Wistoria 1x6 "Between Pride and Passion" (5/10)

Don't mind him, I enjoined reading through your write up.

Thanks! I mostly keep engaging with these kind of comments simply because sometimes I actually get an interesting conversation out of that but it also happens commonly that they just don't answer when I clap back so yea lol.

I used to slog through anime I found average, it's a good way to burn yourself out. Sunken-cost fallacy is a hell of a thing, on the bright side it got me though the worst parts of One Piece.

Definitely. Got myself burnt out many times this way. I still need to return to One Piece, sitting at chapter 400 or so but the motivation to continue is not fully there

I am not bitter about a thing, neither am I questioning your opinion.

Hey, at least you have learned to express yourself better. I can commend that. The way you approach people is also how they will respond back, just keep that in mind. Look, you seem to have some interest in me at least because it feels like you have checked out other anime I dropped or at least made the effort to look at my general dropping behavior (or you observed me for a longer period of time, I don't know). So if you want me to answer in good faith maybe don't be rude.

I’m trying to grasp where your casualty of dropping series comes from.

I already explained it - time. Besides, once you consume a certain amount of media you become familiar with tropes and how stories are structured. You develop a taste for what you like and what you don't like.

Sorry for the text wall, but trying to be more detailed than "The series just doesn't get past the vibe check" while remaining focused is a bit difficult. So be prepared to read a lot now, and it's a bit messy as well. But yea.

There are 3 main things I think to talk about here.

Firstly, most series establish what kind of series they will be from the very beginning. Not only when it comes to the setting or the world, but also general themes, core motivations, or a rough outline of the journey of the hero. There is always a certain element which identifies the series as a whole and most stories try to stay true to that.

For instance, MHA introduces its superhero society and the idea of heroism (what does it mean to be a hero, how can you be a hero) which follows the series all the way through.

JJK establishes the theme of death beginning chapter 1 not only with Yuji's character motivations but also the worldbuilding, and it already roots itself as a story which doesn't seem to follow the standard hero's journey as Yuji is established to die sooner or later as he can only delay his penalty.

I do not mean to say that you can predict a series from the beginning, you can't. But you can already pick out what kind of story it will be, in most cases. And let's be honest, there are certain kind of stories which are oversaturated in todays market and you can identify them rather quickly.

Second, there are many elements to how a story is made apart from plot points or what kind of event will happen.

With that I mean general writing and presentation. How do characters behave, does their dialogue feel natural? Does it feel forced? Are they only on one note or is there nuance to them? What kind of themes are in a story? How are they addressed? How are emotions of characters shown? Do they invoke particular feelings? How is the atmosphere?

And that is a taste thing, but if you draw comparisons between different series you can decide for yourself what is good or bad, what is too trope-heavy, or not.

For example, dialogue.
Many anime for me tend to have dialogue which feels forced and often just fulfills the tropes of the characters rather than make them feel like natural characters. I can compare it to other anime which either have characters with a lot nuance (Bakemonogatari) or manage to be very funny and witty with it (Odd Taxi). No matter how a series develops, it's rather that the series changes the entire way it approaches its general writing because the writer suddenly was hit by lightning or something. So you can observe stuff like dialogue already early on. If you walk up to a real life person, could you describe someone you meet from your first impression immediately, from the way they talk and behave, as a tsundere? Probably not, because people are complicated. And I'm not saying tropes are necessarily bad, but they are more effective and interesting to me if there is some element of nuance to it.

What is common to the idea of a school bully for instance is that they are weirdly obsessed with the main character. In MHA, Bakugou very early already is tied to the idea of inferiority and his complex relationship with Midoriya. And when he was attacked by the slime monster, you could see him genuinely begging for help from his expression alone which further affected his next interactions with Midoriya who he tries to pin down as someone inferior to him. When I see stuff which makes me feel like the characters are real people, I like it.

But I can't say that about many characters in anime I don't find interesting. In Wistoria for instance, what has Colette going for her apart from centering her behavior around Will? Does she have actually meaningful interactions with other characters? Or the teacher Edward, is there anything to him outside that he is the arbiter of the idea of magic=human worth? Is it explored more why he feels that way or is there any kind of emotion or interaction which hints at such? I even thought he might have changed his behavior regarding Will after episode 2 only to have him behave as he used to in episode 1 when he found an opportunity again to shit on Will.

I have just gained a more specific understanding of what I enjoy.

This is overlapping with what I said above, but due to me writing reviews, reflecting on the stories I like or not, I found for myself a better understanding what is my alley. And I'm not saying stuff like genres, but just general small things you can pick up from an anime.

I like an endearing and positive protagonist who is just very good natured. (Tanjiro, Deku).
I don't tend to enjoy broody and nihilistic protagonists unless there is some element in the story which helps to contrast the light from the dark. (Aqua from Oshi no Ko)
I don't enjoy protagonists which are kinda dense and lack the ability to read the room.
I don't enjoy subplots completely based on misunderstandings as they rarely explore an interesting aspect of a character and are mostly just melodramatic. (Many romance subplots)
I enjoy the idea of taking grounded realistic ideas you encounter in every day life and making them seem more magical in fiction (Call of the Night, Makoto Shinkai movies)
... these are just very few examples you get the idea

And you probably already figured, it's not only about the ideas themselves but how they are executed. Something which sounds bad conceptually can be executed in an interesting way. Or something I usually like as an idea per se can be done in a bad way.

In most cases I can judge whether I will enjoy a series or not from the first episodes.
Because if the premise doesn't excite me, or I don't feel interested in any characters, that won't change for the rest of the story. Even if Will might have some character development, I need to care about him to really be engaged by that.

There can always be some gold in places where I don't expect it. I always acknowledge that. But trying to find gold in a vast sea when my time is limited is a waste of time. And I already know it, because I used to be a completionist. I continued many series which I already didn't vibe with from the first episode and I found that many of them continue to be the kind of story I don't enjoy. I know my own taste to a degree where I know how likely I will enjoy a series going forward. Pay attention to the word "likely" - it is a probability. Which means, it's not 100%, but I am very sure that I won't enjoy it going forward. And the chance for finding something which excites me is slim, and even if I find something, until I get there I might have spent wayy too much time with a series I don't enjoy.

I am simply forced to be more selective for various reasons. Everyone can make their own decisions regarding that, but that's what I decided for myself. There's too much good media out there I haven't experienced yet. It's not worth it for me to throw the angle rut into the vast sea of stuff I find unenjoyable or subpar and hope for maybe a good fish in a while.

I want to stress that dropping is nonetheless not easy for me because I still have completionist habits. I already thought about dropping Wistoria after episode 4, but postponed until episode 6 which just showed me more of the same things I don't enjoy.