[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by Dawnstorm

Well, there's a reason I put "worship" in quotationmarks. I'm a cynic and an atheist; to me, very often, there is little practical difference between worshipping a god and wanting to benefit from his/her power. (Other benefits that come from worship are belonging to a community, or aligning yourself with an abstraction you like. But very often it's about hoping for favours.)

Well, obviously people will want her power, that's what Takayanagi was after, and we can only imagine who else may want her for their own reasons. (Even Mayura made it clear that while she's Izumiko's friend, she also wants her as an ally because of her power.) But I still don't think her humanity was involved in this.

Originally Posted by Dawnstorm

As it is, I interpreted the final scene with the respective parents as: well, done. Danger banished. Now, to our original plan... the World Heritage Program. (Which may or may not have been the problem in the first place.)

The way I interpreted the scene, it was more like "well done, you made it past the first step (Izumiko awakening), now let's just hope that you'll manage to deal with the rest as well." To me, Miyuki's offer/promise and Izumiko's reaction didn't really imply "OK, himegami danger avoided."

It's so frustrating that we have to rely on guessing... :/ I guess the books make it clear, but I don't really understand why they didn't take more liberties with the source material to speed things up to be able to fit at least some explanations into the 12 eps, instead of leaving basically all storylines except Miyuki x Izumiko hanging. Then again, looking at reactions in various places, many people do seem to be focused on Miyuki and Izumiko finally being officially a couple, and not the questions raised and never answered, so...

Originally Posted by Dawnstorm

What stands out most about this show is, sadly, wasted potential. It looks so pretty, and the music's so nice, too. The story seems interesting, too. It just somehow doesn't come across as well as it could be.

Yes, pretty much. It really reminds me of Juuousei, though that at least managed to fit all of the story into its meager 11 episodes (even if they missed the point). Perhaps that's behind my problem with the show lacking "heart" and being mechanical/business-like. And to be honest I do feel a bit betrayed. I put my trust in the show explaining the main issues, and they let me down. I really, really hate it when this happens! Usually at least we get at least some half-assed explanation.

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

At least it's looking as if RDG may not be a SSY-level disaster commercially - it's still going to be a loss, but the pre-sales at least look like a couple thousand.

Well, RDG has more of a typical "anime" feel to it than SSY, plus unlike SSY, RDG came with a built-in fandom from the books. (I was surprised, but there's actually a fandom for RDG out there, apparently the books are pretty popular.) But this just makes me appreciate the producers of SSY even more. Also, it makes me hate the decision to turn the manga version of SSY into that thing even more. With adaptations like this, manga is more suited to exposition and talking heads than anime, so a manga/anime combo is potentially a very nice solution. Perhaps the RDG manga will eventually fill in the holes left by the anime. (If it doesn't get cancelled.) The SSY manga could've done that, too... argh. -_-