You have no sensibility whatsoever.
As-tu rempli ta vie de belles choses ?
It isn't especially breaking new ground plot-wise (then again, what is these days?), but I think some of your comparisons are a little out-there. Yes, like Fantasia it's a wordless cartoon set to music featuring animals, but it's got a very different feel. And I'm not really seeing the Power Rangers connection, either.
Anyway, if you're going to talk about the unoriginal elements of the plot, you kind of missed the biggest one, i.e. the whole Star Crossed Lovers / Romeo & Juliet-ish thing.
Plus, even though the plot is tried and true, cliches are about as bad as tropes, but harder to handle correctly. Just ask any fan of Tales Of Symphonia - cliches can work sometimes.
I also thought your comparisons were a little weird. Power rangers? What?
The storyline is cliche, yes, but it was handled in a powerful way. I wouldn't put it under "The Power of Love" either, because it's not love saving the day as some vague all-powerful force - it's characters acting *out* of love and choosing to face obstacles because of it.
Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped. Sure, it's Anvilicious. But it is still a great series. Sure the Cerebus Syndrome was huge. But it was clearly foreshadowed from the first episode. It is pretty much a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming Series.
And I agree with all of the above.
To comment, as nobody above seems to have done:
'The story is practically the bread and butter of every furry webcomic in existence. Just be friends with benefits! Move to Norway! Deny outright romance while still maintaining the masquerade! There's nothing new here.'
This section.. rather misses the point completely:
Furries: The anthropomorphic characters are so not for the sake of being anthropomorphic, but rather, as visual shorthand for two nationalities.
Be friends with benefits: The series is about taking responsibility and committing to another wholly in-spite of pressure to do otherwise; rather the opposite of this assertion. Before this manifests, the relationship is merely in unrequited crush territory.
Move to Norway!: The protagonists choose to stay, and try to deal with prejudice, and refuse to run away to a place that will accept them. Again, the opposite message to the one here asserted.
Deny outright romance while still maintaining the masquerade: The only time this happens is briefly, during episode 3. Beforehand, Nabi is genuinely trying to 'just be friends'. After that, they're open to the point of causing rioting in the streets.
This review just.. I'm sorry but while I'm glad you see it worthy of praise on a technical level, and even if your above quoted statement merely points out narrative elements, some parts - move to Norway, for instance - suggest rather a serious missing of the point in general.
Spoiler alert?
It's not the creators' fault that you've already seen too many other stories.
Aside from other well-founded criticisms made (particularly by Chibi Kibou) in the comments for this review, there seems to be one major thing you're doing wrong:
You're looking at each episode as its own self-contained story. That doesn't work for this series. Episodes 1-3 are there in order to detail and develop Doki and Nabi's relationship, showing that, yes, they really do care for each other. In this way, it avoids much of the lack of believability seen in starcrossed "love at first sight" stories like Romeo and Juliet. These first few episodes "humanize" the characters, making them seem funny and relatable, and also DO foreshadow future difficulties if you pay enough attention to details. For example, some of the people looked angrily out from their windows when Doki and Nabi went on their first date in Step 3. In Step 2, one of the gang rabbits' assertions that Nabi planned to do something bad to Doki actually showed how people react in times of racial tension: assuming the worst when it came to inter-racial romance. Even Step 1 showed Tabi quite plainly stating that Doki should date others "of her own kind." Episode 4 just brought all of that to its logical conclusion. There was no Diabolus Ex Machina as you claim. It was all well-planned and hinted at from the start. The troubles only began so suddenly because Doki and Nabi went from friends/closet lovers to official boyfriend and girlfriend. They stopped denying "outright romance" like you accuse them of doing and just hung out openly. That finally set the whole city on fire and that's often how it works in Real Life.
As for it being a Crapsack World, previous episodes as well as the many Doki/Nabi sympathizers showed that there WERE good things about the world. The ending showed the same. It was all pretty fitting. Our world is no more crapsack than that of the There She Is universe.
Also, it's been said but I really have to correct you on the aesop. The main couple didn't leave and they ended the series as officially together. The aesop is actually more accurate on the main page of this series. You should read it, if you haven't already - it's the first trope on the list.
In short, I think you should go back and re-watch the series. Consider it as a whole, as a continuity, rather than one separate episode after the other. And, for goodness' sake, pay attention. Your review makes it apparent that you missed quite a bit.
...Also, Power Rangers?! A Friend In Need is suddenly Power Rangers? Just...what. No. Wrong. Try again.
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Watch it for the animation
Don't get me wrong, There She Is is marvelous from a technical standpoint; the animation is crisp, the art has that subtle blend of cartoon-style and hand-drawn art that provides a right touch of whimsicality to the tale, and the five songs that make up the bulk of the audio are deeply atmospheric. But the story is a bit of a let-down; it seems that with every episode, the story just gets tackier and less interesting. Just watch:
1 - One ordinary cat-guy flees in terror from a love-crazy bunny-girl in a series of disjointed sequences and psychedelic backgrounds. Just like Fantasia.
2 - A chivalrous cat-guy tries to deliver a cake to his oblivious, overly-romantic bunny-girlfriend but the world seems bent on thwarting his efforts. Something like Looney Tunes.
3 - An embarrassed cat-guy takes his enthusiastic bunny-girlfriend on an ordinary date. A typical Slice Of Life cartoon.
4 - The cruel, shallow-minded society destroys the cat-guy's and bunny-girl's romance and makes them both miserable. A Crapsack World multiplied by Diabolus Ex Machina.
5 - The cat-guy forgets about his own problems and rescues his bunny-girlfriend with the power of love and teamwork. Reminded me of Power Rangers.
Cerebus Syndrome just swallowed the whole story up, and I'm afraid the heartwarming was warded off by the fact that nothing is new here. The story is practically the bread and butter of every furry webcomic in existence. Just be friends with benefits! Move to Norway! Deny outright romance while still maintaining the masquerade! There's nothing new here.
But... as I said, it's very well done for a Flash cartoon series, and that's the reason you should watch it. If you tear up as a result, then good for you. There are a lot more poorly-done works of art that could illicit the same reaction, and if you're going to desensitized to The Power Of Love, you may as well do it here.