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EP. REVIEW: Komi Can't Communicate


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Thatguy3331



Joined: 18 Feb 2012
Posts: 1790
PostPosted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 10:41 am Reply with quote
So we finally hit Yamai's introduction, this was the other, if not major speedbump this show was going to have from the early chapters solely in that the series goes way too over the top with her to only go back and have her be one of Komi's friends (even then it's practically in name only Komi herself is doesn't really trust/go out of her way to talk with her much unless necessary). I can understand the need/desire to want a comedic antagonist (though if I'm being frank I would have rather it ben Yadano Makeru over Yamai) but Yamai doesn't even really do much of a good job of that since she only serves to be the most extremely obsessive over Komi to move a lot gags/plot points and be jealous of Tadano.

The nicest thing I can say about the whole story beat (aside from the stair well scene being nice before Yamai showed back up) is that this part is over now, and that there isn't going to be quite as insane of a scenario as this ever again. Even better as the story progresses Yamai slides further and further into the background (though unfortunately it never truly forgets her. Pity.)
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 11:36 am Reply with quote
Quote:
However, I'm a little confused regarding what the message of this episode is actually supposed to be


IMO it is crystal clear and old as dirt. One of the undercurrents of anime (and japanese society as a whole) is that, yes you can (and should) become friends (or comrades, or acquaints) with everyone. Yamai is tbt a mild example of this, I mean, there are series where said person has actively tried to murder you *coff* Vegeta *coff* but that is ok, at the end of the story arc we can understand each other at some level (that is, if both parties are still alive). I mean, anyone here can remember the title of the OP song for The Slayers?
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Minos_Kurumada



Joined: 04 Nov 2015
Posts: 983
PostPosted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 1:26 pm Reply with quote
meiam wrote:
Minos_Kurumada wrote:
Electric Wooloo wrote:
Minos_Kurumada wrote:


You need a character to hate.


I can think of dozens of anime, especially comedy/SoL like this, that didn't have villains/antagonists and were great.


Can't think in one, I have read a lot of those and the "Villain" is always forced and feels to be there just to prolongue the serialization time by adding fabricated drama.

Normally in the form of a new love interest or a problematic family member.


?? Lucky star and K-on, both some of the biggest SoL and a big reason the genre became this popular, no villain. And that still hold, Yuru camp is probably one of the biggest SoL of the last few years, no villain there either. I honestly have a hard time even thinking of SoL with anything close to villain.


Lucky Star, K-ON and Nichijou are not the same narrative style, those belong to "Cute girls doing..." narrative and are purely gang series, specially LS.

If there is drama or conflict in K-ON it comes from the pressure of becoming an Idol, you don't need conflictive characters there.

Komi falls on the romance/dramedy category, it's more in the ball park of "Pres is a Maid" or "Yandere Kanojo".

Komi it's quite transparent on this, everything Yamai does it's questionable and shown in bad light.
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fromfaraway



Joined: 16 Nov 2021
Posts: 5
PostPosted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 2:39 pm Reply with quote
Anime/manga needs to figure out that the creepy comedic pervert trope isn't funny, was never funny, and nowadays is more of a sickening reminder of how society underplays the seriousness of gross sexual behavior. I can't say I hate Yamai, because she's a fictional character and I'll never have extreme feelings about fictional people. I do regret her character writing though, because as the series progresses we see an actually interesting character that could've been fun if the obsessive behavior was removed. She's a good spoiled rich girl character, and spoiler[I like her future friendship/antagonistic relationship with Nakanaka].
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Piglet the Grate



Joined: 25 May 2021
Posts: 523
Location: North America
PostPosted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 3:22 pm Reply with quote
fromfaraway wrote:
Anime/manga needs to figure out that the creepy comedic pervert trope isn't funny, was never funny, and nowadays is more of a sickening reminder of how society underplays the seriousness of gross sexual behavior.


Agree with the above when the deviances are those that are harmful to others, but not to a normal level of sexual interest (we are not living in 17th Century Massachusetts where morally approved sex was to be limited to something to be done but not enjoyed when children are wanted). I have always taken it to be a joke when a high school girl calls a high school boy a pervert ("hentai" is what they actually speak) for showing sexual interest.

Of course, creepy characters work as plot device when the "knight" comes to the rescue, as we see way back in GTO when Onizuka beats up a guy for frottage on the train, or a couple of weeks ago when Harumi scruffs the man who was taking upskirt photos of Futaba in My Senpai Is Annoying. The key here is that the behavior is presented as unacceptable rather than funny.
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Picky33



Joined: 09 Jul 2021
Posts: 263
PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 8:41 am Reply with quote
mangamuscle wrote:
Reviewer wrote:
However, I'm a little confused regarding what the message of this episode is actually supposed to be


IMO it is crystal clear and old as dirt. One of the undercurrents of anime (and Japanese society as a whole) is that, yes you can (and should) become friends (or comrades, or acquaints) with everyone. Yamai is tbt a mild example of this...

I disagree with you. i think the message is You choose your own friends. When Komi says "i Choose my own friends in Yamai's apartment and then walks out, i was going, O Shit, Mic Drop. Eventually I think she became friends with Yamai because Komi realized that other people are not as normal as there outward appearance may seem.

For the people worried that Yamai will become a regular part of the series i beg to differ because Komi is supposed to make 100 friends and that means not all characters can be scene every week. it's only been 1 episode since Komi became friends with Himiko and she had maybe a couple lines in this episode (4), i imagine this will be the norm going forward.
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fromfaraway



Joined: 16 Nov 2021
Posts: 5
PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 8:51 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Agree with the above when the deviances are those that are harmful to others, but not to a normal level of sexual interest (we are not living in 17th Century Massachusetts where morally approved sex was to be limited to something to be done but not enjoyed when children are wanted).


Agreed. I think one of the better mangas I've read that handled teenage sexual interest was Mosou Telepathy. That series handled it in a surprisingly funny and realistic manner. I don't mind that Yamai has a crush on Komi, and sometimes the chapters about her crush are good spoiler[I actually thought the chapter about Yamai noticing the hole in Komi's tights was amusing and kind of cute. I think that chapter is a better example of Yamai's personality and potential as a character.]
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RhinocerousTrilbies



Joined: 09 Dec 2019
Posts: 26
PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 4:48 pm Reply with quote
This part of the series was a real shame in terms of investment. Because after the Yamai stuff, the series gets a lot better and then it’s REALLY amazing when they get to introducing Manbagi! By that point, it’s trend-setting material; speaking from someone who read the manga first, anyway
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 6:03 pm Reply with quote
Picky33 wrote:
mangamuscle wrote:
However, I'm a little confused regarding what the message of this episode is actually supposed to be


I disagree with you. i think the message is You choose your own friends. When Komi says "i Choose my own friends in Yamai's apartment ...


... was simply because Yamai didn't want Komi to be friend with Tadano.
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Shadowrun20XX



Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Posts: 1935
Location: Vegas
PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 10:36 pm Reply with quote
Yamai is a hilarious psycho spoiler[she has a forest near by that she will bury Tadano in. Dark. I forgot how much i like that 24 beep. Love Osana frozen in terror after finding Todano.]
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Piglet the Grate



Joined: 25 May 2021
Posts: 523
Location: North America
PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 2:23 am Reply with quote
fromfaraway wrote:
I don't mind that Yamai has a crush on Komi


I found the pool visit scene (Episode 7) to be creepy simply because the uninvited Yamai came along. Would rather see Yamai in a straight-jacket or prisoner jumpsuit than a swimsuit.
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AholePony



Joined: 04 Jun 2015
Posts: 330
Location: Arizona
PostPosted: Fri Nov 19, 2021 12:59 pm Reply with quote
Kirki wrote:
It's supposed to be over the top comedy and not taken seriously, but it didn't succeed because from what we've seen so far, Komi's world is a pretty realistic world. Sure there are elements of exaggeration for laughs, but nothing that pushes the boundaries of credibility too far.


I agree the realism of the world and Komi's issue make this feel more serious and that first episode chalkboard scene doesn't help me buy in that this is a "goofy" series either. The framing and tone isn't all that consistent.

All I keep thinking is that this show is a Baka to Test clone that's way less funny.
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Minos_Kurumada



Joined: 04 Nov 2015
Posts: 983
PostPosted: Sun Nov 21, 2021 1:18 pm Reply with quote
I always found Komi's family a plot hole of sorts.

It makes no sense to me that such a loving family would simply ignore Komi's condition.
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 10960
PostPosted: Sun Nov 21, 2021 1:27 pm Reply with quote
I love how Yadano keeps breaking the 4th wall.

Gym clothes Komi in a ponytail was quite the sight.

They finally introduce Agari's love for ramen.

Nakanaka's chuuni antics are even more hilarious in anime form. I love how Komi keeps asking questions and Nakanaka has to shift away from explaining it.

Komi's mom is Komi with short hair and a completely different personality. Kikuko Inoue was perfect (and really, with that "forever 17" gag, who else could you cast?). I also love Najimi waiting for something to happen between Komi and Tadano and they just casually spend time together.

That umbrella scene at the end...Najimi playing stellar wingperson. And Tadano realizing Komi was waiting for him was everything.
Minos_Kurumada wrote:
I always found Komi's family a plot hole of sorts.

It makes no sense to me that such a loving family would simply ignore Komi's condition.

I don't think it's so much that they ignore it so much as it's just kind of common in the family to not be very overtly talkative other than Komi's mom.
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earl.m





PostPosted: Sun Nov 21, 2021 2:52 pm Reply with quote
AholePony wrote:
Kirki wrote:
It's supposed to be over the top comedy and not taken seriously, but it didn't succeed because from what we've seen so far, Komi's world is a pretty realistic world. Sure there are elements of exaggeration for laughs, but nothing that pushes the boundaries of credibility too far.


I agree the realism of the world and Komi's issue make this feel more serious and that first episode chalkboard scene doesn't help me buy in that this is a "goofy" series either. The framing and tone isn't all that consistent.

All I keep thinking is that this show is a Baka to Test clone that's way less funny.


Isn't a Baka to Test clone in any way. Baka To Test - in addition to having the "occult high school" setting that was popular from the mid 2000s through the 2010s due to the influence of Harry Potter (Negima even had glasses) - had lots of elements that have fallen out of contemporary fashion in slice of life anime: fanservice/ecchi (not even Haruhi Suzumiya would get made today, let alone School Rumble or Medaka Box) and the whole "it is COMEDIC violence so long as it is females beating the tar out of males and not the other way around" thing.

A "Baka to Test" clone would have had Yamai constantly fondling Komi and peeping on her showering or changing clothes i.e. the way that a similar "stalker lesbian envious of het male competition" Kuroko does Misaka in "A Certain Scientific Railgun". And where Yamai's kidnapping and threatening to murder Tadano was treated VERY seriously by the show, again 10 years ago it would have been played for pure comedy just as - in keeping with the Index franchise comparisons - Misaka's hammering Touma with powerful electric shocks was treated as "ha ha funny tsundere" stuff. Also Tadano instead of merely getting tied up also gets the tar beaten out of him and outright tortured by Yamai, spends all night in the closet without even his own family caring about where he is, and Yamai gets rewarded with becoming Komi's best (female) friend immediately.

Komi is part of a trend of modern school/SOL/romcom shows that includes Oregairu, Horimiya, Kaguyi-Sama, Tonikawa, AoButa, Taisho Maiden Fairytale (which regrettably was passed up for review this season in favor of several much weaker shows) and Sing Yesterday for Me that jettisons a lot of the problematic tropes of the genre and mostly succeeds. The attractiveness of the main character is a major plot point - though not a character point yet we are approaching halfway through the first cour and they haven't shown her body. Or that of the token buxom character, who in an earlier era would have been a gyaru with a plunging cleavage line and too short skirt. While the "trap" character is present, his (this was canonically addressed in episode 2 so no need to use another pronoun) being so is a plot/character point instead of being used as a joke (making it superior to even Oregairu's utilization of Saika as a comedic device). So, it isn't like the bog standard 2000s era works that were rife with those tropes (yes BtT began airing in 2010 but its source material began in 2007) at all.

Instead, some of those slice of life "CGDCT" school anime from the 2000s had the stereotypical "shy beautiful smart athletic girl that everyone is afraid to approach, is hit on by a lesbian/bisexual female character and eventually overcomes her social shortcomings as well as the fears of other characters to approach her to become a part of the main group" character. What this work does is - instead of relegating her to the sidelines - making her the central character and amping up her plight from merely being shy with bad social skills to having hereditary (I am thinking that the show will introduce her father and brother second season) mental illness: social anxiety and mild autism. While she lacks this character's massive rack - again due to fanservice not being much of a thing in this era's SOL works anymore - give her a longing for cats and stuffed animals and this becomes "Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh: The Series".
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