Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon, episode 12

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  • wjs018@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    In case you missed it, there is a post-credit scene this episode. As far as I remember, it is the only one this season, so FYI.

    tl;dr As written, the Usuba family served no purpose and really hurt the story.

    Alright, rant incoming…

    I was really hopeful for this show for a number of reasons. I think there needs to be more josei stories adapted to the anime medium. We have shounen, shoujo, and seinen fairly well represented, but josei mainly lives on bookshelves in printed form. So, I was hoping that this story, being one of the few josei to get a quality anime adaptation would really become a flag bearer for josei everywhere and encourage more adaptations in the future. Note that if it does well commercially, it still might do that, but time will tell.

    My central thesis, after giving it some thought, is that introducing the greater Usuba family to the story (at this point) really squandered a lot of potentially great storytelling. I will first explain why they make absolutely no impact to the story and then what could have been done instead.

    Let’s look at the contributions that the Usuba grandpa and Arata made to our story. The grandpa gave an entire episode’s worth of exposition dump giving us the backstory of Miyo’s mother and how Miyo’s powers ended up sealed; then basically disappeared again never to be seen. Arata served the purpose of being some kind of benevolent jailer to Miyo, selected by the Usuba family to protect her. He also served the purpose (through the duel with Kiyoka) to show a bit of why the Usuba family is feared by the other supernatural families. However, it’s important to note that in this final episode, Arata decides to give up doing his one job just because Miyo asked nicely. I mean, what was the point of kidnapping her and dueling Kiyoka and all of that if you just let her go again? It feels like it is simply some contrivance to create artificial tension in the relationship between Miyo and Kiyoka and to physically separate them so that they can’t communicate and clear up any misunderstandings.

    Now, let’s think about what could have been done instead. There are a few story beats we need to hit in the second half of the show:

    • We need some way for Miyo to learn about her mother and her powers
      • I think this could have been done better if we got to learn about Miyo’s parentage slowly over a couple episodes through her dreams. She had touched her mother’s tree, breaking the seal on her powers at this point. Grandpa Usuba did say when he was explaining her power that she can see the past and the future in her dreams. This also would help the viewer gauge her developing her skill at controlling her power; as she better controls it, she can see and learn more.
    • We need Miyo to begin confronting the trauma she has had in the Saimori household since her mother passed
      • The bonus potential for these dreamwalking segments is that she can confront different parts of her psyche and acknowledge and begin to deal with the trauma that the Saimoris inflicted on her. We got a little bit of that in this final episode, but it could have been done much better. In the show, she basically overcame her trauma by hugging it out with herself. In my alternate version, it would take time and repeated dream confrontations. These confrontations would be the best way to make Miyo’s physical condition decline as she struggles to deal with her past trauma.
    • We need some way to foster a closer relationship between Miyo and Kiyoka
      • I think this could be done by keeping the grotesqueries storyline. Have Kiyoka consistently in the field, fighting battles to protect the city. Meanwhile Miyo is struggling at home trying to control her powers. You could even keep the bit where Miyo collapses in the city. However, instead of Arata inserting the Usubas into the storyline at that point, have Kiyoka rush to Miyo’s side and give our main couple a bit of R&R while they talk about all the things they haven’t been able to lately. This allows them to share a common goal, understanding and controlling Miyo’s power, and it brings them closer as partners.
    • Ideally, we would like to have some kind of climax to end the season on.
      • This episode works pretty well for that purpose. The main difference is that she won’t need Arata’s permission to help Kiyoka. Just make her be a badass on her own instead.
    • A hook for season 2
      • This is where the Usubas can best fit into the story. Have some ominous scene at the end of the season with the Usubas talking about needing to remove her for her protection or something to those ends. Perhaps the events of the grotesqueries storyline and Miyo’s ability very publicly saving Kiyoka is what alerts the Usubas to her true powers.

    /end rant

    I am glad I watched this show, rant aside. I will likely stick around for season 2 since I still think there is a lot of potential in this story. Like I said up top, I hope that it is successful and is something that can help more josei story adaptations to get made in the future. Time will tell.

    • arya48@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Agree with pretty much everything in your comment, I found this episode to have no emotional weight because of how lacking the second half of the show was. All the emotional trauma and emotional growth that could’ve been explored was completely sidelined for the sake of supernatural fantasy stuff. So many times they would show how Miyo wasn’t able to speak her mind, communicate effectively or stand up for herself and everytime I thought it would lead to some kinda growth or change in Miyo and it never really did.

      As for Usuba family, I really hate how the show presented them as secret good guys, that was so weird, maybe a bit out of the left field but it kinda reminded me of wonder woman sleeping with that guy without consent in the second movie, like thats fucked up but the writers clearly don’t seem to recognize it as such. The cousin trying to manipulate Miyo into marrying him and being his obedient housewife who dutifully raises their kids and never ever leaves the house is really really fucked up, but never was it presented as such in the show. The grandpa leaving his poor sick daughter to fend for herself in a shitty abusive relationship and then ignoring his grandkid until her powers manifested was also presented as no biggie, he kinda regrets it so its cool I guess? For a show about a victim of lifelong abuse this show doesn’t seem to recognize what abuse is.

      Overall my opinion of the show is it started strong and ended really mediocre, I really didn’t jibe with the second half.

    • Eatsuki@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I agree with both of you on everything. While the first part of the show was amazing, they really fumbled things with the middle portion up to the end. Even this last episode, while it had a lot of good stuff, kind of felt like “too little too late” and didn’t really pack as much of a punch as it could have.

      I also really hate how all these people who have done horrendous stuff are just given a pass. It’s very frustrating and tonally doesn’t make sense. It seems more like it’s just convenient to ignore that kind of stuff (shades of abuse in real life maybe?) but very unsatisfying.

      I’ll give season 2 a shot, but it’s going to be on a short leash.

    • vvvvv@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yes, author tried to squeeze too much misery in too few chapters. Maybe it flowed better in manga/LN but in anime it became a villain of the week show. Usubas could have taken an entire half cour, if they padded the first season with some drama/fluff/growth between ML and FL.

      Overall still liked the show, but could have been better balanced.