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「桃乃今日子 第2章 オサガリ」 (Touno Kyouko dai 2-shou – Osagari)
“Touno Kyouko Chapter 2 – Hand-Me-Down”
“Restrung everyone’s rackets” is a weird way to talk about an orgy.
First of all: no regrets on that intro line. None. I gotta amuse myself somehow, because this show ain’t doing it.
The funny thing is, this episode was probably better than much of Seiren at showing the fluffy, funny ways of a young couple-in-the-making, at least in the first half. Like the adult Christmas misunderstanding with Kyouko? Funny! But most of the other moments didn’t hit, because I’ve written off this series to the point where it all turns to ash in my mouth. (Figuratively speaking.) Goes to show you that if you squander enough opportunities, audiences stop giving you chances, or enter every attempt with a cloud of bitter memory.
Then there’s the issue of Kyouko seeming, for an episode and a half, like she’d be totally on board with dating Sho-chan—remember her musing aloud about whether she should wear panties he likes?—and then he goes ahead and asks, and no dice. That might have been my misunderstanding, thinking she was the already-in-love childhood friend, but if so, they didn’t do a good enough job of making it clear. It was always clear where all the Amagami SS girls stood and what they felt, even if that place was “They don’t know themselves.” Here, I don’t have the faintest what’s going on in Kyouko’s heart.
Hikari remains far too prevalent as a supporting character, and there were multiple scenes that just fell flat—the entire blackmail scene, the random cosplay, the Christmas lies. Related: why are the writers trying to make Hikari too so bad with her constant lying? It fits her personality, but where that kind of face-saving duplicity worked well in Masamune-kun no Revenge, it just makes her look like a trash person here.
And what kind of “close friends” don’t discuss their crushes with each other? Shouichi didn’t know about Ikuo’s crush! That’s just lazy writing, which is par for the course, of course.
Random thoughts:
- Don’t do the wall slam on Ikuo, you. I mean, unless you’re all in. Don’t toy with his heart, is what I’m saying.
- Amagami SS rewatch update: Ai-chan is a solid contender for best girl. In fact, if Kaoru didn’t exist, she’d be the one. (Haruka was my #2 until this rewatch, though SS+ may push her back into second place, because of that scene. You know the one.) Also, rewatching Amagami SS just reminds me of how much of a graphical downgrade Seiren is. Depressing.
My SECOND novel, Freelance Heroics, is available now! (Now in print!) (Also available: Firesign #1 Wage Slave Rebellion.) Sign up for my email list for exclusive content. At stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: That’s not supposed to go there . . .; The Carcer Principle; Fire, further; and Fire.
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Maybe we’ll see some actual consequences from her lying this time.
Nah, she’s too much the Karma Houdini trope to stop it now.
I’m beginning to agree that Tsuneki had too much role in every arc…
Hikari Tsuneki, Spotlight-Stealing Girl.
This show needs more Tsuneki.
“Also, rewatching Amagami SS just reminds me of how much of a graphical downgrade Seiren is. Depressing.”
So, you have to agree with me now that switching studios does in fact have an impact with quality. AIC nailed Amagami’s character designs right off the bat, while Gokumi is dropping the ball HARD.
Well. You’re making some assumptions here.
The assumption is: the studio name means something. And sometimes it does! KyoAni, SHAFT, BONES, a few others. But with others, not so much. It’s more like a funding shell that they pour different humans into depending on who they can get for the project, and what matters most is the chief humans and the money available.
Think of studios like pick-up basketball teams. Some teams have a core group of friends who always come to play, and they might pick up one or two extra players if they need ’em that week. But other teams are pure pick-up, they’re completely different each week. That’s how studios are.
Likely it’s the case that Amagami had an established, polished source material, strong internal backing (publishers), good core staff members (director, series composer, writers), a sizable budget, and a whole lotta luck. Whereas Seiren is an untested original, didn’t get the strong core staff, DEFINITELY doesn’t have as large of a budget, and has no manner of luck.
Studio might be one of the variables. Gokumi has historically had a semi-noticeable voice. But I see a lot of other issues as being more central to its failure. I’d look at budget and animation directors before I’d look to studio name; and I’d still look at budget more than most. It really feels like they were starved for funds.
It does not help that Amagami was a huge success so no matter what Seiren could do the bar was already high and comparations will start in no time.
You know what this show needs? Flying, dancing vegetables.
What? It couldn’t hurt.
I know what you did there!.
*unfathomable scream of pain*
I wish I didn’t remember the trash you referenced
https://randomc.net/image/Seiren/Seiren%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2008.jpg
Blyat! Cranky girl is cranky! Either she needs to get some sleep (look at those eye bags…), or get some loving like Queen Tsukasa did… ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
https://randomc.net/image/Seiren/Seiren%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2020.jpg
Nightmare Before Christmas much?
https://randomc.net/image/Seiren/Seiren%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2028.jpg
And that is why you should always clean your web browser history. (Though consider yourself lucky if your significant other likes the same fetishes as you.)
I have a feeling that Ruise will be like a reverse Tsukasa! Harsh and mean on the outside but all lovely and fluffy inside.
I´m starting to think one of the writers of this show has a deer fetish or something! Seriously, I don´t know how they plan to use the deer for the second part of the series.
Well… I’m slowly getting frustrated with Seiren but week in week out, I still watch it. Not sure why. Maybe because it’s Amagami+10?
What do you mean by Amagami+10?
Amagami 10 years after
Am I the only one disappointed that they kinda downgraded forehead-senpai and gloomy-senpai’s visuals? I kinda had a thing for the glasses-wearing senpai and her forehead (But Tsukahara Hibiki is still best girl)
In episode 7, Shoichi stumbled on the heater that the Home Ec club left on the hallway. LOL
The disciplinary committee head piqued my interest. I kept wondering how she stacks up against Ayatsuji (in bitch mode).
I’ve said before, but I honestly feel like some of these female side characters would actually (properly handled of course, since this series doesn’t seem capable) make for better and more interesting heroines, than the three which they chose.
After countless references to Amagami, I’ve binged through the whole show during the weekend…
Seiren, misses certain parts that made Amagami shine:
There was always a hint of doom and gloom present in the MC (that traumatic dump);
After a while we were given the true intentions of the girls (that brought justification for some of their character changes);
The MC always shined when he was faced with a tight spot (Normally due to an incoming tragedy – that pool dive in Ai’s ark.)
Seiren is lacking most of these things. Kamita lacks depth, sense of humour even. The girls bend him down and always have their way. Most of them so far have ran away from their feelings, lied to him about certain aspects or refused to open themselves… and he just stood there; once and again.
P.S. – For a show, whose name is literally Honesty, such an amount of lying is starting to feel strange.
Maybe the point is to be finally honest with their feelings?
I feel like I don’t even know where to begin with the problems with this episode. I mean, the first episode was OK, but this was just…yeah. There were just way too many parts that left me feeling uncomfortable, and made me go “Huh?” or “What?”
In the end, I’ll just go with what are probably the three most constant and most noticeable choices, that the story is bland and boring, the MC is bland, boring, and pathetic, with no positive traits that help to redeem such, and that the story seems to, more often than not, feature a girl other than the one which the arc is “supposedly” about.
Y’know, the only reason why I tried watching this was because a friend of mine felt eager to watch the show and so I just said “Ahh whatever, let’s just watch it I guess” cuz well, I just knew that this show was gonna suck, I just knew it. The promotional poster for the show may seem like it’d be indicating towards something amazing-‘wistful’ even-, but of course what we got was a bunch of dudes who have no idea what the hell they were trying to do making a show that ended up being a show where almost every element in the cast had no idea what they were trying to do too. Hah…
Anyways, it’s a straight line to the end here so I guess I’ll just keep on observing and stalking in the shadows within these posts just a little while longer. Just a few weeks more, just a few weeks more…
“Hikari remains far too prevalent as a supporting character”
That’s because she is the main character.