3S Review no. 78 (short, simple and salty/sweet/spicy)
Story, oh man, how do I go about this, you see, the premise, the setting of this show, is absolutely stupid beyond belief. There is no excuse, no matter how lenient you want to be, no matter how much you try, it is inexcusable. There are a million things you can say about why the whole marriage training the school does is stupid and wrong, socially, ethically, logically, practically, everything about it, and you couldn’t find a single thing to say to defend it. And here is the thing, with a different setting, the show could still work, theycould even be adults, co-workers, roommates, distant relatives living together, the same character dynamique would still work, but, that obviously that would be harder and take a lot more effort. So the whole setting is simply writing convenience and laziness of gigantic proportions. And that is one of the reasons I do not like romance shows in general, not because I do not like romance, but because romance is treated this way, like it has some way of privilege as a theme, that everything can be excused as long as the romantic relationships between the characters are fine. The show does have some ok moments storytelling wise but they are too far and between. Anyway, I could go on and on with my rant, but I’ll save my effort and your time for the more juicy part of the show.
Surprisingly enough, and contrary to what I’m used to from similar shows, the characters ain’t half bad. In fact the whole dynamique between them is quite clever. We have our protagonist, Jiro, he is not the typical guy that gets a harem for no reason, he is a kind guy that has a crush on his childhood friend Shiori, said friend appears to like him back, and that is reasonable, they grew up together and share a bunch of feelings for each other, he also has some feelings for the girl he is living together with, Akari, cause you know, they are living together, he is kind to her and she is kind to him, there is familiarity, spending time together, it is logical to develop some feelings even if you can’t quite put your finger on what it is. The main attraction of the show, Akari, develops some feelings for the kind guy who she lives together with, and that makes sense, even though she is convinced that she likes the beautiful and popular guy that lives together with Shiori. Shiori so far appears to be certain that he likes Jiro back. Now, the other guy, is simply the unknown factor, we do not have a clue if he likes Akari, if he likes Shiori, how they spend their time when living together or even if he has another girlfriend or even if he is gay and he doesn’t even give a rat’s ass for the rest of them, and that is what makes the story work so far. So, we only see Akari and Jiro living together but we never see the other two, and they do not know how the are doing either, this lack of information we share with the main duo is what make this interesting, and when the results of their scores come in, they can only imagine and speculate, for better or worse, cause you see if they have a good score, that means they might make it and swap partners, but that also means they are doing well as a couple, if they have a bad score things might not be going well with them, but they also might not have an incentive to do well and swap partners, it’s a lose lose situation. It is an interesting dynamique that makes for an interesting narrative and it reminds me of Kar-Wai Wong’s In the Mood for Love for some reason, even though that is a great movie and this is not a great show. Another thing I like about the show, usually people tend to empathize with the characters of similar shows and feel nice when they are stepping into their shoes, but you can not feel good in this case, they are in this weird, frustrating position, where when they try to move closer to what they want, they incidentally move closer to what they don’t want by finding consolation, then this comfort drives them further away from what they want, making it even more difficult to separate what they want from what they need, adding the aforementioned lack of information and the constant second guessing they have to do for everything, while they appear to do it for their own good, they handicap themselves by helping one another, it is not a good spot to be. Now, does that mean the characters are spectacular, well, no, for starters Akari didn’t really have to look that way, yeah I get it it is because she is drown in insecurity but there was a less obvious way to go about it, then again a way less obvious way wouldn’t be so convenient in terms of fan service. Also some of the writing laziness that contributed to the premise is also apparent in the characters as well, as some stuff do happen too fast and too conveniently, so while they do seem like real people when they are figuring stuff out about them and the others, there are times when they seem like puppets dancing on strings. The side characters are alright surprisingly enough, and they do make sense when they talk, even the guy who is the comedic relief of the show is not overused so he remains mildly funny. Now, all of the above that I said about the characters, take it with a grain of salt, cause a) I might be reading too much into it, I tend to do that b) I might seem harsh or critical but it do try my hardest to find something good to take out of anything I watch c) I might be projecting stuff from personal experiences d) the characters on this kind of shows are usually so terrible that it makes the ones in this one seem way better than they are e) I am slowly and steadily losing my mind f) all of the above.
Animation is not great of course, all the budget went into making Akari’s boobs as fluffy and as lewd as possible. Also the color palette is so… peculiar? Yes, peculiar, let’s leave it at that.
Sound is unnoticeable, voice acting is fine, ending is whatever but the opening is so corny that I liked it.
So, is it worth a watch? Well, if you can’t go beyond the mind numbingly stupid premise then certainly no, if you are a fan of these kind of shows then sure, you will gulp it right down, if you are like me and desperately trying to find some characters in a modern show that are something more than wallpapers then maybe, give it a try. That being said, everything I said could end up being moot, cause right now, I am watching this show moved by my curiosity about how the characters are gonna develop, I am intrigued by the possibilities and how it is gonna play out, cause it can go in a number of different ways, and some of these ways can be a total disaster.
End of season update: Well, just go ahead and say it, i am cursed aren't i? Like it's unreal, i am a god damn plague for the universe, everytime i open my god damn mouth about something, the fuckin stars have to align just to make fun of me. Like after i went and said all these stuff about the show, it just went and collapsed upon itself. Firstly the show managed to prove with its own two hands, that its icredibly stupid premise, was absolutely uneccessary by having almost half of the season play out away from the school setting. Instead it turned into the typical romance plot where everything is a convenient coincedence. A conveniencedence. Huehue. And honestly, i don't know what is better, the ridiculus inexcusable premise, or the typical shitty romance plot of everyone constantly running into each other. Then we have the characters, remember everything i've said about that nice dymanique, well fuck that, it crumbled like an overbaked cookie. It turned into a typical triangle, nevermind it hit us with a bunch of shitty immature inuendo. Fuck me after all, what the fuck do i know, it was good while it lasted i guess, if it was even intended to begin with. Now, that being said, at least it is not all that terrible, Akari did finally figured out what the fuck is going on in her head and decided to fight for what she wants like a proper human, and Shiori, Shiori, Shiori... Shiori hit the young fella with a line worthy of the gods, like, that line slapped him so hard in the face that i felt the wind from the god damn impact blowing on my beard. Like, i am so old... i' ve been through so much... i consider my self practically immune to what women can say or do to me, but that god damn line right there, i'd just let her destroy my life if she wanted. Aaaaanyway... the animation as weirdl as it is, and as unexpected as it may sound, just grew on me, so i am upping that a bit. And after bashing the road that the show took, cause it reached a peak with the festival and the kimono incident that it could never reach again and only detiorated after that, still i have to admit that the characters are far better than characters of similar shows, and if anything, they portray the modern young person in quite the accurate way, confused, insecure, indecisive, and overall even though i am not eluded to have watched this show, nor i will recommend it to someone who is not a fan of the genre, i still liked it more than i expected and that definitely says something about the show coming out from me.
Screenshots
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