Sakurasou no Pet no Kanojou – 07

[rori] Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 07 [DADADAAA].mkv_snapshot_01.12_[2012.11.21_10.28.08] [rori] Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 07 [DADADAAA].mkv_snapshot_09.50_[2012.11.21_10.36.37] [rori] Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 07 [DADADAAA].mkv_snapshot_22.01_[2012.11.21_10.42.40]

Alas, sunk by my own words…

The waters the series is sailing into with that character are riddled with some very obvious mines, but I’m not going to assume the worst – Sakurasou is certainly well-written enough at its best to avoid most of them.

Well, it was a nice dream, anyway.

I’m going to disappoint anyone who expects a long rant about the shortcomings of this episode, because I don’t see much point in it.  If you thought it was great, nothing I say is going to convince you otherwise.  If you thought it sucked the paint off a trailer, you don’t need me to reinforce your opinion.  I’ll just say my favorite part was the bit when the train doors closed and the ED started, and offer a couple of brief observations.

First, what surprises me is the lack of imagination.  Whatever else you might say about Okada Mari, she’s rarely this derivative – when she pisses me off, she does so in interesting ways.  This was very tired, played-out and derivative stuff.  I haven’t seen a writing credit yet but I’m hoping this episodes wasn’t written by her personally.

Second – no, I can’t justify why this was fingernails on a blackboard and I mostly like Little Busters!. But if I were to try in the fuzzy manner which is the only possible way I could, I’d say that LB, for all it’s excess of moe, feels natural about it – as if that were the only way LB could possibly be.  What we saw this week – the scene-wipes being a perfect example – felt very forced and calculating to me.

Finally – what really puzzles me about Sakurasou is just what kind of series this is.  Is this schizoid behavior the source material or the adaptation?  What we saw this week bore little relation to the subtle, character-driven, genre-bending creativity of the first four episodes. 

I’m not giving up on Sakurasou based on this admittedly harrowing turn – though if Yuuko had been added as a regular it might have been a different story – because good bands have bad albums and good shows have bad episodes.  The Nanami arc was a definite step down and her presence at Sakurasou hasn’t helped matters, but they weren’t bad episodes.  I would be lying if I said I wasn’t pessimistic, but a show capable of surprising you with a disastrous misstep can surprise you by righting itself, too.  As always in life, hope for the best and prepare for the rest.

Oh, and the bit where Mashiro stuck rice all over her face was cute, and some of the stuff with Misaki and the driving instructor was fairly funny.

[rori] Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 07 [DADADAAA].mkv_snapshot_00.54_[2012.11.21_10.27.49] [rori] Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 07 [DADADAAA].mkv_snapshot_05.02_[2012.11.21_10.30.57] [rori] Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 07 [DADADAAA].mkv_snapshot_05.28_[2012.11.21_10.31.51]
[rori] Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 07 [DADADAAA].mkv_snapshot_06.03_[2012.11.21_10.32.25] [rori] Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 07 [DADADAAA].mkv_snapshot_06.33_[2012.11.21_10.32.56] [rori] Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 07 [DADADAAA].mkv_snapshot_10.50_[2012.11.21_10.37.37]
[rori] Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 07 [DADADAAA].mkv_snapshot_15.10_[2012.11.21_10.41.58] [rori] Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 07 [DADADAAA].mkv_snapshot_20.01_[2012.11.21_10.42.22] [rori] Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo - 07 [DADADAAA].mkv_snapshot_21.36_[2012.11.21_10.42.26]
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

17 comments

  1. K

    Ya I was not very fond of this episode. The little sister with a bro complex. Its not like we haven't seen this before (note sarcasm)…. O.o

  2. K

    Sorry hit enter too fast. One bright spot was Misaki getting her license. I thought her driving skills were funny.

  3. S

    My guess that this was the filler episode they made to make to bridge the gap between novels, but as you implied, GE, it was soooo bad.

    Ugh…. it was so bad I'm gonna remove that episode when I share this show to friends and pretend that it never existed.

    It complete destroyed the dramatic pacing and cliche busting run its been keeping for the past 6 episodes, and almost seeming to be a narratively troll episode or a fan-written one. The abrupt change in mood dropped it from "top show this season" to "dropped in 3 episodes if this continues"

    I could rant on and on as well, but instead, continuing the assumption that this was a filler episode (introduction of a needless side character, excessive fanservice, zero plot and character development), I shall talk about what I consider the shining example of an excellent filler episode: Toradora episode 14 – The Palmtop Tiger of Happiness.

    It provided everything that series needed in that gap – Introspection by the characters on the end of an arc, some fun fluff, development on partially sidelined main characters, and foreboding on what was to come. The sense of melancholy that was presented complimented incredibly with the developmental and relational shifts that had occurred and that were still occurring between the characters.

    Sakurasou, on the other hand….. sigh….
    I guess the fanservice and plotless zany humor quota has been filled, so can we have our good development and drama now? Pretty please?

  4. A

    Based on the preview, you'll have to wait one more week.
    I won't have to since I found this episode to be funny and enjoyed it. I liked the more serious episodes though.

  5. S

    Apparently this episode was written by the author of the light novels, and yes it was aweful

  6. h

    I've heard this as well. This adaptation is supposed to be of the "concurrent end" type. Think Toradora, Gosick, FMAB, and the like — it's supposed to wrap up with the novel.

    That said, what can we all take out of that very author penning an episode like this?

    Y he b Stalin?

  7. S

    That the actual author penned this episode doesn't bode well for the rest of the series. It makes me wonder what he's done with the rest of the series. Maybe though he's just not good at scripts. It's quite a different skill after all

  8. B

    Yeah the parts with Misaki were pretty much the only part of the episode I enjoyed. Has Japan recently moved to a policy of only allowing each couple to have one child? Because the only way I can explain the extremely overplayed Imouto trope is to assume that no writer in Japan actually has a sister. Honestly, I have no explanation. What is it about this particular character archetype that makes it so popular that literally 90% of all Imouto characters are completely interchangeable? You could replace Yuuko with almost any Imouto character of the last decade without changing the character AT ALL.

    Let's face it though, I knew this episode was going to be a disappointment right away. I can pinpoint the exact time. Exactly 52 seconds in, when he slipped on the banana peel. At that exact moment, I lost all hope in this episode, and a good bit of my hope for the series as a whole.

  9. S

    With the birthrate numbers, the average Japanese under age 35 will not have any full siblings. So, it's not taboo if half your population doesn't know what having a younger sister is like.

  10. E

    One of them is my litlle sister!
    My little sister can't be this cute!

    I wonder why didn't Aoyama confess her love already.

  11. S

    How different the comments on LiA and randomC are. Anything negative on this episode is downvoted to oblivion.
    On-Topic though, I would love Sakurasou if they just stopped with overplaying the Misunderstanding trope. It's so tiring.

  12. A

    I seriously think Shiina's doing it on purpose now (unlike in the starting episodes) which makes it remain funny. That's just me though.

  13. H

    I also think it remains funny, and I agree that Mashiro's doing it on purpose (I think she was probably doing some of it on purpose back at the beginning also), probably because it gets her the attention she desires / craves from Sorata.

  14. i

    I tend to agree with the comments on Random Curiosity on this one. Regardless of the cliches, the episode made me laugh which is rare for anime. It wouldn't work for the whole series but for a single episode, it was entertaining.

  15. K

    I have always disliked the voting on comments system as it drives the people commenting to only make positive comments about a series and reduces open discussions.

  16. L

    Terrible episode. No ifs or buts.

  17. m

    i agree with GuardianEnzo on this one, despite this being one of my favourite series (i cant watch LB frankly)… i only laugh at parts that didn't have yuuko in it, especially at misaki-senpai. while it was well-executed, we don't need another character who only thinks ecchi, goes brocom, and is annoying. I'm sorry, couldn't enjoy it despite the humour and pretty good execution for what could have ended even worse

Leave a Comment