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Originally Posted by Flawnalyst
I'm pretty sure Sen's issues with his father were explained in Episode 4. The reason he left can also be attributed to Episode 4
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The father's actions with giving Sen a pen (I forgot why that was significant, but I'm pretty sure the anime explained it) was more than enough to resolve things. It's that Watanabe style of "show don't tell" that I want to scream at Fate/Zero, Tatami Galaxy, and especially Makoto Shinkai to do.
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I didn't forget that bit. The way the reunion with the father went in the anime, it felt like there was a lot more to it than that. It just didn't feel like something this long-standing, something that would cause Sen to abandon his family, could be resolved simply by handing over a gift, and without any words wasted. "Show, don't tell" should always be the MO, but in this case.. You can't resolve such deep, long-standing issues so simply.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flawnalyst
Actually, no. I'm pretty sure that the loss of a friend can drive people apart just as much as it drives them closer together. I've heard of couples that divorced because of the loss of a child and such. Besides, it wasn't just Sentaro leaving. Kaoru was going to a college in Tokyo, far away from Ritsuko. There's no way their relationship could work with him so far away. In fact, it's an exact carbon copy of Jun moving far away, so he tried to break things up with Yurika.
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I will never understand this train of thought. To me, it feels like one of those moments in horror movies when someone does something incredibly stupid, and everyone ends up hating them for it. One of those moments that has you screaming at the screen. You DON'T let anything come in the way of love. You just don't.
I can understand that the loss of a child or some other external event could cause a person to change. But if this was the case with Kaoru, then the anime should have spent more time exposing this change and making us understand it. As is, he just seemed to throw away all his feelings for Ritsuko along with Sen's departure. He seemed to decide he could no longer be with Ritsuko, and started being deliberately hurtful, cold, and distant just so she would be soured to him. It IS possible he decided to go to Tokyo and he did all this in an attempt to make his departure easier for her. But in that case, at the very least, there should have been an internal monologue scene describing his internal strife about this. You could again argue that would run counter to the "show, don't tell" principle, but IMO this is such a crucial point to the ending of the show, that it would have been entirely appropriate.
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Originally Posted by Dr. Casey
The 'Show, don't tell' thing is carried so far sometimes that it makes it sound as though people just like dry stories because apparently anything except muted emotion is too much emotion. :/
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I don't see how these two things are related. If anything, I feel *more* involved with the characters if I'm allowed to interpret what they're thinking.
Time to read the manga, I guess. I do feel that in retrospect, maybe I've been too negative about the show overall. Illustrates the imporance of good endings, I suppose.
It was an amazing ride, and without question one of the most memorable anime in recent memory.