[Hemisphere]

Originally Posted by Marly

And also yes, I actually want the whole seirei-Shidou relationship to be more of a teacher-student thing than a lover-lover relationship (outside of say, Tohka, as she is the main female lead) since it wouldn't necessarily result in them being jealous over another in an attempt to get closer to Shidou and I feel like that could actually somewhat salvage these characters from becoming a typical harem character. Instead of Shidou, they would be more fascinated with the new world they discovered, and they see Shidou as a key or a guide that can help them get familiarized, and ultimately, become a part of it. (Or at least, until the ending)

I'm really wishing for this to be the case with most, if not all of the seireis. Tohka would be the exception since she's being built up as Shidou's main seirei love interest, and while Kotori is built up as really fond of Shidou, her life with Ratatoskr does show that she has other aspects of her character as well (aside from fawning over oniichan like the typecast imouto brocon). I only wish that we get to read for ourselves just how competent Kotori really is, and not just have it as a "because I said so" reason by the author. Her performance in Vols 1-4 don't really live up to the hype, and are more for laughs than anything.

Originally Posted by Marly

Kurumi is a special exception- I feel like she's already too established to be a character that serves to bring misfortune to be grouped with the other seireis. I actually did cringe a bit when Kurumi took Shidou's "I will rescue you" speech to the point that she just wanted him to "take it back" and caused the whole drama over it after she was built up to be a merciless cold-blooded killer. Like, really? Unless this was supposed to be a foreshadowing of some sort regarding Shidou's some hidden secret magic potential where his words become reality, I just couldn't understand how a character that was built up as a terrible killer would be taken aback by few words. You might disagree, but that little bit of characterization seemed way too forced to me, as if the author was trying to humanize Kurumi in some way, but it just came out extremely wrong. Of course, this character becoming a part of the harem would all the more make no sense to me. I'm not against this character slowly veering towards sanity, but it's definitely not something that I think should be happening anytime soon, in my opinion. I'd think where she does visibly and explicitly show the sign of her becoming more accepting of humans as an appropriate character ending for Kurumi, rather than showing the outcome of the actual change in character. (That or tragic death works just as well)

Mmm, I see where you are coming from. I liked that scene with Kurumi and Shidou if only because it showed that there was potentially more to her, but not necessarily for the convenience and ease by which Shidou "got through" to her.

I could see her as being the wildcard out of all the seireis as a possible future development, acting more like a third party who only helps out whenever favor leans towards self-interest. Kurumi veering towards sanity, or learning about the world in a new light would be interesting, but only if it's actually done through exploratory interactions with the world in a way she's never tried before. Preferably on her own, too, as there's nothing I find more insufferable than a harem lead "helping out" as such developments are usually forced and serve to do nothing but portray how useless and incompetent the heroine is on her own without the male lead.

Originally Posted by Marly

I agree with this point as well. While DAL's built world is much more interesting, (to me, at least) and heavier serious tone is implied, (death actually being a relevant issue, though no significant character has yet to really die), it somehow manages to not satisfy any of its potentials. Due to the author's very formulaic method of resolving every volume and seirei problem, the characters' roles would inevitably stay the same.

It's just baffling how, in one volume they treat the spacequakes and all the deaths that result from it as so horrific and tragic - and then promptly forget about it, only bringing it up out of convenience whenever the author needed to play the drama card (like the case with Kurumi in Vol. 3). It's also present in the way the seireis are handled. They're supposed to be this grave threat to the world whose demeanor and actions are supposed to be handled with care - but when it comes to playing lovecom tropes straight for cheap laughs, they're just fine with it.

It's just so...wildly schizophrenic. Eventually there will come a point where the schizophrenic tone of this series will be inexcusable, as you cannot just jump from extremes of comedy and drama for volumes on end without at least a minimal degree of consistency.

Originally Posted by Marly

As you said, Reine/Kotori's roles become just establishing jokes that were initially funny, but repetitive. It's like some shows where the main character's perverted nature is initially used as a joke- It's funny, somewhat, at first. But after that, it just becomes extremely annoying quickly. It just bothers me that DAL does have potential to be actually good, but it just falls flat in the end while Kaminomi manages to take something that doesn't have as much potential to turn it very fun to read. It just seems like whenever the author takes the "love comedy" route, the writing just goes all over the place, and usually ends up rather bad or repetitive. If Shidou managed to be as half as interesting as Keima, I feel like this series could really improve, since another big problem with harem shows is that the main male lead is never characterized as his own- and more by his relationship with characters who do. (before they become part of the harem, in which case, they lose their characterization too)

I agree; Shidou's personality definitely needs more improvement.