[0utf0xZer0]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Reckoner earlier provided one good reason why some of us viewed it that way. Ohana was hit pretty hard by disappointment after meeting everybody at the Inn. She took Minchi's "Die!" comments pretty seriously, and she took everything kind of seriously, in my opinion. In my view, that gives everything a very serious and dramatic feel. I mean, Ohana is the main character, and so her reactions can and often will go a long way in determining how viewers will take what's shown on screen.

I never really saw the scene as serious, Ohana's narration of her first encounter with Minko kind of killed the possibility of that for me. It did kind of make me feel for Ohana and want to give an "Ohana fight-o!" kind of cheer though. This anime throws a lot at her - especially that first arc - but she's always struck me as plucky enough to deal with it. She did get pretty upset at the end of episode one but she's the "get mad, get even" type.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

You write that as though that's the only way Hana-Saku could possibly go. There's more than one way to set up drama later on.

Anohana's approach, for example, is much less "mosaic" in nature, and much more consistent and methodical, with every episode tying into the last and the one before it.

The same was also true of how Madoka Magica approached its drama.

It could have gone a different way (Kotomi's arc in Clannad is an excellent example of a story that combines poignant and comedic before taking a dramatic turn), but I feel that the mosaic approach fits nicely with the setting - working at an inn shouldn't be too predictable day to day. And it gives the show a nice "what will Ohana face next?!" quality.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I don't think that time allocation was the only issue. Angel Beats! kept switching back and forth, and then back and forth again, between its various elements. It started to lose a sense of identity through doing so, in my opinion.

Twenty six episodes would have allowed them to spread the changes in tone out.

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

But who know, PA showed their ability to pull pairing out from nowhere *coughangelbeatscough*. I won't be surprised if they just go out of logic to pull up some random romance

It may be PA Works, but Mari Okada is no Jun Maeda - she's generally pretty good about laying and following groundwork for things like romances. Thankfully, since I think that its only the music and Kana Hanazawa's voice that makes that scene work in Angel Beats - I could see it blowing up in the face of most directors who try something like that.