I wouldn’t deny that I have a certain amount of cynicism in my makeup.  But I don’t think I’m over the top that way – I think the balance is pretty average to be honest.  But Deaimon is triggering the cynic in me in a big way.  I want to like this show so badly – every time I walk around my neighborhood it’s a Deaimon anime pilgrimage.  But it just plays as really pushy and over-sentimental to me, and that’s a tough thing to get past.

In the first place, this Goddess-worship of young girls is one of anime’s creepiest traits, and one which I find at least as damaging in the big picture as outright fetishizing them.  Already we’re seeing this cycle repeating with Deaimon (it’s Mitsuru this time).  Portraying girls as utterly selfless and more perfect than perfect isn’t doing them any favors.  Men have no right to expect them to be like that (neither do women for that matter).  I find Itsuka irritatingly cutesy far more than Anya (both the writing and performance have a lot to do with that) and Mitsuru is almost like a parody character of the trope she represents.  Except she’s not.

Also, the whole thing with everyone (except Mitsuru of course, as she’s perfect) treating Nagomu like crap is already tired.  I guess it’s supposed to be funny seeing everyone insult him constantly but that’s another element here that’s so cliche one could almost believe it was satire.  If this is what his parents are like I certainly don’t blame him for fleeing to Tokyo – the only mistake Nagomu made was coming back.  The narrative sort of alternates between reminding us what a loser he is and trying to make him seem sympathetic and wise, the result being that each undercuts the other.

Ultimately, as I noted in the first impressions post, I find the writing to be pretty push-button here.  And that means what’s supposed to come off as emotional just comes off as manipulative.  Some part of me feels like Deaimon is better than I’m giving it credit for, that I’m just grossly mismatched with it for some reason.  Maybe that’s the case, but I can only go by my honest reactions, and this series just seems to pull all my triggers.  I want it to work but at this point I couldn’t honestly say I’m very optimistic.