ShaftoftheSpear

So, this anime depicts our very normal hero having three relationships with three different girls, with two of those relationships being dead on arrival.  It’s not very action-packed in the slightest, but its beauty comes in the form of overall inner reflection.  Seiren has a, somewhat, “choose your own adventure,” approach, not unlike, ‘A Bridge to the Starry Sky,’ and ‘Yosuga no Sora.’  Unlike Mass Effect 3, you don't have to revert back to an earlier save, all the endings are unlocked and you get to watch them back to back.  However, the sequence you watch them in is the real trap - Because Synergy was always the real ending.  So true is this for the dishonesty of Seiren.  Although we are watching three separate stories, the last story is the true ending.  It's the one you see last, it’s the one that leaves the overall impression of the series as a whole; it is the ending the creators intended for you to receive and remember; Just as in Yosuga no Sora.  Yosuga no Sora had an almost identical story structure: separate, compartmentalized, unrelated; they actually try to make it seem like the events you JUST WATCHED in the previous episodes didn’t happen - but most people I’ve spoken to, tell me Yosuga no Sora is about a dude who bangs his little sister with weak constitution, and runs off to have a life with her… After he goes around banging every girl in the village.  Was Yosuga no Sora, that?  -Not if you believe that each story was self-contained and unrelated. Would people still describe it that way if the incest story was not the last story told?  What if the incest story happened at the beginning, and the final story was about him bangin’ the large breasted, trailer trash, neighbor girl who raped him?  Would people still describe it being about a dude who ran off with his sickly sister to go make children who look like horses?  You tell me.  Seiren does make an effort to tie all the stories together, but only just AN effort - its peak into the future makes it clear that these are three separate, unrelated stories (but not).  It’s the only way the creators can justify continuing the series after the second girl ended her story.

As stated, our hero is a normal high school boy with a slightly older sister, who is very popular at school.  They have a very real and loving sibling, relationship – not the creepy kind (-which I am all about, by the way).  They go to the same school, they interact with each other like normal siblings do, and his sister genuinely looks out for him.

In our first story, our hero interacts with Tsuneki Hikari, a beautiful, popular girl in his class, who happens to idolize our main character’s older sister.  Hikari seems to represent an unattainable dream girl, bursting with healthy beauty.  She’s friendly to him, but extroverted, in contrast to our introverted, reserved protagonist.  Our hero thinks Hikari is so great and beautiful, he is inspired to be a person that she would be interested in.  He gets an idea to actually try and study, in hopes that he can make something of his life, and maybe have her, truly, look in his direction.  However, no matter what he does or how hard he tries, she always seems to be always out of his reach.  I feel that they are just too different from each other.  As an outsider looking in, you can see the dissonance that would exist between them, if they were ever in a relationship.  I believe that deep down, our hero knows this, but he cannot help himself from wanting her.  She just seems too wild a horse for the likes of him.  Even at the close of their story, there remains uncertainty in a future with them in it.  With my mind’s eye, I can imagine her breaking his heart, making a bunch of bad decisions in life (like buying a Dodge), THEN realize how great our hero was, and then trying to come back to him in their late 30s, with a kid in tow.  I generalize, but that’s the gist I got.

Our next story involves Miyamae Tourru.  She’s a year older; beautiful, and good at everything.  Our hero’s in, is that she is a closet hardcore gamer and he just happens to play the same game as her.  His appeal to her is, also, that he is genuinely a good guy, and she’s probably never experienced what a good man by her side can be.  The relationship between our hero and Tourru is the most fleshed out and most satisfying to experience.  She is Best Girl in this series.  The anime could have just been about them and it would have been a masterpiece.  The creators gave her a few quirks, to spice things up.  She has an alleged brother-complex, which seems unnecessary, and it is implied that she is probably, sociopathic-ally, obsessed with games because her brother was into games as well, and she wants to get Aki Sora shwifty with him.  I would have passed this off, but they made an effort to shoehorn that notion in AGAIN at the end of the arc, which was uncalled for and jarring.  In the end, the creators had no good reason for this relationship to not keep going; they just ended them… probably to get to the ending they wanted you to see. 

Our last girl is the childhood friend.  She is the least captivating of our leading ladies.  I’m not sure why the creators chose her.  The only thing I could think of is that maybe they felt like she deserved to win because she put in the most time with our hero? – really, that’s what it feels like.  Honestly, that notion is bullshit.  They want us to believe that what our hero has been looking for has been right in front of his face the whole time?  -If she were a better character, I would buy that, but, honestly, she sucks! -and pales in comparison to what he's been chasing the entire series! Her qualities, and their dynamic do not even add up to what we were just shown in previous episodes with the other girls.  She’s not pretty, she’s a closet tsundere, and she really just pouts the entire time.  They don’t even portray a dynamic between them that even suggests that they are meant for each other.  You expect me to accept that the childhood friend wins, when you just showed us two knockouts who were, hands down, better fits for our hero?  No. I reject that.

-I don’t know, guys.  Maybe Seiren is a dark commentary on real life.  Your dream girl, truly, is not a someone who would spend the rest of her life with you, and no matter how hard you try, you’ll never get her -and if you do, she would just feel you were holding her back.  A girl who is a better fit can be found in the most unlikely of places, once a chance happenstance reveals to her that you were meant for each other- but in the end, she’s emotionally unavailable.  Then, a girl you’ve known your whole life comes along, who’s not your dream girl, offers you a life that isn’t exactly what you want, but ISN'T terrible, and you settle for her instead. That's right. In the end, you don't get the powerful, sexy Ferrari, you don't get the feature rich, luxurious, elegant Beamer with plenty under the hood; They were false choices all along.  -You were always meant to get the affordable, fuel efficient, reliable, purposeful, practical Toyota Corolla. -Maybe I’m just being cynical.

Overall, these girls end up growing as people, and fulfill their dreams because of the relationship they had with our hero.  Our main character, on the other hand, is just a stepping stone on the way to greatness and fulfilled dreams, and is given meager gains in each of our peaks into the future with these girls.  I gave this anime a high rating because, its portrayal of real life is actually quite good… to the point where (and even I’m ashamed to admit this) I actually felt shame and embarrassment and pain, when the stories depicted something similar to my experiences in my life. – So, there you have it; some of my dirty laundry for you. -May the 4th be with you; always.