I know I've only watched the first half of the show, but goddamn I feel as though I need to write about it, because I just don't get it.
Well, actually, I kind of did, for the first 5 or so episodes.
The show started off pretty damn nicely, and I've only read a couple of manga chapters, but the pacing of this very first episode was better than the manga equivalent, I thought. Give a question at the beginning of the episode, make us question what it was throughout the episode, and then payoff at the end of the episode by showing us the answer.
I really enjoyed the dynamic between the two main characters at first, Shinichi provided the human and moral side of the argument while Migi was the one to give out the pragmatic and logical answers to the situations at hand. This could have given us lots of situations where they are at conflict with one another as to what they should do; the practical or the moral solution.
Everyone else was really boring. Murano didn't really have any characteristics apart from "I'm in love with Shinichi", Yuuko was the "childhood friend" as she put it herself and the Kana girl is the same as Murano, except with even less significance to anything in the plot (Well, she might, but I wouldn't know since I only watched up to episode 12 like I said). There was also the schoolgirl helping out at the hotel that Shinichi stayed in who likes Shinichi no real reason at all. That's 3 girls, two of which who have no reason at all to like him, who like him. And possibly that girl with the ponytail in Murano's class, but I won't count her in.
The story arc with the mother was great. Well, I mean, that was the point where I started questioning the show's true quality as well, but how that arc played out was very well done. After that though, the show's quality DID drop, and it dropped HARD.
The only problem really, is the shift in Izumi's character which kind of came out of nowhere, but had an acceptable explanation for why. Of course I'm talking about the one from episode 8, which I'm going to repeat comes out of absolutely fucking nowhere. There wasn't any sort of transition; it was "I'm grieving" to suddenly "I'm a badass now". I'm going to call this the 'Kaneki effect' (Kaneki from the anime of course, I haven't read the mango so I can't really say), where a formerly wimpy kid becomes super strong quite suddenly, meaning within one episode or possibly two. The reason I'm pissed off is because these kind of characters completely lose what made them the people that they were. Good character development will be gradual, and show the person mature while keeping the person that we once knew intact (e.g. Guts or Musashi) rather than take a complete fucking 180 in character.
This goes against what made the show and two main characters interesting for as well, since as I said, I really loved the dynamic and different ways of thinking Izumi and Migi had. Now that Shinichi is a 'steel skinned badass', it renders the entire character of Migi pointless, and becomes more of a 'user and tool' relationship rather than two separate entities with different thinking processes. This change in character resulted in the show being devoid of any characters that I empathise with in the slightest. I could not care about the show anymore, leading me to dropping it.
The point at which I realized how stupid this show was when the childhood friend character SAW Shimada's head contort AND morph into a completely different head, yet she decided to speak to him because she didn't feel as though it wasn't enough evidence, which lead to many students dying. WHY DID SHE NOT FEEL AS THOUGH SEEING IT WITH HER OWN EYES DIDN'T PROVIDE ENOUGH EVIDENCE AT LEAST FOR HER.
I really don't get this show.
