Quote:
Originally Posted by G. Zeus
In my opinion, ARIA/AQUA has much potential but this potential is being wasted. Every story is neatly wrapped up, every question has an answer (even if they may be tentative at times), every chapter has an insight provided by the characters, all faces must be smiling again by the time you turn to the last page.
In short, Akari's presence makes the story too f***ing didactic.
Rather than providing a situation from which one can draw several possible insights, Akari provides the insight itself. Besides this, sharing and explicitly explaining an insight when it could be done by other more subtle means is just as bad if not even worse than analyzing humor. While it allows others to have a greater understanding of the insight, it's nowhere as rewarding as realizing it on your own. |
Well, it may very well be didactic. Every episode revolves around the "moral of the story", which is explained clearly at the end. Every episode essentially strikes the same emotional chord, time after time. And I agree; they don't really leave much room for interpretation. But, considering the show and its impact on me as a viewer, I find myself wondering... "so what?"
Clearly appealing to widely-accepted qualities like friendship, kindness, and so on, provides common ground through which all viewers can relate to the show on the same level. This further emphasizes the show's primary message, which revolves around the "quintessential human experience" that transcends time, space, circumstance, and the individual human heart. In other words, didactic moral-driven stories (as with all fables and parables) provide the framework for a universally-shared understanding and appreciation of the principle being conveyed. Even if it doesn't leave room for interpretation, it strikes a chord that resonates with our sentimentality and human nature, and I think that's really what the show's about.
Your complaint seems essentially to be that the show lacks subtlety and is too clean/straight/simple; it's missing potential because it insists on spelling everything out, and always offering a resolution. But, personally, I don't think I'd change a thing in that regard. If the writers feel they need to so bluntly brandish such basic human qualities in front of us so we can see, once again, what's
really important in life, it's probably because we could all use the reminder. I find that reminder, and that appeal to my sentimentality, to be a reward all its own.