Hey everyone, I have this long, scattered rant that I harbored deep down in my heart for a long time, I don't know if any of you will agree with me, but I hope this post will make you see where I'm coming from and what you might've missed, and I hope it won't come off as destructive in your opinion since I wanted it to be a lot better. And please remember that everything written below is my own opinion, if you don't like it, you can ignore it as you wish, and if you have anything positive or negative to say, then feel free to share it here and I'll try to reply to you if I can. also, there are some spoilers, so be careful...
Ciel/Rio (aka. Kirarin/Pikario or KiraPika) is the worst sibling relationship I've ever seen, and Ciel is a terrible character and even the worst Cure in my book, and the fact that many people really think all of these were good and "well-written" in any way just baffles me, like, what's the takeaway from all of this?
For starters, the conflict between the twins itself felt underdeveloped, like it didn't explain why the two wanted to become patissiers and Precures so hard and if there's any fairy that has become a Cure in the past (I also think that them being fairies in the first place is nothing but a pointless gimmick), what's the difference between them and what each one has and the other doesn't, and why Rio wasn't as good as Ciel and where he messed up, not "she's just better than him ;)", which's lame and ineffective, because it would be interesting if his arc was about him becoming more confident and accepting himself with others' help, of course outside of Ciel.
Also, While Ciel's insensitivity and arrogance were valid flaws, her neglect for Rio to focus more on her training felt jarring to me, because she didn't give the impression that she's the kind of person who'd leave their loved one behind, and her excuse wasn't quite convincing, like I think she would've helped Rio with pleasure if he talked to her about his problems in the first place, but that's impossible because the writer needs an excuse for Parfait to exist. It would've been believable if she at least went to Paris alone, but she took him with her and then she irresponsibly left him behind in a place they're unfamiliar with, if anything, it just makes her look like a cold-hearted idiot, especially since she became a celebrity during all of that, not to mention that after she became a Cure, all of these flaws disappeared completely.
Not to mention that her brother was the only one who suffered from her mistakes and she barely showed any concern for him throughout the show, even during his coma.
As for their relationship, there's no weight to it whatsoever, we didn't see how Rio helps his sister (aside from turning her into Precure somehow), it's Ciel who does almost everything for him, and she seemed perfectly fine without his assistance. On top of that, the twins have no chemistry whatsoever, after Rio came back from his pointless coma, all of their interactions are just Ciel clinging over and chasing her uncomfortable brother without showing any respect for his personal space and that's it, there's not even a single banter or casual (read: normal) conversation between the two that doesn't involve some obnoxious melodrama, it's not cute or charming at all, it's just toxic and unpleasant to watch, Rio's interactions with Ichika were better than any moment between him and his sister even if he was faking at the time, and as someone who normally enjoys sibling relationships, it was disappointing to me. And no, time is not a good excuse for that, you could write two characters with good chemistry together in a short amount of time if you tried (see the first Yukari/Akira episode).
Heck, after Rio woke up, she just jumped into him happily as if he came back from traveling or something, which's kind of an underwhelming reaction considering that he was in a serious coma that he might not wake up from, like a lot of comatose people irl.
As for Ciel, I can't stand even looking at her, even if I ignore how her relationship with Rio makes her unlikable, she simply doesn't work as a main character, she's very boring and unnecessary, and doesn't have any personal challenges or any sort of personality that could make her slightly interesting and relatable on her own, and it feels she was favored so much by the writers, like almost all of her episodes are more about making her look cooler than anyone else instead of explore her flaws or anything new about her, kinda like Mana except neither hilarious nor interesting. not to mention how the show treats Rio and Bibury like nothing but cheerleaders for her despite being more interesting on their own. I also was very infuriated at how she ended up getting closer to Ichika, it should've been Rio considering his interpersonal issues and how he interacted with the latter first, Ichika should've had a major role in Rio's development, not Ciel's (although granted, Ichika actually didn't have a huge role in each one's anyway).
The way she transformed into a Cure just makes her look like she took advantage of her brother for her gain even if she didn't mean it, and her saying that Cure Parfait was "their miracle" in episode 41 was so nonsensical because yes, Rio helped her for that in episode 23, but A. it was unintentional, and B. she never needed his help again and after she said that stupid line, she was fighting Elysio all by herself in the same episode, showing that it's all just talks.
I also don't understand why people think that Rio was "well-developed" and episode 41 was good, because, among other problems, it honestly rendered Rio's whole arc completely pointless at the end. Yes, Ciel will help him to get better (although she had no reason for not doing that in the first place), but what about his experience with Noir and other characters? did they leave any impact on his character eventually? what's the difference between pre and post-corruption Rio? Did his skills improve for real or he only succeed because his sister was around him? Did he befriend Ichika and others for real or was Ciel just dragging him with her again? And more importantly, what did he accomplish or gain from all of this? none of that was answered.
I wouldn't mind that if it was just a one or two-episode conflict, but for something that spanned for most of the show, it's so exasperating, because, again, WHAT IS THE TAKEAWAY FROM ALL OF THIS?!
Sometimes it feels like Rio is two different characters (Julio and Pikario), and Pikario was a last-minute addition that was created while the writer was coming up with a backstory for Julio, while this is just my pet theory, I feel like there is enough evidence for that, like the unnecessary 16-episode coma, how his character arc felt so rushed and unfinished, and how he felt so removed from his sister's life and all of his appearances in the last 10 episodes felt like an afterthought, as well as his complete absence in the manga.
Also for the record, it didn't bother me that he didn't become a Precure as much as it did for some others, even though it was odd for a series like Precure to say that Rio wants to be a Cure and then ignore that later, and there was no reason for him to lose his power in episode 40.
I could go on about other things like what's wrong with episode 41 and how to salvage Rio's character arc and Ciel as a whole, but I think what I said was enough, Thanks for reading! |
