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Old 03-01-2013, 03:45 PM   #101
Talon87
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Episode 20. That pre-opening credits scene ...

Spoiler: show
So after teasing that Nanami would get shafted-stuck with Miyahara, and then having her flatly refuse him when he confessed that he liked her, we now have her out of nowhere teeny tinily crushing on the guy? Oh come on. This is the worst. Okay, maybe not the worst, but it's still pretty bad. You couldn't just have had her lose at this point and not paired off with anybody? You had to pair her off with Boring Side Character Guy? And not just that but after she'd previously turned him down? Lame.

Continuing into the first third of the episode ...

Spoiler: show
I'm surprised that Chihiro-sensei fought hard to keep Sakura Hall going. I figured she was the reason it was being dissolved. (Because she didn't want to stay at Suimei or because she didn't want to be a chaperone anymore or something.) Especially when they revealed that the building's still got five years of life left in it before it needs to be torn down or renovated.

The idea of the school wanting to tear Sakura Hall down to get Shiina to move back into the dorms is pretty absurd. A, they know she can't take care of herself. B, they know a dorm is not a good place for someone like that: a house with family or caretakers would be much better. C, they knew she wanted to draw manga when she came to Japan. (Wasn't that sort of the point of her enrolling in Suimei anyway? What need for an art school has a prodigy whose paintings fetch millions? D, her moving into the dorms is no guarantee that she'd abandon working on manga. I mean, there is just so much wrong with this latest plot impetus.

What is up now with Aoyama? Before it was "if I fail my audition then I have to drop out of school and head home." Okay, that makes sense. Now it's "If I pass my audition, I'll have the money to afford living in the dorms and so I'll have to." This doesn't make any sense! You put Jin in Sakura Hall because he was particularly licentious? You put Misaki there for being a bit nutty? Why the hell can't Nanami choose to remain there? You're saying she HAS TO move out just because she's a Normal and she'll now be able to afford proper living once again? Again, as above, this feels like a very forced plot impetus. One has to wonder if this is J.C. Staff made-for-TV material to wrap up the TV series and give us a made-for-TV ending since we're nowhere near finished with the books or whether this is actually how the author of the books plans to end the books themselves.

Just finished the episode. It was okay in my opinion.

Spoiler: show
Nanami failing is something that took balls to do, if this is in the books and not just made for television. But her experience of sticking around with a group of friends and trying to keep upbeat even after she knew she had failed and would be leaving soon hit a little close to home which made my stomach kind of knot up.

I dunno, this story arc just feels very made for TV to me. I'll be surprised if it's not.

Interested to see what becomes of Nanami.

Final scene seems to suggest Mashiro plans to move back into the dorms to help save Sakura Hall.

Oh, one last thing: lol @ how obvious it is (to us the audience) that the woman Sorata's mentor is talking about is Chihiro.

Now to read what Deo thought of this episode ...

Spoiler: show
Ryuunosuke episode: I didn't really perceive it that way. It felt like more of a "everyone's there" episode and with the main focus on 1) Sorata, 2) Nanami, and 3) Ryuunosuke, in no particular order. If I think of it your way, I do like the episode more. His portion did feel to be more authentic / less made-for-TV to me than Sorata's portion did.

Maid-chan's origins: totally failed to notice that. I'd say that's a good bet, whether it's book canon too or only TV canon.

8.5/10: well I definitely didn't feel that from the episode. ^^; Mine was more of a 6.5/10, somewhere in between "fair" and "good". Maybe 7/10. I dunno. I'm just really bothered by the ridiculousness of the current impetus driving the story, i.e. the imminent destruction of Sakura Hall unless Mashiro moves out. Glad you enjoyed it a lot though.

Last edited by Talon87; 03-01-2013 at 04:17 PM.
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Old 03-03-2013, 01:09 AM   #102
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Book Comparison:

So, like I promised, I decided to check up on the books to see whether the current story arc is made for TV or not. But first, I went back to where we last left off and decided to see how closely J.C. Staff has been sticking to the novels. Now, I'm not gonna lie: I skimmed really quickly through Volumes 3 and 4 because what I really came here for was to see if the current story arc is made up or not. But when I hit Volume 5.5 (which my computer showed me before Volume 5), I discovered, much to my surprise, not only that the Point-5 novels are just as important as the regular ones (I figured they were mostly omake stories) but that several of 5.5's scenes made it into the anime. Sooooooooo ... I'll share that with you now.

Volume 5.5:
Spoiler: show
There are five chapters: a Sorata one, a Jin one, a Nanami one, a Chihiro-sensei one, and another Sorata one.

The first chapter didn't make the cut for the anime. It's a pretty typical "misunderstandings chapter" where one girl at school sees Sorata pushing Mashiro up and it looks like he's feeling her butt up, and where Nanami asks Sorata why he's acting in a certain way with Mashiro and he has to go into hyper-defensive mode so that she doesn't get the right wrong idea. Didn't look too closely, didn't seem interesting. Next chapter!

The second chapter is about Sorata phoning Jin to make sure he comes to Sakura Hall on Christmas Eve for a Christmas party, Jin agonizing over his feelings for Misaki and his desire to properly earn them, and some conversations with the mysterious Rumi (the woman he had many a fling with). Sped through it; it also didn't really make the cut into the anime.

The third chapter is about Nanami's friends at school encouraging her to ask Sorata out on that Christmas Eve date. The first part of this made the cut into the anime, more or less. But there's quite a bit more afterwards which explores Nanami's friendships with those other girls.

The fourth chapter is a hodgepodge of stuff pertaining to Christmas Eve. The stuff that made it into the anime includes the brief scene of Ryuunosuke's Christmas letter from Rita that Maid-chan intercepts as well as the bit at the very end where they find Misaki on the floor, crying, and she demands to know what it is that she has to do to get Jin to like her back. There was a good scene in here though with Chihiro-sensei drinking with her friend and fellow teacher, Shiroyama Koharu, the Japanese language teacher at Suimei. (This character appears to have been all but cut from the anime? ^^; )

Finally, the main attraction. The fifth chapter of Volume 5.5 ... is the flashback episode we just had a few weeks ago. The one where Mashiro finds a picture in Sorata's room and he tells her the story of how he moved in? Yeah, that one. Bit for bit, that chapter is pretty much that episode.

Next up we have Volume 5. This volume basically covers all of the Valentine's Day arc. Which means ... we need to skip back to Volume 4, to see if that's where Christmas happened. (Whoops. ^^; ) And sure enough, it is, along with some other stuff. So ...

Volume 4:
Spoiler: show
This volume is divided into four chapters. The first two have to do with the culture festival, or (to be anime-specific) the portion of the culture festival which showed up as Episode 11. For example, the part where Sorata walks in on Aoyama changing is around page 23; the part where he discovers Shiina is naked inside of the black cat costume is around page 126 (very near the start of the second chapter); and the part where the kids spot Jin talking with the Misaki look-alike (her older sister) is around page 163. At the end of the chapter (around page 175), Miyahara confesses to Nanami and she rejects him; this didn't show up in the anime until the end of the next episode.

I don't see nearly as much mention of Nyapollon in the book as what was shown in the anime. There really isn't much of a gap between the scene with Misaki's sister and the scene with Miyahara getting rejected. The fifth (and final) subchapter of the second chapter of the book opens with the narrator describing the campfire where the students were burning all of the props and decorations from this year's culture festival. And then the next chapter, following the scene with Miyahara and Nanami, takes us into the winter. So J.C. Staff must have decided to really embellish Sorata's project. I guess they felt it was the sort of thing that doesn't work as well in print (where it was probably only given a couple of paragraphs ^^; ) but that works very well when animated. Still ... I'm not sure we needed to devote so much time to something that the book itself skimps on. ^^; Oh well. Maybe I'm mistaken and I missed Nyapollon bit because it was somewhere else in one of these two chapters.

The second two chapters of the book have to do with the Christmas Eve arc. The first of these (the third chapter overall) details the events leading up to Christmas Eve (like Sorata's conflicting feelings towards Mashiro) while the second chapter (fourth overall) details the events of Christmas Eve itself. The chapter ends with the kids finding Misaki on the floor, despondent regarding Jin, though her words from Volume 5.5 better match what we saw in the anime than her words here, if I'm remembering them correctly.

So back to Volume 5. Like I said, it looks like it's pretty much one giant Valentine's Day novel. So let's see if that checks out on closer inspection.

Volume 5:
Spoiler: show
The first chapter of the book is one I've already summarized in the past: it's where the kids head over to Sorata's parents during Christmas Break when Chihiro-sensei kicks them out of Sakura Hall. They meet Yuuko for the first time, she them, etc.

Skipping ahead at blazing speed (and mostly just checking the pictures at this point), I can see that this book covers Jin's continued stay with the former student council president, Sorata's second pitch to the game company, and finally the rooftop scene where Jin presents Misaki with an engagement ring. We have, it looks like, the drama with Nanami needing to get to her audition, and we have Sorata and Mashiro on the roof, etc.

And finally, we reach Volume 6 where ... well whaddya know ... it looks like the current arc is taken straight out of the books. So any complaints I may have with it I'll have to take up with the author, not with J.C. Staff.

Volume 6:
Spoiler: show
Not going to push too far into this, but the very first chapter opens with Chihiro-sensei's line to the kids about how Sakura Hall is being shut down and they'll need to have all their stuff packed and ready to go by spring break. It might interest you to know also that the title of the third chapter of the book seems to match the title of next week's episode: 誰のせいでもなく雨は降る "It's not anyone's fault that it rains."

So basically, we're halfway through Volume 6 right now. There are two additional main series volumes out right now though (7 and 8), one additional Point-5 novel (7.5), and two further planned volumes (9 and 10). Not really sure why the series is wrapping up now then, with (by all reports I've found) only four episodes remaining. Especially not now that I know that the current arc was actually part of the original books and that it happened as far back as Volume 6 of 10 main (or Volume 7 of 12 total, depending on how you choose to look at it).

Last edited by Talon87; 03-03-2013 at 02:46 AM.
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Old 03-03-2013, 09:19 AM   #103
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Not really sure why the series is wrapping up now then, with (by all reports I've found) only four episodes remaining. Especially not now that I know that the current arc was actually part of the original books and that it happened as far back as Volume 6 of 10 main (or Volume 7 of 12 total, depending on how you choose to look at it).
Maybe there's a second season in the works, or we're getting a made-for-TV-ending?
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Old 03-04-2013, 09:29 PM   #104
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21:

One hell of a dramatic episode.

Spoiler: show
This week continues the theme of realism in that life's not fair. In fact, Sorata's game instructor said those words himself, and I feel lately the theme of the show falls completely around that. "...that's just how life is. Unfair."

Aoyiama broke down in a state of shock. Sorata had his dreams crushed. Lot's of f-bombs were dropped. Shiina gets invited to be the artist for the game company, showing the dynamic the show is trying to create in full force: some people are born with talent, others have to work for it, and the people born with it are almost always going to take precedent. While a little cliched and probably not entirely true, it's an interesting dynamic to make, because Shiina likes Sorata, but the distance between them has been getting larger and larger, as evidenced in the drama bomb dropped at the end when Sorata loses his fucking mind right in front of Shiina because she got the job he wanted, basically.

Next week it looks like Shiina is going to leave to save Sakurasou, a twist a lot of people saw coming.


One more thing: This episode made me start hardcore shipping Aoyiama and Sorata. I thought that hug (TOTALLY PLATONIC OF COURSE ) was absolutely tear jerking and Aoyiama just... goddammit she deserves to be happy. And her and Sorata make a good team. Now Shiina is still my waifu but I'll be surprised if Aoyiama doesn't wind up completely winning me over.

Also, the painting Shiina is painting is probably Sakurasou.


Good episode. Life is cruel. 8/10.
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Old 03-05-2013, 01:49 AM   #105
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Originally Posted by deoxys View Post
21:

One hell of a dramatic episode.

Spoiler: show
This week continues the theme of realism in that life's not fair. In fact, Sorata's game instructor said those words himself, and I feel lately the theme of the show falls completely around that. "...that's just how life is. Unfair."

Aoyiama broke down in a state of shock. Sorata had his dreams crushed. Lot's of f-bombs were dropped. Shiina gets invited to be the artist for the game company, showing the dynamic the show is trying to create in full force: some people are born with talent, others have to work for it, and the people born with it are almost always going to take precedent. While a little cliched and probably not entirely true, it's an interesting dynamic to make, because Shiina likes Sorata, but the distance between them has been getting larger and larger, as evidenced in the drama bomb dropped at the end when Sorata loses his fucking mind right in front of Shiina because she got the job he wanted, basically.

Next week it looks like Shiina is going to leave to save Sakurasou, a twist a lot of people saw coming.


One more thing: This episode made me start hardcore shipping Aoyiama and Sorata. I thought that hug (TOTALLY PLATONIC OF COURSE ) was absolutely tear jerking and Aoyiama just... goddammit she deserves to be happy. And her and Sorata make a good team. Now Shiina is still my waifu but I'll be surprised if Aoyiama doesn't wind up completely winning me over.

Also, the painting Shiina is painting is probably Sakurasou.


Good episode. Life is cruel. 8/10.
Yup, my feelings mostly.

Spoiler: show
I shipped Aoyama and Sorata from the beginning , I really feel like they fit together more.

The drama was much more than I was expecting. Dang. People really broke down like crazy.
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Old 03-05-2013, 12:56 PM   #106
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Not a terrible episode. Horribly overdramatic, but whatever. Anyway, the real reason I posted:

(episode 21 spoiler)

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Old 03-05-2013, 01:22 PM   #107
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Not a bad episode. Horribly overdramatic, but whatever. Anyway, the real reason I posted:

(episode 21 spoiler)
Spoiler: show
I laughed at that part, because Vocaloids have been "all the rage" for years now, if I've got it right. If that's in the original light novels, then they're very much tied to the time of writing...if the books weren't exactly published last year. If they were, the writer isn't exactly on the map about what games are popular these days.
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Old 03-06-2013, 07:24 PM   #108
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Just watched Episode 21.

Spoiler: show
I was surprised that they stalled on Shiina's decision to take matters into her own hands and move out of Sakura Hall. That was what it looked like she was planning to do at the end of last week's episode, and yet this week's ended on much the same note.

But I was also surprised by just how non-staller-y and non-filler-y the episode felt. The destruction of Sakura Hall took the backseat this week and in the front of the vehicle we had Sorata's bag of drama as well as Nanami's. It was solid stuff. It also made me scratch my head once again and ask "Why isn't Aoyama the main girl again? ^^;" In any other series, that scene at the tree would've been like a romantic climax. But here it's like, "Enjoy this heavy scene ... while we still chuck the girl into the FRIEND ZONE!" Very awkward. ^_^; I like Mashiro, but she really hasn't done much other than be, than exist. It's almost like that is the author's "natural-born talent vs. hard work" message coming at us in meta form: that Shiina gets Sorata without even trying and that Aoyama fails despite her best efforts. Man. Didn't expect the series to be take such a turn for the cynical!

Deo, it's Aoyama. There's no i. Ao "blue", yama "mountain". Aoyama Nanami, "BlueMountain SevenSeas". [/all japanese names sound like native american names to me]

STILL WAITING FOR CHIHIRO DEVELOPMENT. Don't tell me that's Volume 7 or 8 so we're not going to get to it. >_>
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Old 03-11-2013, 11:40 PM   #109
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Episode 22, wrappin' things up...

Spoiler: show
A few things.

1. Whoever called Mashiron drawing Sakurasou, bam, you were right on the money.

2. Shiina vs. Nanami for the title of Sorata's waifu: And the winner is...

Spoiler: show



In the end, I am able to support this ship, but only just barely anymore. Nanami has arguably gone through more suffering than anyone in this show and has been able to keep her head up the whole time, even at the end when she couldn't bring herself to tell him how she felt about him and threw her support behind Shiina. It honestly felt kind of like a cop out. And then there it is, right at the last moment, a confession. It's unclear if Shiina heard it or not, but Nanami was right behind him. Had it been me, I would have felt a dagger go through my heart, but she was able to fucking smile anyway.

It was heart wrenching. I really do very much wish it had somehow worked out for Nanami, which is a far cry from how I initially felt about her.


3. Shipping, shipping everywhere.

4. All of my feels fell all over the floor at the end. All of them. All over. Seeing Shiina actually show fucking emotion is something else entirely. She went from being apathetic to sad, crying, horribly sad, angry, sad, to incredibly happy all in the span of about five minutes. I wasn't expecting it at all.

5. I never figured out which name I'm supposed to address characters by because they are constantly calling each other different things, fuck. Also, I know it's Aoyama, I just fucked up last week and put i's in my recap.


Only two episodes left. Sorata x Shiina is a sealed deal at this point, all that's left is the mutuality of it.

It looks like Sorata is going to get a bone thrown for him in regards to gaming as I'm sure his teacher will pull some strings... in bed... but poor Nanami, goddammit, give her a break. It's like she was created just so there was a character that everything bad happened to.




9/10, I had problems with it but for an episode of Sakurasou it managed to move the plot forward a lot.

Last edited by deoxys; 03-11-2013 at 11:56 PM.
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Old 03-15-2013, 09:40 PM   #110
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tfw no one wants to talk about snpnk anymore
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Old 03-15-2013, 09:45 PM   #111
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I do but not right now. :< Paradoxically, I care about the show too much to write up anything less, but I'm not in the mood right this minute to write up a lot.

I can at least tell you I enjoyed it but still feel like the series has not done enough to persuade me that Sorata and Mashiro would've fallen in love. An initial attraction, absolutely, but it's pretty nuts how much more living history Sorata had with Nanami.
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Old 03-16-2013, 12:14 AM   #112
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tfw no one wants to talk about snpnk anymore
I have a place where I generally talk about it. I CAN take that here, but it's just me and this other guy bitching about it. We joke about how we dread Sakurasou day and all that. I figured you and everyone else would appreciate it more if I just stayed quiet.

If it's any consolation, this week's episode wasn't bad. They just kept plugging Nanami and going against Shiina to the point to where anything else just seems weird. The train scene was still nice though.
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Old 03-18-2013, 08:37 PM   #113
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23:

Spoiler: show
Feels episode. Felt forced and sort of lame. Truthfully the end to the series, next week looks to be an epilogue and will settle the love triangle once and for all. Gonna say, this episode didn't really do much for me but Ryunosuke was the best character in the episode for more reasons than one, and the school board are all douchefucks.

Sakurasou is saved, hooray.

Time to bring everything to a close.


Next episode: #24: Welcome to Sakurasou / Finale
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Old 03-19-2013, 12:12 AM   #114
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I'm sorry, I can't keep quiet about this. I just watched episode 23, and my forehead is aching.

(episode 23 spoilers)
Spoiler: show
While Misaki's speech wasn't bad, it was completely retarded for a graduation speech. Things get increasingly retarded as time goes on. Everyone decides that it's time to do what the fuck they want. Oh, and Sorata gets angry again. It went from graduation to "Let's fight with the evil school!".

What's sad is that Misaki's speech would have been really good in any other moment. During a "last day here" hot pot party or something would have been much more appropriate.

They need a speech about how Sorata gets angry every episode. I think I might make one next week!
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Old 03-21-2013, 07:31 PM   #115
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Episode 23: Haven't read your guys' posts yet. Pausing and beginning to jot down thoughts so I don't forget 'em.

Spoiler: show
Misaki's speech annoys me for several reasons. First, Sakura Hall is an inappropriate and frankly selfish topic to be talking about in a graduation speech that's meant to be for everybody in the graduating class. You don't give a speech about an experience only you and one other graduating senior had. You talk about Suimei and your memories that, when all added up, the entire graduating class can relate to. Second, this speech makes the episode into a shameless recap episode. Third, I don't fancy the author's lazy backstory for Misaki's first few years in Sakura Hall. We're supposed to just accept that when she moved in nooooooo one else lived there? That the school bought a run-down house and plonked Chihiro in there just for one girl named Kamiigusa Misaki? Oh come on. There had to have been other students there too. Misaki's very own senpais to whom she was the kouhai. But rather than explore that, the author just asks us to ignore the man behind the curtain and to believe that Sakura Hall's residents over the last three years have just been the ones we've met. Fourth, the bit where Misaki starts shouting out to specific people in the audience is, once again, not appropriate for a graduation speech intended for the entire student body. Fifth, people were getting way too weepy over this. The Sakura Hall kids were bad enough, but HauHau and some of Suimei's teachers too?

And what was up with the principal and Jin? Some 18-year old boy plans to single-handedly block off a stout man of 60? And a principal humiliates himself in front of the entire student body with such ugly behavior?

Good lord, the part where Kanda takes the mic is just ... these kids ruined the graduation ceremony for everybody else! ^^;;

Why are they playing the fun OP1 during this all-Hell's-broken-loose scene?

D'aww @ Shiina's blushing fan/friend we hardly got to see. ^^;

xfd @ how the student body couldn't be arsed to sign the petition to save Sakura Hall when it mattered, but now that the Sakura Hall kids are physically fighting with school staff the student body's behind 'em. What does that say? "I don't care about your world ..... ooh! :o You're gonna fistfight with the teachers? Yay violence! You have my support!"

"I'm sorry for doing this at your graduation." So Misaki just said. You damn well should be, you selfish little ...!

Jesus @ Ryuunosuke's audacious insult.

Oh come on @ Chihiro putting the principal on the spot to authorize Sakura Hall remains. As if she wouldn't be fired for that.

XD @ Nanami's bit at around 20m48s

The song sequence seems to cement for me that J.C. Staff is drawing things out here at the end because they don't plan to go past Volume 6.

Given some of Misaki's comments to Sorata at the end, it'll be interesting to see whether a "Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo 2" (i.e. the remainder of the books) is going to be announced for Summer / Fall 2013 or for any time in 2014. I'm not holding my breath for it, but I also wouldn't say no to tuning in to one should it come to be.

Just read your guys' posts.

Spoiler: show
Astonished to see not only bbb but also deoxys agreeing with me here. No offense to deo, it's just that you've been really praising this anime lately so I figured you were going to see a whole bunch of good and little bad in this one. A bit surprised to see some of my comments replicated exactly by bbb. *high fives*
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Old 03-25-2013, 07:53 PM   #116
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Final episode. Gonna reply to it as everything happens.

Spoiler: show


Beginning is rushing things already. Goodbye Chihiro! Aw, she's tearing up. :')

5:05 - This is sort of cheesy... but I think this is a real song, isn't it?

5:57 - BAM! RITA TACKLES RYU! TARGET LOCKED: LIPS LOCKED! Holy shit that was surprising! Maid-chan <3

6:35 - Jin's turn! A firm plant on the lips from him to Misaki. Guess we've been waiting for that one, huh? LOL at Sorata carrying Ryu on his back!

7:10 - Jin promising to marry Misaki as soon as he returns. Well okay then.

7:44 - Did I ever mention how much I love it when Nanami starts spoutin' off in her Kansai dialect? It's so fucking cute :3

11:00 - Jin gives Aoyama hope to not give up on Sorata. Hell, he gives the shippers hope, too. Even if Sorata *does* choose to date Mashiron, they're still only 17 or so. Plenty of time for things to change... right?

12:40 - "I want to try it, too" - Mashrion on kissing. OH BOY HERE WE GO!

13:36 - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAND DENIED

13:56 - "There's more to come." - Mashiron. Second season?

14:01 -

"A reservation for later." HOOOOOOO BOY SORATA BETTER START LIGHTING THE CANDLES

15:00 - Two new kids going to Sakurasou. A perv with headphones and a smart nerdy girl. This definitely looks more and more like as setup for a second season.


16:00 - AAAAAAAAAAND Nanami's back. That was fast...?

17:20 - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

20:00 - JIN AND MISAKI ARE ALREADY MARRIED AND LIVE NEXT TO SAKURASOU. WHAT THE EVERLIVING FUCK. OH, but Jin doesn't know... well okay then.


And, the end.

No clear resolution to the shipping wars except from a peck on the cheek. That was a fairly "meh" end to the show, and I want to say there were a lot of hints at a second season, but the problem with that is it wouldn't have the same kind of conflicts that the first had. I could see them MAYBE doing a 13 episode S2, but no more. I'm having a hard time seeing even that much unless they force it with more drama.

I don't know. That's tough to say. Like I said though, a very "meh" ending, mostly because the relationship bit went unresolved because Sorata is a huge dumbass.


And with that, I give Sakurasou a 6.5/10 overall. I enjoyed the show quite a bit, but I'm not blind to a lot of the bad mistakes the show made and a lot of the "meh" plot decisions and cheese factors. I actually am having a hard time giving it that score because, like I said, I REALLY liked it, but I have to stay true to what my brain says, even if my heart feels different about it.

I'll see you all next time for season two (assuming there will be one).
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Old 03-26-2013, 12:43 AM   #117
big bad birtha
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Oh thank heavens! Sakurasou is finally over! No more suffering on Monday! The last episode was decent. It was loaded with the usual awful Sakurasou humor with everyone over-reacting to everything. We had a few ending moments with some of the characters, but they weren't really anything out of the ordinary.

For Sakurasou itself, it started out with potential. I seriously enjoyed some of the moments during the first of the show. Sorata had a decent problem, and Misaki/Shiina were entertaining. Of course I hated the humor. Later on, they just started forcing everything. Sorata got angry every episode for some forced-ass reason, and I just did not enjoy the drama. Actually I hate how Sorata gets upset during his game developing adventures, when he just halfheartedly walked into it. He's against people who have much more experience, yet he expects results?

Speaking of Sorata, he has to be one of the worst protagonists I have ever seen, and he IS the worst tsukkomi character I have ever seen. He overreacts to everything, and he feels the need to do this obnoxious screaming tsukkomi to everything that doesn't even need one. Later on, he gets angry every god damn episode, because Mr. Author wants to cheaply make it look like he cherishes the people he's around. I get what he's doing, but good fucking god is it cheesy.

Overall, I enjoyed walking into Sakurasou with a few bits of rage here and there. However, every week after the first 8 episodes left me sighing in exasperation. I usually drop stuff when it starts to irritate me, but since I liked Shiina, Misaki, and Ryuunouske, I stuck with it. Overall, this gets a 5 from me.
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Old 03-26-2013, 02:12 AM   #118
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7.3/10 (whole series)

Spoiler: show
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Old 04-10-2013, 08:32 PM   #119
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I watched the final episode a few days ago; and while I'm not up for an in-depth post about my feelings about the final episode, I can at least briefly offer that I did enjoy it for what it was, I agree with everyone that it leaves the door pretty wide open for a second season that focuses on the second half or so (slightly less than half) of the novels, and that I want to like the two new freshmen but they feel like such a, such a, such an obvious forced pairing. ^^; As for feelings about the show as a whole ...

In the end, it was foolish of me -- foolish of all of us on the Internet, really, who made the comparison -- to ever compare this series with ToraDora. Not because there didn't seem to be some positive similarities early on -- there sure did -- but because it condemned Sakurasou in the long run. The series never did manage to live up to ToraDora, and as a result Sakurasou was destined to let me down when, had I never expected it to match up to ToraDora so much, I think I would have been much, much happier with it. (deoxys, if you're reading this, and if you haven't seen ToraDora yet, you totally should do so now that Sakurasou's over. )

TBH, I think Sakurasou would've fared much better as a harem visual novel than as a non-harem light novel series. I mean, don't get me wrong! I was glad that Sakurasou wasn't just another harem! But in the end, it sort of devolved into a two-girl harem: Shiina Mashiro and Aoyama Nanami both in love with Kanda Sorata and he attracted to both of them. This created a very regrettable sour taste in most of our mouths whenever the issue of Nanami came up. The show did such a great job of establishing her as a girlfriend candidate for Sorata -- frankly, it did a job 2x to 3x better than it did for Mashiro! ^^; -- that we all were left scratching our heads and wondering "Really? " whenever the series would yank Sorata back into Mashiro's lap. If the show had simply not given as much attention (or as much success!) to Nanami's relationship with Sorata, I don't think this would've been as much of a problem. But it would've also made for a rather boring show. Given that the author clearly wanted to tantalize readers with both girls, I feel like he would've simply been better off giving us a harem. Sorata x Mashiro for the canon path, Sorata x Nanami for the most popular alternate path, Sorata x Misaki for the path where you pursue her more heavily (the result being that Jin leaves her to you and/or that she gives up on Jin, who neglects her feelings, and falls for you, who returns them), and hell, why not, a Sorata x Chihiro-sensei path for the milf. (Dem boobs.)

But nah, that isn't really a good solution. Like I said, I was happy that Sakurasou wasn't yet another harem. So why turn it into one? No, what the real ideal fix would've been ... would've been to have had Sorata's falling in love with Mashiro actually justified. We still haven't really been given a good reason to see why he should've fallen in love with her. Attracted to her, sure; but fallen in love? When he's done all that he's done with Nanami? That's the thing. That's what upsets us. That Mashiro gets Sorata ... despite doing nothing to earn him. That Nanami doesn't get Sorata ... despite doing everything she could. It's almost symbolic of the series' overarching theme (about how people who lack natural-born talent frequently fall short of gifted prodigies, no matter how hard the first camp works at it and no matter how little effort the second camp puts in). Mashiro, the prodigy, gets Sorata effortlessly. She simply is and he is drawn to her like a moth to the flame. Nanami, the average girl, does everything you see in love stories -- including quite a few times where Sorata puts Mashiro on hold so that he can go and rescue Nanami like her knight in shining armor -- and yet in the end she doesn't get anything. If the author did this on purpose to be meta, then for it as a brainy work of art but for it as a feel-good love story. hahaha

I might offer my overall series rating points later. I might also offer my specific thoughts on the final episode. Or ... I might put it off ŕ la the Fate/Zero Episode 25 review post.
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Old 04-10-2013, 08:47 PM   #120
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Excellent post. You hit the nail right on the head 100%. If I could gild a comment here like on reddit, I'd gild that one. Tres bien!

Oh, and I'll add it to my ever growing "to watch" list. I'm sort of all over the place in terms of anime right now with absolutely no organization.
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