ZeroOBK wrote...
"We've been left behind", "we have unrequited love", blah, blah, blah. It's hardly even worth calling it subtext.
Try again. You have only understood one aspect of it: that they've been left behind. The unrequited love isn't even subtext, as you pointed out.
Rape, Rape, Rape, Rape. That single event was such a dumb and cliche and narratively jarring thing to do that it became the source of all my annoyances. Everything that came "from" it are annoying too, but to a much lesser degree. And to add some context so that you might be able to understand my sheer hatred of that event, I've watched Ookami-san and Fractale, which also had such half-assed off-screen events.
Cliche? Yes. However, my point is that it naturally flowed from what was set up previously. Dumb? No.
I cannot help you if you can't appreciate a work on its own by letting its internal logic work around, instead of allowing outside rehashes pervade into your interpretation of the events at hand. This is a perfectly fine perspective to have, though I believe that alienating every work from something done before and observing its
own pluses and minuses against itself is a much more engaging way to enjoy writing. I do not wish to get into too much detail about the intricacies of cliches in story writing and how they work in my viewing style, but I must say that unoriginality is frowned upon, of course.
Because all of this crap is coming off from that sorry excuse of an event (a.k.a. the attempted rape).
You have the definition incorrect for "plot device", like I said. Use the term correctly.
You don't have to answer this question, but I'm curious: would you define the differences, from what you understand, between melodrama, forced drama, and drama? Also, which ones are bad or good? Even if you chose not to answer that previous question, I would like to ask you the following questions. What type, of the above three, do you consider each of the following?: Menma's tears in the first episode, Anaru's talk with Tsurumi during the cookout, Yukiatsu's monologue after being caught, Menma's tears during that monologue, the attempted rape, the train ride after the attempted rape, Popo's request for Menma to tell him her wish, the scene at school with Jinta's white knighting, and Menma's tears over Jinta & co reminding her mother of Menma? I believe it will help me to understand why you think as you do.
I won't deny that as a possibility. I just find it implausible that the person would only hang around long enough to see her, but not long enough to see the struggle.
Fair enough. This really only matters in terms of how far you're willing to stretch your disbelief. I believe it's a fair stretch, but you may believe differently.
She talks more easily to people she used to talk to a lot. Big surprise there. She doesn't even start the conversations. Yukiastu was the one doing all the talking on the train
First of all, you used "more". This means that you recognize that development did occur, or that you need to chose your words more carefully, as a comparative demonstrates difference. Difference, in a progressive internal setting, is the definition of change. Change in a character's internal setting (in this case, Anaru) is the essence of character development, of which you claimed there was none. And seeing that you have not refuted my claim of there being a negative direction of development for Anaru, does this mean that you agree to that, bringing it back to my original point, that Anaru did develop?
Secondly, you're factually incorrect, as Anaru did, in fact, talk on the train. However, I suppose you meant it in a figurative sense, and so I will ignore that.
Thirdly, this is once again a matter of you missing the subtext behind the scene. There is more to the scene than making Anaru able to more "easily talk to the people she used to." I
hope that you are at least in knowledge of this already, but I believe it is necessary to say, given your understanding of the train scene: in writing, choosing to
do nothing is an action, and every single action has subtext behind it. Anaru "says" much in that scene.
and what Naruko said to Tsuruko is a continuation of the "You go with the flow, your friends are sluts" conversation.
Yes. But in that scene, Anaru actually expressed herself and attempted to JUSTIFY herself, instead of displaying anger. That is the most important part of it.
Oh man, how can I not laugh at this? Pushing a vague and unverifiable "education" forward to make it seem like you are more credible. What a joke.
Ad hominem, I see. Vague? It depends how "vague" you think the educational value of full-semester classes at a university level is. To me, it seems as though classes are
fairly (read: largely, at least the ones I take) educational, no? Of course it is unverifiable, and I fully expect skepticism. However, I said so not to seem more credible, but to give you a fair warning so that you understand that I am far more well-versed in the know-hows of writing than you appear to be, going off what I have observed in your previous comments, especially since you made that comment about character development and direction.
I know that the writer was intentionally trying to inspire anger/frustration. Unfortunately, my perspective is that it was poorly written into the plot, so rather than having my hate directed where the writer wanted it directed, towards the guy and Naruko, it wound up going towards the event itself.
I'm not sure how many times I will have to stress this, but here I go. The attempted rape was not poorly written into the plot. It flows naturally from setup given by Naruko's observations of Anaru's friends, how her friends act, and the actions that the man made previous to the actual attempt. It was always a possibility. I hope that you mean that the rape scene itself, and not its occurrence, was poorly written, because you would be correct.
And that whatever developments have occurred from that event have not been enough to justify it in my eyes.
To each his own, at this point. I believe character development is a fair price to pay for an admittedly poorly-written moment of conflict, but you may differ.
This is related to the situation that we spoke about in the paragraph just above. The direction my emotions are supposed to take towards an event become diffused if I already know the outcome.
This is related to viewing styles. Nothing more to be said here.
I wonder if that is really the truth, but I suppose it doesn't matter in the end. It's not like arguing isn't fun.
I had not offered a contradictory viewpoint, only parallel ones. There is no reason to doubt my claim. Arguing for the sake of arguing is unsightly, and I will not do so.
