Alright, so I finished watching this anime (although, as far as I'm aware, the manga, which I haven't yet read, is still ongoing), lauded as one of the most realistic portrayals of transgender characters in anime. Since I haven't watched that much anime, I'm not sure if I can agree, but either way, it was a good show with some nice stylized artwork and interesting points to make. But I had a few gripes with it:
1) Is it just me who finds it coincidental that there are three transgender characters that all go to the same high school? That's Shuuichi, Yoshino, and Makoto. Now, I could believe two of them, but since Makoto doesn't get nearly as much development as the other two, it's like they just threw her in there for little to no reason other than to give Shuuichi a "voice of reason" character to play off.
2) They did the whole "gender-bender play" twice. I just thought that was a bit lazy. It was nice how they averted expectations and had Makoto play Juliet the first time around instead of Shuuichi, the main character.
3) I dunno, maybe because of the "constraints" of anime, but at times, it just felt a bit "cheesy". Like, there would be a scene where Shuuichi and Mako are crossdressing in the living room...and then Shuu's sister walks in, but she knows her sister bullies her because of it and she knows that she's at home because she's ill, so...could the director or whatever not think of another way to play the scene without contriving it into a scenario like that?
Anyway, maybe I just had my expectations put too high for the series (and it's pretty short anyway), but...I just expected a little more.
Oh, and what the fuck's up with Chiba? I guess that's not a flaw of the series itself, more of a personal annoyance, but that girl was just a *****. She just didn't seem to care about anyone's feelings other than herself. She just flat-out said to Yoshino "I hate you" for no reason other than that Shuuichi fancied Yoshino, but not her.
1) Is it just me who finds it coincidental that there are three transgender characters that all go to the same high school? That's Shuuichi, Yoshino, and Makoto. Now, I could believe two of them, but since Makoto doesn't get nearly as much development as the other two, it's like they just threw her in there for little to no reason other than to give Shuuichi a "voice of reason" character to play off.
2) They did the whole "gender-bender play" twice. I just thought that was a bit lazy. It was nice how they averted expectations and had Makoto play Juliet the first time around instead of Shuuichi, the main character.
3) I dunno, maybe because of the "constraints" of anime, but at times, it just felt a bit "cheesy". Like, there would be a scene where Shuuichi and Mako are crossdressing in the living room...and then Shuu's sister walks in, but she knows her sister bullies her because of it and she knows that she's at home because she's ill, so...could the director or whatever not think of another way to play the scene without contriving it into a scenario like that?
Anyway, maybe I just had my expectations put too high for the series (and it's pretty short anyway), but...I just expected a little more.
Oh, and what the fuck's up with Chiba? I guess that's not a flaw of the series itself, more of a personal annoyance, but that girl was just a *****. She just didn't seem to care about anyone's feelings other than herself. She just flat-out said to Yoshino "I hate you" for no reason other than that Shuuichi fancied Yoshino, but not her.
