[Anime] Ano Hana

My view is basically everything Catcher and somesome said. Tsuruko is stuck-up and Yukiastu is really creeping me out.

Naruko is being an incredibly delicious tsundere. As delicious as Anal Anaru jelly. Things should get a bit more interesting while in school. Also, Menma can apparently eat meat, but Poppo was looking away at the wrong time.

I can definitely see that as a possibility. However, I expect the ending to be a rather heartwarming one. Yes, perhaps Menma will disappear, but her leave will be in a fashion where the audience will feel rather satisfied. Bittersweet, but definitely more sweet.

I could be over-reading your prediction. It just came off to me as an ending that makes the viewer feel absolutely depressed after the series ended, which...just doesn't seem to fit into this anime. I would think after uniting all the childhood friends back together and granting the wish of the deceased one, the show would end with a happy note.

God, I hope i'm right. I'm gonna have to hide under the covers for a week if the ending is just terribly sad.

I expect the ending to be heartwarming too, with a happy ending for Menma but a bittersweet for every other character as they realize Menma really isn't with them anymore, and won't be (assuming she actually does disappear).
I didn't mean that the series would be depressing, and I'm sorry for the ambiguity. It depends how you look at it, I suppose. No matter how I cut it, I'm pretty sure the anime will end on a bittersweet, heartwarming note. This is either really depressing for the viewer, or uplifting.

I like how Anaru Rape is still being used as a damn plot device in this episode. Naruko still doesn't get any character development off of it. Even after school, she doesn't go see her family. Anaru Rape was just used to White Knight Jinta and to keep them out of school. Jinta basically turned the whole incident into a joke. The only good that's come out of it is that Naruko's non-childhood "friends" might actually care about her.

I really don't want to repost what I replied to your comment about the almost-raped development before the rollback, because it was rather long and it's not present in google cache. If you want me to, I'll be willing, but here's a general summary of it: you need to read past the surface. There was a LOT more going on in the last episode in terms of character development than you appeared to have caught on to. For example, I can't believe you actually thought that Yukiatsu's "would you like to date" question was a romantic confession, because the subtext lying beneath that scene ran far deeper.

So, I'll just reply to your comment about this episode. I think you're still too intent on viewing the surface text that you miss the subtext. The "plot device" that you refer to is, in fact, a natural setting development between the characters. There's a reason why the almost-rape is being continued into this episode: we're talking about high school in Japan and what would appear, to anybody that hadn't seen the resistance Anaru posed, as whoring herself out or prostitution. If not, then the spreading of the rumour itself and the loss of accuracy transmitted as well as the desire to have a "big deal" to talk about surely morphed the account from its original. Gossip and rumour are natural in social circles, and high schools are absolutely no exception. What we're seeing is the fallout of a rumour.

Anaru had already gotten plenty of development from the last episode, all of which you had apparently missed, and she shouldn't be developing in a progressive light. Rumours carry a powerful rejecting force with them, and we see this in the fact that Anaru doesn't stand up for herself and retracts from her true feelings. She expresses her pain in her notebook, where almost nobody can see what her true feelings are. We see it in the fact that she hasn't chosen to stay with her parents, despite having a perfect opportunity to do so after they gained Menma's diary. She had to have gotten the clothes and suitcase from somewhere, so I assume she either avoided her parents or went home, met conflict, and ran away from it. Regardless, she's developing, but not maturing.

Likewise, it's NOT the almost-rape that gives Jinta a reason to stand up for Anaru, but rather the combination of gossip and his observation of Anaru's helplessness to express herself. This is a result of the rape, and a natural progression of the story and Jinta's character (as we've seen that he can stand up and do what he thinks is right when he thinks it needs to be done, as we saw in episode one). The event he turns the affair "into a joke" is explained by the fact that he's a social recluse: he probably doesn't know when to stop. He's made his point, but he believes that he hasn't. Keep in mind that this speech most likely will not have any lasting influences on the majority of the class - it's only a joke to us, because it's so awkward to have Jinta go into things he doesn't need to.

As for the childhood friends, this goes against developed character, but it can serve as the onset of their own development. Keep in mind that they didn't express any serious concern of Anaru's predicament until after Jinta's speech. Perhaps it's less that they care for Anaru (not to say that I think they don't care), and more that they realize how a "real" friend would act if their friend was in trouble.

Yukiatsu's white knighting and his pseudo-confession are the least of my issues. And just because I don't mention every little piece of subtext doesn't mean I don't see it.

The rumor is of no concern of mine. In fact, I thought the rumor idea was done well, with exception to the fact that if a person saw the attempted rape, surely they'd see the ensuing struggle and Naruko's yelling.

No. "Development" in terms of character, needs a direction. Walking in place is not progress, therefore, beating us over the head with Naruko's cowardice and inability to stand up for herself is not "development".

Except this further destroys what little emotional impact was left to the audience from the half-hearted attempted rape scene. It was bad enough that we knew she was never going to actually get raped, but now the entire event has been brushed off. This will keep Jinta and Naruko out of school for a while, which, while good for the narrative, makes the fuss of Jinta going to school largely (but not entirely) a waste of time.

Took me a second to recall what you are talking about. I have nothing more to say on that, except it was just something I noticed and I offered no interpretations of what that meant.

And yet, the way you criticized revealed that you didn't see the majority of the subtext. This is not even a matter of "every little piece" of subtext - this is a matter of a large amount of subtext that has incredible import on the character interaction (for example, can you answer me, then, what the subtext underneath the conversation actually was?), and it is very easy to miss it when you do not understand it.

However, it's rather curious that you say Yukiatsu's actions are the "least of [your] issues", for I specifically remember around 50% of your criticism of the last episode being directed at that. Perhaps you can elaborate on your "new" issues, after you read this post.



Then, why do you use the term "plot device"? There is no such plot device being utilized, and this statement seems to echo that sentiment, so why did you display a rather base understanding of it in your previous post, going so far as to say that the rape is still a plot device furthering into this episode?

Also, there is no guarantee that the person happened to be around in the ensuing struggle: perhaps they simply saw Anaru and the man walking towards the love hotel, but continued to walk by as though it were no concern? After all, Tsurumi's comment in the first episode to Anaru clearly shows the public image she gives off. It's reason to believe that the witness may have simply seen it, and run off with a fresh new rumour to tell.



Oh, there was a direction. Notice that in the previous episodes, she has been managing to open up to how she really feels and express herself, such as that scene with Tsurumi, or the conversation with Yukiatsu on the train? That has been her development in the positive direction, or maturation. This episode has been her development in the negative direction.

Like I said earlier, your inability to read past the lines and understand how character development truly works is your limiting factor in this regard. If you wish to converse the specifics of character development, I am very fully willing to do so. I have taken many years of formal education and even more in informal and seminars from various viewpoints on the dynamics of character development from screenwriters and novelists alike. There has been no "walking in place", and if you want me to break this episode down scene-by-scene, beat-by-beat, with goals, motivations, subtext, nature, decision, and setup, I will gladly do so if it proves to be a learning experience. What you need to understand, in short, is that development as a whole is a battle between the positive (maturation) and the negative, and going back and forth between the two is not stagnation, it is what is called conflict. What you call a "walking in place" is seen between every single line, twitch of the face, and scene in all of the greatest films for a reason: it adds conflict and forces decision naturally. If you possess a grudge against natural character progression, that is fine with me. A way that these scenes would have been truly "walking in place" was if there was no reason for Anaru to move back into the negative direction, if Anaru had not opened up to anyone this entire series to this point.



Perhaps to you. In my previous post before the deletion, I went over the fact that the writer is intentionally attempting to get the readers angry at the results (the attempted rape) of Anaru's indecision. This is, in fact, a frustration-variant of a technique many of the greatest writers have used in their stories (The Sound and the Fury, "The Persistence of Desire", "My Son the Murderer", etc), empathy in writing, and has been played successfully in that scene of AnoHana. Frustration was the only emotion I felt, and the frustration for me ended as soon as I saw her actually develop in that conversation with Yukiatsu.

I do not believe that this episode destroys any emotional impact from the previous episode, but it is up to you and how you view it.



What? This is appropriate. This is setup, if you can know it beforehand by Yukiatsu's implied course of action, and is how you correctly write stories.



At least we can agree on one thing. Jinta's anxiety was built up too much for such an easy solution (which, I believe, he remarks about when he notices that nobody is noticing him).



I apologize if this one came off as rather argumentative. I wasn't arguing against anything you said, only elaborating as to what may be behind the scene.

I can understand why she acts as she does, as she hasn't matured mentally since her death. However, one of the major aspects of the show that negatively impacts my view of it is that the melodrama whenever Menma is around is far too excessive. The first few times she cried, I felt it. And then the Law of Diminishing Returns took effect, and it's just getting overdone, and put simply, annoying. Even if it may be justified that someone of her mental age cries over such simple things.

P.S. I haven't seen the newest episode, so she might have done something completely outrageous that will make me hate her, but I wouldn't know.