Five weeks in for a one-cour series is definitely starting to be fish or cut bait territory. Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo. isn’t an easy one to be sure – indifference always makes it easier to drop a show than conflicted feelings. There’s an undeniable fascination in watching Okada Mari engage in self-psychoanalysis on screen, but that only goes so far. At some point this all starts to seem like drama for its own sake, and that’s usually the point where I disembark from the train (that was for you, Izumi-kun).
For starters the animation and especially art really nosedived this week, for those of you that place a lot of emphasis on such things. That’s rarely a deal-breaker for me but somewhat counter-intuitively, it can be as much or more of a problem in character drama/comedy as action series, because where so much emphasis is placed on facial expressions this degree of off-model drawing is a distraction at the very least. You know a guy like Andou Masahiro will make the most of what he has, but he’s a director used to big budgets so I don’t think it’s a given he’ll prove adept with a clearly limited one.
Apart from that, there was a mixed bag of plot developments. At least it doesn’t seem as if there’s going to be a big NTR drama with Niina and Izumi – I got a bit worried when they bonded over trains, but I honestly don’t think either of them would ever go there. Izumi is such a relentlessly transparent and straightforward person that it doesn’t even occur to him to hide their meeting from Kazusa (and even Sugawara-san tries to come clean about it). I get the feeling that Niina keeps trying to catch Izumi in a “gotcha” moment but she’s barking up the wrong tree – he really is that decent a person that he doesn’t need to fake it.
I was less pleased with most of the developments on the other relationship fronts, starting with the whole Milo/Hitoha subplot. It looks like Okada is going to play up Milo’s perverted side after all, which is kind of disappointing. And the whole business with Sugawara’s old acting coach Saegusa-sensei – let’s just say my reaction was about the same as Izumi’s. I did get some good chuckles out of that whole business with Sugimoto-kun and the splitting of the check at the pasta restaurant – I’m a pretty big believer that kids this age should be splitting the check anyway, but Sugimoto being all magnanimous about eating ¥200 and Momo’s bemused reaction were the funniest part of the episode. As for Amagiri and Sonezaki, well – it’s cute, though she’s still being kind of a jerk about the whole thing in the guise of shyness.
It’s certainly not impossible that Araburu could do something next week to win me over with the writer and director involved. But it’s starting to look pretty clear that the series’ intentions aren’t especially ambitious – I don’t get the sense it’s trying to be either engage in serious relationship deconstruction or re-define the nature of the way girls’ attitudes towards sex and love are depicted in anime. There’s certainly nothing wrong with Araburu being a straightforward raunchy sex comedy, especially from the female POV, but if it’s going to work on that level it’s going to have to be consistently both raunchier and more comedic than it has been the last few weeks.
elianthos
August 4, 2019 at 9:23 amSo… the nosedive was more apparent to me during Izumi and Nina’s table conversation (btw LOL is a train appareciations weirdos duo alliace being born?) , which is a pity but not super bad. Btw Izumi’s reation to Nina’s tale were pretty on point. Creepo Director would not be the first artist with sublimated (?) pedo tendencies around in the fictional world or RL fuelling thier artistic output… YMMV but the first one that popped to mind for me was a painter named Balthus. Google up his paintings. Notice anything?
But in terms of the girls’ development and parallels I was struck by how Nina was trying to hold his attention. If you have ever been groomed by an adult as a child it’s a rather uncomfortable momet to say the least, while also recalling how intense children’s feelings are and how far the ripples reach.
Also the moment she comes out to him and instigates contact is a bit of callback to Hongo’s actions last week I feel. How much and in what way is yet up in the air, but as of now it outlined Hongo’s immaturity and her mix of curiosity and wish for validation, plus hormones muddling the waters further. Girl is desperate for a mentor among all of this. Milo’s solution is similarly a questionable minefield and only its outcome will give me a meter to judge… it could be a stroke of genius on his part after all IF she chickens out every single challenge for instance. She still gets the tingly rush like she did this week but nothing has really happened. Win-win. It’s a fiiiiiine (plot)line to walk for sure.
Now on to less controversial fare… Momoko’s suitor lost some points there. Duuuuude. Do not let me have second thougts about your vaguely squinty-eyed character design. Please just be some awkward clueless slip x bragging based on little experience, ill internet pill advice and a meager wallet. Just split so that everyone pay whatever it’s due, less talking (read: bragging to impress) and more listening XD.
Btw I don’t think Nina is barking to the wrong tree. She might have but going by her behaviour around Izumi and telling him of Kazusa’s crush she deemed his worthy. He passed the decency litmus test. She approves of him as Kazusa’s love interest. ( I’m now waiting to see if she is actively going to play Cupid for them).
And to end in dere-dere sweetness… aw the Club Prez Good Boy ship is sailing? Awwwww. She is her worst enemy – highstrung and imaginary high standards – but as long as they are somewhat intellectually compatible – see aforementioned imaginary high standard of the literary/scholar self-image kind – they could go places :,> .
Guardian Enzo
August 4, 2019 at 10:15 amWhy does Izumi need to pass the test of someone who threatens to blackmail him with illicit video of him not doing anything wrong in the first place?
elianthos
August 4, 2019 at 11:19 am@Enzo: did she actually mean to threaten him then? Has she threatened him since? Is she threatening him NOW? Never mind. Cheers and peace out as we sail as two ships in the night at mutual distance and opposite directions regarding this (dis)course I guess.
Guardian Enzo
August 4, 2019 at 12:23 pmI can’t imagine she’s so naive she didn’t realize that threatening him was exactly what she was doing.
This show would score a lot of points if just once someone who’d been an asshole to someone else actually apologized to that person for being an asshole to them.
elianthos
August 4, 2019 at 11:05 pmTry. You might get surprised at how many blind spots people have about and in themselves or how they come off to others.
She is pretty naive still… for all all flashes of insight, seeming clarity of focus in her goals – or an acute yet narrow sense of transience, which is party experienced and partly likely borrowed from literature and her acting stint – she is still pretty much a kid fumbling around and doing all sort of things that might or might not have a good/clear reason beyond chance and curiosity – and testing up/sizing up the love interest of one of her only two allegedly close friends. Do not forget this little detail. It’s a very teenager girl thing to do. You watch out for your friends especially, crush screening with or without being soliciteted by the crushing party happen in a variety of ways – And a kid who totally forgot to hide and run while filming that video you are still so fond of bring up as a still looming threat.
Unless the narrative decides to bring up the matter along the intention and direction you stated that matter has been dropped. Her attitude progression towards him is on the growing favourable so far. He’s a good person in her eyes and not dangerous or ill-intentioned, if a tad weird. – As long as she believes him to be so he has nothing to fear – provided she still even haven’t deleted the video already. Especially after their conversation ths week -.
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How many teenagers in your experience or in general have the maturity and guts to own their own mistakes towards the people they hurt btw? Or how many adults for that matter? And do they do that every single time? In a an ideal world. When that happens is a wonderful welcome bonus, power to them and mad respect. But outside of that… eh.
Adolescence is a savage season indeed. At least they have that excuse for them. Before you know better – if and when you ever reach the stage of knowing at least a little better, which also implies processing motifs actions and consequences and a ton of empathy aka learning to be in other people’s shoes to an extent – you have to make/experience/live through mistakes big and small. The gooey unsigthly mess of a worm before it maaaaybe it manages to crack the chrysalis and become a [sometimes] lovely and able-to-fly butterfly.
What Okada is still managing to do for me here so far is making me love these characters even when/if I don’t necessarily like them, in a way that feels both light and unbalanced at the same time. For all her brand of extra her writing is almost… kind? Here. A smiling rolleye. So far. Who knows what she’ll bring on in the next weeks 😛
Guardian Enzo
August 4, 2019 at 11:52 pmNah, she knew exactly what she was doing. Maybe she didn’t plan on going through with it, but she was wielding that video like a billy club. I don’t doubt that the matter has been dropped – that’s part of the problem.
It seems to me that Okada is trying to fudge the line between this being a serious relationship story where actions matter and have consequences, and a screwball comedy where she can indulge her love for humiliation and fetishes as much as she wants for the sake of a lark. As a result it’s not really succeeding at either, and as a commenter pointed out earlier (I apologize, I forget who it was) she’s kind of pulling her punches even on the raunchiness side if she were trying to make this a “girls’ American Pie:”.
It’s still more interesting than most of the other stuff on this threadbare schedule, and so far it’s avoiding the worst possible reaction – indifference. But on the whole, this show is kind of a mess.
elianthos
August 4, 2019 at 9:25 amP.S.: typo city and missing words, alas. I meant ‘trying to hold his (Creepo Director’s) attention’ et cetera.