Jul 14, 2023
all riiiight
so, since it's over, and it's officially the first contest story I've read to its end, I'll give some thoughts:
obviously I liked it, or I wouldn't have finished it :P it was the highlight of my day whenever a new update dropped. As time went on, I grew fond of the cast, celebrating and lamenting as they did, especially Koji. I'm kind of glad he didn't end up with Fuyuko because theirs seemed like a 'what could've been' but at this point they were kinda different people, and even though they made up I feel like at some point the past might've resurfaced in a bad way. There was none of this with Katou and tbh they had way better chemistry anyway. I'm glad she was endgame. Despite all the hardships, they were able to push forward and succeed against all odds, which is always a nice, feelsgood story/idea to follow.
NOW, the reason why I was ???? when I first saw this ended is not necessarily because it feels abrupt, but because it's like... nothing happened? So, to elaborate, there WAS a sequence of events and Koji DID push things forward, but it also kinda felt like stuff happened to him too often and not because of him. Even the music thing was like... sure... and then he won a competition, and then he got signed up at a company, and then he got back with his friends. It's cute and all, but... so? What else? I don't know, i feel like 'what else' best describes my feelings about the story.
What about the other characters? The only one with any kind of character arc aside from Koji was presumably Fuyuko, who let go of her resentment and got her friends back because of that. However, since it kind of happened off-screen, it's like... okay, nice, but that's it. Katou kiiinda had something going on, but I couldn't tell you much about her. Other characters are generally charming but feel very distant, and I think it's because the story never focused on them. This isn't a good or bad thing per se, but if the story's emotional climax hinges on their reunion, then I feel like they could've used some fleshing out so they feel more than props for Koji's growth.
It's kind of a similar problem I had with Your Lie In April tbh. I liked the story quite a lot and Kousei is one of my favorite protagonists in all of anime, but everyone else is kind of... just there? Even Kaori, who's the poster girl. I feel like Fuyuko would be the poster girl here, but the one real character is Koji. His dad getting sick was sad and all, but it didn't hit as hard as it could've. He wasn't much of a character after he adopted Koji. Sure, I felt bad because Koji's life is 95% suffering, but that's about it. If the dad had died I would've been like, oh, okay. Sad. After a while I kinda grew numb to Koji's trauma conga x_x
I liked Katou and Kashimoto the most because they had the strongest personalities out of the cast in my opinion (+ Koji. Koincidence?) Nomura was also cool, but she kind of was just there if you looked past her genkiness. Like, I don't know. It's good. It's 'good enough'. They all have their own role to play, and the thing is, I could see plenty of them as the protagonist of their own story, which is my litmus test for 'does this author care about side characters?'. Katou, Nomura, Fuyuko, Morita, Hibino, etc. I could and would legit read a spin-off about any of them. It's a shame that they never really had a time to shine, but rather stayed as pieces to fill out an album rather than the standalone singles they could've been. That's why I'm conflicted, honestly.
I'm assuming this is only the first draft, so it's nothing particularly serious. Besides, the 75k word limit can and will hinder characterization sometimes. I think so anyway. People throw the word 'potential' around to the point that it has lost meaning, imo, like a lot of adjectives out there, but I really, really think it applies to this one in the original sense of the word. If you expand a bit more and breathe just a little bit more life into everyone, this could sweep.
Another reason why I think I feel underwhelmed is because the climax didn't feel like such, even though now that I think about it, the pieces are there. There's the moment of confrontation between Koji and 'his past' so to say, a darkest our when his dad gets sick, a big event that one ups past arcs while mirroring them, but it all kind of feels inevitable. As in, I expected him to win the contest. He did. I expected him to eventually get the squad back together. He did. (The summary says this too, but even if it hadn't...) I expected him to succeed and make it big in the industry at an improbably young age along with his improbably young band of misfits, and, yeah, they all did. I don't know. To me plot is the least important part of the story, but if it's going to be a 'been there, done that' kind of thing then I'll hope another aspect will compensate. I kept waiting for that 'something' to happen, but it never really did.
I'm posting this nuke because, again, I liked the story. It made me think and care enough to write this. You're the one with the final say on the matter, though, so you know it best, and you know what's best for it. If you want to delete this comment I will, but I'll be salty >:P in all seriousness though, all the best with your future projects!
