Feb 25, 2018
My wife said, "I enjoyed this. You should watch it." All she told me was there was an alien and these kids were trying to make a film. And that the show tells a story and wraps it up nicely, which is something I appreciate a lot. I can't stand it when it's clear the writers have no idea where they're going and they're just trying to see how many seasons they can get approved for.
Anyway, episode 1...
The OP was terrible. It was just a bunch of kids not doing anything except smiling at each other. There was no hint of who they were or
...
what kind of show it was. But, some shows have bad OPs and I wasn't going to judge. Turns out I was wrong and the OP was spot on, but I didn't know that yet.
The episode itself was tedious. There's no other way to put it. I couldn't wait for it to end. Every time the camera panned to the sky I hoped that was the end, but it wasn't. No one said anything with any meaning or weight. No one exuded any personality beyond tropes. OK, there's the tsundere one, there's the moe one, there's a chunibyo I guess? And main character lives alone with his big sister and then invites this girl he's been stalking to live at his house and I guess we're in for a harem. The only thing that happens in this whole episode is right at the end and I saw it coming from a mile away and yep it's totally a harem show.
I'm not trying to be smug here. The second the tsundere randomly ran into the sister downtown I literally said out loud "These guys are gonna walk in on those other guys in a compromising position."
So first episode we're given 6 characters with no history or interests or personality except for clichéd tropes. See what I mean about the OP being spot on? The reason the characters do nothing but smile at each other the whole OP is because they are lifeless trope balloons. Grab a tsundere balloon, inflate it, tape it on a bench. Grab a ditzy-fish-out-of-water balloon, and tape it up next to the cardboard cut out of a guy. The slight breeze blowing by will make everything sway around giving the illusion of life.
Just really boring, lifeless, bleh.
After some heated discussion with my wife, and seeing the show well rated here, I pushed myself to watch a second episode. After all, some shows need to warm up.
Nope, it got worse. I couldn't even get through two lines without snarking about how empty the writing was. They just say nothing about nothing. One character asks, "Why is she moving it with you?" and honestly the response should have been, "Because we're in an anime, stupid. Did you notice the red hair?" At least we seem to have moved out of the harem zone because the sister, instead of getting over-protective, all but says "OK, you two get married and live here and I'll go live somewhere else."
Other complaints...
The constant theme of "I kind of remember something but I don't know what" coming from both of the main characters, combined with the sunny, washed out art, kept reminding me of "Your Name", which was actually good.
My wife said you learn so much about the characters over the course of the show, and maybe she's right, but you can't start from zero and expect viewers to stick around. We know literally nothing about these people. What kind of students are they? Do they have any hobbies? How long do they all know each other? What do they want? Or what do they THINK they want? Do any of them actually know anything about making a film? Do they take film classes? Do they like watching movies together? I have no idea.
In one scene, tall guy says the chunibyo girl is in charge of the movie so then she pulls out a script and starts talking enthusiastically about it and immediately tall guy says that's dumb let's do something else and everyone else starts brainstorming ideas and this doesn't bother the chunibyo girl AT ALL! She was put in charge and then is shut down and she doesn't have any emotional reaction to this at all. That's because, remember, she's just a balloon blowing in a gentle breeze. They all are.
I felt like I was watching some very ordinary people I didn't know because we just happened to be at the same place at the same time. Like if I was waiting for a train to arrive and I had to be there waiting and I was kinda bored so I just watched those people over there goof around until the train finally arrives and I can get up and get on with my life and not think about those people again. That's a thing that happens in real life, but I wouldn't make an anime about it.
A story needs to engage me right away, make me care about what I'm watching, give me a reason to keep watching. This was really beginner level writing, just a string of empty words and hollow tropes. I absolutely could not bear to watch another episode.
P.S. I realize this review is not that insightful. It's my first one. As I do more of these, I hope to develop a more robust language to dissect and describe what I'm seeing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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