Yo, what the fuck was that? I have a very hard time believing that this was the original planned final episode. Like, some points seem directly contradictory? And that's before we get to the part where the whole thing is spent setting up a new conflict. Despite apparently being intended as the finale? It's also possibly the worst episode on purely it's own merits? Felt like they were stuffing in two episodes worth of plot
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Half is being generous, closer towards 2/3rds of it being a recap. I counted lol of the 45 minutes given, like 27 was dedicated to recapping the whole series, a good 10 or so tried to rush a wrapping up everyone's arcs, and the remainder was a desperate hail mary to try and squeeze out a Sequel Bait.
I don't like going heavy into speculation, but the nature of this special makes me believe that the director "conceptualized" this series as a 2 cour one, but then only got a single one greenlight. Only to proceed to fuck it up trying to condense it.
Edited by Lionheart0 on Jun 30th 2021 at 2:00:42 PM
I feel that's overly generous, given that a lot of the production woes seem to have stemmed from a slow and messy writing process
that forced crunch and Schedule Slip. The folks at the show's creative heart just didn't know how to write, direct, and produce an anime, requiring immensely talented artists to put in immense amounts of effort to build a beautiful work of art around a rotten, misshapen frame.
here's a thread mentioning a few of his past works
I don't have much of an issue with writers who like tackling taboo, but stuff like his trans manga (particularly after I watched the episode with Kaoru) made me incredibly wary of how he was writing.
Edited by Mami on Jun 30th 2021 at 5:53:41 PM
I absolutely cannot help but adore handsome 2D boysNo info I've gotten on the writer implies he's LGBT+. And honestly while his handling of Momoe's arc is awful, it's his handling of girls in general that's the real issue here so he still fails in that regard.
Edited by Mami on Jul 1st 2021 at 8:37:56 PM
I absolutely cannot help but adore handsome 2D boysI would agree that the weird, literary-pretentious focus on "serious drama" and the way that Acca and Ura-Acca's comments on "the tempestuous moment of adolescence" go completely uninterrogated, plus the whole "you know how teenage girls are, always hitting on adult men" tone of the show in general... yeah, I can't read the author as anything other than an older adult man. It sounds like he's to be commended for bringing LGBT issues onto TV back in the 90s (assuming it wasn't exploitative, which given the descriptions, it easily could have been), but.
It's been fun.Part of the Accas bad takes going uninterrogated probably has to do with part of the dude actually agrees with it. I somehow missed an interview where Nojima had this to say
(interview is in Japanese btw but I managed to get a translation of this section):
Some of them even hold hands and jump off together. It's not like holding hands and going to the bathroom together, but it's a feeling that is hard to understand in a male society.In the case of men, I think there are logical reasons for suicide, such as bullying or debt ....... But for girls, it's more like a feeling, and that's what made me start writing this story.
Edited by Mami on Jul 1st 2021 at 10:08:57 AM
I absolutely cannot help but adore handsome 2D boysTranslating a bit more for clarity:
[Nojima]Some of them even hold hands and jump off together! It's not quite the same as holding hands and going to the bathroom together, but I think it's a sensation that male society really can't grasp. When men commit suicide, it's because they're really suffering under bullying, for instance, or they're crushed under debt...... I think it's mostly due to logical reasons like that. But girls, well, it's strange to call it "emotional", but I was thinking about how that motivates them, and the uncertain feeling I got from that is what made me start working on this story.
Seems like a risk to write about something you never knew about or speculating. It turns into more of a red flag if it has something to do with a group you're not part of. Coupled with the fact that the interview came from last February, and it really breaks my heart to see such a show with so much potential fall to this.
I finally watched the episode and I feel absolutely nothing. The entire episode really emphasized "Women be emotional I guess" especially by telling us the emotional crutch of this entire story was kind of a bitchy asshole who killed herself by accident, things just happen, people just do stuff and at the end of it all we're supposed to clap and be excited I guess? I hope this trash never gets a second season and even if it does I'm not going to watch it
I absolutely cannot help but adore handsome 2D boys

I haven't seen it officially confirmed but apparently half of the special edition is a recap.
Edited by NthEquation on Jun 29th 2021 at 12:20:32 PM