Don’t forget, though, the show would only lose more points with me if it were painted as a typical fantasy-fulfilling shounen romance. It doesn’t change the fact that the serious issues were either frustrating or pointless.

@ digitalboy: As I was writing this, I was thinking of your tweet on True Tears and realized that this was basically the same thing. It’s technically not a bad show, but for lack of a better word, it pissed me off.

I don’t see what’s misleading about the post title though. It’s a little vague, I guess, but I didn’t want anyone thinking that I was accusing the show of being bad – or worse yet, that I was using personal opinion as a legitimate argument for accusing the show of being bad. This one was tl;dr’d more than necessary because I was talking about a vague opinion that I still can’t word properly, but I’m trying to stay just under 1000 words unless I have something very specific and meaty to talk about.
(heh, how’s that for a needlessly tl;dr reply?)

@ Sorrow-kun: That sounds about right. My enjoyment was decreased on top of that because it clashed with my taste in romance – as opposed to an average shounen-romance which isn’t good but is still fun to watch – but it had a few entertaining moments. Considering the nature of the characters’ relationships with each other, I’m not sure if spending more time observing them would have deepened the show much, but at least a bit of introspection would have been nice.

@ relentlessflame: I guess I was vague in wording the post title, but when I said that objectivity and subjectivity clashed, I was referring to my own interests (which is why I used that intro paragraph). I’m saying that the show is objectively “not bad” – maybe not Good, but definitely not Bad – but my enjoyment of it was closer to being Bad, because of everything I said. Taste has little to do with it since I was focusing on why I didn’t like it, not why a person should or shouldn’t like it.

Anyway, shows like this would usually appeal to me, even if they’re not particularly deep, but Hatsukoi felt more like a clumsy teenager talking about love than anything else. I don’t mind over-the-top cheesiness and fantasy-fulfillment, but Hatsukoi at least pretends to be real, and the “real” aspects of it are 80% annoying little details about life that I outgrew years ago, with maybe 20% truth and/or relateability.

@ orion: I talked about the realism aspect in my other replies, but long story short, my dislike of it wasn’t because it was fantasy fulfilling or not fantasy fulfilling. Thanks for saying that the post was the right length though; I always get paranoid when breaking the 1k barrier because I know I tend to ramble, but it would be even worse if I wrote too little and left holes everywhere.

@ omo: Yeah, that was probably just careless wording on my part. Like I said in response to relentless, it was in relation to my own enjoyment. For the “realistic” aspect, I suppose half of that was because the show deals with extremely ordinary things (as opposed to the typical Sudden Girlfriend Appearance, etc), and the other half was that the fantasy-fulfillment just didn’t work for me. You see, if it were an ordinary shounen romance with a shallow but entertaining plot, I would have watched it, not thought much about it, finished it, and not posted on it. It wouldn’t have been that great, but I wouldn’t bother saying anything because it was mediocre for the obvious reasons.

For me, Hatsukoi was mediocre for unobvious reasons, somewhat like what digiboy said in reference to being “pissed off.” If you’re going to give us a cheesy fantasy-fulfilling story of first love, then sure, why not. If you’re going to give us a realistic look at the joy and hardship of first love, then better yet. But all the show did was introduce stereotypical love triangles, unrequited love, etc etc, and the issues were, for lack of a better word, shallow. It works pretty well as a comedy and if it didn’t take itself seriously, but in trying to be realistic, it ended up frustrating me with insecurities about things like looks and breast size instead of talking about what it was supposed to be about: first love.

@ digitalboy

tl;dr??

This is only like 1000 words! And I certainly don’t feel like he was wasting them; I think rather would’ve been disappointed if he didn’t explain himself as well as he did.

Anyway, all that being said, I think a certain part of the appeal of Hatsukoi Limited is precisely because it doesn’t attempt to bite off more than it can chew. The conflicts are simple and straightforward because most of them are only given one or two episodes, and need to wrap up cleanly within that time. It’s more like a collection of short stories centered around a common theme, and isn’t necessarily trying to be overly ambitious in that regard. So certainly, this type of storytelling approach won’t appeal to everyone, “good” or “bad” aside. Apparently, it’s just not your sort of show; fair enough. I would say, personally, it isn’t necessarily my favourite type of show either (I too tend to favour romantic dramas and shows with a bit more conflict and introspection), but at the same time I was able to enjoy it within the scope it gave itself. It’s one of the few times where the 12-episode length felt like the right amount of time for the content, and things just seemed to “click”.

So, anyway… the good part of the experience is that you now have a better sense of what shows to gravitate towards and to avoid going forward, and that’s always a good thing.

The title of this post is misleading. and you still need to work on your goddamn tldr.

Basically, my problem with Hatsukoi is that it makes too much sense. All of the characters’ first loves are ordinary, realistic, just like things were for me and everyone else out there. Some end with success and others with failure, but by and large, they’re all plausible.

Noooooooooo. Ordinary yes. Realistic? No.

I don’t understand what makes these situations realistic for you. Enomoto falling for Kappa-face is a fantasy. Enomoto chasing after kappa-face is a delusion.

Onii-chan obsession/stalking/borderline raep is… a fantasy of people who don’t have imoutos (like me).

There’s nothing wrong with these things being fantasies or delusions. They’re rather cute and funny for being so. These aren’t my problems with this show. My problem is the last two episodes. As a 10-ep anime this show is a very very pretty, lighthearted romp.