[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by 4Tran

Sure. True Tears never made much impression on me, and Anohana wasn't very good. Canaan was a disaster, so there's no need to compare to it. Aside from True Tears, these shows' weaknesses originate from the writing and poor planning, so Hanairo is a marked improvement over them. Okada has proven to be better at getting the most out of adapted works since Hourou Musuko was awesome, and a lot of the production was reliant on how they chose to adapt the manga.

I guess personal opinions can't be changed. But to me, True Tears writing and planning was overall solid as it was just the right length (and didn't drag like HSI). It did the "love-triangle" genre/element justice (except to certain "butthurt" shippers ) that the vast majority of anime in the same genre could only dream about. In fact, most of the time I dislike love-triangles and harems, but True Tears (and Okada in general with her "relationship trolling") executed it in a manner that is well-made and highly entertaining that I actually like it.

Canaan was an "okay" sequel to the Type-Moon novel 428 and it was better than anything DEEN has adapted Type-Moon wise (oh the pain of the Unlimited Blade Works movie). Not saying it was great though, which is much like I view HSI.

I agree with Hourou Musuko being an excellent adaptation, though I'm not sure how much credit should be given to Okada for that. Would say more credit should be given to Ei Aoki (director) and Takako Shimura (original mangaka) imo.

Originally Posted by 4Tran

But it had episodes 2-10 .

Which ranged from medicore to good, with 3 being utter garbage. Seriously though, I was massively disappointed that the approach taken from the first two episodes were pretty much ignored. What the opening two episodes portrayed to me was a coming of age story, where Ohana would initially go through hardship trying to fit after being "dumped" by her own mother but then eventually win over Sui, who is an "old-school, asian grandmother". What did we get instead? Typical anime light comedy and shenanigans with some of the most fail and pathetic male character cast I've seen.

Granted, the Tokyo/Satsuki arc was also excellent as well as the last 4-5 episodes of the series, but this was countered by having a medicore to good majority of the 2nd cour as well.

The series was at its best when it focused on Kissuiou and the main trio (Ohana, Minko, Nako) and if you're enjoy Okada's relationship trolling, the romance elements. The series was at its worst when it decided to waste so many episodes on side characters most people didn't even care about (Enishi being the worse offender, but also Yuina). It was jarring and inconsistent as heck and I don't think I've watched a series where I both simultaneously loved it and hated it at the same time. One moment, it's some of the best I've seen in the slice of life genre, other times I facepalm at how pathetic it is.

Originally Posted by 4Tran

The quality of the ending can be attributed to good planning on the part of the creators. They had to have known exactly where they planned to end the story and how to do so pretty much from the conceptualization of the show. Without that, they'd never have been able to pull off the Ohana-mother-grandmother comparison/contrast as well as they did. The foreknowledge of when a show is ending is one of the advantages of original anime, and it's good to see that used to good effect.

Good planning? Pulling off the mother, grandmother, daughter contrast very well? I think not. This show much like Ano Hana started off using a hybrid approach using J-drama/K-drama elements with anime, but unlike Ano Hana, didn't follow through.

Originally Posted by 4Tran

That's a good thing. It shows that Okada is willing to try out different things. I only wish that she would branch out more by exploring ideas from outside the anime/manga/video game/light novel trap.

It is somewhat of a good thing Okada is willing to try different things, but I wish production studios would stop "hiring" her for everything. Okada is at her best with her dialogue and subtlety and "relationship trolling" elements. She's at her worst when it comes to trying to make or adapt anything outside the "slice of life" genre. Okada has also seemed to be developed a crossdressing fetish as of late which I would like to see the editors control. Not saying Okada should be limited to her strengths only, but production studios need to learn that Okada is not good at everything. For example, check out this Kenshin thread and see how much of a backlash it's getting regarding production lineup.