Kageki Shoujo!!

Ep 2 - I'm so glad we got more of Sarasa this week bc I adore that bubbleheaded girl.

I hope they don't tease the stalker thing with Ai much longer, but if they had to keep it going for a bit, at least we got more of Sarasa in the meantime. I'm intensely interested in how as a kid she wanted to play Sukeroku but couldn't because women can't be kabuki actors, so instead she went the completely opposite direction to go play male characters (insofar as Lady Oscar is kinda outside the boundaries of gender even if not actually a man, anyway) in an area of theatre that only allows women. I just find all that interesting and so her motives for wanting to be in not-Takarazuka are so different from everyone else's.

And I love backstage stuff, I wish they could just do that all the time. Show me all the costume shops! Show me all the scene shops!

Also the ed song sounded oddly familiar, like something I should know but I don't, and it's gonna niggle at me forever because I'm sure it's either a very obvious reference or it sounds like something that another show would reference, if that makes sense.
 
Episode 2
Interesting.
I honestly was not impressed with the whole "senior senpai" stuff, a system which essentially gives a elder student power over you is never worth having, big friendly giant's (who is apparently only about 5'10... oddly) "mentor" had it in for her from the start and clearly planned to make her life hell. Heck the show even quotes "They can make your life heaven or hell", like c'mon, how is this a good system? Especially as most who suffer to someone will either drop out or inflict the suffering on the 1st year they essentially are left guiding. Thankfully the girl in charge of the giant was actually pretty good once she realised what she was doing was bullying, part of me wanted her to be caught but seeing her help out made me get hope she would maybe realise she has the wrong attitude and that her senior was just a bad person. Fingers crossed she doesn't go back to bully mode, though i am curious of the repercussions if you are caught out bullying them, she seemed pretty concerned about people hearing her cry.

All's well that ends well i guess.
I still think the system is dumb though.

The stage tour was pretty cool, whilst it didn't really go into much, i appreciate the thought, if your at a performing school, it's pretty good to have knowledge of the "going on" behind the stage, to let you truly appreciate the effort beyond your performance, set pieces for example require time and effort, as much as costumes and such.

All in all, a decent episode, Just hoping the stalker story doesn't make me roll my eyes, they have baited it twice now and i just don't feel it fitting in, though likely i still think it will bridge the gap between the friendly giant and blue-haired bitch.
daisicles said:
I hope they don't tease the stalker thing with Ai much longer
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I think getting it over with next episode should work, if they bait it further, it will be pretty annoying as a bait.
 
Episode 2.
178 CM? That's only like 5 foot 8. With everyone treating her like Robert Wadlow, I assumed she must be 6 foot at least. But she's only 3 inches above average height.

Also, that one chick is a bitch.
 
randomredneck said:
Episode 2.
178 CM? That's only like 5 foot 8. With everyone treating her like Robert Wadlow, I assumed she must be 6 foot at least. But she's only 3 inches above average height.

Also, that one chick is a bitch.
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178 cm is 5'10", which even in the US is substantially taller than average for a woman, but apparently the average height for Japanese women is ~159 cm or around 5'2". Couple that with the desire to have particular height dynamics for roles that would be reflected in who gets accepted in to train and how far they deviate from a particular ideal, and Sarasa surely is a giant compared to the others. A bubbleheaded giant.
 
I hate her, and I love her.
Don't ask me why.
It's the way I feel--that's all--and it hurts.
-Catullus 85​

Apparently there's, like, 900 translations of this poem, and this is probably the least literal, but it's the one I saw first and which spoke so vividly to my soul upon first reading it. And so it is the translation I use.

And, specifically, use here to relay my utter ambiguity with this show.

There's so much I just don't care about, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that some of the character stuff between the girls perked my attention quite a bit. (That "...wake up" gag was gold.) I don't know that I particularly like any of them, despite thinking a couple of them are quite interesting, but I'm not sure I need to like them as individuals to enjoy seeing them interact. Assuming their interactions aren't going to be solely petty jockeying for prestige.

THAT SAID...Tall Girl can f*** off with her absolute lack of self-awareness. I don't find it even remotely endearing.

So, I'm tagging out.
 
Episode 3
Why... why does all trauma stories from the past have to be a little girl being harassed, molested or worse by their mothers boyfriend? Equally, why does every one of such stories always end with the mother not believing their child, not listening to their child (or taking them serious) or blaming their child (for their partner being a paedophile?).
Okay i get it, it is a effective story, it does it's job and its pretty hard not to get a reaction out of people, because we all feel the same, grossed out, uncomfortable and of course, disdain for the penetrative as we combine in the feeling of hate... so yeah i guess it makes you understand the girls reactions and her hate towards men. I wont question that element, the story works but... is there not another story they could of told? I hate seeing this same one, yes it makes me angry at the guy but it just isn't something i wanna watch now. I don't think its weak minded, i wont deny this stuff happens but man, it's just the same everytime as well. Why can't the parent listen for once, side with their kid or whatever? I know i saw a series where this did happen but its few and far between.

#CreepyGuyRantOver

I call it right now that creepy stalker isn't A bad guy. It's so clear its gonna be that he meant no harm and wanted to apologise for what resulted in her losing her job... which the sentiment is nice is they go this path but its really baity for me, like, the spend 3 episodes putting this creepy guy in for short scenes at the end, his creepy grin and weird obsession to the point he tracks her down, just to say sorry? Nah. Equally, he wouldn't try to find her and wait in a spot all day just to say "sorry", that is stalking, nothing else or less.

I might be wrong there of course, just me guessing with his creepy gestures and he generally didn't feel harmful, that and the way the cut the ending was obvious they wanted to have a conversation follow, but there is no cliff hanger in him turning out to be a normal fan who feels bad, right? Though even if this is true, his walk at the end looked like he was a zombie or something.

The teacher was way out of order, i get this is a prestiges academy for... errr dancing or whatever they do, but to out right call her fat "A little? More like A LOT", i mean, okay i laughed at her audacity and nerve but wow, that was overkill. Even for a school like this, you surely can't get away with that, right?

Also i get this stalker story is a setup to make Ai accept big friendly giant but, man is she unsociable. She hates all men (fair enough) and wants nothing to do with them, even passing them annoys her but she doesn't even give women the time of day and makes her remarks of not needing friends. I found it funny as she went down them stairs after her whole spiel about not needing friends (speaking to and about the girls) to transitioning her speech to "wanting nothing to do with men"... you just made this about women and ended it on men? Didn't really make sense.
I wanted to believe this was a subbing error but i don't really believe it is.

Errr yeah, that was that i guess.

I actually did like the child scenes (minus the paedophile), seeing how her mind worked so young was interesting. Like them kids in class, her comeback wasn't special but for a child, she handled that like a pro and made them look childish... errr even more so (They are children i guess).
/

Nekus said:
that was definitely not what I expected from episode 3
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As for my summary, this. I honestly didn't expect this, not this week anyway, it certainly wasn't what i had in mind for this week.
One bonus, I did enjoy how big giant girl was less accepting to befriending Ai after her speech about not needing friends. It shows she isn't just all friendly open arms, she clearly wasn't happy about this when the male guy said to be her friend, I think her points stand too, If she wont even try as room-mates, what hope is there of becoming friends. I know its petty but i would be thinking twice before befriending her now, if you have to save her before she will even consider you on her level.
 
Episode 3.
What the fuck, man. This is not what I signed up for.
I thought this was just some chill show about ballet, and then they left turn me with pedophilia and body shaming.
Goddamn...
 
Ah fuck man. Finally a seasonal that I seem interested in but
I felt sick. It's such a real portrayal of (well, my experience) after being sexually assaulted. I actually cried. Ai did nothing wrong and I think she's perfect :)
 
I'll give them points for handling serious topics without trying to cover them up with comedy, but reading previous comments makes me think they could've done better.
While it's true that sexual assault does happen, it's really awful to show it without a trigger warning. And also, was it really necessary to show it that way? Do we need another assault narrative? I'm really hoping we get an arc where Ai finally tells someone and is believed and finally starts to find peace. We're only 3 episodes in, so there's some hope. I don't think Ai actually hates men, and you can tell from the way she sees them and how she still trusts her uncle. It's the same way a lot of women say "I hate men" -- what they're usually saying is that they hate the power imbalance, they hate the fact that society is built around men being able to control and abuse women without consequence, and specifically in Ai's case, the fact that men can look at her like an object and feel zero shame about it. She's been looked at as a sexual object since she was a child. On top of that, women will often tear each other down, so it's unsurprising that Ai also has an issue with trusting women if the only women she's known were quick to focus exclusively on her looks and then equally quick (like her mother) to dismiss her assault. I think the show does a good job showing how casual sexism is so ingrained that even children will perpetuate it without fully understanding why.

Also, the body-shaming -- boy have I heard that one before. Society hates fat people, and with a place as competitive as this school, any perceived flaw will stick out. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the girls there have eating disorders. A lot of people in the real world do have eating disorders. They may not be caused by incidents like these, but something like this might be part of the final reason why someone might fall into one. I think this show has a lot of potential to show the dark side of competitive arts schools. We'll see how it pans out.
 
Episode 4.
So Mr. Creepy Otaku was a nice dude after all. I totally thought we were going another way with that. It's nice they aren't telling her to just get over what happened, but telling her to make better memories and such so the bad ones fade. I like that.

...And Yamada is bulimic now. Saw that coming.
 
4
I literally predicted this perfectly, almost down to the detail.

So stalker guy aside... yeah that was most the episode but i said this all would happen last week so...nothing to say there.

I wanna focus on girl who took the picture, other than she was directly in front of them yet the photo is clearly taken from the side, she did a amazing job to cut the teacher out the picture despite he would of been in frame from most angles aside the front... where she should of been.
But regardless, how would this ever pay off for her? She saw the teacher there so he will be a alibi right of the bat but if this rumour spreads, considering the girls already know who is behind it, i doubt it will take long for the staff to find out so she is actually destroying her own life to... be a bitch? she has no reasoning aside the thing where the seniors didn't like her because she is ambitious (the long and short of it is this). Equally, Ai will come to defend her now they are on closer terms, soooooo this wouldn't work.
Never mind the other girl was happy to go collaborate the story with the teacher, again, would prove she is lying. Then the girl who knows it was her would be happy to drive a knife in her back if is risks her own potential... she is literally screwed. I of course expect this to hit the giant girl and risk her position in the school, until its disproven, i just hope at that point, she doesn't let the senior off and we see her waving goodbye as she "graduates" early... except it wont be graduating, more like failing.

Oh, and the cops suck at their job! Two guys flee so they arrest one who didn't seem to be running or acting guilty, nice work officers, the town is safe again thank to... oh no wait, you let them guilty ones go, very good job.
 
This show is just extremely negative. I can't really think of a character I genuinely care about besides Pigtails and the Uncle.... (Also apparently not enough to learn their names.)

I'd still be curious to see 1) some acting and 2) Ai turn things around and start acting like a real human being. But for 1) if this was really going to be an acting show and not just some school drama at a quirky school, they needed to hook me in way sooner and for 2) they got me too late with the Ai backstory in ep 3.

Yeah, I'm dropping this.
 
vudujuju said:
This show is just extremely negative. I can't really think of a character I genuinely care about besides Pigtails and the Uncle.... (Also apparently not enough to learn their names.)
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Yeah, to me the main theme is more on the bullying which happens to the tall girl (subtly) than anything, which just makes weird negativity become a plot point. Which this might sound fine, for a show dedicated to bullying as a theme but this isn't supposed to be.

Then we look at Ai who well,
vudujuju said:
2) Ai turn things around and start acting like a real human being
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She will likely in the end of course but it's hard to sit on the same level as her, i get her reasoning but it pushes even us (the viewer) away from her, so seeing her get to that place probably wont feel as well as it could. Especially as i am still trying to figure out if she is the main focus or if the tall one is, the shows mostly follows Ai but the actual plots revolve around the other girl more than Ai.

Regardless the pay-off is low so i can get why you would drop it.

I will keep going with it in hope... but i never expect it to be anything above "average" at best.
 
The series is just getting Ai's personal turmoils under control so she'll be more receptive and open to others. It's not directly related to kouka, but it will undoubtedly help with that pursuit. It's fine with me.
 
Madoka said:
Especially as i am still trying to figure out if she is the main focus or if the tall one is, the shows mostly follows Ai but the actual plots revolve around the other girl more than Ai.
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Yeah this is a major problem which for your sake I hope gets remedied in a couple episodes.

Madoka said:
Regardless the pay-off is low so i can get why you would drop it.

I will keep going with it in hope... but i never expect it to be anything above "average" at best.
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Yeahhh best of luck! Since I dropped this and drugstore I think we're still both following 3(? Uramichi, Aquatope, Kobayashi). See you on one of those maybe.
 
So, i liked this one actually. I feel it handed the story quite well. I admit i was hoping the female teacher would suffer more for her actions, her realises this kid is vomiting her food back which is causing her health to deteriorate rapidly and she knows she herself is the reason, yet she does little to help. I get her reasoning, It's true, they will all need some tough love to get them used to life but her approach is unfair and wrong. Some of these girls on adults (i think one or two said they was around 20 in the first episode or so) but she is one of the youngest ones, so it's the wrong approach, she clearly didn't take it well. I expected her to make more of a move when she got a list of everything she eats but nope, the worst part is, whilst i get the girl was paranoid, she only agitated her and made her feel like she wasn't loosing enough weight!!!
Also, no respect to the male teachers in the background, they said or did nothing despite knowing what was happening.
Only the Pianist cared, he took her to the doctor, but most importantly, broke dorm rules to remind her that it isn't over, just because she is last she does have a talent, one she has forgotten, and i honestly enjoyed his pep talk, the girl was in a dark place, best case she would go home and quit but that could of ended much more darker if the writer wanted, she was pretty down, only this one teacher even tried and his speech helped her get better, props to him.

So, to its faults, it was a pretty nice ending and i enjoyed the drama, it just resonated with me for some reason to the point i was cheering the teacher for his efforts.

The other story, meh. They finally became friends, hopefully Ai is better and more likeable now. I like she has grown her fringe a bit.
Giant is cut out for this, memorises lines without a script, not bad.

The other girls annoy me as always, they lecture our giant on being to loud and noisy in the concert hall despite she didn't seem to me to come of any louder than anyone speaking within their own group, i felt she was perfectly fine but regardless, they pitch this complaint whilst then acting giddy or shouting and messing around because they spoke to some actress dancer thingy, the hypocrisy is amusing if nothing more.

I hate the brown hair girl who looks angry all the time, the one who stands near the girl who vomits, sure she plays her anger off as being annoyed because she knew she wasn't trying but she is just so annoying, she complains about everything and acts the "big I am", hope she fails.

But yeah, i quite liked this episode a fair bit.
 
Sorry but.. I'm out.
We finally get to see some acting and... it's pretty fucking bad and lasts 40 seconds in a montage. Really? Show... what the fuck are you doing? You are supposed to make me like theater and make it look fucking MAGICAL from the perspective of the students. That... looked like your average theater show. Actually, the only that looked better than average were the costume and stage.. soo... props to the props department, I guess.

Anyway, I disliked the way they did drama already a lot and was hoping we got more into the supposed setting of the show... but yeah now I lost all hope.

Bulimia girl story was handled... decently I guess, from a simple look at the facts. But I have to admit that I didn't really care or feel much for the people involved.

Madoka said:
The other girls annoy me as always, they lecture our giant on being to loud and noisy in the concert hall despite she didn't seem to me to come of any louder than anyone speaking within their own group, i felt she was perfectly fine but regardless, they pitch this complaint whilst then acting giddy or shouting and messing around because they spoke to some actress dancer thingy, the hypocrisy is amusing if nothing more.
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OMG yes. I noticed that too and I was soooo annoyed. Honestly, that's just the biggest problem with the show, most of the cast is simply... annoying. I have no reason to want most of the girls to succeed given how they act. Act as in behave... because.. you know, this fucking theatre show has yet to show us them actually acting.

Madoka said:
But yeah, i quite liked this episode a fair bit.
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Hope you enjoy the rest of it as well!
 
Episode 5.
Onodera Sensei is best girl.
Solid dude that guy. What with that inspiring speech to Binging McPurgealot there and getting her to knock that off. Good dude.
 
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