Unfortunately anime is like that where you just see the same old tired thing again and again. It's like everyone has to follow the same lesson plan. Sure not every show does that, but it's still something that was being parodied 20 years ago by Azumanga Daioh and yet you still see it today. How many series today still do the same maid cafe/haunted house school festival thing? They're far too tied to the typical otaku plots and cliches. That's why I appreciate series like Azumanga Daioh and School Rumble so much.
tropes are tropes for a reason. and it's only what, 1 episode of 12? and it wasn't even the notorious beach/pool episode to show the characters in a bathing suit.
lot of people overlook why said tropes are used. just like most isekai (we need a fantasy world with the easiest setup ever, but don't want to do worldbuilding, lore or anything time-consuming we would need to explain to the viewer), it's the same with school festivals and beach episodes. either it's simple fanservice because you want to cater to more than the "I wish anime was less anime" audience, or you want it as a simple and easily understood setup to put the characters in. want the characters being scared? there, bam, haunted house. want the character to work in a custom-facing job with an embarrassing outfit but not want to explain/do a whole arc why the character suddenly does a part-time job in an embarrassing outfit? there, maid cafe, easy.
some might call it lazy, but then I don't really need anything elaborate in a funny CGDCT show all about the reactions and interactions.
once understood it's just a frame for the story (like, for example making the protagonist a high-school student), it's much easier to deal with.
plus it's not like the west doesn't have it's own retarded tropes. there's even a whole website about it...
Been watching Bocchi with a guitarist friend, and he's been loving it because the music's sweet and he loves the attention to detail with the equipment and playing (it's probably rotoscoping), and also Bocchi is like a genderbent version of him and he likes the different animation methods everytime she gets an anxiety attack. Cloverworks didn't have to go so far as to do that, but they do it anyway. Also major props to the director, it's his first foray into TV anime as one and I think he's done a stellar job.
I think it's cute, and I'm definitely enjoying it, I just don't think it deserves perfect 10s and 9s across the board. While Beck did it longer and more realistically back in the day, its pacing for the anime was like sludge and I was watching it dubbed (maybe a mistake, but it was a good dub). Could only handle two episodes at a time. Bocchi I totally would've been able to binge if I wasn't watching with a friend.
some shows become worse when binged. not saying bocchi is one of them, put enjoying one episode at a time, processing it and anticipate what they come up with next is part of the charm. several in a row can easily turn into a torrent where everything becomes a blur. it's like speedreading where you can knock out pages in no time, but retain no recollection what even happened.
it's also important to remember that a show necessarily wasn't written to be binged (the opposite you can see in lot of "streaming" shows these days where it's basically just a long ass movie with nothing happening the first/middle episodes because they expect you to rush through it in one go, which completely fucks up the pacing and feel of everything).
what works for me when I become greedy and binge something I enjoyed enough is watching it a second time a bit later one episode at a time. usually that lets me pick up stuff I completely missed earlier.
also
>dub
>good
>ever
tell your friend he needs to learn to appreciate squeaky kawaii uguu~ noises.
Cloverworks didn't have to go so far as to do that, but they do it anyway. Also major props to the director, it's his first foray into TV anime as one and I think he's done a stellar job.
cloverworks had a very good run this year, they did akebi's sailor uniform and my dress up darling last winter season, which both had their own little bits where it feels like they did more than they needed to. it's subtle but it's there, my impression is other studios probably would've framed it differently to save animation costs and time (even as little as it is).
www.dbsmanga.net
