Thanks for your feedback on this 6 year old review.
My review does not go into specific plot holes because I personally ascribe to the idea that reviews should not spoil the anime for prospective viewers who haven't seen the show. If I was having a debate about it with someone who had also completed it, I would include these instances to back up my points, because my aim in the debate would be to validate my opinion. In a review, it is not my goal to prove my opinion, only to share it and explain it in a way which is entertaining and informative.
I include some spoiler-free examples to give the reader a clearer idea of what I'm trying to allude to, which do incidentally lend themselves to my argument, but that is by the by.
My memory of the cat scene is not 100%, so I've gone back and watched that little segment again. The subtitles read "Are you the one that's been feeding the cat? What a bother. I took it to a shelter, so never come here again". Now, the word "shout" is probably too strong a word, and she doesn't say "leave"; I'll correct "shout" to "reprimand" and remove the "leave" (the subs you saw may have been different).
That said, this changes absolutely nothing about the point being made here. I wasn't trying to imply that this woman took the cat to upset Kotoura-san. This isn't about the woman or whether she in particular hates Kotoura, this is about the how the world hates Kotoura-san. The show can't get enough of causing just that extra bit of misery, past of the point of any narrative importance. Let me ask you, was that cat scene really necessary? You've been subjected scene after scene of continuous misery, yet after the events where Kotoura-san gets rejected by her friends (which important part), it just can't help but add in one more bit of misery, just to make sure, you, the viewer, knows 100% that you should be sad.
Even within the scene it adds extra ridiculous elements just to twist the knife. This woman walks up to Kotoura-san in the middle of a park whilst it's raining, with no purpose, and is overly hostile. "What a pain", if it was because it was a eyesore, she didn't clear up the fucking box the cat was in did she? Was she actually concerned about the cat? Then why be hostile to Kotoura? The scene doesn't make sense, and doesn't serve a narrative purpose. It's gratuitous misery. This is what I mean when I say it's heavy handed. It treats the audience like they need all the help they can get in understanding what emotion they should be feeling. It doesn't show you one sad scene, not two, but several, strung together like a misery montage.
I'm not objecting to the premise of "pure, raw emotion", I'm objecting to the execution. There are plenty of anime that I've enjoyed which have highly emotional moments, the difference is they didn't belabour it, or treat me like an idiot. The statement, truthfully, was intentionally condescending, so I can't fault you for noting that.
I understand why you and many others might relate to Kotoura-san's rejection, but again, this isn't about the premise, but the execution. 3-Gatsu no Lion is a very good show about someone who doesn't feel like they have any place to belong, how they feel rejected. This isn't the same levels of rejection of Kotoura, but I think it's far more grounded and relatable. Again, that's just my opinion. Back to Kotoura, I object to the execution; Kotoura had mind reading powers. In any normal human being this would have given her an overwhelming advantage in social interactions. Children may be dumb, but not brainless. A child would quickly learn that revealing that they were reading minds was a bad idea. You get given countless examples of how she is reprimanded for this, yet somehow she never learns. Kotoura's misery and rejection is entirely the fault of an unrealistic and contrived set of behaviours by Kotoura herself. This tells me the show only cared about the setting up scenarios for their ideas to manifest, but had little regard for how it got there. No care seems to be given as to whether it makes sense. As I said at the beginning, it has a lot of good ideas, but without the execution it ends up falling flat. You relate to the rejection, but do you really relate to the circumstances behind it?
Hiyori was an absolutely appallingly written character which is a manifestation of the show's attitude to writing. It needs a negative/bad character to cause (you guessed it) misery to Kotoura, but then heel-turns when the need ceases, and make her into a friendly character with no real justification. Same thing with the mother, they wanted to have that nice/happy/feel-good moment of redemption, but did fuck all to actually properly set it up.
If people's lives have honestly been changed by watching this show, then I genuinely concerned for them, because ultimately all the lessons, morals, and emotions that Kotoura-san have to offer are entirely hollow.
All Comments (1) Comments
Thanks for your feedback on this 6 year old review.
My review does not go into specific plot holes because I personally ascribe to the idea that reviews should not spoil the anime for prospective viewers who haven't seen the show. If I was having a debate about it with someone who had also completed it, I would include these instances to back up my points, because my aim in the debate would be to validate my opinion. In a review, it is not my goal to prove my opinion, only to share it and explain it in a way which is entertaining and informative.
I include some spoiler-free examples to give the reader a clearer idea of what I'm trying to allude to, which do incidentally lend themselves to my argument, but that is by the by.
My memory of the cat scene is not 100%, so I've gone back and watched that little segment again. The subtitles read "Are you the one that's been feeding the cat? What a bother. I took it to a shelter, so never come here again". Now, the word "shout" is probably too strong a word, and she doesn't say "leave"; I'll correct "shout" to "reprimand" and remove the "leave" (the subs you saw may have been different).
That said, this changes absolutely nothing about the point being made here. I wasn't trying to imply that this woman took the cat to upset Kotoura-san. This isn't about the woman or whether she in particular hates Kotoura, this is about the how the world hates Kotoura-san. The show can't get enough of causing just that extra bit of misery, past of the point of any narrative importance. Let me ask you, was that cat scene really necessary? You've been subjected scene after scene of continuous misery, yet after the events where Kotoura-san gets rejected by her friends (which important part), it just can't help but add in one more bit of misery, just to make sure, you, the viewer, knows 100% that you should be sad.
Even within the scene it adds extra ridiculous elements just to twist the knife. This woman walks up to Kotoura-san in the middle of a park whilst it's raining, with no purpose, and is overly hostile. "What a pain", if it was because it was a eyesore, she didn't clear up the fucking box the cat was in did she? Was she actually concerned about the cat? Then why be hostile to Kotoura? The scene doesn't make sense, and doesn't serve a narrative purpose. It's gratuitous misery. This is what I mean when I say it's heavy handed. It treats the audience like they need all the help they can get in understanding what emotion they should be feeling. It doesn't show you one sad scene, not two, but several, strung together like a misery montage.
I'm not objecting to the premise of "pure, raw emotion", I'm objecting to the execution. There are plenty of anime that I've enjoyed which have highly emotional moments, the difference is they didn't belabour it, or treat me like an idiot. The statement, truthfully, was intentionally condescending, so I can't fault you for noting that.
I understand why you and many others might relate to Kotoura-san's rejection, but again, this isn't about the premise, but the execution. 3-Gatsu no Lion is a very good show about someone who doesn't feel like they have any place to belong, how they feel rejected. This isn't the same levels of rejection of Kotoura, but I think it's far more grounded and relatable. Again, that's just my opinion. Back to Kotoura, I object to the execution; Kotoura had mind reading powers. In any normal human being this would have given her an overwhelming advantage in social interactions. Children may be dumb, but not brainless. A child would quickly learn that revealing that they were reading minds was a bad idea. You get given countless examples of how she is reprimanded for this, yet somehow she never learns. Kotoura's misery and rejection is entirely the fault of an unrealistic and contrived set of behaviours by Kotoura herself. This tells me the show only cared about the setting up scenarios for their ideas to manifest, but had little regard for how it got there. No care seems to be given as to whether it makes sense. As I said at the beginning, it has a lot of good ideas, but without the execution it ends up falling flat. You relate to the rejection, but do you really relate to the circumstances behind it?
Hiyori was an absolutely appallingly written character which is a manifestation of the show's attitude to writing. It needs a negative/bad character to cause (you guessed it) misery to Kotoura, but then heel-turns when the need ceases, and make her into a friendly character with no real justification. Same thing with the mother, they wanted to have that nice/happy/feel-good moment of redemption, but did fuck all to actually properly set it up.
If people's lives have honestly been changed by watching this show, then I genuinely concerned for them, because ultimately all the lessons, morals, and emotions that Kotoura-san have to offer are entirely hollow.