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Jayhosh wrote:

Overall it was a pretty good show with some wonderfully inspired moments. Episode 18 in particular was impressively engaging for basically just being two characters standing around and monologuing for 25 straight minutes.

I found that episode unbearable. 25 straight minutes of "I'm worthless!" "No you're not!" repeated endlessly. If the production had hit a snag and felt the need to do a bottle episode like that, I'd have prefer if they just did a recap instead.

That wasn't a production snag; that was planned all along. It got extra running time, the staff supposedly specifically looked forward to doing it, and they even advertised that specific episode - and that doesn't normally ever happen for a mid-series episode.

That just makes it sadder. I freely admit that some of my animus towards the episode is that I particularly didn't like when the MC's seiyuu had to act "emotionally" ... I found his voice grating. So listening to the episode was like having an ice pick driven into my eardrums. However, setting that aside, the conversation between he and Rem was highly repetitive. As I say, after a while, the two sentiments repeated over and and over again were: "I'm worthless" and Rem's reply, "No you're not."

I don't disagree that it was repetitive, and there were a couple of points in it where it grated on me, too. However, I didn't have a big problem with it because in one respect I thought it was realistic: repeated assurances are usually needed to break someone out of a cycle of self-loathing like that.