(CR) H2O ~footprints In The Sand~

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by shaolinx

I am wondering that also. How different is the game ending?

*points to several pages back*
Very different. There is a time skip, but for a different reason.

[FatPianoBoy]

Argh, I skipped several pages because I had a belated viewing of the final episode and surprise was the last thing the story had going for it

[mikesince83]

I should probably wait till I'm done with the series to ask this, but:

Spoiler for question:

Is the fact that absolutely no one is surprised (including himself) that Hirose has miraculously regained his vision after episode one anything other than a massive plot hole? I mean, I expected at least ONE of the characters to say something like: "Wow Hirose, yesterday you were blind, and today you aren't, isn't that great?" Anyhow, a yes or no will suffice. If there is more to it, I'll probably stumble across the answer as I finish the series.

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by mikesince83

I should probably wait till I'm done with the series to ask this, but:

Spoiler for question:

Is the fact that absolutely no one is surprised (including himself) that Hirose has miraculously regained his vision after episode one anything other than a massive plot hole? I mean, I expected at least ONE of the characters to say something like: "Wow Hirose, yesterday you were blind, and today you aren't, isn't that great?" Anyhow, a yes or no will suffice. If there is more to it, I'll probably stumble across the answer as I finish the series.

No, it is not a plot hole. There is indeed more to it.

[serenade_beta]

After the amazing Hamaji hugging pillow, next is Hinata's!

Spoiler for picture:

[Zippicus]

Originally Posted by mikesince83

I should probably wait till I'm done with the series to ask this, but:

Spoiler for question:

Is the fact that absolutely no one is surprised (including himself) that Hirose has miraculously regained his vision after episode one anything other than a massive plot hole? I mean, I expected at least ONE of the characters to say something like: "Wow Hirose, yesterday you were blind, and today you aren't, isn't that great?" Anyhow, a yes or no will suffice. If there is more to it, I'll probably stumble across the answer as I finish the series.

Heh, they managed to cover that plot hole, but it leaves another plot hole in it's wake so don't get your hopes up. The only advice I can give you is to approach the series with a "this is a magical fantasy land that doesn't have to make sense" mindset.

[bratchaman]

Originally Posted by Zippicus

Heh, they managed to cover that plot hole, but it leaves another plot hole in it's wake so don't get your hopes up. The only advice I can give you is to approach the series with a "this is a magical fantasy land that doesn't have to make sense" mindset.

Yes ALOT of plotholes.

Spoiler for episode 7:

"Hey guys, I'm actually my dead sister!"
"Really? That's cool."

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by bratchaman

Yes ALOT of plotholes.

Spoiler for episode 7:

"Hey guys, I'm actually my dead sister!"
"Really? That's cool."

I can see why you'd call that a lot of things, but a "plot hole"? She's the daughter of the most powerful family in town. Why should they question her on it? The only reason they started questioning their stance on Hayami is because of her in the first place. If you think of her as royalty, and the rest of the village as peasants, it may make more sense. That's sort of the way this anime is set out.

[mikesince83]

Watching AIR right before this was a HUGE mistake.

Humorously enough, discovering the answer to my previous question led to an arguably more significant plot hole. Ah well, I suppose I'll stick with the wise council of our fellow poster:

Originally Posted by Zippicus

The only advice I can give you is to approach the series with a "this is a magical fantasy land that doesn't have to make sense" mindset.

With this in mind, I'll spare you all a series review as well.

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

*points to several pages back*
Very different. There is a time skip, but for a different reason.

What page was that on? I missed it too.

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

What page was that on? I missed it too.

The post~
http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...postcount=1153

[Sorrow-K]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I can see why you'd call that a lot of things, but a "plot hole"? She's the daughter of the most powerful family in town. Why should they question her on it? The only reason they started questioning their stance on Hayami is because of her in the first place. If you think of her as royalty, and the rest of the village as peasants, it may make more sense. That's sort of the way this anime is set out.

It's a plothole if you try to reconcile the events that happened the expectation that the characters that populate the village have brains that they can use by themselves. Well, turns out they don't.

Mind you, that doesn't answer a lot of the other plotholes in this...

Spoiler:

"Oh no, I'm blind, but I can see, lol. I'm gonna go completely bonkers, and only Hayami's death can save me now. Oh yay, Hayami isn't dead after all."

Ok, maybe a few of those aren't so much plotholes as they are really, really poorly written plotlines.

[Snuffle]

any higher res of those pics of the hugging pillows?

[JMvS]

Hmmm, just finished rushing the whole serie

The beginning was a bit cheesy, altough the blindness of the male lead character was something intersting in the first episode.

-Ep 4....nearby stopped watching

-but afterward my interest on the plot kept growing till Ep 7, where I first thought the story ended (till I realised there were 5 episodes to go)

-Ep 8 was pure laugh ( Magical Farmer Yui-sama!!!!!!!!!)

-the rest...hmm, it was quite nice, altough the mental breakdown was..hmmm (not to mention the Deux ex Machina like appearance of a blind, regressed Takuma, just in time to save-his-beloved-one-he-now-thinks-is-his-mother).

-the End....why was it implied that she died??? only to revive her with a magical trick a few years later?????????? When the train passed she was standing, holding the child....did they animated this before deciding she'd better be dead for a while? and what about the kid? suposedly dead also? making the sacrifice theme of the deaths worthless?

Pro:
-beautiful OP and ending, that's the first time I do not skip those after 3 episodes
-beautiful sceneries.
-animation
-mid-plot
-Magical Farmer Yui

Cons:
-Hamaji
-dumbness of the village head and inhabitants
-stupid death+revival

[MaD85]

Guys do you know what does "H20" stand for?

[Anh_Minh]

Hentai Hige Ojisan or some such.

[Strabo]

Originally Posted by MaD85

Guys do you know what does "H20" stand for?

HHO

Hotaru Hayami Otoha

[Caiobrz]

I just finished watching this, I was going to say this was great and all, and the ending let me down for the same reasons as most people argue here. But first, I would like to mention something about Takuma blindness:

Spoiler for Takuma Bindless non-plot holes:

-Most of the times you can in fact go with him being blind. Like the sketch episode, he never actually sketches and nobody cares he is away with Hayami

-Very good closure on Hamaji's sexuality. I was under the impression she was a boy because of the hot spting episode, but since he is BLIND the only thing he could conclude from her fan-servicing him there was that she was a boy ... no, he is blind so there was no point into her going attend for the savior of her little sister. In the anime you can't really tell if Hamaji is a she or a he, so I won't get into discussions if in the game it's a he =p I really think they went for an ambiguous "she" in the anime though.

-A very subtle mention he is blind is also present on several ocasions, like when they go shopping and you DO NOT have the usual swinsuit tasting to please HIM, and it's never he who says the clothes look good. Also, when they think we was going to give the bell to the other girls, and Yui waits and waits, on the day after Yui is down and the girls point to her (with him present) and say "except someone waited until sundown" and he asks "who?" .. that actually stick to my mind like "er, are you blind? she is just there!" ... yeah xD~ he is blind

-He remembering how Hayami accepts he could not peek her

I don't think the title have much plot holes, and in fact I don't think there is much "magic" as one would think:

Spoiler for Otoha:

I think of Otoha as just Hotaru's sister's spirit trying to fix the vilage, and she gives strenght to Takuma try and make the difference by making him "see" (except not). No magic implyed there. But than there is the end ...

Anyway, I want to ask what you think about the ending regarding this, because I think it was weird:

Spoiler for The end - otoha vs Hayami:

Did she die? as JMvS mentions I also was under the impression she didn't, she smiled back when he shouted her name, and she was not trying to get out of tracks WITH THE KID, she was just holding, and my impression was that the train crossed on another track, not hitting here (that's why she was calm). Also, when the girls go get her diary, only Hotaru is wearing something black who could be a uniform, and care: if she died, how did she magically tell them "I have a diary hidden on the remains of those carts, go get it"?

I also sensed a total lack of "mourning" for her death even from Takuma. So I really don't think she died.

IMHO since Takuma finally awakened from his mental shock, she figured she would leave since SHE did not figure his mother did not suicide (he did, did he tell others she was also tying to save a boy?) and still blamed her family on that. Something like "I'm no longer needed" kind of thing, which was her original resolution when she tryed to leave the village (only stayed behind when Takuma "decided" she was his mother).

So, again, do you think I'm that far off believing that in the end all Otoha did was to bring her back to him? a.k.a. she was not dead, but took her some years, perhaps with Otoha's help, to get over her past and come back to the village to visit her friends/Takuma?

Because seriously, if she was "revived" H2O lost a whole lot of points there, I would rather have a more dramatic ending and leave her dead (and show us she was dead, not the completely void sequence after the train scene where you don't know) ... in fact, the FACT that there is no scene that tells you "she died" is a good hint to tell you she DIDN'T

And when she is in peace with herself and her past (the same way took Takuma several years to get over his mother's death), she returned.

Mind you, Takuma didn't seam THAT surprised to see Hayami (only as in "what are you doing here? are you ok", and not "OMFG!!!! YOU ARE REVIVED!!!")

Opinions?

--
edit1:

CONS: ... -dumbness of the village head and inhabitants

Life is just like that, don't be fooled. Ancient Japan was even worst.

edit2:
BTW you guys are giving WAAAAY too much attention to the poem, and that scares me, because I wonder: you really think H2O invented that poem? THAT'S SO OLD, I knew that poem like 10 years ago. Also, the first thing to KILL a series is to search too much for a hidden meaning or message ... please don't =/ The poem is a nice addition, but trying to read too much into it will certainly spoil the series.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Caiobrz

BTW you guys are giving WAAAAY too much attention to the poem, and that scares me, because I wonder: you really think H2O invented that poem? THAT'S SO OLD, I knew that poem like 10 years ago. Also, the first thing to KILL a series is to search too much for a hidden meaning or message ... please don't =/ The poem is a nice addition, but trying to read too much into it will certainly spoil the series.

On the contrary, the whole anime revolves around that poem -- it's in the title, as you probably noticed, and served as "bookends" to cement the story. And I'm pretty sure everyone knows by now they didn't invent the poem - it was written in 1936. IMO, the thing that kills appreciation of anime is the lack of searching for meaning and symbolism, since anime is so full of those elements. But, by all means, you can feel free to ignore it if you want to.

Other notes:

Spoiler:

- Hamaji's sexuality is clear, as he's the father of Maki's child.
- Most would consider the spirit of someone's sister giving someone blindness to not be that far removed from magic...
- The windmill Takuma built was in memory of Hayami (it was several years later, and so suggested he had since accepted it), and the dress Hotaru wore was a mourning dress. Also, what would Otoha have had to convince the spirit council of if it were simply a matter of reuniting them? Popular or not, I still think the explanation that best fits the dialog and scenes shown is resurrection.

[mandarb916]

Originally Posted by shaolinx

I am wondering that also. How different is the game ending?

well, there's a lesbian scene between yui and hayami while they're living in tokyo...