I’ve absolutely decided to drop Kuzu no Honkai (you could probably guess that after last week’s post), but I’ve written so much about it over the past six weeks that it didn’t seem to write to dump it without writing a short wrap-up.
The reasons for this are no different than what I’ve been saying all along – we’ve just reached a point where the equation is too heavily-tilted in favor of hating the series. It actually took longer than I expected, so I’ll give it credit – Kuzu is technically very proficient. And like any proper provocateur tale, it’s good at drawing you in and making you curious despite your better judgment. But the emperor truly has no clothes, and this episode was the final hand in this unpleasant game of strip poker. This show is really just awful people doing stupid things and clumsy exposition, with the goal of riling up the audience (in one of two ways, and I don’t really think it cares which).
As I’ve said before the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference – and even if I come to hate a series, I’ll give it some credit if it can at least keep me from feeling indifferent. There’s talent on display here both in terms of the writing and production, but it’s not being put to good use in this writer’s opinion. If you’ve enjoying it, I wish you nothing but satisfaction over the final four eps – as for me, I’ve held out for as long as I can.
JJ
February 24, 2017 at 3:51 amWell it was coming (pun unintended), just like Leicester dropping Ranieri …
But in this case it makes sense on all levels. I’m still finding the rampant idiocy on display amusing more often than not, so I’ll be watching on.
Slashe
February 24, 2017 at 12:19 pmKuzu no Honkai feels like what would happen if you have a purely masturbatory drama without any other storytelling elements to hold it up (humour,setting building,etc), just endless navel-gazing monologue without any proper respite to allow the audience to take it in.
The exciting becomes interesting, the interesting becomes mundane, the mundane becomes tiresome and the tiresome becomes sickening.
The other main problem with the series is that it overuses “tell” instead of “show”, not trusting in the audience to comprehend its characters on their own, beating us over the head with their internal monologues over and over again.
As you said, the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference, and though I’ll continue with the series because of many points of emotional resonance and wish fulfillment, it’s with glazed eyes where I barely listen to half of what the characters are monologueing.
Guardian Enzo
February 24, 2017 at 1:08 pmHave a cookie for that one.
Karmafan
February 24, 2017 at 4:08 pmI feel the same about Masamune-kun no Revenge. All the MCs are just unlikable and I think I would like the series better if it was a survival anime and I could root for one character while the rest get killed off each week one at a time. When anime makers make a series and the cast is full of unlikable characters its a downer for us as an audience.
mweloo
February 25, 2017 at 2:55 amI wasn’t even expecting you to blog this this episode. I thought your tone in last week’s entry had sealed the deal.
While I can’t blame anybody for dropping it, I’m sticking with Kuzu no Honkai, though. For every bit that’s repulsive, there another moment that’s intriguing, and I ultimately find myself morbidly fascinated.
Karmafan
February 25, 2017 at 1:11 pmKinda like slowing down to look at a car accident?
Rikarudo
February 25, 2017 at 3:38 pmSad to hear you go. I love the anime for the questions that are brought up about live/relationships. In this episode:
Movie: I never knew how wonderful it is to be in love.
Moca: What about live that never happens? Is it just misery?
Rikarudo
February 25, 2017 at 3:39 pmlove*
Kuzu no Honkai Fan
March 2, 2017 at 6:40 pmWhat a shocker. I totally didn’t see this coming.