Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18230 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Where was ABP? I don't recall seeing that one? |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4099 |
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Analogy: Horror movies that are made for people who don't like horror movies are the best ones {sarcasm}. So say people who don't like horror films or at least I imagine so. I have no interest in watching past episode zero; As a harem fan, I find it somewhat perplexing. So I'll do some reflecting but I'll say right away I loathe faux harems like Ai Yori Ayoshi. 1 I don't care to learn any names. Ah ha, the show points out all the girls minus one are moe combinations, not characters. So the name's an afterthought or incidental? 2 MC is collecting the girls to join his team because while he has drive as an otaku, he has no talent he cares to develop. Oh, made it through episode 1 {2, personally I blame UBW for this crap} somehow and he is an otaku critic. Ah, uh, satire? 3 The biggest selling point for most people is the other otaku references. Why not just save time and reference Genshiken. Oh right, that's not popular in Japan. 4 Why? Ok, he wants to make the perfect dating sim/visual novel of his dreams {ha, calling those things video games...} because he knows all thing otaku in 2-D girls. But is this for his own ego or is it because he thinks he'll touch his fellow "2-D kuns"? Money and fame, I get those reasons, dissatisfaction with those works he review, I'm ok with that, but because this outlet is the only one he knows... that needs the collaboration of...in order to express his feeling when he first saw Boring Girl for the first time... oh, my head... This leads to: 5 So? I didn't laugh in episode 2 {or 1}. In rom coms, and most harems have some elements of both, you have to have a certain amount of rom and com, that is, some. Any. Even just a tiny bit. In this show's defense, I do like its hentai equivalent, Eroge!. Wait, that's not in the show's defense. Also, that one's an actual harem. |
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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Same here. The painful episode was exactly that because it is so true to life of what the creative process is like. I have had projects stretched out many months because I could just not unblock. Ursula Le Guin wrote something over 30 years ago that I read that think every young person doing what Tomoya is trying to do should be taught: never confuse feeling creative with actually being creative. Tomoya seems to be fully immersed in that error.
I think Eriri's drawings come pretty close. I always have to wonder if there are real high school girls who do hentai drawings like that for commercial interest. There is something so much more interesting about that than it would be if a typical male did the exact same drawings. That said, I think this is a perfect example of an anime that would be significantly damaged by conventional fan service. |
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Kaioshin_Sama
Posts: 1215 |
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As a non-harem fan the first couple of episodes did absolutely nothing to convince me that there was anything particularly special about this series that was going to win me over at any point so what the author of this article suggests isn't really working at least in my case. If anything the series seems to have this inflated sense of self worth that comes with a lot of A-1 Pictures shows where they seem to think they're on the cusp of some bleeding edge clever witty take down or re-imagining of a genre when really it's like...nothing.
I'm also not all that big on droning dialogue about otaku related stuff shows either. If that's supposed to win non-fans of the harem genre over than I guess it's aimed at a different sort of non-fan than me. A shame cause this writer did like literally the only romance anime I've ever liked let alone been able to tolerate in White Album 2 which succeeded by giving a genuine feeling to the characters and their interactions that made them feel like actual characters as opposed to archetypal "waifus" which is incredibly rare bordering on a non-existent sight to see and thus made the obligatory drama near the end actually have weight as a result of whereas this is building up nothing of the sort and actually just kind of feels like one of those typical cynical LN style takes on the genre if anything. Honestly I don't even find the whole sort of self-awareness thing that try to have their cake and eat it too, which isn't all that out there to see these days nor do I see how it helps the show or elevates it in any particular area. It's just an aspect that's sort of there. Last edited by Kaioshin_Sama on Fri Jan 30, 2015 1:27 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5443 Location: Iscandar |
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I think that having Tomoya struggle with his creative process is fundamental to the show's narrative. But I do not want to see the producers of the anime painfully struggle to put episodes together. I thought Tomoya was the stupid one, not the actual anime producers. |
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_Cyphon_
 Posts: 996 |
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I still don't see how the title is relevant at this point. How are any of the female characters shown so far boring? If anything, this should be called How to drag on a boring plot. then again, this is only the third episode, so who knows, maybe it gets better down the road.
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15507 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Megumi fits into no archetypes, her voice and personality are rather flat but not so much that she even fits into the boring bookish character. She is pretty much a background character that the main character noticed, and created a feeling he still does not know how to express. This episode had the other girls help her change to fit his interests, it apparently inspired him, but not enough that they are happy with the direction. I think episode 3 was a little lower than the others, but I think there were a couple things to note. That you could take the refusal out of feeling just the want to make out with the heroine saying that as of now there is not the proper direction from him for both the game and this series. And a discussion of what should Megumi change, because he clearly does not know what she should be like except saying she should be more forceful. On the outside look like the plot does not know what it is doing, but I see it as the show trying to build itself up for what direction it should take. |
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FD2Raptor
 Posts: 100 Location: Viet Nam |
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The references up to episode 2:
4x Posters: Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa nai Oreimo Memories off Yubikiri no Kioku '&' Sora no Mukou de Sakimasu you ni Ep01, on the floor: Seitokai no Ichizon LN vol 10 Date a Live LN vol 11 Amagi Brilliant Park LN vol 1 Ep1, on shelf: Date a Live LN Vol 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Kūsen Madōshi Kōhosei no Kyōkan LN Vol 1 2 3 4 High School DxD LN Vol 1 5 6 / 3 4 Omae wo Otaku ni shiteyaru kara, Ore wo Realju ni shite kure! LN Vol 1 2 3 Seitokai no Ichizon LN Vol 2 3 5 6 7 (lower left corner) All LN titles are under the same Fantastic Bunko label which SaeKano LN is published. In Ep2, you got more shots of Tomoya's shelves that show more volumes of of the above titles, in addition to the DVDs of OreImo. (Aniplex title) Ep1 & 2 figures: SAO: Leafa Asunax2 Sicilia Sekai Seifuku: Kate AnoHana: Menma Vivid Red: Akane Kannagi: Zange All are Aniplex titles, just as SaeKano. Ep2, VN piles: A/The 3 that fell out of the screen: Haruka Kanata (by Sorahane, altered title from hiragana to katakana) Hanataba no Uta - 花束の歌 (unknown, no VN with such title exist, close probability: "Saya no Uta" of Nitroplus) Limit (The exact title seemed to have tons of males characters, so probably refers to something else) B/The titles that remained on screen: Kadenz fermata//Akkord fortissmo '&' Sora no Mukou de Sakimasu you ni Memories Off 6 Conplete Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa nai Memories off Yubikiri no Kioku Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo 5bp who are making the game version of SaeKano is involved with all 6 titles above, either as developer, publisher or both. Also, the end game screen for the VN that Katou and Tomoya played strongly remind me of Clannad. There's a shot of another poster in ep1 of what supposedly a VN titled: Amber Concerto (Kohaku-Iro Concheruto) which when I first came across it in the LN before there was any actual drawing, I believed that it's a Pure White Symphony (Mashiro-Iro Symphony) reference. But, I'm not so sure now that there is a poster of said title. Also, Katou's VA, Yasuno Kiyono, brought up something on Noitamina Radio ep #169 (1st one of the season to SaeKano) that I forgot to mention in my previous post: the fanservice scene in ep0 aired completely uncensored on FujiTV. In hindsight, we really should have look at that and realize that the fanservice in the show only serve as initial attention-grabber rather than BD/DVD movers (An occupation disease of fanservice anime viewer, I guess). Edit: Addition reference spotted in EP3: Nendroids: OreImo: Kirino & Ayase AnoHana: Menma Kannagi: Nagi & Zange Working: Popura & Minami ?? on last 2 The "Sozai Kyouryoku" list in the ending of each episode: AnoHana Project (self-explanatory) Ichijinsha (publisher of Kannagi manga) SAO Project (self-explanatory) OIP (??) KADOKAWA ASCII MEDIAWORKS (??) SQUARE ENIX (publisher of Working manga / ??) Seifuku Jikou Iinkai (self-explanatory) vividred project (self-explanatory) MADOKA Partners (self-explanatory) MAGES (Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa nai / parent company of 5pb.) [WORKING!!] Seisaku Iinkai (self-explanatory) |
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Hameyadea
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Episode 5:
One aspect that I noticed in the episode was the lack of "potential love-interest stalk the date between MC+[current date]" trope, which is I believe what helped the episode's pacing to move as smoothly as it has. Note: those 2 could've stalk them, but weren't shown. It will be a bit of letdown if the series used that trope after all, but at least it wasn't shown in the episode itself; so depending on the execution in the episode the stalking will be revealed (again, if they were stalked. Right now it's just a possible prognostic of mine), it might help to add more depth to the characters, rather than hinder them by following a well-trodden trope. |
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3653 |
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On Episode 6:
Utaha the author and Tomoya the fan had, inherent in their relationship, a distance that couldn't be closed until now, when they were actually collaborating. Now, she is bringing his vision to life, so it's a context where he can tell her about changes to make, and I think it was part of what convinced her to join his game-creation project. In that sense, I found it to be more tragic than ironic, because she can only close the distance between them by working on a project so heavily tied into Tomoya's relationship with Kato. Tomoya's path to happiness (reflected in the game's writing) is to accept the past but move forward, and Utaha has to accept that her relationship with Tomoya was established in the past, and its nature can't be changed, except by dragging him into the past and preventing him from moving forward. Her relationship to him is that of a friend and colleague, and her path to happiness is coming to peace with that, and value the relationship for what it is. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18230 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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^
See, this is why I like reading response thread to my reviews, as this brings out an angle that I hadn't considered but find entirely plausible. Last edited by Key on Fri Feb 20, 2015 10:59 am; edited 1 time in total |
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HaruhiToy
Posts: 4118 |
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^
I also think Yttrbio's summary is plausible. It makes me wonder if the definition of Otaku should really be about the emotional inabilities and not about what kind of entertainment they obsess over. One question: Tomoya says in the Episode that Utaha has been angry with him for "six months." How does that fit in the time-scale of their project and this story? Has not been talking to him all that time?
Yes you do make that face Megumi. Sure was a sexy episode. I couldn't stop laughing at the spoiler[simulated sex shots (mattress bouncing, etc)] even though I knew they were going to do something like that beforehand. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18230 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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As of episode 6 we're only about a month or two into the project. That means that the event described here which got Utaha so pissed off took place 4-5 months prior to episode 1. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4099 |
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Oh right, episode 6 is episode 7, I forgot about the zero bs. Anyway, I'm skipping past episodes - up to episode- this episode.
1 No Megumi. A step in the right direction. A foregone conclusion is still a foregone conclusion but my loathing for that character and what she represents goes beyond rationality. I never wanted to punch a character so much when she showed up at the end of the episode; This show is not good for my karma. Anyway, putting that aside {far, far aside; I'm never touching this show again}, what got me was this: Since its first regular episode Saekano has regularly been flirting with greatness, never quite getting there... until now." Shmuck bait, I am aware of it, but I couldn't resist because, well, "shmuck". So that got me into the article and the article forced me to watch the show {Skipping 4 episodes: zero things lost thanks to episode Zero. That's quite the planning there...} because I thought the reintroduction of the meta-fictional aspect would be a step in the right direction {This is based on a Light Novel series, a satire or even a parody of one would have to openly poke fun at the Light Novel audience... Yeah, that's not going to happen throughout the entire series} and that's not what I saw. Surprise. Dull surprise. Around book four of Utaha's series and around the first time they meet, Tomoya had no end of ideas for her book series, ideas which he were giving to her while she was in the process of writing it. Ideas for the main heroine, what to do with newly introduced characters and what sounds like spin off potential as well as future installments being split to fit the new characters better, truthfully to milk them more. Where did he draw the line? Reading the conclusion, influencing the conclusion... even if that what he was doing when they first met {Did you not notice he was giving precedence to character first introduced in volume 1 rather than 4?} and even worse, my impression was that she had finished the last volume and she wanted his early impression on it. Why draw the line at that point? Influencing the ending at that point should be meaningless compared to what he did earlier, unless the ending is arbitrary. Ohhh.... So splitting that off from the game development part, which they're trying to make everything about the game meaningful, he's trying to have one heroine with multiple routes of getting her, where there can be "destiny of love reborn" or "screw it, let's just go on a date because all that past stuff is meaningless" plots with the same girl. So the ending is set, the story is arbitrary. This show is depressing from a creative standpoint. It's better for critics? Oh, Visual Novels aren't really collaborations, they're "consectutives" with story, drawings, music and sound, in that order {see show}. Somebody writes the story, someone does the art, someone does the music but Tomoya's problem is that he has no talent {see above paragraph, it hurts just to watch him "work"} so it seems like a collaboration. Love FAKKU did all this better in a single episode with two comments about Light Novels: "Who did you rip off?" and "They'll sort it out with the art". |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15507 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Well maybe if you did not skip a few episodes where he pointed out where after complaining that she is dull he realised specific traits that makes him enjoy spending time with her, you would understand how she fits in. Meta-fiction never left the series, episode 0 was just the most obvious. A number of the episodes have specifically gone after that him (the otaku audience perhaps) does not know what they want, sure you can be all for moe and like characters, but seriously one might feel that it is disingenuous. Suddenly seeing something that totally goes against it can feel frustrating and boring in comparison, but it does not make them a bad character. The meaningfulness of the recent episode of in the game forgetting past life and just having a date could be taken about his past relationship with Utaha, and where he is now. There was quite a bit of passion that he felt for her work, and she kind of reciprocated in trying to write to his interest, she even mentioned in fighting against the publisher. What happened there kind of took a nose dive for their relationship, and now he has kind of started a new relationship. She took it to mean that his wish of just enjoy reincarnation was just a denial of past relationships, but he said that he feels that the past is still important, but it should not control what one deals with in the now. Anime do a lot of saying that some crazy history means that two characters have to be joined together. But sometimes what might seem as mundane might be the better story element that is more respectful of what the characters or people would want. On this topic I can kind of think of the anime SHUFFLE, spoiler[where a number of people were quite happy that main or even first girl does not win because it was actually better for the character]. |
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