O Maidens in Your Savage Season

[interregnum]

Spoiler: More discussion than is necessary...probably.

Or maybe he meant the music to obfuscate the moaning, but he wasn’t aware that it wasn’t working.

Also possible.

The more important point, I suppose, is that they made a decision that is either supposed to tell us something about him...or tells us something about them. It's why something that should be innocuous has resulted in this very discussion: it stands out.

Now, there's nothing to suggest that a guy can't crank his tunes while he cranks his crank, but it's not so intrinsic to the situation that people would have wondered why there wasn't music, had they not included it. Therefore, including music is a deliberate choice for a deliberate purpose. And, as of right now, at least, that purpose isn't at all clear--which is a bit of a bother, when the detail in question stands out so much.

I mean, to the same point: why did he have his feet up on his desk? I'm not saying a guy wouldn't jerk off like that--whether it be standard for him or merely a one-off whim--but it wouldn't be something to question if it weren't done, so...why do it this way?

Maybe it's important, maybe it's overthinking on the part of the show writers ("But why wouldn't he hear her?" "Oh, we'll have him play loud music!"), or maybe it's the manga author's homage to a real moment that happened to her as a teen, but it feels waaaaaaay too specific to just be about the general idea of walking in on him spending time with himself.

I think he was so mortified that he was in a state of resignation. What’s been seen...has been seen. I can’t think of a better solution than to make sure that no one else knows of the incident.

Still...I think it's telling that he seems to be blaming himself for it, rather than yelling at her. (Even though she waltzed into his house uninvited and flung open his bedroom door without knocking.)

My assumption is that he likes her, and so she can't be the bad guy--at least in terms of his reaction being to immediately worry about what she thinks of him.

 

[ZetsubouKaiji]

Spoiler: Indeed.

I was more concerned with how calmly he reacted to her intrusion. Specifically with whether I was supposed to note that as a display of his personality or merely a throwaway gag.

Spoiler

His lack of reaction was definitely shock on his part. He had no idea how to respond so he just tries to play it off, but then quickly realized that was dumb and awkwardly asked her not to tell before she ran off.

 

[frogily]

that's a pretty big b r u h moment. i probably laughed for a solid 5 minutes before returning back to anime

 

[interregnum]

Spoiler: 2

Well, that was stupid.

Spoiler: Slightly more details:

PICK...A...LANE.

The potential that dripped off of the first episode seems to have dissolved in the slapstick muck that tripped up its flow, last week. Because this was the followup I feared would happen, where the goofy dissonance of the unintentional double entendres that punctuated Ep. 1's "didn't knock" scene outright hogged the spotlight, forcing the scraps of complex seriousness into the wings to make friends with the stagehands.

The beats were there, of course, whether it was Glasses-senpai's misadventures in hymen security or Kazusa'a circuitous realization that she's in love with her friend or even Fading Beauty's unhealthy adherence to the teachings of her cynical older theatre pal, but they were encased in over-the-top gags, reducing last week's serious (if flawed) take on the flipside of the oft-employed "I'm hung up about my virginity!" story to the garnish on a dinner plate full of juvenile pussy jokes.

Is this a serious show with humor running throughout as the personal ridiculousnesses of its characters loom ever larger as they get deeper into their struggles? Or is this a goonish romp through a lewd joke book with an occasional dash of pathos? Because it can't be both. Not successfully.

I worried, last week, over the possibility that the deftly employed nuance of the girls' discomfort at the seemingly cloying ravenousness with which their classmates bloviated about sex could be undercut by a poor use of humor. And this week seems very much to have realized that possibility. It was really disappointing, and more than a little discouraging.

And, I hope, an instance of getting it all out at once.

Because I still think this premise is special. I still think Kazusa's trouble coming to terms with the whirlwind of feelings surrounding her relationship with Izumi is heartfelt. I still think Glasses-senpai's tug of war between frustration and shame in the face of her classmates is refreshingly genuine (and I want to say almost brave).

This is a subject I just don't see covered in quite this way basically anywhere else, and I really, really want to see it done well.

Fingers crossed for next week.

Spoiler: MISC.

• Kazusa's running to a "Yes, Mom, There is a Hard-On in Your Little Boy's Pants" book to figure out how to react to walking in on Izumi was INSPIRED. Genuinely funny--and, most importantly, an organic joke rather than a throwaway gag. It's the kind of detail that feels like it's pulled from experience (even if it isn't).
• Glasses-senpai's struggle to keep the fires of her moral superiority burning while at the same time weeping at that collective weight of her class ostracizing her for being out of step with the rest of them is exactly the right balance between hilarious and pitiable. And the "BRING ME MORE EUPHEMISMS!!!" contest she spins out of his mounting pressure was terrific, resulting in probably the best joke of the episode: "That's less." Again, another organic moment of comedy.
• Relatedly, I do hope that Gal-san's "Did you just break your hymen?" concerns weren't just a gag, and that her modicum of guilt/pity comes into play later on. (Potentially when she needs advice about the boy who's after her.)
• And, actually, I take the thing about the best joke back--because I just remembered Kazusa's "HIS MOM'S BUSY SO I HAVE TO PROTECT HIM!!!" excuse for wanting to stop Izumi from talking to the Ms. Cherry-Popper. And that was frikkin' hilarious. (Actually, that whole segment was very good, even if it did get a little goofier than it should have.)

 

[ZetsubouKaiji]

Episode 2:

Spoiler

This show is going to set some kind of record for people running off crying after an awkward or embarrassing event. Okada's melodrama actually seems to be fit the premise. The out sized emotions we attach to sex and sexuality especially at that age really are over the top when we're wrestling with it. Especially when it seems like everyone else knows more and is obsessed with it.

The show has done a decent job of weaving in the humor to show just how ridiculous most of these situations are. The jokes aren't clever and none have made me laugh out loud, but they do a serviceable job of breaking up the dramatic events while still adhering to the premise of the show. It helps to keep things awkward even when they're not painfully awkward.

I like Sugawara. She's got a steely resolve and is dedicated to helping her friends. She has some very rigid ideas from her days in theater and has over simplified people, but she does have a little more insight than the other girls. She's rough in the way she applies it. It was necessary to be rough with Kazusa though because backing her into that corner was the only way to get her that everything with Izumi bothers her so much because she likes him.

Kazusa is the most innocent of the group. She's the most pure hearted and really doesn't know anything. Her wanting to mom over Izumi says a lot about her personality. Being the mom means she doesn't have to deal with her own feelings. She's just trying to protect and understand Izumi. It divorces her from her own desires and puts her in a more "mature" position.

Rika's a mess. She wants that smug moral superiority, but it's only to mask her own desires which deeply shame her. Her obsession with finding a new word for sex is a symptom of her greater desire to cover everything lewd in a layer of propriety, but sometimes there's just nothing to be proper about.

Decent episode again. This show is on the cusp of doing something special, but it's not quite there. It's trying to be frank about teenage sexuality without the usual ecchi BS and tropes.

 

[knoxyal]

Ep2 Esu-e-batsu

It‘s funny how these girls are able to talk about esu-e-batsu so openly amongst themselves. Then again, why should esu-e-batsu be treated with aversion?

Spoiler

I‘m glad the two had the chance to talk about the incident from last episode. Kudos to MC‘s daddy.

 

[ZetsubouKaiji]

Episode 3:

All aboard the contrived situations to force melodramatic conversations where no one says what they mean and everyone ends up more confused train.

Spoiler

The gymnastics this episode has to go through to force a confrontation between Kazusa and Izumi are so unnatural that it undercuts the drama of that final conversation. The thing is I understand what the writing is trying to convey, but it's doing a poor job of making into an actual story with stakes I can care about. Suguwara's meddling with Izumi is about the only thing I buy about the situation. Izumi's mother sending Kazusa up to her son's room to retrieve dishes is the dumbest possible reason to have Kazusa alone in his room to find his poorly hidden porno disk. Then for absolutely no reason Kazusa steals the fuckin' porn instead of leaving it there, then she decides the best thing to do is to break into Izumi's house to put it back. Even for a naive teenager this series of events is fucking lunacy.

Of course it's all in service of that final scene. Kazusa makes excuses to herself that Izumi's sexual desire hasn't changed him that much because she still wants him to be the same boy she's been friends with for ages. Izumi is caught in a humiliating situation and per his conversation with Suguwara he realizes all of this is hurting Kazusa even as it's humiliating him. He's trying to be sensitive and saying what he thinks Kazusa wants to hear, but he's just making the situation worse because even Kazusa can't be honest with herself about her attraction to Izumi. She can reconcile her childhood friendship with physical or romantic attraction.

Whew, that's a complicated tangle of ideas and worthy subject matter that no anime I've seen has tackled with this level of honesty, which is why it sucks that it's so dishonest in how it's getting there. There's is good ground to cover here, but this anime is having trouble finding it.

Then there's the other plot of the episode which is even dumber and more contrived. A bunch of adults decide to ridicule a teenage girl for not being good at writing sex scenes so that teenage girl decides to fuck the guy she's been having cybersex with, but that guy turns out to be her teacher. Oh and that girl can then blackmail that teacher into becoming the adviser for the literature club, because without the club this group of girls would have zero reason to associate with each other.

What I'm saying is that second plot is even dumber and more contrived than the first one and doesn't even have the meager excuse of dumb teenage hormones makes kids retarded.

 

[AustinDR]

Honestly, yeah, I can agree. The contrivances are kind of killing the believability here.

 

[interregnum]

First off...

All aboard the contrived situations to force melodramatic conversations where no one says what they mean and everyone ends up more confused train.

But ultimately--yes. I disagree on a few details in your overall assessment, but, ultimately, exactly yes.

Spoiler: 3

PICK...A...LANE.

Ah, last week's @interregnum, how right you were.

Thing of it is, as ZK has rightly pointed out, there's A LOT of good stuff, in this week's episode (particularly the final scene), but it's squeezed in between "slice-of-life club hijinks!" that belong in a different series. Or maybe the "good stuff" I'm talking about is what belongs in a different series. But, one way or another, we've got two kinds of story ideas, here--and they are COMPETING with each other, not complementing each other.

While Kazusa's desperate struggle to understand and accept her relationship with Izumi opens the door for a deeply serious examination of the hesitation and fear that grips the "good kids" in the face of all aspects of teenage lust, Erotica-chan's aborted "irl" meet-up with Milo-sensei and the club adviser blackmail that arises from it are the premise to a zany "OMG!!!"-centric romcom, with Glasses-senpai's neurotic dance between the shoulder-angel and shoulder-devil of her self-perception vaguely straddling the two as an absurd romp built on a foundation of absolute earnestness--and all of them exist in isolation. (To say nothing of Fading Beauty's increasingly non-role as plot instigator and Pointless Friend's continued non-role as not-a-character.)

That the myriad characters each have their own little slices of disconnected yet thematically linked stories is fine, but the thematic link is so tenuous as to be all but perfunctory, as exemplified by the very existence of their utterly ridiculous literature club, which is as obvious a contrivance (in this case, to explain why they associate with each other) as "go get the ketchup!" or "I'M GOING TO DIE."

It's all rather a mess. And yet...I know I'll be back next week. Not because the show has earned my attention, and not even because I want so badly to see this premise given life. No, I'll be back because, in spite of itself, the good of this week has numbed me to the bad that surrounded it and sparked that faint glimmer of hope that the above list of sins were merely growing pains.

That won't be the case, of course, but...still, I'll be back. And we'll see just how frayed the thread my attention hangs by actually is.

Spoiler: SIDEBAR

In that early scene in which Glasses-senpai and Erotica-chan are in the bookstore and Glasses-senpai is ogling that teen magazine (that she later treats as shameful and pornographic for murky character-driven reasons), you can make out two real-world book covers. One is the ubiquitous/iconic cover of The Great Gatsby, the title of which is easy to make out. The other is illegible, a blur of black and white shapes and a red box with lettering. But, as fortune may have it, I actually know EXACTLY what book it is--because it is a key part of my real-life canon that I spent maaaaaany a day with, in college:

Spoiler

No, really: you've no idea how uproariously my 18-year-old self is laughing at this.

 

[AustinDR]

I'm tuning in next week mostly because I love cringe comedy.

 

[knoxyal]

Ep3.
That logic :0

Spoiler

Izumi likes hot stuff. Izumi likes trains. That‘s why he chose the dvd.

^that‘s a cute train of thought.

I just can‘t get enough of Kazusa and her innocent mind. It‘d be interesting to see how her thoughts about esu-e-batsu would change in the following episodes.

But there’s so much else going on in the story, as it appears the other girls will be given as much attention in the episodes to come. I do hope the show stays focused on Kazusa’s development though, because that‘s what I really enjoy about this show (also the comedy which I think is done quite well).

Moving back to my thoughts on the comedy in the 1st episode:
^I can’t believe I missed the train reference in the first episode. The train song Izumi was playing in his room and the train porn vid he was watching. Lols.

 

[interregnum]

I'm tuning in next week mostly because I love cringe comedy.

I hate cringe comedy...but I don't think I've found a single thing in the series cringe-inducing, thus far. Which is odd, considering how frequently everyone else has mentioned it being cringe-y.

What has happened in my life to make me immune to even noticing cringe???

Spoiler

But there’s so much else going on in the story

Yes! Thank you for distilling the thought I somehow had failed to articulate--even to myself--previously: there's just A LOT going on, isn't there. And in different directions.

Which is a terrific instinct, but the need to have them all be clustered into the club as a stand-in for cohesiveness really screws it up. Because it's the club part that's most prominently getting in the way, because it's not serving any emotional purpose, just contriving a way for the storylines to originate from a single source...when there's no particular reason why it needs to.

Because I cannot think of a single reason why they can't just be friends. Or why their club--if it must be how they find themselves grouped together as friends--has to expressly be about reading highly suggestive literature out loud.

Take a cue from Miru Tights, show: pull the story from the characters. Because characters can have several personal stories happening all at the same time--which means they can and will overlap with or convene with the stories of others.

I do hope the show stays focused on Kazusa’s development

I think, in a...well, in a better story, it would. We start with her, and her struggle is both the easiest to understand and the most immediate. (Also, I think she's very likable, and therefore easier to want to follow.)

The train song Izumi was playing in his room and the train porn vid he was watching.

Um, it's bus molester porn. Because he loves trains too much to sully them with such filth, and definitely not because there's just a lot more of it than train molester porn.

Also: they are singing about trains, aren't they! Great catch! Do you know the song, or is your hearing just that good?

I can’t believe I missed the train reference in the first episode.

You mean the one she panickedly believes "isn't going to fit"? (Which, in hindsight, is a really clever use of an un-clever metaphor.)

Or the room full of train posters and sundry paraphernalia that, given everything else happening in that frame, should be the last thing you'd notice?

 

[knoxyal]

I hate cringe comedy.

I felt this way watching watamote. I felt like the jokes in that show were offensive, but somehow I don’t feel the same way about Araburu.

Spoiler

the need to have them all be clustered into the club as a stand-in for cohesiveness really screws it up. Because it's the club part that's most prominently getting in the way, because it's not serving any emotional purpose, just contriving a way for the storylines to originate from a single source...when there's no particular reason why it needs to.

No, it doesn’t have to be their club activities that put their story together. But it happens to be the club activities serving this role because what sparked their collective interest in esu-e-batsu was the sexual themes addressed in the literature they were reading. Their choice of literature, those with explicit sexual depictions, appears to be done to create tension between the club members and the teachers/classmates.

Of course, this is all part of the contrived setting. Anything could’ve triggered their interest in sex. Anything could’ve caused the tension between the club members and their classmates. But if there’s one thing the club activity setting (the read-aloud-sexual-depictions activity) contributes to the story, it‘s that it adds more cringe elements to the story.

Um, it's bus molester porn. Because he loves trains too much to sully them with such filth, and definitely not because there's just a lot more of it than train molester

I must’ve been confused by all that train reference.

Also: they are singing about trains, aren't they! Great catch! Do you know the song, or is your hearing just that good?

I heard it, but I didn’t notice its significance because of the hilarity of the situation. Rewatching the scene helped me clear things up a bit.

You mean the one she panickedly believes "isn't going to fit"? (Which, in hindsight, is a really clever use of an un-clever metaphor.)

I noticed this one. It was funny.

Or the room full of train posters and sundry paraphernalia that, given everything else happening in that frame, should be the last thing you'd notice?

Train references everywhere...some of which I failed to notice due to what was happening in the room.

 

[ZetsubouKaiji]

Cringe comedy doesn't have to be and isn't usually offensive. It just makes you cringe in second hand embarrassment/discomfort at the situation. Watamote was brilliant at it even if it eventually became too one note.

Spoiler

With the story I think there's simultaneously a lot going on and not all that much. The Kazusa/Izumi plot could take up the entire show and the show might actually be better for it because it should be the focus with the lit club members just being side characters. The Kazusa/Izumi stuff needs to unfold at a slower more natural pace to get the full effect of the complex and conflicting tangle of emotions going on there.

Rika's the only other lit club member with something semi-interesting going on in her own story. Her struggles with her attraction and pride induced repulsion from sexual topics isn't particularly unique, but it's being done better here because while it does make her come across as having a chip on her shoulder, there's a real vulnerability to the character that makes her at least a little sympathetic.

Sugawara has nothing going on and is just meddling and Hongou is the source of the worst parts of each episode. Her trying to become a writer but being rejected because she can't write sex scenes is just eye roll worthy. It sounds like the plot for some bad light novel titled I'm a Literary Prodigy, but I'm too Innocent to Write Erotic Scenes!!" Using it force a teacher to keep the lit club around just makes me sigh even a couple of days later.

 

[interregnum]

I'm a Literary Prodigy, but I'm too Innocent to Write Erotic Scenes!!

I'd so watch that series.

Spoiler: Is the titular "O" supposed to be a pun, d'ya think?

Using it force a teacher to keep the lit club around just makes me sigh even a couple of days later.

It deeply cheapens that plot thread--regardless of whether or not the premise of their interweb trysting appeals to you.

Because the end result is a gag: "Ha-ha, I bullied this teacher into being our adviser! It's sooo funny!" And I know it hasn't had a chance to go anywhere, yet, but there's no immediate indication (and I think there needs to have been one) that she has any ulterior motive to pursue him via this forced everyday contact. It's just the wacky way the club's issue gets resolved.

Of course, I have to assume she must want him for something else, whether it's romantic/"romantic" or pragmatic (i.e. writing advice), but her scowl is just her goddamn face. I'm not reading her hopes and dreams, here. Is she masking her sexual desires in her pursuit of decent erotica? Or was she really looking to have sex just because her writing seemed to depend on it? (And, while I'm at it, what's Milo-sensei feel about this whole thing? Had he developed feelings for [Online]Erotica-chan? Was he just interested in hooking up? Is he conflicted now because he's ashamed? Because she's a student? Because she's a teenager? Is he disappointed? Simply bothered? Afraid of losing his job?)

As I said before, it's the premise for another show. (A less innocent After the Rain.) But, even here, I think it's an interesting line to pursue, and it would give us three pretty distinct approaches to roughly the same internal struggle (Kazusa/Glasses-senpai/Erotica-chan)--plus both Izumi and Milo-sensei for some bonus exploration.

I just...don't know why it's such a mess. I know the manga is at my local bookstore, so it might be worth a look to see if this is a problem inherent to the structure of the source material. If that's the case, I'm going to add this to the list of shows that needed to be smarter about their adaptations.

That said...I think the author is pretty big time, so maybe that was never an option.

I think there's simultaneously a lot going on and not all that much.

Absolutely. There's a weirdly large amount of structural analysis to be had, even just with these first three episodes, in that regard.

And I'm going to again contrast this with Miru Tights, where nothing is happening and EVERYTHING is going on. Throw those two up side by side, and you've got a couple of writing classes worth of discussion.

 

[Teophan]

Ep 2

Has that DVD been made into a real show yet? Asking for a friend....................

 

[interregnum]

Has that DVD been made into a real show yet? Asking for a friend....................

1. It's a blu-Ray.

2. ...we talkin' about the box or the disc?

 

[Teophan]

1. It's a blu-Ray.

2. ...we talkin' about the box or the disc?

My friend wanted to know about the disc.........lol

But that box name alone is worth a watch.

 

[interregnum]

My friend wanted to know about the disc.........lol

Ahhh--gotcha.

Also, technically no.

...but also basically yes.

 

[tootalls]

EP 4

Spoiler

There are multiple storylines going on, the least interesting to me is the flagship story between cover girl and "it's actually a blu-ray" boy. everything about that pairing feels like forced drama, everything is getting covered there from being legit dumb to playing dumb to convenient misunderstandings, and straight up talking like retards to foster those unrealistic understandings. Shame on cover girl for so quickly assuming the blonde is trying to jump dudes bones, I feel sorry for the blonde, she just listed her as one of the only two best friends she's had in her life, and that best friend thinks she's a slut who will just go after a guy AFTER they JUST established she was into that guy. Shows the close perception of their relationship as friends is one sided.

Warning, next topic is a lot of dirty talk............fit for this show's theme I guess.

Next, the most interesting storyline going on, Hongou and the teacher. I want some other interpretations on what actually happened this episode because by the end of it I wasn't sure. Now my first reaction to her jumping on the guy's dick and then running could and complaining about throbbing while patting the pussy was........"of course his dick throbbed, you fucking jumped on it". But with full context of everything else, I guessing it wasn't the dick that throbbed, but her pussy? *says it throbbed, pats pussy (I was initially thinking she did that because she felt some dick around that area. but perhaps she was just sort of indicating what was throbbing *she says a line about how sensitive her inner thigh (pussy) is............cause it throbbed *says she now understands what it means to be aroused (pussy was ready for some dick).....yeah I think in writing I convinced myself........so ok Mr. "I have no appetite for highschool girls" you dodged a bullet. If is dick would be so quick to jump for a HS girl, that would have been some swift ass calling of bullshit on what he said earlier. End result She's now convinced her writing will improved by getting laid, and as I suspected from the last episode, Sensei will remain her one and only choice to test that theory. Really looking forward to how that pairing plays out.

nothing to say about glasses girl........that one is........just there...well the popular girl trying to befriend her....that angle is a bit interesting. lastly I wanna say I'm getting some serious yuri vibes from Momoko, and she's most likely into the cover girl. twice this episode she made specifications about relationships between boys and girls, as something distant from her scope. Saying "I've never fallen in love with a boy" Makes me wonder............since you specified boy..........what about girls? So no, I don't see her pledge to fall for the boy who's already into her happening. It's a sexualized show, there is certainly room for it to explore same sex desires. As for Momokko, I think she might be in the fitting in stage, trying to force heterosexual desires so she isn't seen as strange.............time will tell.