I don’t normally do posts just to say I’m dropping a series, but since I covered half of Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo. it makes sense to do so in this case I think.  Ultimately the equation is pretty straightforward for me.  Firstly it’s getting worse, not better – a common syndrome with Okada-written shows.  Most elementally, I’m simply not enjoying it at this point.  I’ve never reached the fast-forward stage, but this week was close to an uninterrupted eyeroll.  While there’s always a kind of voyeuristic fascination in watching Okada psychoanalyze herself on screen, it never has the legs to carry a series on its own.

Now that Araburu has announced it’s going the full NTR drama route with Niina,. Kazusa and Izumi, the floor could really drop out.  I still hope that doesn’t happen, but it sure looks like it is right now.  And as that’s essentially the core plot of the series, how it goes pretty much determines how Araburu goes.  None of the other romance subplots have any real traction, and the whole business with Milo and Hitoha continues to get more infuriatingly stupid by the week.  Seriously, the both of them need to just get caught in the act and put out of their misery – there was a time I’d have felt bad for Milo having his career wrecked over it, but at this point he’s behaving so recklessly that he deserves it.

Is Okada hinting that Kazusa and Niina are going to develop feelings for each other – is that what the whole culture fest panto is about?  It would at the very least be a move away from the more obvious drudgery of that thread, even if it would be a too-convenient narrative escape hatch.  The fact that it’s reached that kind of choose your poison stage for me, though, is more than sufficient evidence that it’s time to pull the plug on this show.  I know I should have done it sooner, but it’s just been that sort of season.