[Haak]

Originally Posted by Reckoner

Well next time she has her own original idea, lets see what happens.

I don't need to. Ano Hana is proof enough for me.

Oh c'mon now. I am fully aware of this. There are episode scripters, episode directors, episode animation directors. There are tons of people working on every episode that are typically different. What ties it all together? The staff that oversees it. It is Okada's job as series composition to oversee the writing for the entire series, with only really the director to give input to her. She is the boss and boss takes responsibility for the people under her.

Naturally. But ultimately if you evaluate the credibility of such an argument, you'll find it coming short. If you're going to criticise her for things she goes unnecessarily over the top with, then using an example she is only indirectly responsible for (and lets face it: neither of us really know what it's like to work there so neither of us know to what extent she's responsible), is not credible enough for me.

Ano Hana did many things well, but in general I felt it was overshadowed by someone trying to jam in emotional angst at every possible turn, culminating into that extremely over the top melodramatic scene at the end. Okada has a problem with communicating angst properly. Ever heard of BRS?

I have. And I hated it. It's the one show where I can only facepalm at Okada's stupidity. She turned a genuinely simple and down to earth (albeit a little generic), into something completely ridiculous.

But that doesn't make it similar to Ano Hana, and i never once thought that Ano Hana was melodramatic up until the end. I genuinely thought it was perfect.

I'm not going to make a list of all the different okadisms throughout for you. I felt it was rather self-evident and I don't got the time to detail every single one for you at this time.

Why?!?!?

Why on earth did you think it would be self evident? Look through the thread and you'll find that whilst there is a consensus that Okada is a deeply flawed writer, there's extremely little consensus on what her good anime and bad anime are. Hence why the discussion mainly consisted of everyone giving their opinion until we all shut up and just started to bash her instead. There's nothing else to discuss. If we really want to examine her writing then we have to examine all the details of her writing. And that means examining every single anime she was significantly involved in. Remember the wall of text we created on Eureka Seven AO? And that was just one anime that hasn't even finished yet. Hell we've already managed to create a wall of text on her already and we aren't even discussing her anime in detail.

Fans being attached to a previous standard isn't unheard of you know.

I know. I'm one of them. But I'm not about to tell her to stop writing and moan every time i see her name on another announced project. If you really want to see her return to her original form, then she has to write. And just because she's prolific in writing that doesn't mean you can't avoid her anyway. She may be prolific compared to others but in reality her contribution is just a slightly larger drop in the ocean.

Oh I'm sure she does think things like "I think this'll amuse the audience." But the types of ways she tries to elicit enjoyment out of us at times feels like pure trollery or gimmicky.

-------

Why? Why does it feel "trollery"? You clearly have a strong opinion that Okada is an out of control troll. Then it stands to reason that you must have an equally strong basis right? There's never going to really be any actual discussion if all we do is talk about subjective opinions. In reality we were never really gonna achieve anything more than that.

Anyhow Haak, I'm sure we hold very different opinions on Okada. You seem to have more respect for writing than I do. I used to think she was pretty good, and I still think there is talent there somewhere, but her focus has definitely been off in the past year or two and the inconsistency of her original worlds speaks for itself IMO.

Besides BRS, I don't think I've ever seen an anime original from her that I've hated and the ones that I did, I didn't expect much from her to begin with. But Ano Hana and Hanasaku Iroha left a strong impression on me, so much so that I don't care what crap she mostly comes out with so long as she still occasionally creates something amazing. This year that was Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna, and next year it might be the HSI film.