[Jmac]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Yup, that's pretty much my point too. Personally, I think "Good Writing (TM)" is overrated. Sometimes what moves us and causes us to think and feel the most are things that are "flawed", whether deliberately or otherwise. What's most important isn't whatever happens in the story, but its effect on each of us in the audience.

As an artist I'm gonna stay away from the writing aspect of the story and go into the production side more. And one of the main grips I've had with it is it seems to me that the quality of animation has been decreasing since the first episodes. Seems like more rushed and not polished off as much?

Plus have read the manga (only the first 4 chapters), I've noticed how rushed the story is: meaning some of the dialogues of characters and monologues have been cut or omitted that could've added more to the development of the characters. I'm an artist after all and I tend to nitpick at the finer details.

Lastly, the character development (surprise, surprise). I know the show geared towards male dominate audience and female characters sell the series. But c'mon! Development the guys for crying out loud! Yes, I know the girls are the star attractions and they have to be center stage, but did we forget they share the stage with two others. I just have this bitter taste that we have two characters that have been horribly underdevelopment, one thats MIA and the other playing Dr. Phil. Having a all around cast is key for me, because I can relate to the characters and can enjoy the story more.

With Aoki, for example, know nothing about the guy but that he loves Yui with his everything. But where does this utter devotion come from? I'm noy buying the 'love at first sight" excuse. There's gotta a better reason why she caught his fancy other than that.

Taichi is a 'selfless freak'. But why is he? Is really helping others is his really own purpose. Sorry, but not buying that either. There's no way someone can be selfless without being selfish either. We're all human and we all have selfish desires even if we don't express them. This arc will finally show what he's really hiding.

Yui, with the exception of ep. 3 as for the most part, like Aoki, been MIA. Whats her purpose in the story?

Spoiler for Inaba thougts:

Inaba and I'm prolly gonna get flamed to shreds for this, but oh well. I gave her the benefit of the doubt with her issues and wanting to help keep everyone together. But now with this arc shes back peddling and is now pushing everyone away. Kinda a hypocritical to me. After the last arc she should be more trusting in her friends, but when they get too close she tends to push them away. Always an arms distance away. Also her playing matchmaker set up a bunch of flags for me too. Reminded of Kyou trying to hook up Ryou with Tomoya while keeping her true feelings at bay. Not a good thing. She should heed her own advice and go with your desires.

Spoiler for Iori thoughts:

Iori, to me, is the most development character. We know why she is the way she is. She was worried about losing herself in the last arc, but in this arc she hoping to find her true self. I'm gonna be rooting her and hope she finds whats she looking for. And in way I respected her wishes to keep the status quo (Taichi got friendzoned); mainly because they won't have control over their actions and if the gimmick is trigger based, then alot of problems will arise because of it.

So those are my impressions of the series up to now. It's been very entertaining and forward to each new episode. But like most people I have gripes over certain aspects of the show.