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Why I dropped Kotoura-san after 3 episodes

Another item knocked off my anime backlog, at least. First Barakamon, now Kotoura-san. If I keep dropping them this quickly, I’ll be done with the list in no time. But I don’t just drop series for the sake of dropping them. I am actively looking for new things to watch and enjoy, and it pains me, not least because of wasted time and bandwidth, when I have to drop things. However as with Barakamon I had my reasons, which I will now proceed to explain.

Reason 1 – One episode was enough. The premise is cute: Girl with power to read minds finds herself alienated from friends and family until she meets one boy who swears to stick by her no matter what. A budding romance begins. It was sweet, it was interesting, but it didn’t need to go beyond episode one because it’s a foregone conclusion how things are going to work out – assuming the opening theme didn’t spoil the romantic developments for you.

Reason 2 – It can’t decide what kind of show it wants to be. Does it want to be a high school romance? A tragic drama? A slapstick high school comedy? No, it wants to be all of the above, but it’s not particularly good at any of them. The romance would have been okay if Manabe didn’t blurt out his love for Kotoura right in episode 2. It was like, you what now? Because it’s easy to understand what Kotoura might see in him, but since when did he start liking her in a special way? What does he see in her? Isn’t he just falling in love with her because the plot demands it?!

The tragic drama part might have been okay as well if it wasn’t sandwiched between the romance slice-of-life and the stupid comedy. As it is, those scenes always seems to come out of nowhere and completely disrupt whatever mood you’ve got going on. You can’t relax and enjoy the show when there’s always some CRAAAAWLLLING IIIIN MY SKIIIIN waiting around the next corner. Especially since with the exception of Kotoura everyone else’s problems seem self-manufactured. Heck, even Kotoura should be old enough and wise enough to keep her mouth shut and hide her powers. Dummy.

Reason 3 – Too much too soon. I already mentioned above how quickly Manabe fell in love with Kotoura and how weird that was. I wonder if things were rushed because it’s a 13-episode series. No idea how long the original manga is. But apart from the confession there’s also this drama with some guys beating up Manabe and Kotoura deciding “It’s all my fault, I have to disappear forever!” and stuff. And it’s only episode 3! Like, already? The characters have barely been established, the ESP club has barely started to know each other and you’re already dropping all this shoujo manga drama on my head? I couldn’t even bring myself to watch episode 4, I was just like ENOUGH.

Reason 4 – It’s rather vulgar. A large part of the so-called comedy in Kotoura-san consists of the male lead fantasizing about her in compromising positions, knowing that she can read his mind. So he’s always thinking stuff like this just to tease her:

First off, I don’t see anything comical about sexual harassment. It’s not like Kotoura welcomes those thoughts, since he specifically does it to discomfit her. I don’t see anything loving or romantic about it either. It’s just crude, vulgar and unwelcome. It made me dread every scene where Manabe showed up, because in addition to his thoughts, he just wouldn’t shut up about perverted stuff. 3 episodes of that was more than enough.

Roundup – Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life (Proverbs 4:23).

The further I get in my Christian walk, the stricter I am about the things I will and will not allow into my life. This especially applies to media and entertainment, which is mainly made by unbelievers for unbelievers. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2), so even if the world says it’s perfectly okay to have a vulgar, foul-mouth, perverted protagonist or says that mentally undressing someone you claim to love is fine, I know better. That’s why Jesus said “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28)

Even if everything else about Kotoura-san was above reproach I would probably have dropped it anyway because of Reason 4. The other reasons just made it easier to do so. Dropped without regrets, unless you count wishing I had just stopped after episode one.

Namiuchigawa no Muromi-san anime review

Also known as ‘Muromi on the Shore’, Namiuchigawa no Muromi-san is a 13-minute 13-episode comedy series about a boy named Taku who fishes up a mermaid named Muromi one day only to find that mermaids once caught aren’t so easily gotten rid of.

There isn’t much story to speak of. Most episodes consist of Tak bravely trying to fish at the same spot while Muromi and an increasingly crazy cast of friends show up and get in his way. It turns out Muromi has been alive for millions of years and knows all kinds of mythical creatures like the (stupidly adorable) Yeti and (spacey fanservicey) Levia-san. So every episode has the gang saying and doing crazy things like they were the most natural thing in the world, like Muromi going out drinking with the Kraken or Levia-san casually blowing a hole in an ice floe to threaten a bunch of penguins.

Is it funny? Sometimes. Especially in the beginning when you don’t know what Muromi is going to pull next. “Oh yeah, the mythical sea palace? It went out of business a couple of years ago.” “Atlantis? Went up in flames. Best fireworks show ever.” Unlike most other such shows, Muromi and co. don’t particularly try to hide their existence from human beings. In fact they’re so used to being among people that they ride around on skateboards saying hi to everyone and the only one to bat an eyelash is Takkun, though he gives up pretty quickly.

Is it a good show? Umm, well… Almost. The best thing about it is that each episode is short, so it’s over before you know it and you’re left wanting more. And in the early episodes it’s full of surprises and you’re always looking forward to the next revelation about mermaid society. Also some of the characters like Yeti and Harpy are completely adorable both in terms of design and behavior. Yeti especially is really, really cute. Is this what they call… moe?!

Buuut… some of the jokes fell a bit flat sometimes. Like Muromi and her buddies washing up on a shore drunk is just …huhhh… And all the episodes revolving around the kappa were just depressing and offputting. Don’t put such ugly characters in my cute series! The worst part of the show was the fanservice, the sheer tastelessness of some of it, especially the scenes where the characters pretend to fellate cucumbers just because… what? I have no idea. I had to skip a couple of episodes and end the OAV early because of that.

So I started out very enthusiastic about Muromi on the Shore, but the longer the show went on the older the jokes got and the more disgusting the show itself grew. I’d give a 7/10 to the first half and a 3/10 to the second half. Overall though, since it’s only about half the length of most anime shows, it’s a good show to check out if you’re looking for a slapstick comedy and don’t mind crude fanservice as much as I do.

Unlimited Fafnir + Seiken Tsukai no World Break = Dropped.

Still trying some new series to see if there’s anything worth following, but I don’t think I’m going to find anything else. When you get this far in anime-watching there’s a lot of “been there, seen that” out there, and there’s no reason to force myself to try anything less than arresting when my backlog keeps growing every day.

Unlimited Fafnir – Monsters appeared out of nowhere and only kids with special powers can fight them. Kantai Collection has pretty much the same premise, and while I haven’t seen Attack on Titan, doesn’t that also have to do with fighting giant world-destroying monsters? And that’s not even going back in history to look at the Evangelions and Rahxephons.

But I didn’t drop it because of the lack of originality (which I don’t really care about, TBH), I dropped it because five minutes after the show started, the main character walked onto a beach to find a naked girl bathing there. “Oh, it’s going to be one of those shows, is it?” I thought. And as I suspected, right after the credits there were more comical hijinks involving said naked girl and so I closed the episode barely 7 minutes into the show. Dropped with extreme prejudice.

Seiken Tsukai no World Break – Magic high school series with kids in touch with their past lives or something like that. The action-packed first few minutes were intriguing, but I dropped it halfway through episode 1 because the characters were annoying. Some loud-mouthed girl with a brocon fetish who can talk a good game but can’t back it up and a milquetoast main character whose face I had to look online to remember and some other girls who will probably all be interested in main guy. Blah. There are better series out there, I’m convinced of that, so dropped.

Koufuku Graffiti – Didn’t even finish episode 1 before I dropped it

I thought for sure Koufuku Graffiti would be my favorite show of the season, but I couldn’t even get through episode 1. I’m not that crazy about Japanese food, but I like food (that’s why I’m still alive) and I enjoy cooking and cooking shows, so a food show should have been right up my alley. I also like slice-of-life and cute girls doing cute stuff shows so this should have been the perfect show.

And yet… this is the most boring thing I’ve watched all year! (Shh, I know it’s only February) Maybe the show just came on too heavy for a first episode, but it just wasn’t fun at all. First off, the whole ‘sexualized reactions to eating good food’ was completely off-putting. The minute the episode opened with the main character moaning and blushing over a bit of rice (complete with ‘sexy’ closeups of her lips) the show’s days were numbered. It was in dire straits, but then they made it worse with the main character’s boring voice. And her annoying introspection, boo hoo hoo, I’m all alone, I wish I had a boyfriend. Just shut up and eat your rice, you whiner!

After that her distant cousin (?) comes over to stay and she cooks her some stuff. I like nabe, but it’s just nabe, stop trying to make it sound like it’s anything special. That might be the problem with the show’s food – it’s hard to convey that everyday foods suddenly taste super-wonderful just because the some anime characters say so. “No, no, it’s really really good!” Uhhh… yeah. I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.

And then there was a long stretch without food, just with the cousin Kirin showing off her childishness and selfishness. Spoiled brats like her give only children a bad name. How old are these girls supposed to be again? Probably 3rd year of high school? Pssh, kids. Anyway there was a lot of talking about regular udon (it’s just udon, sheesh) and then another (!) scene of the main character slavering over inarizushi (it’s just rice and fried tofu, sheesh) and then blah blah my mom and blah blah my grandma… I think? I skipped around towards the end.

Same problem with other slice of life shows: I couldn’t find a character I liked and wanted to follow. And while life does involve just sitting around talking about our families, Koufuku Graffiti was trying way too hard to elicit certain emotions from the viewer instead of just letting them flow naturally. And a simple ‘getting to know each other’ show doesn’t need unnecessary blushing or sexualized images. And finally the food just wasn’t that special. Verdict: dropped like a hot bowl of kitsune udon.

Saekano episodes 1-2 impressions. Kept for later.

At last! I found a Winter 2015 anime that I actually plan to pick up when it’s complete. I tried to avoid reading up on Saekano beyond what the title said (Saekano = short for ‘Saenai Kanojo/Heroine no Sodatekata’ = ‘How to turn a boring girl into a heroine’), so I almost quit when I accidentally started watching Episode 00 and it opened up with naked girls at an onsen. So not my kind of show at all. But the title intrigued me so I closed that episode and tried episode 01 instead.

A game-loving boy whose name I can’t remember picks up a girl’s hat and is struck by how magical the moment is (uh… he’s a teenager, I guess). He decides to make a romantic visual novel based on that moment and tries to recruit his generic tsundere childhood friend and his generic tall and snarky beauty friend to help him, but they turn him down. Then it turns out his dream girl with the beret is actually his dull unremarkable classmate whose name I also can’t remember, but I really like her. His goal now is to turn her into a heroine that will move hearts, or something bizarre like that.

All I need to motivate me to follow a show is to find one character I like and can latch on to, and that has come in the form of Heroine X (really can’t remember her name, can’t be bothered to look it up… Megumi?). She may seem boring at first, as per the title, but that’s because she’s the only normal person in a cast full of anime otaku/otaku stereotypes. The other girls’ personalities have been seen a thousand times before, same with main guy, so it’s interesting to throw a relatively normal person into the mix and see what happens.

Come to think of it, this series reminds me a lot of Bokutachi wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, especially the sniping and bickering dynamic between the two lead girls. They even look similar, and the black-haired one keeps getting the better of the blonde one, who has a secret passion for pornographic material, and so on and so forth. I wouldn’t be surprised if Saekano started out as a “What if” scenario for that kind of series and took off from there. Let’s hope this doesn’t degenerate into a harem show and that it actually ends well.

It helps that I like video games and dating sims like Tokimeki Memorial so I don’t mind seeing the effort that goes into creating one of them. I enjoy video game parody anime too. If they could wrap this up in 12 episodes, maximum 24, that would be great. When the series ends I’ll watch episode 3 and 4 and marathon the rest if I still think it’s good at the point.