Quote:
Originally Posted by Reckoner
But it didn't really fully develop the guys
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I wonder about this. It's true they didn't get as much attention as the girls, but I don't completely buy they weren't developed properly. I think that after Wakana's arc everyone sort of expected the guys to have dramatic backstories and the like as well, but I think that expectation was sort of misplaced considering only Wakana was hinted to have serious issues from the start.
Take Wien for example. He had two episodes (9 and 10) dedicated to him, but his backstory was pretty simple and easily resolved. Does that mean he wasn't properly developed? No, he was just a simple guy with a simple backstory.
If you think about it, even Konatsu, who had a lot more screen time than the guys, ended up being quite a simple person. Why did she wanted to sing so much, for instance? We never really got a deeper reason on that beside the series' running theme of friendship, and it didn't matter in the end. She just wanted to sing, as simple as that.
Then there was Taichi. We learned that he started playing badminton because he admired his sister. The series didn't went more in depth on this,
because there wasn't anything else to explore. He just admired his sister, that's all.
When you think about it, putting aside screen time, pretty much only Wakana had deeper reasons and motivations for what she was doing. Does that mean she was the only character that was properly developed? No. It just meant she was surrounded by people with simpler backgrounds. There's nothing wrong about that. Simple characters can be pretty interesting too, as long as the story manages to make them work properly.
I enjoyed every character in this series, and I got attached to them a lot, but maybe that's because I never expected everyone to be like Wakana. So I'm satisfied with what I got. I'm satisfied with Taichi's drive to keep playing badminton and his crush on Sawa; with Wien innocence and strong sense of justice; with Sawa's relentless passion towards her dreams. I didn't expect more from them so I wasn't disappointed.
Just my two cents.