Apparently, I was really off when it came to predicting the popularity of Sasami-san. It’s MAL ranking (as of this writing) is abysmal, guys who I expected to like Sasami-san think it’s shit (although it still has its fans), and the subs have gotten so slow to release. Not sure if it’s because the subbers themselves don’t want to sit through the show or what, but it’s been getting slower with each episode to the point that the anime was about to become the next Hyouge Mono. Except if it sucked.
I’m going to go off-tangent for a bit because there’s nothing in this Sasami-san episode that I haven’t talked about already. The only things that’re different is that Sasami got to sing the ending song and that she’s less of a shut-in (with barely an emphasis on less), but otherwise, it’s the same talky-talky bullshit that it was in the first three episodes. It’s frankly gotten so repetitive that I can’t even muster up the energy to criticize this thing. In other words, it’s fucking boring. And I do not like to write about stuff that’s boring.
Stuff that is boring is only fun to write about when it’s atrociously bad. The reason I was able to blog Sword Art Online every week despite not enjoying myself was because the show kept on finding new ways to get worse each and every episode. Okay the ALO arc sort of put a damper on things because it just became plain tedious and repetitive to sit through, even with the live watch, but for the most part, I was still able to come up with something different each week. With Sasami-san, I’ve got nothing because it’s just the same problems I’ve talked about regarding the last three episodes. Awful dialogue that makes me want to punch the writer, art that’s pretty to look at, animation that’s cheap despite the gazillion amount of money Shaft got from Madoka and Monogatari, sickening incest, and characters that rival the Tsuritama cast in terms of annoyance (seriously thought the blond chick was going to scream that she loved “love”). There is nothing new in this episode besides the basic plot, but the plot isn’t exactly riveting considering it’s just another version of the second arc of Denpa Onna and isn’t treated with any real seriousness, thus I can’t talk about the issues related to how shut-ins integrate into society.
I could try analyzing the symbolism and Shintoism that this show runs on, but I can’t understand it myself because all the flaws I mentioned keep getting in the way and I can’t understand their purpose or what message is supposed to get across. Again, as bad as SAO was, I understood what it was trying to do because the show was less subtle about its goals than Hayao Miyazaki. It’s just that SAO’s execution was shit. Not only do I not care about what happens in Sasami-san, but I don’t know what the purpose of “the third arm coming out of Sasami’s chest being a separate being that has its own mind” is. So Sasami doesn’t remember doing most of what happens in the video. Um…what am I supposed to say about that? If it’s referencing something, I’m completely lost.
Blegh. What a boring waste of time this thing was. If this is how the entire show is going to be, it’s going to be a loooonnnnnnnggggggg season indeed.
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Stingers
- I applaud anyone who can understand this shit. I really do.
- I’m actually hoping for that second season of SAO just so I can have something interesting to blog.
- Yes, I know the real reason the subs were slow. Interviews tend to do that.
Please don’t use MAL rankings as a standard. MAL is good as a resource website, but when it comes to the community… Is the complete opposite of SOMN: simply put they can’t hate anything, it’s like a biological thing, they just can’t.
BTW I think that if you were to record a livewatch of this, like you did with SAO, it would be just a lot of people snoring, y/n?
MAL is usually quick to overrate Shaft shows, so seeing one so low is very unusual.
What is the point of ranking shows? whats the appeal that I’m clearly not seeing? Have you seen Dance in the Vampire Bund?
its a 2010 Shaft show its one of the few solid vampire anime I’ve seen in the last few years and the dub is excellent.
No, I haven’t seen Dance in the Vampire Bund
I’ve yet to find the time to sit down and watch the series but I am curious to check it out because Sentai Filmworks will be dubbing this sometime next year so its peaked my interest.
It’s funny, when I first blogged about Sasami-san I was a little worried about sounding like the Shaft fans you described in your first post about the show, yet now I’m like one of the few people defending it.