[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

I still don't understand why some people can't accept this anime for what it is (female-oriented fanservice show) and judge it on that basis instead of whatever else they were expecting (for some weird reason).

I know what I was getting into and it's still pretty mediocre. Just like that Fate/Ilya magical girl spinoff is exactly what it is advertised (shameless loliservice) doesn't automatically give it pass as being good, neither should this.

1) This is a sports anime as much as Sengoku Otome is a historical anime.

Then make its non-sport elements interesting then and not so one dimensional. Tari Tari from last season wasn't a really a music anime but its characters and drama were far more emphatical, charming and heartwarming. The same can be said to series like Kids on the Slope and Natsuiro Kiseki despite their problems.

2) This anime is not supposed to be about the female characters. (Also, if you're going to use a word at least know what it means and how to spell it.)

Then make the male characters interesting. So far, the male characters have as much depth as the female characters did in K-on.

3) Anime is in fact a business and KyoAni wants to make money.

Making money is fine, but the style of series they do is getting really old. Give it some depth and effort like Hyouka and I have zero problems. Or do a completely different genre. It's why I was extremely pleased when Kyoukai no Kanata was announced.

Originally Posted by Blonto

While you are undeniably right with your other criticisms, you seem to contradict yourself here. The show is pretty pressured to focus on swimming, since that's the only way to get maaanservice and it features swimming once or twice per episode. The rest is typical highschool antics, since that's like air to Kyoani.

I don't see how fanservice during swimming negates the fact that there's swimming going on. You might not register it as swimming relevant to your interests, but the swimming itself actually isn't fanservicey, considering you can't see much from all the bubbles and water. It's the preparations and the aftermath that produce the most fanservice.

I don't hate swimming at all, and considering I live in Australia which has a very swimming heavy culture it would be weird to do so. But that is irrelevant so you're beating up a strawman here.

I don't necessarily have a problem with it not being an anime about swimming. Tons of sports, games or music animes are like that and very few focus exclusively and substantially on their subject matter. It has about as much swimming as K-on had music or Natsuiro Kiseki was about idols. But that's not necessarily the problem. The problem is like you said the "highschool antics" and what happens elsewhere. It's just... very tiresome, old and unfunny. So if it's not really a sports anime and if it is mediocre as a character-driven narrative, then I only have the visuals and audio and the occassional "Wow" moment (even Tamako Market had a few of these). I'm not sure if that passes as being a good series.

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I also don't recall calling this the worst series of the season or flatout terrible so I'm not sure where the exaggerated hostilities are coming from.