Forum - View topicI Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class (TV).
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
b-dragon
Posts: 631 |
|
|||
|
I mean, it's absolutely a toxic, terrible thing to say. Guilting someone into something to soothe your own anxiety is shitty behavior. And yet- it's a very "teen" thing to say. I have little doubt that for many teens in their first relationship, it's the sort of thing that feels true, and sounds romantic. So it's certainly not something that I hold against the character (even if I do think someone should have a come-to-Jesus meeting with her about it.)
Dad is....kinda shitty, though in a way that mostly makes sense. There's not a good way to tell your son "Yeah, I don't love your mother. I love some other woman." That's just never going to go down well. That said, as a parent, his responsibility is to be a good model on how to have these difficult conversations...and I can't really say that happened either. My big issue...isn't the new woman his assistant? Someone he has occupational authority over? I don't know that I'm familiar with Japanese standards on this sort of thing, but that's a big yikes from me if so. |
||||
|
||||
Edjwald
 Posts: 3600 |
|
|||
|
I bring up context because Umi has already talked about how she has an anxiety/inferiority complex that she's struggling with in regards to Yuu. Her comment about not being able to take it if she lost "Umi too" was explaining why she still struggled with seeing him and Yuu acting close. For context, She said it after Yuu's comments about wanting a guy like Maehara and directly prefaced it by mentioning the two friends who betrayed her and used her to try to get closer to Yuu. Hence the "too."
My point being, it's not like Umi goes around being all clingy and insecure or manipulative 24/7, this is a specific issue that comes up in a specific context and she's self-aware of it. Communicating it and being honest about the feeling is part of trying to deal with it, even if imperfectly. But without that context, the comment sounded like everything that's been said without any proviso or filter, and not only that, it came at a time when Maehara is dealing with a mom who's suffering after her husband left her. He's got his own context, and it's not one he's really expressed out loud and seems to be in denial baout how much it's really messing with him. I have a feeling there are still a few layers to be added between whatever went on between the dad and the mom btw. |
||||
|
||||
The Scream Man
 Posts: 312 Location: Sydney, Australia |
|
|||
|
Well we have some more answers this week about that. Looks like Dad has been supporting them and Mum was stubbornly not using his money, which led to her overworking. But I agree ther eis also something else to the intitial breakup thats not known atm. Maybe Im wrong, I dont know.
Also Umis family are awesome. I like that her Dad is basically a softy who is just naturally large and intimidating. He wasnt trying to make Maki feel scared, he just has that presence. And then the way that they handled his breakdown, then letting him sleep over (In Umis room no less!) also felt very together and smart. Then Dads chat with Maki.... yeah overall this felt like a really... Mature episode? I dont know how to explain it. It just feels like a relationship, and series of people in relationships, that arent overly dramatic, but very grounded. I know I said this beofore, but Im REALLY enjoying this show. |
||||
|
||||
|
smurky turkey
Posts: 5069 |
|
|||
|
I am just glad that Maki can finally let his emotions show regarding the divorce and the damage it did to him plus actually starting to come to terms with it. It was painfully obvious that he has in fact not until now and kept bottling it up. I agree that his father is not winning awards regarding the situation. The whole situation and episode are a good reminder that not everyone is part of a loving family.
|
||||
|
||||
|
Edjwald
Posts: 3600 |
|
|||
Yah, most anime dads of female romantic leads are over the top nutjobs or scumbags, insanely over protective or coldly indifferent. Umi's dad was cool, but not in a completely unrealistic way.
I don't know how to explain it either, but I know that while I was watching it I felt that some of this anime comes from a writer's real experience as opposed to those anime where you can tell somebody is just replaying the same old fantasist stereotypes that have never happened to them. Not saying that's always bad either. Just saying. The reason I thought about all this was because there aren't any easy answers or perfect actions or totally pure emotions. Not because the anime is icky or the characters suck, but because real relationships have lots of jagged edges and more than one side. The marriage of the Maehara's family is a bit mysterious to me, but what we've seen from his perspective seems real in a way that most high school romcoms don't. |
||||
|
||||
|
TJ_Kat
Posts: 891 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
|
|||
|
Based on the setup, I fully expected Umi's dad to be super intimidating, but just a big softie on the inside, so tick that box.
If I'm being honest, I felt like his advice to Maki went too far in the opposite direction. Maki bottling up his feelings to not hurt his parents isn't fair to him and it is very unhealthy, this is true. But Maki behaving like a child, throwing a tantrum, and demanding his parents get back together isn't fair to them. He has every right to be upset about his parents' divorce, and he has every right to tell them he's upset about their divorce, but he can do it in a mature way. |
||||
|
||||
Cam0
 Posts: 4975 |
|
|||
|
Episode 12
I caught up with this recently. The writing quality was generally sort of simplistic. Like there are light novels adaptions that, I dare say, have good writing like Oregairu (my teen romcom SNAFU thingthat) for instance and then there are light novel adaptions that have that distinct feeling of amateurish, written-by-fan-of-light novels writing. This felt a lot more like the latter. I'll give mild credit that the story explored the effects of divorced parents on a child, something we rarely see in anime, but like every source of drama in this story it was another thing that the story kept reasonably simple and easily solvable. |
||||
|
||||
|
Edjwald
Posts: 3600 |
|
|||
Welp, I have to respectfully disagree with your opinion here, but I certainly don't begrudge your right to have it, and I'm not unaware that opinions about stories tend to vary. To this day, I don't really get the appeal of Oshi No Ko for example, and I've tried several times since that sad truth apparently makes me some kind of pagan in the eyes of people who I usually agree with. But as to this show, when Yuu's mom said that Yuu had been talking about Maki a lot, Umi got a panicked light in her eye. Maki flicked a look at her, they exchanged glances, tightened hands, and moved on. Umi isn't over her issues, but she is making progress, and it was conveyed without a speech. I thought that was nice. Maki's handling of his parents might have seemed simplistic, but it didn't solve everything...in fact, it didn't solve anything. It just pulled the problem out into the open as the first step in making some progress. If the anime had switched to a new life that was all rainbows and unicorns and happy music, I might see that as naive. But Maki's mom is back at work, which might be good or bad, Maki's back to spending most of his nights alone, which might be good or bad. His parents may be communicating better or they may not be, we don't know. In my opinion, that's wayyy less simplistic and more ambiguous than many anime would handled the situation. Umi still alternates between cocky and insecure. Maki still alternates between saying too much in public and being too hesitant in private. A lot of the ways they dealt with their issues were imperfect, sometimes questionable, and they weren't always mature about the way they expressed what they were struggling with. I get why some people might not like that, but I didn't find it easily solvable or simplistic. To each their own. The show gave several hints that its angling for a second season. Yuu's little foreshadowing narrative. The show literally ending with Maki talking about a new season. I'd be okay if the show ended here, but I'd also watch a second season. |
||||
|
||||
|
Cam0
Posts: 4975 |
|
|||
|
Well, as it so happens I adore Oshi no Ko so I guess it makes sense our feelings on this show might differ. I guess the show just never let drama stew, it always had to quickly swoop in with a triumphant moment never letting tension rise and stealing all the weight from the bigger plot points. Or something. The dialogue was also very straightforward and just people saying their emotions in unnaturally straightforward ways.
Anyhow you make a lot of good points and I can't rebut them. |
||||
|
||||
|
smurky turkey
Posts: 5069 |
|
|||
|
I can only handle one or two shows per season that stew in the drama so to speak thus I Made Friends keeping it light and moving on relatively quickly is something I welcome. I also appreciate that not a single issue presented in the show was solved. Lots of progress was made in various ways but the show is a good example of that most people do not have their shit in order, be it teenager or adult. I should also mention Nina in that regard since she is the one character who seems to be in eternal chaos.
Anyway, it was a fun show and did enough for me to want a second season. |
||||
|
||||
|
TJ_Kat
Posts: 891 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
|
|||
|
TBH, I think the biggest thing this show had working against it was airing the same season as Gals Can't be Kind to Otaku. The first half of both shows was more or less the same, and Gals Can't be Kind to Otaku did it better.
Then when they diverged into their own things, it think the "written-by-fan-of-light novels writing" description is accurate. I don't necessarily think the solutions were simple or easily solvable, but the writing itself was simple and presented the issues in a way where they didn't actually feel like they mattered. |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group