Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Beautiful Bones: Sakurako's Investigation
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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There were a lot of things about this episode that just didn't hold up. Gina mentions some. Any scientist would have parsed out the possible fathers and mothers. Heck, Sasaki's father could have been the baby's father. It was all just a little too much of a stretch.
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sunflower
Posts: 1080 |
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This show seems to be focusing less on mystery and more on coping with death, and all the little things we do when facing it from either side (as someone losing their life, or someone who's lost another). I like the change, and am finding it quite emotional.
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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I agree with this, but I have a problem as well. They haven't yet explained much about the relationship between those two. How did Shoutarou end up being her "guardian?" Or was that just him teasing her? She never seems to take umbrage at him saying that except when he did it over the PA to everyone. Sakurako is one of the more interesting female leads to come along in a while. And I am attracted to a character with the nerve to basically flip off a the maladjusted parents of a missing girl in their own living room. |
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Kevelinu
Posts: 52 |
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WTF the last couple of reviews I have read all have like the opposite ranking I would have expected...
First Gintama of the new arc...expected not so good score, thought it was kinda boring...gets an A! Amazing F ni naru episode, wow! Gets a D?? And now, I did think the shows was boring up until now, this was the first really good episode and it gets a...C. Is there something wrong with me? :-O |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11330 |
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^ You just have different tastes from the reviewers. Nothing wrong with that.
Episode 11 I thought this was a pretty decent episode, but it seemed like everybody but Shoutarou was acting kinda freaky. Even the dog. It was a little unnerving. For a moment there I thought they were going to out the teacher as Hanabusa, or as having had an affair with one of the girls. Maybe it's just hard for me to imagine any of my teachers taking such a situation so personally. I don't mean they didn't care about their students, but they wouldn't have been all, "Oh, it's all my fault for not seeing your pain!" |
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HaruhiToy
Posts: 4118 |
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I don't often take issue with Nick's reviews but I think he went off the rails here. Sakurako solves mysteries. She is brutal and merciless at dissecting the foibles of others. At what point exactly did you develop the expectation that she was a nice person? You could deduct points for how she is portrayed, but I think it is very wrong-headed to lower the grade of an anime just because the main character is pretty and didn't turn out to be Nancy Drew. That's what it seems the review is doing. The very fact that she evidently got you is grounds for bonus points, not demerits. Sakurako does seem to come from a fairly long line of emotionally troubled and/or distant heroes. Batman, Sherlock Holmes, the Shadow and many others. These characters are clearly designed with the idea that those most suited to deal with evil (or the "abyss" in this story) that they must possess some of those properties themselves. I think we should also recognize give credit that they came up with a death-by-schoolgirl combination that did not involve the yarende prototype. It may look soap-operaish (is, actually) but it was damn effective as a story device. So I would have given this a B+ or even an A- on the merits. |
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AholePony
 Posts: 330 Location: Arizona |
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He's been pretty sour on this show from day one. I appreciate it though because some great points have been made to support this series' shortcomings and I like to see a differing opinion.
I've been enjoying this series almost purely because it's different than what we normally get. It's not the best thing ever but I've been entertained enough to make it worth my time. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I think there's more to Sakurako's unhinged reaction to these events than bad writing. My guess is that Hanabusa was somehow responsible for the death of her brother, perhaps in a effort to fend off pursuit by her uncle. To be honest, one thing that has bothered me for some time now is that Shoutarou has never asked Granny about his death. He must understand at some level that he has taken the brother's place in Sakurako's life. (The whole "shounen" business is clearly an effort by Sakurako to avoid using his name since it is so close to the name of her brother.) It seems strange that Shoutarou shows so little interest in the brother's story.
Like Gina I found sensei pretty unbelievable. I'm also a bit tired of the "distraught teen-aged girl on the verge of suicide trope." While suicide is now the leading cause of death among 10-19 year-old children in Japan, it appears more prevalent for boys, often as a consequence of bullying. In a disturbing piece, Mariko Oi of the BBC reports that suicides spike on the first day of school in September, and officials have begun taking action to provide respite for suicidal teens. |
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GregoriusU
Posts: 23 |
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Glad to see other people are actually enjoying this series. I've been starting to wonder if my wife and I were the only people who like it.
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jojothepunisher
 Posts: 799 |
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Glad I dodged this bullet. Dropped at episode 4.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11330 |
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Is this the last episode (12)?
Nice backstory, but it would have been better to just tell it straight, instead of jumping back and forth and dropping flashbacks into flashbacks. Since they all keep hallucinating being in different locations, you can't even trust the background cues to tell you when or where something is taking place. |
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HaruhiToy
Posts: 4118 |
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All along I have been arguing against Nick's down reviews of the episodes of this anime, so it is hardly surprising that I rate this a bit higher than he did. Just a bit. Because they took this time to lay a foundation for the relationship between Shotarou and Sakurako I would have liked a few lines about his obvious crush on her. I don't think she feels that way about him and if so then that's going to be an issue sooner or later. One other aspect I think that has been under appreciated in this anime is the artwork. Sakurako's house is a personality all by itself (as recognized by Shotarou) but in almost every scene the characters seem to be part of the set rather than just acting in it. And if there was a season prize for creepy I think this anime would have one it with the final close-out scene. Did you notice the portrait was a profile on the right and face-on on the left? Yes there are problems with this anime but on the whole I think it is better than its reputation. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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Just wanted to comment that it is normal for statistics to show more suicide by males than females (only in societies where women are treated as objects does the percentage changes), even Sakurako mentions it in an episode how "only men can die of heartbreak". So while suicide is more common for males, the mechanics of how a male ends in suicide are different, so it probably it is harder to write such a story. |
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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Wikipedia cites these statistics from studies done at the beginning of the decade:
I'd imagine one reason suicide constitutes a higher fraction of deaths in that age group is that Japanese people drive less than Americans. Five people per hundred thousand die on Japanese roads compared to nearly twelve Americans. While Sakurako's comment about "heartbreak" is confirmed by the finding about divorce, issues concerning work play the greatest role. Suicides spiked after the recession as older Japanese men suddenly found themselves out of work. In 2009 the unemployed accounted for the majority of suicides. The pressures of Japan's overwork culture has made "fatigue from work" an official category in data about suicides. The young people who watch anime probably don't want to see material about middle-aged men killing themselves because of the pressures of the Japanese workplace the viewers are about to enter. |
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GregoriusU
Posts: 23 |
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I think the problem is that viewers come in with the expectation of "MYSTERY" and what they've gotten is "The story of a boy who has a crush on a young woman obsessed with bones, and together they find mysteries." In other words, it's about relationships, not action. In that respect, one could almost call it shoujo, rather than shounen or seinen, since shoujo is usually more character-driven a storytelling style. Yes, I wish the mystery aspect were ramped up more, but the art and the care with which they're handling the characters makes up for it, for me. Not the best anime ever, could be better, but good nonetheless. |
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