ben0119 Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 So, I broke my self-imposed rule to never watch harem shows. Well, there would be an exception to that with shows that come on TV (which are fewer and fewer now, of course.) I always tried to watch every anime that came on TV that I knew of on channels I had, barring the super kiddy toyetic stuff. I especially tried to watch everything Toonami and Adult Swim Action would put out. But yeah, ever since I saw Tenchi Muyo and was extremely annoyed by the premise and characters, I swore off those kind of shows. Well, I guess I did watch Ouran, but that was only because someone I was watching shows with years ago begged me to watch it with her. I'll say that show had quite a bit of annoying things in too, for that matter. Anyway, after reading that horrid and depressing doujin I wish I wouldn't have read, I thought I might watch something more upbeat and happy. I was delayed by a day due to Funimation doing maintenance on its site and apps. Mainly I was thinking of the famous video of Sena reading the line from the porn game. It is amazing the kind of stuff that started getting localized and dubbed that never would have happened previously. But I thought, any show where something like this happened would probably be pretty upbeat, happy, and hilarious! And in a lot of ways it was! There were many ridiculous and hilarious scenarios that happened. And also some downright heartwarming and charming ones. And I can say I could definitely relate to having trouble making friends. There were kids I hung out with at school but I never really spent time with any peers outside of school til like 8th grade or 9th grade or so. I remember discussing this with one of my friends, telling him about this a few years ago. He said they probably would have invited me over if I had asked. Who knows. And funny enough I was best friends with this girl in 1st grade. For recess, all the other kids would split off to hang out with their circle of friends but nobody did anything with this girl, so I would spend time with her. After that not really sure what happened. I didn't move away for 10 years or anything and she didn't dress as a boy lmao. I moved around a bit but it was within the same small town (I believe the population was around 30k or something back then,) and the school district was constantly building new schools and switching things around, I think I went to every school in town except one, so I'm sure that didn't help with me keeping in contact with her or any of the kids I hung out with in other grades as I grew up. I definitely remember seeing this girl around after that but we didn't really hang out at all. There may have been a gap from 1st grade until when I saw her later on, I'm not sure. But yeah there was no rekindling of the friendship and definitely no romantic stuff. But there were some other things I wasn't sure what to make of in this show. It kept bugging me how the characters kept saying they hadn't made any friends since joining the club, but I kept thinking, aren't you guys friends with each other? Well, I guess just because you spend time with people in a club, sports team, etc (and definitely not at a job) doesn't mean you're necessarily friends with those people. Well, I suppose some of them definitely weren't friends. Yozora and Sena were almost always at odds. Speaking of which, I wasn't sure if some of the characters were meant to be likable or sympathetic or not. The story with Yozora losing contact with Kodaka was definitely sad and I felt bad for her (and Kodaka) on that. But then Yozora is so nasty to Sena all the time. Sure, maybe Sena is no saint herself, and she likes to have people worship her, abuses her privilege/power, etc but regardless of her bad traits, it doesn't warrant the treatment Yozora gives her. I'll also add, even if Sena was a really bad person, being shitty to a bad person doesn't make you a good person. You don't justify bad behavior with more bad behavior. But then neither Kodaka or anyone else hardly ever steps in to do anything about it. Then we had the episode where we saw the whole more detailed backstory of Yozora setting up the club, and it seems like she had nice intentions. Of course she wanted it just for her and Kodaka, so that is why she got so pissed off when Sena joined. We also had the episode where Yozora played the fortune teller prank on Sena, Sena gets all upset, but then Sena cheers up when she sees Kobato is in the club room. Yozora smiles at this which Kodaka notices and he turns around to look at her and she says what the hell are you looking at. So stuff like this shows Yozora does have a sweet and caring side, but doesn't like to show it. I don't know if I would call that tsundere or not. But regardless of how someone feels or thinks about someone inwardly, if they mostly outwardly are shitty to them, does it really make a difference? Then we found out Sena was stalking Yozora and had all these pictures of her on the ceiling and had that wig she wore. It actually looked like Sena was sniffing the wig as she stared at the pictures of Yozora and her other hand was... so yeah, that was pretty odd and unexpected lmao. Obviously a lot of the show is not meant to be taken seriously, but that is still part of the character haha. But mainly, I really wished the two girls would make up and make friends, fuck, settle it with a boxing, wrestling, or kendo match or something. Instead they just keep fighting for the whole show! Neither girl is perfect but I think Yozora comes off worse than Sena in the whole dynamic overall, even though I felt bad for her too. Then we had Yukimora which was just really weird. I was surely convinced the character was a boy the whole time after we were initially told this, but was actually a girl. So Yukimora was a trap turned reverse trap/fake trap. Trapception! And was obsessively devoted to Kodaka which was weird. I don't think the character was meant to be trans, given some of the borderline fourth wall breaking that goes on in the show, I think this character was poking fun at a trope and similar types of characters in other shows. But given how the character is portrayed and treated I could see people interpreting this character as trans and would take their portrayal and treatment as transphobic. I haven't looked up the author intention or reception to this character yet so I can't say for sure. The show was rated for "minor nudity." I'd like to know what their definition of "major nudity" is. Hentai? I could have done without seeing naked kids too. No warning was given for that! But at least nothing too perverted went on with them. Kobato and Maria were dueling over who is Kodaka's little sister which was innocent enough I guess. I did think Kobato was pretty cute with how she imitated the character from her TV show. Come to think of it, I always assumed it was an anime, but maybe it was like a live action show? What do anime characters look like in anime? Lol. Oh yeah, Sena and how she was with Kobato. This could probably be taken as another negative trait of Sena. Personally I thought her behavior was meant to be an extremely over the top mockery of some women and how they act towards anything "CUUUUUUTE," including kids, pets, clothes, accessories, etc. I don't think it was meant that Sena is literally a pedo, at least I hope not. Personally, probably the most likable one was Rika, despite her oddities and perversions. I kept expecting a big moment in the show where characters would say they are friends, but Kodaka just casually says Rika is his friend a few times, and a big thing wasn't made of it. And even with all the ridiculousness that went on in the show, including Rika herself, her interactions with Kodaka felt pretty organic and realistic. The two are honest with each other and Rika knows that Kodaka isn't going to go for her as a girlfriend. Their confrontation with each other at the end was pretty powerful. This is also where a lot of the fourth wall breaking stuff happened. Talking about not being the harem hero lol. Though at the end, I think it could have been better. It felt like the story was coming to an end, or at least that it could have ended there. There was a big turning point there with Kodaka and Rika. But then of COURSE Kodaka goes to finally respond to Sena's love declaration and gets interrupted. Then we find out Yozora has decided to leave... and that's it. ~ It turns out there were more light novels made after this, but no more anime has been made. Then I kept reading where people said the ending was bad, one person said it was sad and disappointing. I don't know what happens or how the rest of it goes, but that doesn't sound good. I really wasn't able to find anything concrete on any more anime being made. Some people said it won't be adapted because of how the light novels ended. Some said that the company is waiting for the manga to end (which apparently takes a different route after this point in the story,) and they're going to adapt THAT. Wait and adapt whichever has the better ending, makes sense I guess. But the more time that passes you feel it is less and less likely for more anime to be made, in these kinds of situations with adaptations. This whole issue of incomplete anime adaptations is starting to seem not uncommon at all the longer I have been an anime fan, and I almost wonder if there are more incomplete adaptations than complete ones. I am more of an anime guy than a manga or book guy. If I'm watching an anime adaptation that didn't finish its source material and I am SO super into it that I absolutely have to know what happens next and how it ends, then I will seek out the source material. I read the Kekkaishi manga (which I highly recommend.) I of course read the Bleach manga. After Rave Master came back on SyFy and that later point in my fandom, I understood that the story didn't actually end and this show was an animated adaptation of the original Japanese comic, I read that (and it gets even better after the anime stopping point.) But when I hear something ends on a sour note, it sure doesn't make me want to seek out the source material, even if I really want to see how it ends! And I never read light novels before, so not sure what they are like. Also the way this anime was done, with so much of the visual humor and some subtle things, I don't know if it would be as good as a book. Also the light novel where the story ends, has no artwork in it, because the artist said he was tired. Yeah... This is also another reason why I don't like these kind of shows, bad endings and non-endings. And how the anime ended and hearing how the books end, I dunno. I liked a lot about the show but as I said there were some things I didn't know what to make of and some things I did not care for. So yeah went out of my comfort zone here and not sure if it was worth it or not. I suppose I should look for something else to watch. I've got a sizable watch list I made up some time ago. I could pick something from that or look for something else. Of course, with anime, a lot of it is going to be depressing or have sad endings, but I'd rather watch something more upbeat, to kind of make up for that fucked up doujin, a pallete cleanser from that, but also this year, and part of the previous year, which wasn't great for me personally. I need LESS depressing shit right now, not more! Obviously Haganai was no where near as fucked up as the Metamorphosis doujin, but it still had some sad stuff about it, and left off in an annoying way, and apparently has a bad ending in the books, so. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokeNirvash Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 You know, if you wanted a mood-lightener after reading Emergence, you should've looked up the alternate ending where Spoiler Josuke and Okuyasu step in and save her life. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 I'm not in the mood to read an essay so I'm not replying to any of that but I liked the show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avec Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 But did you watch the Live Action OHSHC though? [I got about 2 paragraphs in, sorry not sorry] 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben0119 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 14 hours ago, PokeNirvash said: You know, if you wanted a mood-lightener after reading Emergence, you should've looked up the alternate ending where Reveal hidden contents Josuke and Okuyasu step in and save her life. I was trying to remember who you were talking about, then I remembered those are JoJo characters. Nope, haven't read that alternate version lmao. 1 hour ago, avec said: But did you watch the Live Action OHSHC though? [I got about 2 paragraphs in, sorry not sorry] No, although I did hear that Haganai got a live action movie. I haven't watched too many of these live action adaptations. A lot of them look like they have bad special effects, but that probably wouldn't be an issue with Haganai. T__T 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daos Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 Haganai, Heaven's lost property, and High School DxD are the kings of this genre. If you like the genre at all you'll like them. Sometimes even if you don't like the genre. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hidden Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 yea its good. i dont remember this feeling like a conventional harem, maybe because of the lack of ecchi, but its been years. still need to read the rest of it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben0119 Posted December 20, 2020 Author Share Posted December 20, 2020 On 12/13/2020 at 11:34 PM, Daos said: Haganai, Heaven's lost property, and High School DxD are the kings of this genre. If you like the genre at all you'll like them. Sometimes even if you don't like the genre. I thought that Ah My Goddess and Chobits were pretty big deals and were considered harems, but MAL doesn't list either as being such. I could have sworn Ah My Goddess was. But yeah, this show definitely had its entertainment value despite the genre. On 12/14/2020 at 12:34 AM, Hidden said: yea its good. i dont remember this feeling like a conventional harem, maybe because of the lack of ecchi, but its been years. still need to read the rest of it. This show has ecchi, the first season has actually topless scenes. But as far as how often, maybe it doesn't compare much to others. Yeah it seemed different. Despite the cast gender balance (which changed after a certain revelation lol,) it didn't feel so much like a harem series. I think because the romance part wasn't a major aspect of the show, or at least, didn't mainly revolve around it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hidden Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 18 hours ago, ben0119 said: maybe it doesn't compare much to others. I think because the romance part wasn't a major aspect of the show, or at least, didn't mainly revolve around it. this and this. very much so, yes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daos Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 How was Chobits a Harem? I never got that impression from it at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben0119 Posted January 17, 2021 Author Share Posted January 17, 2021 On 12/21/2020 at 9:30 AM, Daos said: How was Chobits a Harem? I never got that impression from it at all. I never saw it. I guess I thought it was for some reason lol. Obviously mistakenly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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