Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi Episode 4 Discussion

Osric said:
This episode took itself way too seriously. Actually, so did previous episodes, but I was able to give it the benefit of the doubt before. Now, however... sigh...

I think this show's problem is that it initially presented itself as a parody but then didn't live up to that. If it had, I have a feeling it would've been excellent; but unfortunately, it's gone and tried to have its cake and eat it, trying to add moments of OTT drama alongside all the comedy. Now, that's not to say that parodies can't have their more serious moments, but firstly they need to be sparse and secondly they need to be original. This show does neither; it has drama at least once an episode and it's all pretty cliché stuff. Now that would still be alright if instead of taking it seriously, the show made an active effort to satirise it; yet it doesn't. It wants us to care about its characters, but forgets to make them anything more than the stale tropes we see everywhere. I'm a firm believer in 'no new ideas under the sun', and I believe anime exhibits this trait perhaps more than any other medium in modern culture; normally I'm fine with a story I've heard before provided it's still a story well told. But Ookami-san's problem is that it dragged me out of this mindset at the beginning by telling me it was going to take the mickey out of all that unoriginality, only to later down the line forget that when the time comes for some proper satire.

All of which leads neatly into my next point: the narrator. Now, I like Arai Satomi. I still reckon she's perfect for this part. Her performance is top-notch. The trouble is, her part is terribly written. Others have already noted the fact that she tends to point out the obvious and talk over characters; I won't dwell on that aspect. Rather, I'm going focus on the parts where the narrator should be present because she could actually inject some enjoyability into the scene. Otsuu's past in this episode was a prime example. Now, I won't mince words: her past was awful. Not awful in the sense that it was tragic and must have been extremely difficult to live through (though I dare say it was), but awful in the sense that it really had no artistic redemption. It was tired, forced, done far too many times before, all those nasty words. For me, it was the absolute nadir of the episode. But you know what would have made it utterly fantastic? If the show had just realised this and mocked itself for it: enter the narrator. I can't imagine how funny it would've been to have all that hyperbolic drama given an overlay of bored, sarcastic Kuroko 'gently' informing the show that, sorry dears, this has been done far too many times before; really, what are you, a fairy tale? Sure, that would've killed the tension, but that assumes that we the audience were ever giving a shit in the first place. We weren't; I certainly wasn't. I wasn't from the point I realised I was watching another god-damned anime child about to be run over by a guy driving through a red light only to be saved by her conveniently-placed best friend. I wasn't moved; I was bored. If Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi had been bored with me, I'd have loved it for it; instead, it seemed to expect me to shed a tear. Well sorry, but this would be contrived if it were on FanFiction.net; even if it is an old Japanese fairy tale, couldn't you have chopped it up 'til it was unrecognisable like you did with the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare last week? I might've had fun if you'd shown a bit of originality...

Anyway. Overall, the impression I get from Ookami-san is that, rather than being a genuine parody, it's a big festival to celebrate all the creators' geekiness with an excuse at the beginning telling us, 'oh, it's all ironic really'. Trouble is, it soon becomes all too apparent how little time they gave over to indulging that excuse, instead opting to spend all their time revelling in their own otaku delights. They reference fairy tales from around the world without particularly parodying them as such; they include more deliberate anime allusions that I care to keep track of, and won't bother listing here. This is satire with a short attention span; if it doesn't pick up in weeks to come, it may actually end up going from one of my favourite anime of the season to one of the few anime I actually drop. Here's hoping it does improve soon.

Ok, rant over, you can all start paying attention again now.

Despite all that, this episode wasn't entirely horrible; there was enough good moments for me to give it a 2 rather than a 1. The character designs continue to be nice and pretty; loli-Otsuu was very cute. Yukime is an excellent character, even if she marks the second and more obvious Love Hina reference to grace this show (Haruka, much?); I look forward to seeing more of her. The Hansel and Gretel twincest was pure win, and one of the few places where the narrator's role was well-managed; am I the only one hoping we'll see more of this pair in episodes to come? Majo is possibly now my favourite character in the show ahead of Liszt - she does look pretty cute without her usual get-up, but I wouldn't have her any way other than in all her mad scientist glory, so I'm not too sad that we probably won't get to see her like that again any time soon.

Seems we're getting a new character next week, unless Momo-chan-senpai secretly refers to Majo or Alice or someone. If that's the case, weeeee, another initially interesting character to be ruined by taking too close a look at them... hopefully Alice rather than Majo, as Miss Soifon wasn't too interesting in the first place at least...

2/5. Don't make me drop you, Ookami-san.

ilikeyouevenmore said:
The narrator was less irritating this time. She actually made me lol a few times.... Does this mean I'm cracking?

HawthorneKitty said:
One thing this anime does right it make the child forms of each character adorable.

Aeterna said:
They failed epically at trying to give Otsuu a deep background. In my eyes, she's still a flat character

Oosran said:
She might even have been more interesting before they brought up her background.

ZetaZeta said:
They basically gave her a tragic past, introduced, and killed off a bro in 23 seconds.

HawthorneKitty said:
One thing this anime does right it make the child forms of each character adorable.

Aversa said:
Words can not describe the brilliance of Arai Satomi as the narrator, the roll suites her perfectly!

zimno said:






3/5

eternalblade13 said:
and to those who does not like the anime and keep on criticizing it, just drop the anime and we would have a win win situation, you don't see a crappy anime and the anime has no negative comments(well less)

Anitnelav said:
Hansel & Gretel are school council presidents and secretary. xD I just found that kinda funny for some reason.

Osric said:


I sympathise with what you're saying, I really do. I remember thinking the same thing on many an occasion. But for my part, in this case, I haven't dropped yet because I remember watching the first episode and, well, liking it. It looked like a fun little ride even if it didn't smack of tremendous originality. And hey, it had Kuroko narrating it; after a little initial shock, I decided I quite liked that. But after a good start, future episodes, and particularly this episode, frankly disappointed. It could just be a dip at the beginning before the show gets good in my eyes again; that's what I'm hoping for. But in the mean time I feel at rights to express my disappointment and, as a courtesy, explain why I'm disappointed.

ReaperEXE said:
tl;dr ~> D'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwww.
The episode was alright, but what direction exactly is this show going? Is there some kind of plot, or does it remain as loose bits of comedy and DEEP drama (LOL)?

mel said:
lol.. Hansel and Gretel