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「思い出とテコ入れのメロディ」 (Omoide to tekoire no merodi)
“A Melody of Reminiscing and Support”
‘What’s wrong with harem shows? Harems shows are great!’
‘It doesn’t exactly fit my writing style.’
Stop it, Saekano. Leave the 4th wall alone. While we’re at it, stop with all the pans; they make me feel like I need to do a lot more full-lengths than I should.
It’s funny how so many anime tropes, like walking in on someone showering, are so obligatory by now that it feels like you have to do it or else you’ll fall out of the genre. It’s a calling card of sorts—sure, you can go without one, but that just wouldn’t be proper. Even more self-aware shows, like Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata, are compelled to oblige, to the point where even the parody of the trope feels like a cliche. Still, must be done. There are rules.
(My favourite variation: Yuuichi in Kanon winging it like a boss. The fact that I have a ‘favourite variation’ says something.)
There are other rules, though, that Saekano are not following. One of the basic rules about writing endings it’s not the time to introduce anything new, including new characters. Here we are in the penultimate episode, though, and in enters Hyoudou Michiru, the ultimate childhood friend. Yes, not only is she a new character, she’s also supposed to be an upgraded version of one of our old models. Those who watched episode 00 (which really is the place to start) already expected her arrival, though, so I guess she’s not entirely new, but her place in the narrative is still in the formative stages right now, so I’m going to count her as a newbie.
So far, we don’t really know all that much about Michiru, which is probably why Saekano is pushing even more of the sexy angle than usual in an effort to make her appealing very quickly (and probably because it doesn’t trust the audience to be able to sit still through an introduction episode). So she’s a fanservice machine, competing even with Utaha (though Utaha has myriad forms of attack). Other than that, the first impression we get of her (technically the second, but whatever) is not entirely flattering. To be extreme about it, she’s a horrible sociopath (because drinking from the carton IS A SIN). I know the main protagonist is supposed to suffer a lot of abuse, but throwing out all of his stuff and replacing it with your own questionable tastes is totally uncalled for. She’s abusing sacred hospitality! Zeus Xenios will smite her! Or perhaps Michiru actually honestly does not have the self-awareness to understand that, as a fugitive in hiding, perhaps she should tread a bit lighter, so to speak. She does seem to be capable of a modicum of guilt, at least, but does that make her look better or worse?
It does seem like that, on some level, Michiru disapproves of Tomoya’s otaku-ness, and actively tries to steer him away from the geekdom with both carrot and stick. Curiously enough, she’s the first person we’ve seen actually do so; while others have taken issue with Tomoya’s methods, his hobbies were never at issue. Compare Megumi, who is also not an otaku, but is in general quite open to learning about Tomoya’s world. It’s yet another of demonstration of how Megumi is everybody’s foil. Well, we all know that eventually Michiru is brought on board—the only question is how. Will she understand how Tomoya has his passions, in the same way that she recently found hers? Or will Tomoya and her forge a compromise, like he did with Eriri last episode? Do we really only have one more episode to find out? That hardly seems enough!
Looking ahead
There’s little question at this point that Saekano is going to end up wrapping up for the season without the game being finished, though I guess the game was always a bit of a MacGuffin. I did want to see how it turns out, though, if only because I think it’d be hilarious. When Tomoya had his epiphany about how Michiru’s music would fit his vision, I cracked up laughing, simply because it reminded me of how silly Utaha’s scenario is. Even if it bombs, it’d be an incredibly trainwreck.
So, eventually Michiru is won over, the circle is completed… would that be it? I’m not even sure if we have enough substance set up to have big climax. Perhaps Saekano will tap a bit deeper into its slice-of-life elements and just wind down. Perhaps it’ll set up for a sequel. We’ll have to see how it wraps up next episode.
Another good episode. They really stepped up on the amount of fan service shots I must say not that I am complaining ;). A lot of shots of Mishiru in particular I am liking her already. For those that don’t know they are doing a 1 hour 2 episode finale next week this pleases me.
God damn it why is this season already ending? When is the next season out? hahaa
Probably Michiru joins them in the final episode and that’s where the 1st season ends.
They are on a pace where they cover each volume with 3 episodes, and there are 7 volumes for novel’s season 1, while season 2 was already announced. So it doesn’t make any sense if they won’t have (anime’s)season 2, but I guess everything depends on business, sales and money.
season 2 is announced? really? i checked on ANN and i can find such announcement… can you provide a link? thanks ^_^
He ment S2 of LNs
Asuna figure? meh.. Sharin no kuni in the background? Yeah!
https://randomc.net/image/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
Tomoya: Michiru, Will you join me in making the ultimate dating sim?
Michiru: Huh?
*Tomoya flashes his thing*
—- NICE tomoya… you are now the manliest man on the planet… EVEN i cant do that.
Guess that’s his way of sealing the deal.
Finally, the heroine I’ve been looking most forward to has arrived! And…. now that I’ve discovered that this show only has 12 episodes instead of 24, I’m incredibly disappointed.
https://randomc.net/image/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2006.jpg
Michiru: Hey celebrinen, Utaha ain’t nothing. Jump ship to my team.
Me: Must be strong, must be strong, must… resist… the service…
https://randomc.net/image/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2024.jpg
Utaha: How are you going to leave Team Utaha when you’re tied up with my pantyhose?
Lots of sexyness on Michiru’s ship but a bag of annoyance otherwise. With this episode alone, she doesn’t stand a chance to the glorious SS Utaha which also contains the former but without the later.
https://randomc.net/image/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2005.jpg
Katou gets +100 to stealth even on Skip (bland brand name…)
https://randomc.net/image/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2025.jpg
poor Eriri suffering meltdown
out-childhoodfriended again – and this time ULTIMATELY
https://randomc.net/image/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2012.jpg
Utaha is hit for critical damage!
https://randomc.net/image/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2008.jpg
Michiru’s suggestive poses and clothing are one step away from deviating into 18+ territory…
https://randomc.net/image/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2010.jpg
while her negotitasting techniques actually might stray beyond that border…
https://randomc.net/image/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
towel malfunction? really?
To be fair, it’s considered polite when inviting new people to introduce them to all the members in the club.
As much as I enjoy Utaha fan service, this episode didn’t really do it for me. Besides the fact that they introduced a new character so late in the game (that can work) she just came off slightly annoying in my eyes. With I think 1 more episode remaining it remains to be seen whether or not they can change my first impression of her.
My heart goes out to Eriri though for getting outplayed yet again, girl just can’t catch a break!
With all the pans and dodgy camera angles, my wife finally had to ask, “Did they outsource this episode to Shaft?”
I thought that they went a little overboard on the pans and the whole not showing Michiru’s face while she is talking part of the episode. Personally I felt that it took away from the episode itself as a whole.
Both Saekano and, say, the Monogatari series are very dialogue-heavy shows. The task for a director is to somehow make your show more than just talking heads. Saekano chose to do this by having the camera do, er, ‘interesting’ things while characters talk a lot. How much this (and the resultant fanservice) works for you will be, in parts, subjective. If you can understand Japanese, an interesting exercise would be to take this episode of Saekano and ignore the video entirely, listening to it as if it were just a radio show. See what difference that makes.
Their strategy certainly saves them time and production costs… instead of drawing x amount of cuts, all they need is 1 still and pan through the image.
Well, just having two motionless heads making noises will be even easier (remember Evangelion?), but thankfully we haven’t descended to that yet.
I wonder how aware Saekano is of the poor win ratio of the childhood friend. You got like, 3 of them here and if there’s gonna be a winner, then it’d most likely be Kato 😛
I choose stick
I had to remind myself that this was done by A1 pictures…
For a moment I thought it was done by SilverLink or SHAFT…
Anyway… Drooling Utaha is a cute Utaha…
https://randomc.net/image/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata/Saenai%20Heroine%20no%20Sodatekata%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2012.jpg
Are you guys going to cover Strike Witches OVA?
I, at least, will not.
Too much fan service for my taste that it ruins the experience for me. The fan service seems so forced.
Agree with that. The myriad of shots broke with the style of the previous episodes and made the episode quite taxing.
May favorite part of the episode had to be Utaha dealing critical damage to Eriri. hehehe it’s either “everything as planned” or “oops I think I went too far”