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Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

lol, so have you actually tried watching it?

But yea, I always thought each show had a "2 fail male character limit". Typically this consists of one guy who is hilariously inept at communication, usually with the other gender and a clown for comic relief. This is pretty standard and all, but here I just wish to slap most of them.

While I agree that Jiromaru and Tohru are probably unlikeable characters for many, I'm not sure how they're "fail" characters. Seriously, one is an artsy version of Saito from Welcome to the NHK played for comedy, the other is a prick who seems to enjoy tormenting his schoolgirl coworkers. That's a long way from your usual "harem lead/epic fail sidekick" combination, and I actually like the two for what they bring to the show despite the fact they're the kind of people I wouldn't like much IRL.

It's not like the girls don't have major personality flaws too. Ohana? A bit naive (though less so than the norm for this character type). Nako? Lacks backbone. Minko? Anti-social. Tomoe? Gossips far too much to deal with the fact her life isn't like a steamy romance novel or soap opera.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Now, the ability to "suspend disbelief" will vary from viewer to viewer, and I respect that. If I myself could have maintained a suspension of disbelief for Episode 3, I probably would have been much less critical of it. But I couldn't. The Jiromaru attempted suicide scene took an episode that had already stretched my suspension of disbelief to the limit (Ohana's almost instantaneous Stockholm Syndrome didn't help there), and just threw it over a cliff, much like what Jiormaru did with himself. Unlike Jiromaru, though, my suspension of disbelief didn't live to tell the tale.

I never had an issue with Jiromaru's suicide attempt, I just assumed he's a bit messed up in the head. And remember, the Japanese often pretend mental problems (both theirs and those of others) don't exist due to social stigmas.

As for Ohana's "Stockholm Syndrome", I've actually revised my position a bit on that.

Spoiler for Cross posted from episode 3 thread:

I think I was the one who first suggested it might be a bit of Stockholm Syndrome, but to be honest I'm not sure that's the best explanation for why Ohana acts the way she does.

Instead, I think its a combination of curiousity and embarassament. Particularly the latter. She doesn't want to have to explain how she ended up tied up, so she's going to talk her way out of it. There's a number of factors I think feed into this decision, notably that many Japanese hate being the center of attention even if they're the victim, along with Ohana's somewhat naive nature and tendency to like to solve her problems herself. And while I don't think she was necessarily sympathetic to the novelist, I think she was genuinely curious about the novelist's story and thought this was the best way to get him to spill the beans.

Originally Posted by totoum

I personaly had to suspend my disbelief at the concept of a girl being sent to live to her grandma because her mom is running away with her boyfriend after he got into trouble with dept collectors and gave away the mom's adress.

Originally Posted by totoum

Again it definatly feels like we didn't watch the same first episode,I have the drama/comedy ration at 50/50 not 90/10

This is pretty much what I took from the early episodes too. Given the True Tears heritage, I expected - and still expect - many poignant moments. And we've already gotten some, usually involving Ko. But the upbeat trailer and the hammy premise told me it wasn't going to be serious all the time. In fact, I see "chaos" as a part of this show's character - this show throws a lot of stuff at Ohana, both dramatic and comedic, and its not necessarily going to trend one way or the other for long.