Mayumi hasn't really been shown to DISLIKE being in the detective club, just that she's been uncomfortable with certain decisions, yet this episode starts as if it's an established fact that she HATES it and doesn't want to be part of it anymore (while she simultaneously acts invested once there...). There is also no reason given for why she wouldn't be able to quit the club if she wants. My only guess is some secrecy thing, but this is not addressed IN the show itself and would not hold up with the lore that they've had clients and the clients don't go telling who the club members are.
Mayumi doesn't remember she has a cell phone until it rings, which comes off as her being dumb until it's then mentioned later the club leader gave it to her against her will. Why not just include a scene like that first? It would help bolster the idea that Mayumi is not into the club, which again, has not been properly established ON SCREEN. I'm going to once again compare this to Ouran, because it feels like the writer took the main premise of that and slapped it onto this, but then changed some of the details and forgot to make sure the remaining parts still worked. The MC in OHSHC never wanted to join the club and is kept there against her will because she's in debt. Also the guys sexually harass her, well beyond the stupid things that happen in this show, and is pressured into pretty much everything for at least the first few episodes. Her dislike of her situation is well established on screen and there is clear rationale given for why the story is happening the way it is. This show didn't do the legwork.
Mayumi's original assertion that she can't use her eyes because it'll strain them - to the point that she will LOSE HER EYESIGHT - has pretty much fallen by the wayside. She uses her eyes constantly with only side comments of the straining portion. She's even the one actively volunteering to use her eyes, when it was made out originally to be something the leader/club members had to convince her to do. What was the point of treating the eye strain as a major point of tension that'll be worked on with the club's help/instruction if it's going to be tossed in the garbage immediately? It hasn't established how her using her eyes now is any different from how she was doing it before that was making her go blind, either.
I keep trying to reationalize the holes, being like, well, they're kids. Mayumi's 14. She probably wants to be special. So she's putting herself in harm's way to get attention, or to help, or something along those lines. But this motivation is not clearly established nor has she been characterized as attention seeking or overly self-sacrificing. Instead we're just left with one of the main facets of the show getting dumped with no explanation.
The last episode's casino adventure is once again brought up as if things happened, but they were never shown on screen, so I'm still pissed about it. If it's going to be a long-term part of the plot, why not just have the story play out on screen! What is this cut-away BS!
It feels like there's chunks of story missing. Did they decide to cut a bunch of stuff out that was actually shown in the manga? Or is the manga littered with weird decisions like this too? It's like reading a book that has pages torn out from it.
Also this is EXTREMELY nitpicky but the subs kept saying "drawing" for the process of creating a painting. Babes, the verb is paint. Someone RE/PAINTED the paintings. I get that they're using the verb ζΈγ (γγ/kaku) or whatever which is normally translated to draw, so I'm guessing that's the root cause of why the subs are fucked, but while that verb is correct when used for multiple mediums in Japanese, in English the discrete word paint is always used when the medium is paint, so in this case it needs to be translated to paint!!! There have been multiple instances of the subs having bad phrasing (CRUNCHYROLL OFFICIAL SUBS NOT FANSUBS) but this is the turning point where it pissed me off!!!!!!
I'm going insane |