The melodrama in this anime doesn't make any sense

Ajaxxexx said:
I don't want to be unfair, but I think I'm too old for this kind of cheap manichaeism.

But NO ONE in real life would talk badly about the protagonist of this anime, no one. No one would look at someone with his appearance and build and think he's weird, evil, ugly, or anything like that.

But the anime's narrative needs to force an unrealistic drama so the otaku can wrongly identify with it and feel hurt along with the character.

It's kind of funny, the anime tries to present the boy as someone "misunderstood" and with low self-esteem at the same time that he's surrounded by friends and a seemingly good, understanding family. So… huh? Where exactly is this personality coming from?? In practice, from nowhere. Because to justify it, autor uses the laziest possible device: random crazy shadow people spouting nonsense in a completely unrealistic and senseless way.

It's almost like a version of the "Ugly Betty plot paradox" a central contradiction in the narrative: the story wants to appropriate dramas that would require abandoning certain pre-established traits in the character’s portrayal, but at the same time it depends on those traits to function. So it does things like: portraying a guy who supposedly gives off a bad impression for seeming grumpy and dangerous, even though he's not actually drawn as grumpy or dangerous at all.

Wants us to believe he’s a misunderstood guy, while also showing him surrounded by friends and family who clearly understand him.

Wants to create conflict and put him in a pitiful position, but doesn’t want to give him any actually negative personality traits, so it invents these "random evil crazy people" mistreating him out of nowhere, which is absurdly unrealistic.

(ps: yeah, I know that some of these people are "arrogant teenage girls from a rich school", but even that is a cheap writing choice. Like, come on man, a school rivalry "divided by gender and social class"? What is this bullshit, a shoujo from the 80s?, No teenager actually cares what school another teenager goes to, for god's sake, this isn’t Imperial Japan)

Everything has to be 100% pleasant and contradiction-free so what you end up with is an anime that refuses to challenge the viewer in any way.

I like good romance anime, I don’t want to sound like a hater. I was looking forward to this too. But this first episode It really annoyed me, the girl is so cute and pretty, perfect, and obviously she’s going to have zero flaws and also be the victim of random crazy people, that for a moment I almost just let all this lazy writing slide right past me.

kleb90 said:
@Aritree It's more common to see this kind of behavior when the girl is super attractive or a model. There was a girl in my class who used to be a model, and I met her back in high school. She was way too physically developed for her age—not only was she constantly harassed by the boys, but she was also ostracized by the group of girls. It was common to hear rumors that she was a slut and disgusting comments driven purely by envy from the other girls. That girl went through hell, and most of the time she sat alone at her desk. Now, it seems like she's doing well, and I'm really happy for her.

Now, can that happen to a guy? Maybe—but I doubt a male model would be seen as someone threatening. Most likely, he’d be praised for his looks and height.

Lastly, in Japan, anyone with dyed hair is often looked down upon or seen as a delinquent. Maybe that's all there is to it, haha.

Ajaxxexx said:
I don't want to be unfair, but I think I'm too old for this kind of cheap manichaeism.

But NO ONE in real life would talk badly about the protagonist of this anime, no one. No one would look at someone with his appearance and build and think he's weird, evil, ugly, or anything like that.

But the anime's narrative needs to force an unrealistic drama so the otaku can wrongly identify with it and feel hurt along with the character.

It's kind of funny, the anime tries to present the boy as someone "misunderstood" and with low self-esteem at the same time that he's surrounded by friends and a seemingly good, understanding family. So… huh? Where exactly is this personality coming from?? In practice, from nowhere. Because to justify it, autor uses the laziest possible device: random crazy shadow people spouting nonsense in a completely unrealistic and senseless way.

It's almost like a version of the "Ugly Betty plot paradox" a central contradiction in the narrative: the story wants to appropriate dramas that would require abandoning certain pre-established traits in the character’s portrayal, but at the same time it depends on those traits to function. So it does things like: portraying a guy who supposedly gives off a bad impression for seeming grumpy and dangerous, even though he's not actually drawn as grumpy or dangerous at all.

Wants us to believe he’s a misunderstood guy, while also showing him surrounded by friends and family who clearly understand him.

Wants to create conflict and put him in a pitiful position, but doesn’t want to give him any actually negative personality traits, so it invents these "random evil crazy people" mistreating him out of nowhere, which is absurdly unrealistic.

(ps: yeah, I know that some of these people are "arrogant teenage girls from a rich school", but even that is a cheap writing choice. Like, come on man, a school rivalry "divided by gender and social class"? What is this bullshit, a shoujo from the 80s?, No teenager actually cares what school another teenager goes to, for god's sake, this isn’t Imperial Japan)

Everything has to be 100% pleasant and contradiction-free so what you end up with is an anime that refuses to challenge the viewer in any way.

I like good romance anime, I don’t want to sound like a hater. I was looking forward to this too. But this first episode It really annoyed me, the girl is so cute and pretty, perfect, and obviously she’s going to have zero flaws and also be the victim of random crazy people, that for a moment I almost just let all this lazy writing slide right past me.

Ajaxxexx said:
What is this bullshit, a shoujo from the 80s?