Charlotte

@Rareitor: I don't know. I see where you coming from, but middle schoolers obviously don't try to kill one of their classmates everyday. I think there should be at least a passing mention as to why she went crazy. If she was just threatening her with the box cutter, I might excuse it, but the fact she was trying to murder her. . . I think that requires more explanation.

But...the reason why she went crazy was mentioned. ...From her own lips^note Basically, the guy she liked was paying more attention to Ayumi than her ever since Ayumi transferred in.

Anyway, episode.

So that really was the reason why Shun's calling him by that name. Sorry, now I definitely will never live this down...Pooh.

Anyway, after seeing many time travel shows with a side-dish of never-ending tragedy^note until a miracle appears, I find this show's usage of time travel refreshing, in the sense that Shun had limited usage and he used those times to do something different, all leading to the creation of that school, and Yu being able to save Ayumi.

Of course, in exchange for all that, Nao's brother's progress is back to the drawing board. No random lead vocalist will be saving his bacon this time. Maybe.

Funny infiltration hijinks. Even Nao couldn't do a thing!

... I do understand why it feels a bit too plot convenient, but if I had to be honest, I'd say she is not important enough to warrant a divergence for exposition on her particular circumstances.

Also, have you by chance watched A-Channel?

Oh no, I know the REASON why she's supposed to have tried to kill Ayumi, but I simply don't feel it follows. Just because your crush started spending all his time pursuing another girl doesn't mean you'll try to kill the girl who "stole" him from her. That's not how most average people think. I believe an incident of this scale warrants at least a passing mention as to why she went nuts. She may be a disturbed individual, but I want to get at least a slight idea as to why she did over something like this.

I have not seen A-Channel, only heard about it. I probably won't be watching it, since I'm not big on the prominent shojo-ai undertones I've heard it has.

Ok then, this is more a thing we have different tolerance for I think.

About A-Channel, there is a particular relationship in that show that kind of subtly reminded me of this situation, but only barely.

Interesting. What was the situation?

Not quite the place to say it but anyway: One of the girls is very clingy to the resident airhead, but it not in a way that would be considered terribly exaggerated. She is very obviously not healthy in that respect, but it is probably one of the most realistic representations of that sort of attachment I've ever seen.

If the show wasn't as relaxed as it is, it might not be so easy to zone in on the subtleties of the relationship, and unsurprisingly, it is probably one part of the show that some simplemindedly would attribute yuri undertones to. It is the rule that shallow people would rather say they are in love and fantasize about that than actually take the time to analyze and understand the complexities of that mysterious thing we call "relationship"

Oh, the...uhh...batty girl.

Okay, if there had been a background like that (or at least a hint to the reasons for her isolation), I'd be able to understand it more. But as it stands, I still think the box cutter girl trying to murder Ayumi needs at least a short explanation.

The show already gave us an explanation. She thought she was dating one of their friends but ever since Ayumi showed up that friend was more interested in Ayumi than he was in her. She wanted Ayumi to suffer because she herself was suffering. What more needs to be explained?

The reason why a girl as young as that jumped straight to murder to begin with, I'd imagine.

She's probably just unhinged in general though, and should probably get more than a scare, since I imagine that does not do much to cure insanity.

This.

I will give this; the show does give us hints that she's always been pretty estranged and awkward, even before her crush started hanging out solely with Ayumi. It's just . . . She's only in middle school. It'd be one thing to lose her temper, and yell at Ayumi or even starting physically attacking her, but trying to murder her . . . I don't know, I just think that's too extreme not to warrant a specific reason she'd be so unhinged.

There might be another hint as to why that girl's attachment devolved into jealousy and hate. I do not remember when exactly, but there is a scene with the boy that makes me suspect something about his personality specially drives the girl's madness.

FYI, it's a reference to the Sasebo slashing.

That's . . . awful . . .

It does give some credibility to the character, though. And, unlike the girl mentioned in this article, we have a more concrete idea as to why she might have done this. I still think it's uncommon enough to warrant a mention of the characters' background, whether she went through past trauma or something like that, but I will concede knowing this, it's more plausible. But . . . man, that's horrible.

I don't understand what is so unbelievable about there being psychotic jealous persons in this anime; kids and teenagers do evil or crazy things all the time in the real world, that's not news.

The show shouldn't lose anymore time with something that doesn't move the main plot or deepen the main characters.

I suppose, but . . . maybe at least a blurb in a background news report referencing a possible cause for her breakdown would have been nice.

Like I said, sometimes people are just more outwardly insane than usual, because yes.

While a number of teenagers and kids do crazy things, something on this level with characters this young is incredibly rare (that's part of the reason the Sasebo murders became an internet meme). In addition, while we'll probably never know exactly what drove the aforementioned girl to murder, such barriers don't exist in fiction. This character's bizarre action kicks off a turning point in the plot and a turning point for our male lead. An event/character of that great importance needs some foreshadowing/development, otherwise it feels out of the blue and random. Had they spent less time on the repetitive comedy, they might have been able to establish her and show some of her insecurities/character flaws. Instead, she's a character whose only purpose is to kick off the plot.

Again, if it weren't for how rare this type of thing is, it might not have needed explaining. For instance, if this character instead of trying to stab/kill Ayumi started physically attacking her and THAT's what triggered collapse. I'd still think it's weak that she wasn't elaborated beforehand, but at least that sort of action isn't as unusual as what she does. Instead, what she pulls off instead is done basically for shock value, and to artificially make the series darker. This wasn't really necessary at all.

In addition, I've realized that just because something of this magnitude has happened before, doesn't mean it's not still extremely rare. In fiction, unless the deed is a rather common occurrence that has unintended consequences, you need to build up to something like this before it happens. For a character-driven series, it's a bit of a blunder that extremely unusual behavior like this wasn't portrayed with any kind of arc or prior establishment. Like I said earlier, while we may never know why bizarre occurrences like this happen in the real world, we know there's SOME type of deep reason a person goes to such great lengths, whether it be gradual negative peer pressure or something else. Such instability either takes a decent amount of time, or a rather grisly traumatic experience. None of these things are really shown or detailed to have happen to the girl.

Basicially, a character this important to the character who tries to kill her middle school classmate needs more elaboration for the turning point to not feel contrived in nature.

In addition, just because this kind of thing has happened in real life doesn't necessarily justify it. After all, a few select people have died from a meteor crashing into Earth, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't still be contrived if it happened to Ayumi for thinly elaborated reasons.

edited 10th Sep '15 2:48:19 PM by Clannadisawesome

How is it any different than, say, Batman's parents getting murdered?

This is a pre-teen trying to murder another pre-teen over a crush, it's not a meteor crashing into somebody.

This is really low in the level of contriveness the show has showed so far.

I'm actually glad they went with that because I was certain they'd go with the KEY disease.

Edited by RunoEddie on Apr 15th 2021 at 5:43:18 AM

...Pre-teens killing each other is normal?

Though the problem I had with it was more that it was based on the interactions of characters that really needed to be established earlier

edited 10th Sep '15 5:04:39 PM by Hylarn

Who said it's normal? I just think it's weird to have difficulty suspending your disbelief over something like that.

It's certainly more normal than a goddamn meteor.

It doesn't need to have such a deep reasoning as trauma, sometimes it's pretty simply a mental illness, it ultimately doesn't matter, she is crazy, that's what's important.

If anything, her crush should have had more time acting kinda creepy towards lil' sister.

-

Changing the subject: how could Yuu remember/dream about what happened in the alternate timeline where they were in the lab if it was his brother that went back in time?

I can accept him and his sister remembering bits and pieces of their brother, but he should have absolutely no memory of the lab unless he time travelled as well.

edited 10th Sep '15 5:41:10 PM by RunoEddie

This probably has to do with Sala's powers, the nature of which haven't been explored yet. That's basically the best theory I've got so far.

This is one of my problems with it as well; besides something like this being quite rare, it needs proper development and prelude to work as a major event.

Batman's parents were murdered in the comics because they decided to take a shortcut through a dark alleyway to get back home. In an urban area like Gotham, its hardly surprising to find a criminal waiting to mug someone. Most middle schoolers, however, do not commit criminal acts, especially ones like murder. Thus, it's a bit ridiculous to have a character come out and try to do something like this, especially since she hadn't been established beforehand.

I will concede the meteor comparison was unwarranted. I was just trying to point out that just because something happened in real life, doesn't mean it has the same commonality of happening as say a car accident ending up in someone's death, or someone being mugged/murdered in an urban area.

The girl straight up said why she was trying to use a boxcutter on Ayumi. Why are you still acting like we needed more of a reason than that?

The vast majority of middle schoolers wouldn't try to murder one of their classmates, even if they were socially awkward and isolated, and their crush grew interest in another girl. The fact this character's motivations and actions play such an important role in the plot makes me believe this drastic course of action needs more build-up. It's one thing to have a more common occurrence like an accident caused by a drunk driver or an attack from street thugs prompting Ayumi's collapse ability; those are all common events that don't have to be contrived to make happen. What this middle schooler does to prompt her powers, however, literally comes to light in the course of a single episode. As I've said before, in a character-driven series where an event like this is a major turning point, the instigator AT LEAST deserves build-up/ a gradual turn to insanity rather than just showing to cause the plot to keep turning with her instability. Honestly, I'd prefer if they had her do something less extreme (like try to beat up Ayumi in a fit of rage rather than pre-meditate murdering her). This type of thing is just too odd for a one-shot character to conveniently carry out when the time is right; this sort of event needs explanation and build up.