(CR) Seishun Buta Yarou Series

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by AP24

Movie will be out in Japan during summer 2019.

Hope it's a continuation. This so needs a continuation even if not an immediate one

[RDNexus]

As I said before, the movie will adapt the following arc from where the series stopped, Vol06&07.

[Liddo-kun]

Watched episode 8-12:

Obviously the right thing to do for Futaba to delete that account with lewd pics, who knows what kind of creep she could attract with such a thing. Fortunately, Sakuta was there to act as bodyguard.

Nodoka get's to live as her sister for a short time. Mai is amazing to be able to learn sing and dance in such a short time.

Good for Kaede, Mai is sucha nice person.. if Sakuta and Mai get married. Kaede can tag along with no problem.

Kaede so far, has one of the scarier puberty syndromes.. she gets wounded like a curse, faints, memory loss, and a bunch of other things. Amazing that Sakuta was able to handle such a situation, good thing Shouko was there for him.

[4th Dimension]

Originally Posted by Liddo-kun

Good for Kaede, Mai is sucha nice person.. if Sakuta and Mai get married. Kaede can tag along with no problem.

....

(broken laughter while shaking) ahahahahahahhaahhahahh

[Forsaken_Infinity]

This was my favorite this past season. Very refreshing to see reasonable, mature characters all around. Both the leads are genuinely good people with a stable head above their shoulders.

[Liddo-kun]

Watched episode 13:

I guess the issue here is Sakuta is sad because the "2 year old" Kaede died when her memories came back. Goodbye panda pyjama imouto.

Makinohara Shouko adult version comes to the house. The mystery about her become deeper. The fact that her short written letter can affect Mai, I stand by the belief that the adult Shouko is a real entity, and not just a figment of Sakuta's imagination.

Snow weather helped Sakuta get closer to Mai. I guess this is a good place to end season 1. Now, to wait for the movie.

[Liddo-kun]

Originally Posted by 4th Dimension

....

(broken laughter while shaking) ahahahahahahhaahhahahh

Mai will regret it when imouto starts writing brocon novels. Just kidding.

[4th Dimension]

Yup. His old sister is back, but his younger sister who he was even more emotional attached maybe is now gone. And in his view he was again powerless.
Hence his breakdown.
And Shouko apparently had crying in rain radar.

I'm thinking that she likely did not exist before Sakuta had his first breakdown. And I would not call her a figment of his imagination. She is pretty real, because as we have seen the Syndrome has no trouble spawning entire people as it needs.

But I might be wrong. But she certainly is a wierd one.

Novels: Given that Hiragana inherited teh library from kanji one, and that she probably educated herself using it... what is the chance that she got her brocon ideas from all the LNs with imoutos

Especially since she did not have the drive to not see her bro in sexual way since she didn't remmember him apart from these years they spent together.

[Ghostfriendly]

Originally Posted by 4th Dimension

Especially since she did not have the drive to not see her bro in sexual way since she didn't remember him apart from these years they spent together.

Don't think Kaede sees anyone in a sexual way, her imouto antics aren't quite appropriate, but seem innocent and chaste. If she had any ideas about sex with her brother the realism and humour of the show would go down the toilet, along with some other things.

[Chaos2Frozen]

I've just finished this season. Absolutely perfect. I've liken it to Bakemonogatari but more streamlined and lighter tone.

The relationship between Sakuta and Mai is pitch perfect and I'm really happy how she still remains involved in the plot despite not being the heroine of the arc. This is something a lot of series of this type suffers from, like the previously mentioned Bakemonogatari. I also like how they don't string the other girls around and try to have things both ways like alot of other shows. This really sells the honesty of the romance between the two main leads.

Thankfully the main pairing is also very likable so I'm never left wanting for another girl.

[Excalibur08]

Having finally crossed the finish line for Aobuta, and having entered with the concern that this series would take its quantum mechanics metaphor as discussions suggested it would, I was most relieved to learn that Aobuta fortunately did not go down this route, instead choosing to focus on the human aspects of each individual that Sakuta helps out. This is the heart of Aobuta, rather than any purported scientific or philosophical piece that is quite honestly, a waste of time to consider. Having said this, there are a few misconceptions that have arisen with regard to Aobuta in existing discussions that should be addressed so the misconceptions do not propagate into discussions surrounding the upcoming film. It seems I'm not the only one who thinks so, either.

So it seems that this syndrome isn't simply a loss of existence in the present but it also progresses retroactively in time. It is as if she never existed at all, except for a select few who can still retain knowledge and perception of her existence.

The problem comes out because you sort of have 2 discrete reality bubbles: The people who know Mai and know that she has a present and a past, and those who believe that no such person has ever existed. In episode 1 you could probably have reconciled this difference because you could have limited this discrepancy as a matter of perception only, and not existence as a whole. But with episode 2, you have 2 states where she "exists" and where she "doesn't exist."

This goes back to Futaba using Schroedinger's thought experiment to explain how this situation. The classical interpretation here would be that Mai prior to being observed is merely a probability between 2 or more states of existence. Schroedinger's cat of course challenged the notion that something could be both alive and dead, a blurring of existence so to speak. The problem is that now we have two sets of realities, Mai existing in the middle, and unable to define whether she is either one or both at the same time. The carrot in itself could probably be explained by considering Mai not just the cat but also the box, and the carrot is placed inside this isolated system and becomes subject to the rules of probabilities of existing. The carrot exists again because it was removed from this state of uncertainty.

The problem is that her existing and not existing isn't relegated between two individual realities, but in a single one. One explanation to counter the idea that matter exists as a superimposition of all possibilities is that multiple realities exist, each one accounting for every possible state, diverging at the point of observation. Everyone inhabits the same Japan, the group that sees her and the group that does not, so clearly that isn't the case in this scenario.

It's pretty clear that the only way to solve this is for Sakuta to push Mai's probability of existence towards "existing" rather than not, before she disappears entirely. Going back to the carrot, the method would be similar, that is to say that because the carrot was removed from the box of uncertainty it began to exist again.

Mai's predicament is the same. She needs to get out of this box of uncertainty in order to once again exist. The uncertainty of Adolescence.

This is a very creative and elegant way to personify that age of uncertainty a lot of us have clearly experienced. Personifying a mental and emotional uncertainty with the uncertainty of existing. It's so utterly fascinating.

Schröedinger’s Cat actually has no bearing on Mai’s situation whatsoever. At its core, this thought experiment is meant to show that a quantum, not macroscopic, system can exist in superposition until it is observed, after which the system takes one possible state. However, Mai’s existence is consistent to the viewers and to Sakuta: they are the intended perspective from which the system is observed. Since there is an observer, there is a single known state (i.e. Mai exists) – Schröedinger’s Cat therefore is not an adequate explanation for Mai’s situation, nor is it adequate to suggest that Sakuta’s goal was to push Mai towards having a greater probability of existing. Instead, Rio’s inclusion of Schröedinger’s Cat has one purpose: trying to draw an analogue between Mai’s shifting perceptions of herself and the uncertain states of quantum systems. Mai’s situation is to be approached from a human perspective; she begins fading from memory when she feels conflicted about her work, and the solution is Sakuta coming in to encourage her to keep going, knowing that he’s there to support her. Attempting to shoehorn Mai’s situation into a though experiment and then defining these terms strictly as outlined creates numerous inconsistencies that causes conversation to meander.

The next arc focuses on but[sic] kick girl and specifically mentions Laplace's Demon, which if we distill out all the physics jargon, boils down to an issue of fate and (pre)determinism. In the same way that Mai's story had to deal with the nature of perception and consciousness affecting her existence, I assume this issue of Adolescence Syndrome will try to tackle the issue of a girl trapped in a predetermined series of events that she cannot escape no matter what, maybe even beyond what we'd think would "logically" change her outcome from a specific cause. That is to say that her own free will or action changes nothing because she's on course to a predetermined outcome.

The episode more or less suggests that ponytail Futaba is the id, and regular glasses Futaba is the ego, and the arc deals with a physical splitting of the two. Given the ending of the episode you'd assume that id Futaba would be the one engaging in those risque behaviors and... self photography.

However it seems it's clearly not the case. Given that regular Futaba was found in the net cafe, it seems clearly that the version who actually posted those photos was not ponytail Futaba, which we would likely expect to be the culprit, but regular Futaba herself!

1. The net cafe would be the best place to anonymously produce and upload such content, as Kunimi's ever annoying GF says that this Futaba's secret account.
2. She had glasses with her.
3. Ponytail Futaba implies that regular Futaba lied to Sakuta to hide something.

It means that in reality, regular glasses Futaba might actually be the id, while ponytail Futaba might actually be the ego. This is something I wouldn't have expected given regular Futaba's usual stoic nature. I'm incredibly curious why this is the case in this arc, because if I'm correct in this assessment, it subverts the usual expectation of the id being the more open and emotional part of the psyche. It would also suggest that regular Futaba carries a lot of suppressed romantic and/or sexual desire within her.

Similarly, Laplace’s Demon, long known to be an inappropriate supposition (even if the state of every atom in a system is known at time t + 1, the state of the some systems at time t cannot be recreated because they are thermodynamically irreversible processes), is not particularly suited for anything as acting more than a loose analogy for Tomoe’s situation. Things like determinism don’t come into play, either: her story involves Tomoe being unable to accept a certain outcome and desires to keep rolling the die until a desirable outcome is reached. Tomoe’s arc thus involves regret and sees Sakuta help her move on from this regret. Finally, in Rio’s case, Freudian concepts of id and ego are similarly irrelevant. Besides the fact that id and ego have insufficient evidence to be credible concepts, they apply little to Rio, whose dual personas manifest because of an internal conflict. Again, a human solution, in Sakuta helping Rio’s two selves come to terms with one another, acts as the solution.

There is a recurring pattern in Aobuta: quantum mechanics and philosophy are the means, not the end, and it is ultimately the human solutions that count for something. This is especially evident with Rio: as she progresses through Aobuta, she begins explaining fewer concepts to Sakuta and merely gives him a book on introductory quantum mechanics, suggesting that she knows the limitations in her understanding of “Adolescence Syndrome” and therefore, leaves the rest to Sakuta. The series likewise begins to dispense with the quantum mechanics as it progresses. Overall, the so-called pseudo-scientific and psuedo-philosophical concepts in the series do not come into play as significantly as one would think, and while some have found these to be what made Aobuta enjoyable, I argue that attempts to draw parallels between real-world concepts and Sakuta’s encounters are ultimately unnecessary. In fact, by focusing so much on the minutiae, one’s experience is diminished – reading conversation about such also gives the incorrect impression that the series is driven by science and philosophy. Aobuta does not require any working knowledge of quantum theory or philosophy to be enjoyable, and a focus on these is actually counterproductive, since the series is about youth and how they sort out their problems, first and foremost.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Excalibur08

There is a recurring pattern in Aobuta: quantum mechanics and philosophy are the means, not the end, and it is ultimately the human solutions that count for something. This is especially evident with Rio: as she progresses through Aobuta, she begins explaining fewer concepts to Sakuta and merely gives him a book on introductory quantum mechanics, suggesting that she knows the limitations in her understanding of “Adolescence Syndrome” and therefore, leaves the rest to Sakuta. The series likewise begins to dispense with the quantum mechanics as it progresses. Overall, the so-called pseudo-scientific and psuedo-philosophical concepts in the series do not come into play as significantly as one would think, and while some have found these to be what made Aobuta enjoyable, I argue that attempts to draw parallels between real-world concepts and Sakuta’s encounters are ultimately unnecessary. In fact, by focusing so much on the minutiae, one’s experience is diminished – reading conversation about such also gives the incorrect impression that the series is driven by science and philosophy. Aobuta does not require any working knowledge of quantum theory or philosophy to be enjoyable, and a focus on these is actually counterproductive, since the series is about youth and how they sort out their problems, first and foremost.

I would question even whether what happens to them is not simply a plot device to convey their mental turmoil or not. You could see it as the Adolescence Syndrome being a mirror of the way the cast view the world and it would make little difference. Actually it would fit the theme better than it being an actual physics mystery and I doubt most audiences would see it as the latter (it's even called Adolescence Syndrome after all...)

[Infinite Zenith]

Looking through this thread, I won't name names, but there were definitely some who took the physics components in a literal sense and attempted to analyse them. I'm also in the camp that there was little to be gained by looking too closely at the phenomenon as having a scientific basis, and are curious as to what the justification for doing so might be.

[4th Dimension]

Yeah, the whole physics angle is just Rio trying to find a model that even VAGUELY fits the problem at hand, and in the novels she is pretty adamant that even though she is presenting all these theories, no way in hell can the Adolesence Syndrome be explained by science.

To me, it seems that the first case kinda instilled certain preconceptions that simply do not hold in later ones. Like the idea that it's all caused by collective preception of people by the society. Which I fail do see how it could be in the case of Siscon Idol.

IMHO, the Syndrome seems to have inflicted on it's victims precisely what they have wanted, even if they didn't even imagine the consequences.
And each of these cases is pretty much less about the Syndrome itself than as a useful viehicle to explore the troubles of the youth.
(note I have also read the translated parts of the novels, translation of which is now stalled in the Nodoka arc, so I don't really have any particular shocking book only revelations BUT some things have been given more details and at this point I can't figure out where have I learned of each thing)

Mai: With Mai she notes early on that at first she REALLY liked the effects of her syndrome in that she could go to places where she would be treated as just another nobody rather than THAT MAI SAKURAJIMA. So it's pretty obvious she wasn't the greatest fan of stardom. She likes her job, but not the bits where people point fingers at her. And the syndrome gave her the seemingly perfect solution for this... except that now as Sakuta puts it it's gotten to the point she can't even buy a bun at the train station.
And this is the only case really TBH that doesn't rely on slipping the "victim's" view point and fixing her issues to stop it, but more breaking the hold of it by forcing people to notice Mai. So this is also the only case where really the "atmosphere" figures into things.
The real focus of this case is the almost oppressive collective "atmosphere" that young suffer under since it seeks to make everyone conform and if anyone is even through no fault of their own bucking the trends such person will likely get ostracized. And we see this in multiple forms in this case. There is of course the idea that one shouldn't initiate anything with Mai since it would be akward, and so she is left alone. There is the whole bit with the rumors about how Sakura got his scars in which pretty much the entire school takes him as some violent individual and would not be caught dead hanging around with him and his best bro's GF will do anything to break them apart.

Koga: With Koga I'm not entirely sure. The focus of her case, that is the issues portrayed, are probably the problems faced with young needing to fit in and ardently conform with what others expect from them or else potentially face ostracization, kinda like what happened with Kaede TBH. Although I think the focus is more on how being HYPER about following the whims of the peers. But that's not really the focus of this arc I feel. And in a way the end message is that it's fine to be even this hyper about it IF you are happy with it. And Koga genuinely being part of the Queen Bee's circle and being the cool fashionable one, even though to do that she needs to devote all her waking moments to it.
In this case, I feel her Syndrome likely is the solution to her desperate need to find SOME WAY of avioding having to dump the sports guy and in her mind face loosing her hard won status. Hell it could even be her need to find a way to replace the sports guy with Sakuta as potential BF since she started being interested in him.
This is I think where the explanations some of the characters theorize in the show and some take as gospel start unraveling. Supposedly Koga is so sensitive to what people think and how their perceptions will change and so her Syndrome gave her the ability to predict the future and roll the dice untill she finds the right combination of events to get what she wants. Except we are given no real idea that she has ever done this before or since given how bevildered even she is about this. Also this kinda fails to account for why Sakuta of all people is not affected by her resets, or better say why would Sakuta be aware of predictions she did in her mind of how things might shake out.

Futaba: Yeah, as the article noted with her this really wasn't anything fancy like the intelectual vs. the carnal or like. Again with this case the writer seeks to explore another issue facing young, and in this case young females who are expiriencing their awakening into adulthood. Novels are much explicit on this, given that there is a pretty long section where Sakuta talks with a reporter about the toppic of girls posting revealing pictures online and why do they do it. Which is basically the toppic of this case.
In Rio's case she has always thought of herself as the unnoticeable shy silent nerd, except once she hit puberty and her body started changing males suddenly started paying attention to her. More disturbingly for her they started paying attention to her body rather than her. And this is something that started even before she started HS and met Kurumi. This all comes to head once she lacking the validation of her looks (she actively tries to hide) from the one boy she wants to be interested in her she starts seeking it from people online by posting pictures fro the thrill of it. This causes the divide between the Rio who is uncomfortable with the attention and fears change of status quo and the other side of her which seeks attention through her looks. And so the Syndrome splits them, and only do they come back together once they come to terms with one another.
One should note that there is really no point here where the "atmosphere" or anything of the sort could have logcaly intruded upon this. The actual mechanics of the Sndrome are kept vague because they aren't really the point other than things tend to settle once the key emotional problem is resolved.

Nodoka: The article mentions that Nodoka and Mai switched bodies, which is incorrect. They have VISIBLY and it's kinda obvious from the start changed themselves to look like the other. This case probably more than others shows how little any kind of atmosphere or any scientific thing is at play because this is a largely personal Syndrome case between two people and I don't think even Rio tries to provide an explanation.
This just seems to happen because both Mai and Nodoka craved what the other had (mother who loves her in case of the former and fame and ability in case of later I think) and so they got just that. They got to BE Mai or to be Nodoka, unfortunately for Nodoka this did not come with skills and expirience.

Kaede: With Kaede, her actual syndrome and issue was that it seems as a result of what was happening to her of how to her her life was imploding around her what with nobody seemingly liking her any more she DESPERATELY wanted to be someone else and forget this whole thing, and so Hiragana Kaede was born. Someone simple that didn't have Kaede-san's problems even though she exchanged them with another set of them. And like in other ones, as soon as she has resolved her hangups, and decided she wants to return to the society AND that her peers no longer blamed or wished her ill, the Syndrome ended and the Kaede-san was back.

Sakuta: His is rather simple, at least I think so. he felt INTENSE rage at himself for not being there or being able to help his sister. He was so angry at himself he wanted to hurt himself, and so he did, and this is also why the scar started bleedign again once Kaede-san returned, because he felt he failed her again.


And even though I have this elaborate theory on how it kinda works, I still say the actual mechanics are likely to remain a mystery and aren't really the point of this all. They are more used to hilight the issues rather than to be the subject at hand.

[Infinite Zenith]

Ultimately, I saw a show that was very enjoyable for the characters. What really gets my goat is why people think Freud is still relevant (especially in anime) when those particular models have been dismissed by the scholarly community for being incomplete, inadequate or inconclusive.

[4th Dimension]

Probably for two reasons.
A) they are simple to understand yet obscure enough so that people who like to feel all knowing tend to go for them
B) a LOT of writing was made on basis of it because A.

[Kadmos1]

If Aniplex USA does give this show an Eng. dub, who you see playing our lead boy/girl pair?

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kadmos1

If Aniplex USA does give this show an Eng. dub, who you see playing our lead boy/girl pair?

I've kinda been leading towards Billy Kametz as Sakuta, but I'm not sure who I see as Mai.

If there is going to be a dub, I think we'll probably learn at Anime Expo.

[Kadmos1]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I've kinda been leading towards Billy Kametz as Sakuta, but I'm not sure who I see as Mai.

If there is going to be a dub, I think we'll probably learn at Anime Expo.

If they got Billy Kametz as Sakuta and Erica Mendez to voice Mai, we would have a Naofumi/Raphtalia reunion of sorts. That would also be funny since the Japanese Mai is also Raphtalia.

[RDNexus]

Naofumi's japanese VA is also Sakuta's, so it'd be quite the international feat