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Oct 9, 2023
Age-gap romances have been a controversial topic for the longest time. Some find it appalling and some think of it as the ideal romance. In my eyes, the key is the delivery -"coffee and vanilla" is pretty okay on paper, but the delivery of the story and the character's personalities are just awful. Keep in mind I only read up to Chapter 5, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
The number one aspect that makes this premise an interesting age-gap, is that the characters are both adults. Often in age-gap stories one of the characters (usually the female lead) is underaged. I have
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read great interpretations of the trope but the vast majority is disgusting and feels predatory. Good thing coffee and vanilla is a romance between two grown adults!!!!
Except it isn't.
RISA:
Risa attended an only-girls school for most of her life which reduced her opportunities to meet and form relationships with guys: she's never had a boyfriend - which pains her romantic heart - and sees her new college life as an opportunity to find a partner. You go, girl!
Because she's never had proper contact with guys before though, she ends up brushing every guy who starts small talk with her off, and becomes some sort of "princess" figure - she is beautiful, untouchable, and charming. And so, at 20 years old, she's as single as ever (and that's okay and normal).
The issue is that the author insists on portraying her as a naive, innocent cute girl - not having had a romantic relationship doesn't mean that you're less of an adult, and definitely doesn't infantilize you.
FUKAMI:
Fukami is a 32-year-old guy who's charming and confident. He seems to either have a very well-paying job or be from a rich family, as he takes Risa to fancy restaurants, a villa, etc.
He meets Risa one day when she is being approached by a very persistent man: the man invites her out, she declines, and in true man fashion he keeps asking and ends up grabbing her arm, when she bumps into Fukami. Here, he does what any kind soul would do, and helps her out, by pretending that they were supposed to meet up and he was late. Great.
After helping her leave the place however, he decides to ask her out himself (???wtf??) and since a handsome and kind man helped her she agrees to have dinner together. He offers her alcohol during the dinner and she eventually falls asleep. He takes her to his house.
The morning after, he suddenly pushes her onto the bed, kisses her, proclaims he fell in love at first sight and asks her to be his girlfriend, which she agrees to. As he's making his advances she tells him she's never had sex before and he thinks that's pretty cute.
After this he essentially withdraws affection from her, doesn't call for an entire week and her friends are worried that she is getting played. When he finally gets back to her, he takes her to a villa where they have sex for the first time, and on that SAME day he gives her a promise ring (in place of a true engagement ring) because he's worried that "pests" will interfere with their relationship...
This all happened in a 2 weeks time span.
CONCLUSION:
ml is at the very least manipulative and the fl is portrayed as a child.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jan 30, 2022
Set in futuristic Japan, Akudama drive explores technological advances and their impact on the division of society into morally good and bad factions. This concept, however, is not anything new: it has been done before, excellently in my opinion, and so the competition is rather tough. This anime feels like a mix between Akira and Psycho pass.
Story: Psycho pass's premise is also the attempt of building a system that divides people into two groups: the good and well-behaved citizens, and the atrocious criminals. An armed force is created, the enforcers, to annihilate these criminals and assure peace is kept. As the story develops, we
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become aware of the system's flaws, and ultimately we're invited to reflect on what it is that makes people good or bad.
Akudama drive's storyline is fairly similar. The biggest difference is that while psycho pass is influenced by popular literary works and insists on presenting many philosophical references to aid the dystopian narrative, which makes the story feel cohesive and believable, akudama drive fails to make the audience comprehend the world they are being pulled into. It's a case of complex vs. confusing.
The whole idea of having a population live inside a computer felt random and too sudden. We barely get an explanation. To me, it felt like the story started escalating at a very quick pace and I just couldn't keep up with it.
Characters: Regarding the characters, I don't have any big complaints: they are predictable, but not to the point where the show isn't enjoyable. I also understand that, to make us understand them well enough in 12 episodes, the characters needed to be a bit simple.
Art and visuals: If we're just discussing animation quality I again don't have complaints. It was really well animated and we were presented with many action-packed scenes. Now my only issue is that, because the story was so all over the place, it kinda felt like the amazing visuals were a bit of a cover-up: "I don't really understand this world or this situation but this fighting shot is really impressive". But maybe that's just my way too biased opinion. The sound quality was also great.
Overall, I don't think Akudama drive is a bad show, hence why I gave it a score of 7/10, but I strongly believe it would have benefited from having more episodes. If it became a 25-episode-show the concepts could have been properly explained (including that whole brainwashing thing). It just doesn't feel too impressive if you have watched psycho pass.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 1, 2021
I'll try to be brief in this review:
If someone asked me whether I enjoyed watching it, my answer would be 'yes'. It's undeniable that the show is somewhat interesting and some scenes really creep you out, leaving an impact on you.
But that is all it has going for it.
Above everything else this anime lacks logic - there are numerous plot wholes or oddly convenient situations that are never properly justified. One of the main ones being the reasoning behind the mc's time travelling power. This trope has been explored before in other animes and it usually has some sort of explanation.
Aside from that, the culprit
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is the most predictable thing ever and his character development is non-existent. I genuinely didn't understand his motifs and that for me is extremely disappointing as I don't find much meaning in a story whose villain feels completely random.
Airi's character also didn't make much sense: are they seriously trying to convince me her parents divorced because of a chocolate bar?? And that is what deepens her character and shapes her into a trusting person? For the convenience of the mc??
Overall the characters are very shallow and one dimensional.
I was expecting a bit more from this work.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 21, 2021
I've been a big Sakisaka Io fan since I first found out about her, through her work Ao Haru Ride. I had watched the anime and then picked up the manga where the anime left off. I immediately became a big fan.
Being the fan that I am, I strongly believe that her work has evolved in what concerns the ideologies presented and character/emotional complexity. Omoi Omoware Furi Furare is an amazing story that discusses how love should be perceived and what is the "correct" way to achieve it.
First, let's talk about the characters: Yuna is the actual main character of this story, and she is
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your typical innocent girl who firmly believes that love plays out like a fairy tale. Her thesis is that, as something pure and spontaneous, love is something that pops up suddenly inside of you, and there's nothing you can do about it. That being said, she has never fallen in love with anyone.
Akari is quick to recover from past relationships and gives up her feelings quite easily. She tends to protect herself above everything else and thus she is not very transparent or honest. More importantly, she states that love can be built and developed with effort.
Rio is somewhat of a player to fill his broken heart with temporary and shallow relationships. He is a bit self-centred but becomes more altruistic as the story plays out.
Lastly, Kazuomi seems like a pretty average kid but is actually quite an over-thinker and constantly holds himself back for the sake of others. He is not very experienced with love but is aware of his feelings.
Art: 10/10 no discussion. It's up to personal taste really.
Story: I've seen a lot of people complain about how X or Y character should have gotten more "screen-time" or how the story was pretty boring and pointless. Not only do I strongly disagree with all that, but firmly believe that people who think like that must have not understood a thing about the story. Yuna and Akari are pretty different people and their very own visions of love lead them to believe that the other is wrong: Akari thinks that Yuna is just too naive and Yuna doesn't take Akari's relationships as serious, based on how fast she moves on. However, it's when they start shifting their perspective that their love life starts to progress. Yuna becomes more brave and proactive, and Akari lets her emotions take over more frequently. In the end, these changes help them get together with who they love, proving that love is complex and susceptible to various interpretations.
Then we have the whole Rio situation. He has loved Akari for some time, and was absorbed in those feelings: living under the same roof and trying to conceal such a burning passion ought to be a difficult task. Their family life is thus quite unstable. As he overcomes this feelings, he watches Yuna grow out of her shell and falls in love with her, the girl who was there through this whole journey to listen to his rants.
Lastly, there's Kazuomi, who lives in a toxic family dynamic: his brother decided to follow his dreams and quit college (against their parents' will) and so Kazuomi has to repress and keep quiet about his dream of becoming a movie director. His parents' constant fights make him seek some peace and comfort in movies and, later on, fuel his closeness with Akari.
Summing up: I feel like the character development in this story is really well done. Sure the finale was a bit too fast and random in my opinion - it was a bit unnecessary! Other than that, the story is amazing, the art style is great and there are a lot of cute and cheesy cliche moments that we all love. I highly recommend it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 7, 2021
I'm not one to usually write hate comments but I hate this show with a burning passion. First of all, the female protagonist lacks personality and literally never does anything to get away from them. She just has no self-respect really.
As for the male characters: wtf. I don't understand this show's plot. They just keep sexually harassing her, episode after episode, and we're supposed to enjoy that?
But the WORST aspect about it is that they had the AUDACITY of making her fall in love with Ayato.
I'll repeat myself: WTF.
It's just disgusting, an abomination for female rights and gender equality, and the only reason people
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might find this enjoyable is the art style. They are handsome I'll give you that.
Seriously, I question myself about what was it that made them think this was something that deserved to be published? Everything that happens is non-consensual until that point where she magically falls in love with him and is even stabbed because of their family drama!
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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