???? "Wow I'm making so much progress." -sees reflection- Never mind. Like what type of backwards storytelling is this? She has all that support too. It's just a kinda weird turn of events. It's not like she wasn't seeing her reflection other times. All of those buildings she's by are pretty darn reflective-looking. I get that there are people who put themselves down even with support, but she had legitimately already came to her own thoughts of progress before all on her own just by being with everyone and seeing her personal improvements. So it's just weird for her to step back so suddenly. What is this? "This is how cute, moe girls go about it!" No they don't. I could see if she was struggling more visibly with her facial expressions as she was practicing, but she only really seemed a little like "eh, I'll keep working on it" during the MC practicing. Nothing that would just stop her from talking to people who seem perfectly fine with her. Weird anime girl, plot drama-starting logic. And so now we have this quirky design, I guess... or just an excuse for it. And I guess it's supposed to be cute and endearing, but to be honest it's not ideal. I think more people are more receptive to someone who's trying their best to communicate with them face-to-fce as opposed to someone who is using paper/a mask to communicate. I've had to communicate through notepads quite a few times and honestly, people get sick of that. Even with selective mutes, we would find ways to communicate that didn't focus on notepads. I dunno, it seriously just feels like they tried to justify some quirky anime girl behavior, to be honest. So it just rings a little off.
I feel like I've met every type of "socially awkward" person out there. Ain't none of them just stopped mid-sentence, say "nevermind", and then walk away. And even if they did, I can't think of too many who would just watch them walk away without saying anything. Even in similar situations, most people are going to say something like, "Nah, take your time. What were you trying to say?" And even if they drop it completely, we're still in a conversation. It's just odd-- especially since she doesn't really seem to have trouble talking to any of her club members for all that time. Even odder that she dropped them too for a bit. What? And I understand that once you have something coming up that really puts the pressure on or just really makes you realize that you'll really be front and center that you might start to freak out the closer to the date it gets. However, it just was a little too convenient for the drama to see her reflection right then and there and kinda give up after she had acknowledged just how much she had grown.
I'm not even saying it's a bad reason for this or that, but it's just not written well or not written in a way that feels authentic even to the character's growth. And then for her classmates, just maybe going about that a different way might have been better. As it is right now, she overcame a lot and then suddenly was like, "Oh right. I can't emote. I guess I can't do this after all". Like... what? You just said you could. Perhaps if she had been doing all of that and recorded a practice LIVE/performance only to see that she wasn't emoting which would THEN trigger her avoidant response, maybe that would have been a better transition. That way, I would have believed her not wanting to be around the other idols too. Despite all her hard work and drive to change and improve, the practice went "bad" so there's a realization that her actual performance might be "bad" too, so that would be an understandable reason to not want to go. The whole 'by the way, here's your reflection' suddenly just felt... bad.
And again, it's not like she had too much trouble with the other idols, so the using the mask thing with her classmates just seems forced. Maybe explore why these girls are making you feel like you need to use a fake face when the idols-- who are much larger in number and might even be more intimidating-- don't.
Anyway, I'm glad it worked out for her, but I'm not feeling too good about this episode. |