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Old 2011-05-19, 04:09   Link #184
Reckoner
Bittersweet Distractor
 
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by deadite View Post
So the hate bandwagon has arrived huh? I guess no show is exempt.... It just another "the show is not going the way I want it to and not conforming to my views so It must be flaw" school of thought.
Should practice reading comprehension, because clearly you have very little of it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf View Post
And, pardon me, I just find it incredibly implausible for an otherwise normal guy to regress into cross-dressing just because he misses a dead friend terribly. It's the kind of plot device that works only within the sphere of anime. If I were to show AnoHana to viewers who are unfamiliar with anime, I am 99% certain that Yukiatsu's predicament would draw far more WTFs than sombre understanding.
I'm pretty sure most people here thought "wtf" with Yukiatsu's behavior. Both the posters and Yukiatsu in the show himself, stated that he's sick in the head. If you're saying that you don't find it plausible that someone can be sick in the head for something like this then well, there's not much to say. But while people expresses sympathy for him because of his inability to move one, I don't think anyone here thought that cross dressing was an understandable way to cope with it. It was played up to shock value. Some weren't bothered by it, but obviously you were. So it simply didn't work for you, and I respect that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf View Post
That's a problem I notice I frequently encounter with Mari Okada's screenplays. In True Tears, she threw in the trite device of sibling incest, both as a red herring and as an incredibly implausible plot development to drive a wedge between a pair of characters. However, within the anime community, such devices are easier to digest, because it happens so frequently that fans have long since learnt to shrug it off, accepting it as normal.

To me, her works seem to suggest that she lacks sufficient insight on real human emotions and predicaments, and therefore relies on tropes to carry her stories. It's fine to me if that's what fans in general want. Hell, why would I want to convince anyone to dislike what they enjoy?
I guess it's a matter of viewpoint, but I often find her scripts not very reliant on the usual tropes and overwrought melodrama, so it's why I tend to enjoy some of her works. Ano Hana specifically manages to play very well on the right chords of nostalgia for many people in the audience, and it's the reason people were able to be so emotionally attached to the characters from the getgo in episode 1. To me, that demonstrates a nice understanding of human emotions.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf View Post
But, by the same token, don't turn around and try to convince me that any of such tropes are "realistic". They just aren't, not within the context of this particular drama, because there simply has not been enough development to explain how it could have taken such a drastic turn.
Forgive me but could you clarify which specific tropes in Ano Hana bother you besides Yukiatsu's cross dressing and perhaps Memma in general?

Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf View Post
And the major problem for me is that Menma the ghost is an incredibly annoying distraction from the so-called "realism" displayed by the rest of the cast.

Menma is an actual entity instead of a haunting memory. Her very presence in every episode saps attention away from far more interesting developments, such as revelations of how Anaru is growing as a character, even as Jintan remains pathetically stuck in a hikkikomori rut (let's be honest, he hasn't grown much since the beginning of the series).

If Menma were a stronger character, I may not have minded as much. But as she is at the moment, she inspires sympathy but not empathy. To me, she's like pretty wallpaper. She's cute, sure, but that's about all we can say about her right now. She's there to tug at heartstrings, effectively so, but there's little we have seen about her to allow us to understand why she is the way she is and how she intends to move on. That draws tears, true, but it most definitely does not inspire understanding, at least not for me.
I'd have to agree with this actually. It's the main flaw of this anime, and why I can't see it in any way, perfect.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf View Post
Of course, I would reiterate that I fully understand that it's all subjective. That said, I would appreciate if people don't brush off valid criticism as a simple refusal to suspend disbelief. How well a viewer is able to do that depends as much on the storyteller as it does on the viewer managing his own expectations.
I certainly hope no one does. I think most of what you are saying is perfectly fair.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cyth View Post
I agree. The way the story is set up is clearly manipulative and a far cry from realistic circumstance. I find it implausible that anyone from this little group of friends hasn't been able to move on after so many years. Let's be clear on this, AnoHana is set up as wish fulfillment for otaku with darkness in their hearts because it tugs at the possibility that their peers who appear to have moved on to greater goals in life are still stuck in that same emotional rut as the rest of them.
I'm sure you may not find it necessarily relateable, but there is an error you've made here. First, what do you define as "moving on?" When does a person "move on?" Is it simply, not letting interrupt you living life? Is it to not let it bear any weight on your mind? I'm sorry, but if losing a dear friend doesn't bear any weight on someone's mind, then that is something I find implausible. I n regards to continuing ot live life? Tsuruko, Anaru, Yukiatsu, Poppo have all done just that. It's only Jintan who has let his life completely slide away.

What I find especially disagreeable here are your insinuations that this is some otaku wish fulfillment. Maybe I missed it, but is this some sort of harem anime ? Get real here.

Growing apart from your friends earlier in your life is something that MANY people can relate to. It is not limited to Otakus. It certainly manipulates the audience into nostalgia, but that isn't a bad thing. That makes it all the more relateable for some people. How many people out there have ever felt disappointed about past friendships got awry?

Sure, you might be able to call this anime some sort of wish fulfillment. A desire to go back to how things once were for people. A fairy tale reunion of sorts. But if you're seriously going to sit here and tell me that this only applies to Otakus, then that's simply ludicrous.
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