The first episode was quite good actually. It starts with some quote by some famous.. someone that don’t serve any purpose, introduces it’s main & a few side ‘characters’, gives a vague idea on how the show’s going to be and then ends on a tense note that makes you click that next episode’ button. But never did I felt it was interesting ever again after that episode (except maybe that last episode). I was watching the whole thing feeling as dead as the MC. This Anime actually had something going for it; an insanely luxurious setting that offered some interesting scenarios to look forward to, an eye catching art style and some interesting dynamics within it’s non-battle battle like plot, but all of this felt very meaningless because of it’s;
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I’m saying this once again; “I don’t have a problem with fanservice, as long as it doesn’t interfere with what’s happening”. If you watched this anime just for the fanservice then lucky you! You probably had a blast watching this. By adding fanservice, it destroyed the very slight personality it tried to create so hard, which made them completely shallow, even though they only have a paper-thin personality that barely makes you care for them.
Let’s take Kushida for example. There’s this scene at the end episode 3 or 4,
If you’ve a liking towards these kind of “cool” characters, you might like him and he actually serves well as a self-insert but he basically destroys whatever the slightest drama or emotion that has in this Anime. He feels nothing, he’s completely numb to all kinds of emotion & forgot how to be a human. The anime throws some flashbacks about his childhood to cover it up which gave it an excuse for making him so unnecessarily lifeless. And we have to see this whole mess from his POV. His pretentious philosophical views and shallow personality gets projected onto the world & characters around him and reflects exactly the same.
Shallow & Pretentious that takes away all the interesting drama and destroys it's own characters with excessive fanservice and lifeless protagonist.
Watch Oregairu or Hyouka which are much better highschool Anime, that also have a similar but better protagonist.
THAT'S A BAD IDEA. Because it means making the characters as objects and only exist to just get lust over which completely ruins their character.
Just for sake of the discussion, let's take an example of a story about a wife & husband who're struggling to have sex since they lack knowledge. In a story like that, it doesn't feel wrong or weird to have some explicit or fanservice scenes (it's weird if they don't have one actually). Why? Because in a story like that, it fits to it's subject matter or theme it's trying to explore (I'm not defending every fanservice Anime btw, many do exist as baits and I've fallen myself into a few baits as well). But when you add fanservice unnecessarily, it not only cheapens a character but also destroys the interest of the main plot and this Anime does exactly that. This Anime is a setup which already is pretty weak with it's plot, world and paper-thin characters that's barely holding any interest. And by adding excessive fanservice, they just completely destroyed that small interest too, and making them completely shallow.
Emotionless, Clever and Overpowered. A perfect self-insert protagonist. I'm not demeaning self-insertable characters actually. They provide enjoyment by flexing their unique antics which comes with the plot that normal people can only dream about and I would be lying if I said I don't like self-inserts.
For the sake of comparison, let's take Oreki from Hyouka, one of my favourite characters. Oreki is lazy, academically average and creates some complex "Energy Conservation" concept as an excuse for his social inactivity & laziness. Yet he has a surprisingly keen eye when it comes to mystery and always has a cute girl fawning over him. That's pretty self insertable too but why I also like his character is because he cares for his friends problems & opinions and goes through some challenges that question his own character & decisions.
But what's wrong with this guy? He projects his emotionless attitude onto the world and characters so much so that I stopped caring about these characters anymore. He solves everything with his hidden intellect, gives away all the credit to someone else (because being center of attention is troublesome, right?), quotes some random philosophy like he knows everything and doesn't exhibit any sort of emotion even in the slightest, like he's completely dead inside. And those flashbacks feels like a cheap excuse to cover up his lifeless personality rather than making him a compelling character which is what the Anime should've done but failed miserably. But I'll say this (which I missed addressing before). His ending monologue is actually one thing I liked about him but for completely different (& probably wrong) reason.
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