Up until this point in the series, the things that annoyed me the most were: A.) Suzaku (Lancelot), and B.) secondary characters having plot armor preventing them from dying. Now I have a third thing that annoys me, and this one is irreconcilable.
Suzaku's character is of the same type that annoyed me in Gundam Wing and Legend of the Galactic Heroes, a protagonist (though he isn't the main character in this show) who has a holier than art thou attitude, and is ridiculously overpowered on the battlefield for reasons that are bullshit. Because he has an overpowered mech that for reasons that are even more bullshit are given to him instead of a Brittanian. The mech itself is a lazy plot device this show, and most mecha anime, suffers from. That aside, I'm still waiting for this holier-than-thou attitude to come back and bite him in the ass. When the hell is he going to see the atrocities Brittania commits? Is he ever going to? Is he still going to justify his position in spite of that? I doubt the show's capability of bringing this to fruition after this episode.
If there's anything I hate in any story, it's having certain characters repeatedly face certain death, only to come back from the brink of it somehow (Shirley being a poor shot is not a good excuse, I don't care what anyone says). The only other thing that can be as bad as that is the constant use of the "last second save" routine that a lot of anime shows utilize. Like 99% of them. Attack on Titan is probably more guilty of utilizing that than any other anime I've ever seen, and it disappoints me to see it used frequently in this show. Because it always ends up doing the same thing, making people more stupid than they should be. Lancelot comes back to save a Brittanian again, too bad Lulu couldn't see that coming, again.
The highlight of this episode leads me to believe this series will not be a good one in the end (ie it's overrated like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood). Lulu erasing Shirley's memories of him. It's not just that this is a very dumb decision on Lulu's part (because it's going to cause some awkward situations at school, at the very least). It's not just that his reasoning and explanation for doing so leaves a lot to be desired (even under the circumstances). It's that this is the series creators taking the cowards way out. Just when this show is starting to get very interesting with the character dynamics/drama/relationships, with Lulu having to deal with the collateral damage he causes, and how it affects at least one of his classmates (Shirley being the one who has the most intimate relationship with him, for what that's worth), the show decides to take the easy (yet anti-logical) route for the sake of keeping the same pace going. You're not making a friggin' episodic series here, this is one where an overarching plot is progressing with each episode. And you choose not to have at least a couple episodes where these two characters try to deal with these grievances and emotional moments? You choose not to have Lulu go through a reasonable amount of mental and emotional strain of trying to get them both to recover from this without utilizing his geass? Do they not see the massive potential of peak anime drama this can produce, along with moral lessons to put forth from it? They could've at least had one episode past this one without the mind-wipe where, after the drama stuff, Lulu has to choose between being with Shirley and having to continue with his campaign at her expense; because if he can't be around her and make their relationship happen seriously, then the risk of her going off the deep end would be too great? Or she threatens suicide (or even attempts it), so he mind-wipes her to prevent that? Give us something more than what we got!
Pitiful. The show's potential is squandered. There's no recovering from something like this. I'll try to stick with the rest of season 1, but this is really testing my resolve. |