1/17/2024 0 Comments Saekano watch orderIt’s hypocritical and obnoxious – in short, it’s a show that gives advice and chooses not to follow it.īut I would’ve been okay with the show if it had stopped there. Even worse, the show’s title and all of the show’s characters want Katou to become one of them: a generic character who talks and responds to situations with nothing but stock phrases. But that’s where it stops – it’s satisfied at being aware of its clichés, but never does anything to rise up above them. The show demonstrates a degree of awareness of its clichés – it knows that its characters are generic archetypes, and Katou serves as a direct contrast to them. Saekano knows that Katou stands out the most among the characters, and it knows that characters that follow archetypes like Eriri need to have more than their shallow character traits. It’s an insightful conversation, only to be cut short by Eriri acting like the stock tsundere archetype. Tomoya: “But… Katou doesn’t, does she? She’s a non-otaku, but even when mixed up with us otaku, she stayed exactly the same as she was, right?” Tomoya: “But I just want to always be myself.”Įriri: “That’s impossible. The conversation between Eriri and Tomoya from the start of episode 5 exemplifies what exactly makes the show so frustrating: Unfortunately that’s where the show’s good points stop. ![]() And this is what I think the show was trying to accomplish with Katou: characters should be people, and not just generic archetypes. On the contrary, her character doesn’t conform to the show’s pre-established archetypes: even though she doesn’t stand out within the show, Katou is perhaps the most memorable character because she’s not a generic archetype. ![]() There’s no mistaking that the title’s “boring heroine” refers to Katou: the show keeps referring to her as having “no character” and a “half-assed personality”. Ultimately, I think Saekano’s best point is Katou Megumi’s character: the deadpan non-otaku who joins the group as the “main heroine”. The show doesn’t give a complete answer, but it gave her character a push forward. This time, the show asks why a creator, well, creates works for fans – for whose sake are they putting out content? Again, the show frames this question with Tomoya as the consumer and Eriri as the creator: does Eriri draw so she can get better for her fans, or does she just draw to satisfy herself and stay where she is? Eriri finds her foot forward when she decides to get better at drawing to win over Tomoya and satisfy her fans. The framing of the scene was even reminiscent of White Album 2: two high school kids throwing their emotions at each other under the snow might be a clichéd scene, but if there’s anyone who can make it work, it’s Fumiaki Maruto.Įpisode 9 is another good episode that gave Eriri much-needed characterization past her generic tsundere shtick. The episode frames Utaha as the creator and Tomoya the consumer, and the show asks: how far should an author go to in trying to please their readers? And I feel that the show gave a good answer to the question: fans want something that the creator wrote, not something that would go with their expectations. Let’s start with the former.Įpisode 6 of Saekano is the first episode where I thought the show was being genuine. There are two things that Saekano did well in portraying: the relationship between consumer and creator, and the character of Katou Megumi. I would probably be more forgiving of the show if it were: it’s easier to let go of a show that’s a total failure than a show that flubbed with its great ideas. People who have watched the first two episodes called the show obnoxious for having snarky commentary on its clichés while also indulging in them.īut let’s give credit where it’s due: Saekano isn’t complete trash. Certain Maruto fans on Twitter had already panned the show and the LN for being self-gratifying otaku humor. ![]() I probably should’ve listened to the warning signs. Naturally, I’d expect Saekano to be something close to his work in eroge. He also wrote Parfait and Sekai de Ichiban NG na Koi – both of which I’ve seen glowing reviews of. It’s a shiny new adaptation of Fumiaki Maruto’s light novel series – the same Fumiaki Maruto who wrote White Album 2, which got an anime around a year and a half ago. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hyped for Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata ( Saekano for short) at the start of winter 2015. Saekano is the most frustrating kind of bad show: the kind which could have been legitimately good if it tried.
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