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Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend (TV).


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 9:59 pm Reply with quote


Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend (TV)

Genres: comedy, romance
Themes: ecchi, harem, otaku

Plot Summary: The life of Tomoyo Aki, a highschool otaku working part time to support his BD hoarding. With remarkable luck, he bumps head-first into, Megumi Kato, the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Naturally, the meeting twists his life into a complicated torrent of relationships. Eriri Spencer Sawamura, his half-foreigner childhood friend who's always valued her relationship with MC. Kasumigaoka Utaha, a cold, composed renowned literary genius who shoves everyone aside from our protagonist. What is this? An eroge introduction?

The tale of a small not quite doujin circle, but not quite indie studio's journey through the tough territory of comiket and beyond.
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The website posted a preview of the series recently. This is probably a hit or miss for me but it has some similarity to Genshiken, a series that I enjoyed very much Very Happy

I think it's based on the LN although there are also manga and spinoff series of it.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 12:45 pm Reply with quote
Btw if anyone is curious, the first episode is actually episode 0 (prequel) rather than the pilot episode.
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ookamigirl



Joined: 15 Jul 2012
Posts: 2274
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 2:29 pm Reply with quote
#0

Discussion about anime right off the bat, a nice surprise.
Lots of fan service for the guys too.
Only one male character... possible harem?
It does have it's amusing parts too.
Still.. skipping this.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 2:57 am Reply with quote
Episode 0

So this seems to be somewhat Self aware harem the anime. But I think the awareness might actually go beyond just saying "lol tropes", no it might actually be "a love story playing off of exactly that.

From this episode it is pretty clear that these girls like the main character in a standard harem way, they fit exactly into their roles as tsundere childhood friend, serious with a little manipulative but like that he is a good guy, and rough tomboy. All the fanservice is kind of distracting and you can say pandering. What role is the fourth girl play? She seems to have little presence and only makes small appearances from the actions of what the other girls are. Her role is not obvious is not obvious until it is pointed out, kind of actually far more smartly than what the show was kind of making fun of in the beginning.

Fourth girl, Megumi, is actually the main character, a main character which the show itself is saying is having trouble making herself have presence. Pay attention to what they said earlier about needing to casually add the backstory in, which it made fun of by clumsily doing so. Then realise what the episode was doing with Megumi throughout the episode and especially during the walking scene. This is not a story about a guy with hot chicks, I got the idea at the same time it is kind of a story about a girl who feels that no one notices her and then suddenly a guy does and finds her world become a little bigger. And I think it is also trying to ask whether there is no depth to the harem character, what place do they have when their kind of plot is kind of overshadowing a different story.

If that actually is what is happening, well I am interested in the idea that Megumi does not have to be a cliché fitting to a specific fetish, she might be someone female audience might understand. A girl flipping through her phone as the tsundere, overly mature, and tomboy do their thing. She kind of made me think of a heroine you might see in a shoujo.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 12:55 pm Reply with quote
Saekano {If it's "I before e" then we get Saikano and a really different animal altogether. I first thought it was that series streaming so... go figure} is a comedy and more specifically, it's a parody.

It's not a harem, it's an unharem. There's only so many reactions the main character can have in these situations {men are funny that way}. Here, he's fully conscious of what they're trying and he's putting up each member of his club because they're the best at what they do and he needs their skills. The one he doesn't need? She's the potential girlfriend he wants to be with.

And she's boring. No, really. They weren't kidding; Every time she talks, my eyes wander around.

So we'll get to see their first meeting, the genesis of the idea for the game, the team coming together to make Otaku reality what he see when he looks at Megumi. And maybe, we'll get to see what he sees in her.

But I doubt it; See "parody".

It's funny but is it good? We started in the middle of this story with an infodump, done as a discussion of how to do "beginnings" So it's self aware and it cheats. It's too smart for its own good; They're just playing out Lucky Star's "What seems good in a game would just be annoying in real life" conclusion about dating games/otaku baiting.

But is "boring" better?
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EmbraceMe



Joined: 17 Dec 2010
Posts: 2013
Location: Growing old and jaded.
PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 4:38 pm Reply with quote
Episode 0 was so meta that it bored me so much. I've read bits of the manga that adapted each girl's route but this really felt boring to me. Hopefully things spice up when the first episode airs. The meta-ness of this episode has some good merits though; it subtlety gives off hints about the character so that maybe they won't have to info-dump in the main episodes.

In addition, the random art changes felt weird. It seemed as if this episode wasn't fully animated or something.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 2:02 pm Reply with quote
Episode 1:

Welp and that's the intro episode. spoiler[I actually found it amusing with the way they introduced Utaha. And as for the girls, I bet the series will concentrate on them and their project. Expecting arguments and heavy amount of dialogues and probably references; I mean, look at Tomoyo's room. I lost count how many references there are already in there.]
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 7:22 am Reply with quote
Episode 1

Yep, this is the show for me. At first glance you might say it is not meta, but it is there wiggling under the surface connecting everything. Just as it appeared fanservice harem in the first episode with what it showed, the second episode completely lacks it, kind of like saying that it is not what it appears at first glance.

The harem girls are not only cliché archetypes, but their spoiler[line of work includes otaku things like eroge artist and light novel love story writer]. Yet when he gets it pointed out even by a cliché male friend and classmate character that spoiler[they are pretty much the archetypes, the otaku lead says he is not interested]. I got the feeling that they were actually spoiler[sick of how oblivious he was in ignoring their advances and that is why they weren't happy]. His fateful encounter is someone who was spoiler[right in front of him the whole time, but he did not even know her name properly because she did not stick out], she is not an archetype.
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WhiteHairGirls



Joined: 27 Apr 2011
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Location: New York City
PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 9:33 am Reply with quote
So it looks the main girl will be a normal girl. Count me in.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:51 am Reply with quote
One thing that is not meta is having a boring harem lead. Sorry, I just cannot bring myself to accept that any hotties would be interested in this drab, bespectacled drip. How to Raise a Boring Lead and Please Stop Doing It, You Harem Writing Twits.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 12:00 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
One thing that is not meta is having a boring harem lead. Sorry, I just cannot bring myself to accept that any hotties would be interested in this drab, bespectacled drip. How to Raise a Boring Lead and Please Stop Doing It, You Harem Writing Twits.

Well I kind of got the idea that it is kind of on purpose as the girls were actually pissed at him for some of his actions and he is trying to earn their interest. And at the same time I feel that he really has to be an otaku insert character, I am kind of reminded of this pretty good short episode series last season called I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying, that I think it is kind of a wake up call that you really would not be interested in the crazy personalities. A nice normal by most standards girl can be great, you hear about media often raising expectations too high.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 2:00 pm Reply with quote
Wait, did they just complete that spoiler[game in a single sitting? Now that's what I call dedication!]
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Yttrbio
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Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3649
PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 2:44 pm Reply with quote
Okay, this show just became "best of season" for me. It's very Monogatari, in the sense that it's all just people standing around and talking with sharp dialogue, and the visuals have to work at other goals.
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DuskyPredator



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PostPosted: Fri Jan 23, 2015 4:09 am Reply with quote
Episode 2

Yttrbio wrote:
Okay, this show just became "best of season" for me. It's very Monogatari, in the sense that it's all just people standing around and talking with sharp dialogue, and the visuals have to work at other goals.

Plus almost all dialogue is actually very deep, where it is constantly showing the cliché and then destroying it. I laughed a number of times when what she said totally destroyed a trope he says. Asking whether she has a choice, and making comments when he says something rude.

Personally I think Megumi is fantastic. Yes she has no presence that she practically becomes invisible while against standard anime characters, spoiler[focus shifted from her to a maid who was just like Popura]. But the fact she defies the expectations makes her pretty awesome. She does what is quite natural to her, yet does not overreact and run against a situation she is not interested in, kind of keeping an open mind. Her voice kind of goes on monotone like a robot, but not so much that it becomes expressionless character like, it is a strange part to hit.

I think that I will continue to make comments here, and in the episode review thread, I feel like I might actually have quite a bit to say about this show.

Just a theory, but I think the show is being kind of strong that Megumi is the winner, and the use of "girlfriend" in the episode title which was "A girlfriend without a raised flag" works into that it was spoiler[kind of a date in this episode]. A small line but he commented that spoiler[she was surprisingly fun to hang out with, despite his comments of what she should be he still enjoyed her company]. Could that be all there is to it?
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Fri Jan 23, 2015 5:55 am Reply with quote
You know what? Anime has GOT to stop doing episode 0s. I have yet to see one that did its series any credit at all. I was not a huge fan of Heroine's episode 0 - it made me waver on continuing on. But I did. Then episode 1 was okay, I guess. But, in episode 2, somebody decided to turn the dial up from "passable" to "awesome." This is why it pays to persist a little. I don't know if the last eppie was just a lucky one-off or if the show will continue to be this good. Time will tell.

And Kato Megumi is quickly becoming one of my favourite heroines of 2015.
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