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Originally Posted by Triple_R

I mean, the sense I took from Jiromaru's suicide attempt scene is that the anime was trying to accomplish both of the following, simultaneously:

1) Make you laugh at this guy's ineptitude, and just how pitiful he is.

2) Make you feel sympathy for the guy's misfortune, and just how horrible his life situation is (hence you'd agree with how the protagonists handled him and the broader situation).

For me the scene leaned heavily towards 1).

Originally Posted by Triple_R

While I see your point on "curiosity", I have a harder time with your point on"embarrassing".

Ohana is clearly not a person who gets embarrassed easily. I mean, in front of a significant number of people, she actually exclaimed to the person writing her as a central character in erotic fiction that she "wants to sparkle!"

The Japanese in general may hate being the center of attention, but I certainly don't get that vibe from Ohana at all. If Ohana hated being the center of attention, there's no way she'd go out of her way to cook breakfast for everyone, be willing to speak up against even the slightest perceived injustice she comes across, or take a vocal leading role in trying to get everyone to like her and be on friendly terms with her.

The fact that she handled the Episode 4 in-class mobbing very well also speaks to how she's reasonably comfortable being the center of attention, imo.

I agree that she handled it well, but she seemed visibly uncomfortable during the mobbing and during her introduction. She was also a bit flustered when she explained about the uses of the mop in Jiromaru's story. Her attitude when she gives Jiromaru a piece of her mind is different, but that's because she's frustrated - we've seen her act impulsively several times in such scenarios thus far.

So yeah, I think there's good grounds for saying she was embarrassed about being tied up. And we both know Tomoe would yap about it for months if she found out.

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

Well one thing that struck me during the class introduction, is more annoying male characters? NOOOOO. But thankfully they were minor.

Oh, you mean the two guys who were talking about how much they were willing to pay for photos of Minko? Yeah, they're minor... I didn't even think of them when you mentioned male characters.

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

Well, the female characters aren't that much better, but I didn't want to bring that up. Maybe I should just say Ohana > everyone else. Everything is relative.

Anyhow, on another topic, about being a serious drama or not, I see no reason to not expect this series could manage to do both. Another series, Steins;Gate, has many casual lighthearted moments but it still is overall a serious story; I don't think that particular one has sacrficed any storytelling integrity to get the silly stuff on the screen.

I guess the issue is that I didn't really see episode 3 as unusually silly for the series. Like Totoum, I saw the "Hey, my boyfriend is in debt and we're running away, go see you grandma" stuff set a less than dead serious tone for the show.

And while I agree Ohana is the best character in the show, I think Nako is adorable and I actually like Tomoe and her soap opera/pulp romance novel fantasies.