school kids, you can check the episode thread to find lots of examples of similar events (in Japan, too), and I've seen similar shit in my middle school years (I'm sure I'm not alone in this).
The show perfectly knows what it wants to be: for the last 8 episodes, the show has been about Yuu's development from a selfish prick who only feels responsibility for his little sister and treats everyone else like pawns to increase his ego, to someone who sincerely enjoys being part of a group and is willing to help his friends. Those last 2 episodes have been almost exclusively about him, as his sister's "death" brought back the worst of him and he desperately lashed out at everyone until he finally acknowledged that, during the show, he met other people besides Ayumi that cared for him and that are worth being with.
In this episode specifically (and this also relates to the presumed messy handling of tone/atmosphere and lack of unity and continuity), the return to the usual comedic routine is a way to show Yuu finally embracing his new reality (which he slowly got used to in ep 2-6) by admitting that he likes being with those silly and annoying people, but at the same time, those scenes are used to highlight how insecure he still feels, as he's constantly paranoid about the others being gentle towards him just because of his loss (the issue of trusting others was a big deal for him in the previous ep, see his conversations with Yumi and Nao). Not to mention the constant hints of how he's hardly gotten used to his sister's death, like when he's about to call home to tell Ayu that he won't come back for dinner, or when he doesn't want to stay home alone.
It's hardly a "complete and sudden transition from dark to happy-go-lucky", especially since the last scene in ep 7 already paved the way for this episode by being sweet and light-hearted, and generally showing Yuu's will to try and go back to living normally.
In regards to continuity, the entire second half of this ep is a conclusion of the previous episode's character arc, as he finally meets someone to talk with about his loss, and at the same time, he realizes who prompted his change initially, and then allowed him to come back to normal life. To end the arc, he repays his debt to Nao, finally showing sincere affection for someone else (besides his sister).
...and stop acting like a pretentious prick, "looking forward to next episode", lol. |