2025.7.6
(On Danjo no Yuujou wa Seiritsu suru? (Iya, Shinai!!))
(See #p1)
It's actually quite insane - the resolution of Episode 12 is so absurd it somehow managed to make the show half-palatable. I suspect the author knew this intuitively - sometimes to properly clean up after a failed Deus-Ex-Machina, you may very well need to remove the Deus-Ex-Machina itself. Either way, I think it's unlikely that we will ever have the chance to endure through a Season 2 of this stuff, and I think some of us could use that info...
2025.7.5
I do suggest one refrain from doing whatever this show is doing. To randomly bring out an adult figure to put the "real love vs. co-dependency" trope onto the table almost always feels like nothing more than a cheaply-made Deux-Ex-Machina: these key characters feel like the insertion of the author himself because they almost always have ore information than their position in the story could've ever provided them with. To put it another way, they know the main protagonists are going through a co-dependency phase not because that's a conclusion that can be reached merely through their knowledge, experience and observation, but simply because that's what the author had in mind. This is - to adopt software engineering lingo - an abstraction leak. I do need to acknowledge that considering the true core conflict of the average Japanese highschool student - 進路 (career path) and its 調査 (survey) - being more like a looming background threat than anything, it would be hard to find a more natural and (more importantly) more common conflict than someone's love life without potentially offending anyone; and to claim that the main protagonists are in a toxic co-dependent relationship might very well be the only way to provide a chance to move towards a total resolution. But, even if that's the case, one would still need to execute this properly exactly because all of these clichés are well-expected...
2025.7.5
Just finished Lazarus. It was truly unfortunate. I sincerely believe the action should be toned down a little, and despite jazz being one of my favourite music genre, its soundtracks somehow failed to make an impression on me. People might say it has potential. - I'd disagree. You can't have much potential already when you've decided that this would be you're doing. It's easy to tell that it's made to entertain, but it's hard to convince yourself that it's made to make you remember.
2025.6.14
(On Danjo no Yuujou wa Seiritsu suru? (Iya, Shinai!!))
After the latest episode, I had an epiphany:
Whoever's behind this work has attempted an Oregairu on us.
And what do you know, over the years I've grown to hate the Oregairu-type plot with a burning passion.
If you didn't know what Oregairu is, its full name is "Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru", and it's a (now finished) long-running show that has multiple seasons with the final season ended a few years ago. I *do* recommend you to watch Oregairu, however, because it *do* give you the most basic amount of enjoyment from time to time, and despite the core motif of its later part (as well as certain characters in the show; if you know you know) gradually gears toward being painful to watch, it do be a slow-burn process (which smooths out some rough patches in terms of sentiment), and it do have a half-acceptable resolution.
The show in question, unfortunately, has barely any of that.
The title itself is already a disaster of its own, but judging a title isn't really fair, so we'll put that aside. In short, the premise is bad and really doesn't make any sense (unless it is actually based on real-life events; but then again that would only mean the real-life it's based on barely makes any sense too). The story overall is mid at best, with the amount of development less than your typical highschool romance. The characters are also very bland: for the two girls, if you remove the part of their background setting that's majorly related to the male protagonist, you'd barely have any background setting left; this is not completely unsalvagable if the author is given the chance (either by themselves and whoever's at that kind of position) to fully develop the remaining part, but I personally didn't see much of that in the anime.
Towards the end of the season there was an attempt of introducing a new arc with an antagonist onee-san character and the "co-dependency vs. true love" trope (now you see why I have to mention Oregairu in the beginning); this trope, especially the one between two teenagers, is an easy option for aspiring light novel writers and/or manga artists attempting their first long story because we all had been a good-for-nothing brat at some point, but it is unfortunately also *very* easy to overcook it and turn it into a boring edge-fest; it's not a tool you can use willy-nilly and expect it would magically raise a mid story to a not-so-mid level; the way this is done in this show unfortunately makes the whole thing feel very forced. I haven't read the light novel and I know nothing about the author, but I would say (provided that the anime is being faithful) this is an acceptable debut work and an acceptable debut work only; should the author write more in the future I would expect improvements.
That being said, I *would* watch the remaining episode in the mean time; with how the plot has been developed till now, it's only going to be either mid or edgy; either way, whatever remains is probably only going to be sense of relief instead of satisfaction.
