Ao-chan Can't Study!

captivus said:
It further establishes two main protagonists and their characters, there are no unnecessary ecchi scenes, every character has a clear and logical (to him/her) motivation for what he/she is doing and the Pleasure Master is still pretty awesome.
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Oh--I don't disagree. But that's actually part of my criticism.
...which, do note, was excised from my original post because it was waaaaaay too long. Which, coming from me, is saying something.

Specific to the idea of logical progression (and still under the banner of "pick a lane"), the issue for me that the A->B->C, though it made perfect sense, was what was driving the story and not the characters. That is, everything is caused by outside influence (mistakes or misunderstanding) rather than by Ao's internal struggle with lust or love.
Ao wears the sexy-demure outfit, which leads to Kijima apologizing, which leads to Ao not being able to reject him, which leads to the incident with the English books. All of which was her trying to stay away and him trying to get closer. Which is fine.

But...why is she dressed like a Hanekawa cosplayer looking to get Instagram hits? She's not pulling from the pervy-touchstone of her father's influence (who would portray "demure and studious" in a fetishistic way), and she's not doing it to get Kijima's attention. She's doing it because she's just unaware of how all the elements look. It's a simple mistake. Something that happens for plot reasons.

Why does she care about the dick size thing? Because someone else in class brings it up. It's not something she thinks up on her own because of the pervy-touchstone of her father's influence or because she's attracted to the idea that he might be packing. It's entered into the story by outside forces for plot reasons.

Why does she have a naughty book disguised as a grammar book? Because her father tricked her--and because it will get switched with Kijima's identical book so we can watch her squirm, as she attempts to get it back, when she thinks he's got even half a clue what the book was about. It's a mistake of someone else's doing so plot can happen.

Again--it all makes sense. Her father is a pervert who wants to help his daughter. He know she has a boy in her life because she was asking him for help. She was asking him for help because of the dick size thing. And she heard about the dick size thing at school--which matters only because it's in reference to the boy in her life and her intent to have him out of her life.

It all also happens to be anything but personal for our protagonist.

That said, we do come close to this with, first, Ao's admission that she's afraid of the assumed gap in experience between her and Kijima (struggle with love) and, second, Ao blushing and rolling with what she thinks is his admission that he's into public S&M (struggle with lust). But they are also both isolated by-products of the action (or gag or plot) rather than what's driving the action.

Which is entertaining enough, but it's also what's keeping it from being (for lack of a better word) good.

To me, anyway.
 
ShinShini said:
Let me specify, that's how I looked like while watching:
tenor.gif


The anime is just an unholy amalgamation of 1000 other romcom characters, situations, jokes and romantic moments, combined with a dash of ecchi jokes already seen in other shows.
And that's not necessarily the bad part. The problem is, like interregnum already mentioned, it doesn't even commit to a single aspect, making everything quite half-assed. At no point I was "Geez, I wonder what will happen next." I just sat there and ticked of the mental checklist of things that will happen next. I just thought about the shows that did it better.
When you have a few more shows of that sort under your belt, you'll understand that sentiment. But for me, I'd rather rewatch the anime that executed these tropes better.
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Hm ... I might be biased towards the genre since I really like romance anime (I watched at least 118 of them according to my best romance anime list) which is kind of weird (since I usually dislike romance movies and I vehemently hate most novels focused on romance) but I don't really think that has to be a problem. If I understood you correctly you find the show boring since it's not focused on one aspect and if full of (for lack of better words) cliches/usual tropes.

I don't really think that has to be a bad thing. I mean out of 118 anime on my list vast majority are 4 or perhaps 5 types of story, sometimes with different twists/hooks to them to make them distinct. I still really liked them.

I think that if you create a cast of likable, relatable and perhaps funny/quirky characters you can forgive a predictable plot.

For example:
Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san is a predictable story that has basically no overarching plot and each episode is very similar if not identical in plot structure to the one before and after it. It's still a great show because you like the main protagonists and they feel like real people.

Toradora!; Gosick and Zero no Tsukaima are basically the same story of a tsundere loli highschool student/detective/magician and I still loved all three.

So I think it's not whether the show makes use of tropes that have been used before but whether you like those tropes and the way they are delivered.

I think the show does a pretty decent job portraying the characters and setting up the plot for what it is which is a little risque standard rom-com with an 'I don't know how to deal with erotic stuff in a mature way' twist. But that's entirely up to anyone's opinion.

interregnum said:
Oh--I don't disagree. But that's actually part of my criticism.
...which, do note, was excised from my original post because it was waaaaaay too long. Which, coming from me, is saying something.

Specific to the idea of logical progression (and still under the banner of "pick a lane"), the issue for me that the A->B->C, though it made perfect sense, was what was driving the story and not the characters. That is, everything is caused by outside influence (mistakes or misunderstanding) rather than by Ao's internal struggle with lust or love.
Ao wears the sexy-demure outfit, which leads to Kijima apologizing, which leads to Ao not being able to reject him, which leads to the incident with the English books. All of which was her trying to stay away and him trying to get closer. Which is fine.

But...why is she dressed like a Hanekawa cosplayer looking to get Instagram hits? She's not pulling from the pervy-touchstone of her father's influence (who would portray "demure and studious" in a fetishistic way), and she's not doing it to get Kijima's attention. She's doing it because she's just unaware of how all the elements look. It's a simple mistake. Something that happens for plot reasons.

Why does she care about the dick size thing? Because someone else in class brings it up. It's not something she thinks up on her own because of the pervy-touchstone of her father's influence or because she's attracted to the idea that he might be packing. It's entered into the story by outside forces for plot reasons.

Why does she have a naughty book disguised as a grammar book? Because her father tricked her--and because it will get switched with Kijima's identical book so we can watch her squirm, as she attempts to get it back, when she thinks he's got even half a clue what the book was about. It's a mistake of someone else's doing so plot can happen.

Again--it all makes sense. Her father is a pervert who wants to help his daughter. He know she has a boy in her life because she was asking him for help. She was asking him for help because of the dick size thing. And she heard about the dick size thing at school--which matters only because it's in reference to the boy in her life and her intent to have him out of her life.

It all also happens to be anything but personal for our protagonist.

That said, we do come close to this with, first, Ao's admission that she's afraid of the assumed gap in experience between her and Kijima (struggle with love) and, second, Ao blushing and rolling with what she thinks is his admission that he's into public S&M (struggle with lust). But they are also both isolated by-products of the action (or gag or plot) rather than what's driving the action.

Which is entertaining enough, but it's also what's keeping it from being (for lack of a better word) good.

To me, anyway.
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Well, we're on episode two. Our protagonist shut herself off from anything romantic and we need her to open herself up to it to get the plot going. So in our first three episodes, we need to establish:

1)why the protagonist shut herself off from this stuff and why that's understandable from her perspective (so we can at least relate to her and hopefully get a little invested emotionally when she works hard to overcome this later in the show)
2)why the protagonist would choose to open herself to romance - which probably should come from some kind of source that is external to her since we just established that she had (from her perspective) a good reason to shut herself from this stuff and possibly show how she's actually interested in romance/sex, thus giving her a motivation to act.

What the show will do with that is up for debate at this point. I'm actually fighting myself really hard not to spoil the show for myself and check in the manga/light novel. After ep. two there is (in my opinion) a good chance that the show might not explore the usual will they/won't they trope but instead try to run with the protagonist already being in a relationship and dealing with it. Which would be interesting, given her character.

Also: about the whole d*** measuring thing (and I can't believe I address such a subject in a non-sarcastic manner o.O )

I think the whole point of her being interested in the 'subject' shall we say, is to show that while she says she is not interested in romance or anything sexual (and given her father and his ti**y pudding I do understand that ;D ) she actually is - like any normal girl would be. Especially if she tries to repress her own sexuality, which *never* works. This, in turn, gives her an internal motivation for her actions.
 
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I've written this 5 different ways, and it's both too long and too disjointed, if I go into everything. So, rather than discussing the nature of the series structure and the issues of what drives the story and working on what connects the two, I'm just going to speak to my original post about Ep 2 (being a little all over the place)--but more pointedly, I hope--in the interest of clarifying my perspective, rather than making a larger point:
Ao is not at all conflicted about what she wants to do regarding Kijima: she wants to f*** him.

And I don't mean she's harboring masked feelings or desires as she attempts to keep up her anti-male comportment. No, she expressly and consciously admits that she would like to say yes to him--sexually, if nothing else--more than once. She only jumps to "I don't want anything to do with this!" when it looks like the road to f***ing might be at all troublesome.

From the start of Ep 2 (and only up through the middle of the episode):
  1. can't stop fantasizing about having sex with him, but decides she doesn't want to and will reject him
  2. hears he might have a big dick and wants to f*** him
  3. learns a big dick could hurt, so decides to reject him--IF his dick can be confirmed as big
  4. inadvertently dresses as sexy schoolgirl to help her reject him...because she's suddenly back on that boat
  5. is back to basing all decisions on his dick size, once they're on the roof
  6. tells him she wants to f*** him, but that she's also afraid of their gap in experience

I thought the premise of the show is that she doesn't want male attention. And that, as such, this is a struggle between what she wants and what she says she wants.

I mean, she specifically says that she reads her dad's erotic novels. And not secretly or conflictedly, either. Does that not fly in the face of what we were led to believe?

Does she openly want love/sex or is she resistant to love/sex (secretly wants it)?

...is Kijima aware that she's talking about sex, on the roof? Or are we supposed to assume he thinks she's talking about dating? Because he doesn't seem to be trying just to get in her pants (especially after Ep 1's ending), but we're not really given any wink from the episode about what his perspective is in these she's-talking-about-sex scenes.

Like...what does he mean by "you can touch it if you want"? His hand? Because he thinks she thinks he's upset?

What is this show? What's the joke?
 
interregnum said:
I've written this 5 different ways, and it's both too long and too disjointed, if I go into everything. So, rather than discussing the nature of the series structure and the issues of what drives the story and working on what connects the two, I'm just going to speak to my original post about Ep 2 (being a little all over the place)--but more pointedly, I hope--in the interest of clarifying my perspective, rather than making a larger point:
Ao is not at all conflicted about what she wants to do regarding Kijima: she wants to f*** him.

And I don't mean she's harboring masked feelings or desires as she attempts to keep up her anti-male comportment. No, she expressly and consciously admits that she would like to say yes to him--sexually, if nothing else--more than once. She only jumps to "I don't want anything to do with this!" when it looks like the road to f***ing might be at all troublesome.

From the start of Ep 2 (and only up through the middle of the episode):
  1. can't stop fantasizing about having sex with him, but decides she doesn't want to and will reject him
  2. hears he might have a big dick and wants to f*** him
  3. learns a big dick could hurt, so decides to reject him--IF his dick can be confirmed as big
  4. inadvertently dresses as sexy schoolgirl to help her reject him...because she's suddenly back on that boat
  5. is back to basing all decisions on his dick size, once they're on the roof
  6. tells him she wants to f*** him, but that she's also afraid of their gap in experience

I thought the premise of the show is that she doesn't want male attention. And that, as such, this is a struggle between what she wants and what she says she wants.

I mean, she specifically says that she reads her dad's erotic novels. And not secretly or conflictedly, either. Does that not fly in the face of what we were led to believe?

Does she openly want love/sex or is she resistant to love/sex (secretly wants it)?

...is Kijima aware that she's talking about sex, on the roof? Or are we supposed to assume he thinks she's talking about dating? Because he doesn't seem to be trying just to get in her pants (especially after Ep 1's ending), but we're not really given any wink from the episode about what his perspective is in these she's-talking-about-sex scenes.

Like...what does he mean by "you can touch it if you want"? His hand? Because he thinks she thinks he's upset?

What is this show? What's the joke?
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Like I said, it's just another Yamada's first time but instead of saying she wants to fuck a 100 guys before the end of the year, she says she doesn't want to fuck anybody instead. The jokes pretty much remain the same, the characters still have the same approach to it even though her ideas are flipped.

They just want to create awkward situations between the 2 characters, one will feel awkward because she just wants to fuck the shit out of 'm and the other one will feel awkward because he thinks that the girl is struggling with something that's not sex related.

Yamada's first time wasn't the greatest show, it gave me a chuckle here and there and I'm not expecting anything different from this show. Also the show just feels rather weak compared to the other "double censored borderline hentai" shows that are coming out at the same time.
 
I'm not here for spoilers.
I'm just here to say. I didn't know what I expected but I think I loved it.
Okay one spoiler.
Tiddy Drop Ninja Daddy did make me sdkgfnsjkbgsjbg :frustrat:
 
Short answer: I'm out.

I...I don't get it.

I mean, I get it. It's not like this is particularly complicated, but...I just don't understand what Ao's perspective is supposed to be. Like, I understand what the show is trying to get me to accept, in a general sense, but it seems less definite than it should be. Is she into "pervy" stuff or isn't she?

That she is struggling to accept that she's interested in romance/sex is obvious--both as a premise and in practice. But I'm still unclear on A) whether she's actually struggling with either of those, and B) whether she's actually fully aware that she's not really struggling with either of those.

Like, I get that she always assumes everything in the world having to do with anything outside of studying by herself is going to turn into the most aggressive hentai plotline imaginable, and that, in so doing, she runs afoul of seeming like a total perv because she's constantly thinking things that non-"pervy" people wouldn't ever spend all their time thinking about. And--haha--irony and stuff.

What I don't get, though, is...well, like, at the start of this episode, she thinks the girls are inviting her to an orgy--or, more specifically, to have sex with Kijima in front of them as their nighttime entertainment. It's literally the thing that she obsessively wants to avoid. And her reaction is...fretting that she's not wearing sexy underwear.

...huh?

No, I thought she...she didn't want to do that. Where is the transition in her thinking between opposing it with all her might and regretting that she's not better dressed for the occasion? What's the joke, there? Am I laughing that her prudishness is a facade? Am I laughing that her prudishness is too genuine (as in, exaggerating the threat to her virtue)? Does she not want Kijima to see her granny-panties, or does she not want Kijima to see her anything? One of these two has to be the dominant concept, here--because it cannot possibly be both.

And...I just don't think the show has picked one--not just in this episode but overall. It seems to me to sway from one to the other so it can make whatever joke it's got in front of it. And that lack of clarity simply does not work for me.

That said: the OP track is still my favorite in a long while.
 
It's kinda like Anakin Skywalker and the Dark Side in the first 2 movies. You have this idea that the Dark Side bad but you can't stop thinking about it. It's always lurking around the corner and the force is just strong within her.
 
Gozza said:
in the first 2 movies
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You mean Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back?



But, yes, I know what you mean. In that that's clearly what it's supposed to be--some of the time. Other times, it's running from it so hard that she smashes into it. And other times it's just openly embracing it without a hint of ever having distanced herself from it to any degree at any time.

And each of these is fine--if considered as a result. But what I can't get past is that the show can't pick a single point from which everything else spins off.
 
Fell in love with this anime from the first episode. The characters are cute and the lewd misunderstandings are hilarious. The dad brings that strange little weird character fun back to anime <3
 
I woudn't consider this Anime to be the best. But it does have its fair share of good moments. I'm not here to spoil anything but if you like a medium- hearted Anime with some alright scenes. Well you're in luck. By the way Miyabi is a total BIATCH.
 
... granny panties .... LMAO!

Creative solution to the problem... but then he just told her!
 
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