doofusology | So Peeps

I started ficcing like two hours after I finished watching the anime!

Then when I got halfway through, I realized that my grasp on their characters was kind of loose, and I decided to read the LN first.

Then when I read the LN, I realized that many of the conflicts I was bringing forth had already been covered in the LN. And also that I was pretty off-base about their characters.

(Now I'm plotting genfic about Safu.)

But like, all in all, I felt like -- for the amount of hurt and conflict they'd gone through, there wasn't enough time devoted to the falling action. It left me feeling like I needed something sweet in order to have closure.

The world needs more Safu fic :/

I'd read the novel ending before-before hand so I knew what to expect and when I saw the adaptation only had 11 episodes and Seishi Minakami was one of the main staff members I braced myself for it to just you know...end. And not really be conclusive, so I kind of enjoyed the little show I got from what they gave us and wasn't TOO cynical about it but, I feel bad for the non-novel readers who must have been extremely confused and seen it as an extreme cop-out. I just wanted my Safu and Shion closure and Karan suffocating Nezumi with hugs. But yeah, if it only could've gotten the double Noitamina block. :,(

I'm betting a double Noitamina block is a rarer animal these days. I haven't been keeping up with it like I used to, but it just seems like the budgets have been for shorter series, even during spring season.

Pfft. Talk to Guilty Crown about that.

I was totally spoiled for the novel's ending so really I was mostly wondering if they were going to be able to fix any of the issues with said ending. (Answer: nope, just create new ones and lampshade certain existing ones!)

I can dig up my original commentary on the anime ending on no6city, but the gist was basically 'welp both endings have the same problems -- pacing, issues with plot resolution/exposition -- just executed differently'. While everyone was frothing about the derpy tornadoes and Shion's death&rebirth; the former of which I felt was thematically appropriate and the latter of which I remain ambivalent about. (Like I was totally AAAAAH while watching but ultimately I feel no need to ~discuss~ Shion's death, Nezumi's reaction, etc, really? And even less need to include it in Topics to Be Addressed in Post-Series Scenarios.)

re: ficcing violently. Before the final ep aired, I was in this holding pattern where I wanted to write post-series fic but didn't know if I should opt for the novel's conclusion or if the anime would present me with a better one haha.

People were mad about the wall coming down? Or just how it was done? I AM SO OUT OF PLACE HERE.

Some people (the majority, it seemed at the time) were super angry about the anime ending. Like there were some very distraught/upset people! Particularly over Shion's death/resurrection (because death is srs bsns in No.6-verse and shit, which is an argument I don't...really get...given that if you can stretch your credulity to encompass mind controlling, power-over-life-and-death bee gods, you got no right to complain about a character being brought back from death by said mind controlling, power-over-life-and-death bee god haha) and also the tornadoes. The tornadoes really didn't go over well, as I recall.

LOL I'm starting to feel like this weird rare alien around here because I hadn't read the novels when I finished the anime and, in fact, I still haven't read them. I liked the anime ending because it allowed for an interpretation that I was pretty happy with. The way I read into it, it was just a case of Nezumi not being able to bring himself to associate with other citizens from No.6, so the two of them would have to live separately for a while again. I figured that as things got better, they'd be able to spend more and more time together (as I mentioned to someone else, kind of like San and Ashitaka from Mononoke-hime). I was thinking to myself that this scenario lent itself so well to ficcing and yeeeessss I was pleased. In truth, I was really upset to learn that the novels ended with Nezumi actually going FAR FAR AWAY (rather than watching over Shion from the general vicinity) and staying that way for years. Like, it wasn't like I didn't understand it or that I was confused by it because that made just as much sense to me. But it was still vastly more upsetting. I don't know. I'm weird. :/

But I don't think my experiences with the series have been lessened in any way by my lack of novel-reading (aside from some of the holes in my knowledge that sometimes get in the way during discussions). I understand that some people need that firmer structure of the original canon, but I'm more happy with something I can bend more easily.

I SUCK AT EXPLAINING MYSELF.

So as I've flailed about, my immediate legitimate honest interpretation of the ending was that Nezumi had died inside the Correctional Facility and the entire scene at the end with him and Shion kissing and the whole, "You'll be all right," had been in Shion's head :| There is something wrong with me that this was my go-to explanation for camera panning out and Nezumi having poofed into thin air.

So THAT BEING SAID, I loved that it was a 'happy ending' without being a happy ending, that instead of going the ~angsty route~ with an already heartbreaking tale, you're left with this bittersweet note of promise, and it's up there with 'endings I really liked'.

The hopeless romantic in my wishes desperately that there'd been some hint in the epilogue of when Nezumi was going to come back--no matter how much I convince myself he is, it's still an unknown when it comes down to it, and many things could keep him away theoretically for a very long time AND I JUST DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT THAT--but at the same time it's not necessary because the canon just gives you so much to base your hope on.

After I saw it, I was mostly OVERJOYED, because I had convinced myself through an aversion to novel spoilers but an accidental viewing of several spoilery pieces of fanart that Nezumi died at the end (how else am I supposed to interpret all of these images of ~ghostlike Nezumi~ watching over Shion, or Shion dreaming about Nezumi and waking up to find he's not there?? :P I was not prepared to have a happy ending in the least). It took a long time before I even remotely cared about, "But he left for a long time??" because for me all there was was, "BUT HE'S ALIVE. AND THAT MEANS ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE NOW." So, that was me XD

And then I ficced :3

I had convinced myself through an aversion to novel spoilers but an accidental viewing of several spoilery pieces of fanart that Nezumi died at the end

I was so fucking terrified of this. :| Like I was making an effort to ~reign in my heart and feels~ so I wouldn't get attached if this happened. (Bury Your Gays, I am familiar with you and your hideousness!!) So when, I think,

canis_m posted her short translation/summary of the novel ending/epilogue I let out the longest breath in existence because thank god, I could have feels. I could have feels.

But yeah I mean after a lot of 'ugh this is such a cop-out' feelings about the ending, at this point I am mostly happy it's so open-ended, as open-endedness is more conducive to fannish pursuits and less conducive to horrible jossing. And these qualities match up nicely with my own hopes and fears haha.

Yes, that. That. That. My terror at one or both of them getting killed off (I almost threw a pillow through my TV because I thought the anime was about to go all Ai-no-Kusabi on me). Give me any ending where they are both still alive and I will accept it wholeheartedly. I still feel like their ~separation~ still plays into the roots of that trope but eh ... sometimes I'll take what I can get. (god, someday, PLEASE let people stop making ~ambiguous~ same-sex relationships as tragic as possible ... this seriously screwed me the fuck up when I was younger, no joke).

Throwing a pillow through your TV would've been seriously impressive. Just sayin'.

ai no kusabi

god don't even shut up rn

plays into the roots of that trope

It's kind of a general refusal of the narrative to fully buy into and deliver the romance element, and I think it's probably ignorant to say that the fact that it's homoromance didn't influence that decision. (I mean you have tragic separation with het couples all the time but het couples also do not have an entire pantheon of tropes designed to negotiate their sexuality out of the text...)

After I saw it, I was mostly OVERJOYED, because I had convinced myself through an aversion to novel spoilers but an accidental viewing of several spoilery pieces of fanart that Nezumi died at the end (how else am I supposed to interpret all of these images of ~ghostlike Nezumi~ watching over Shion, or Shion dreaming about Nezumi and waking up to find he's not there?? :P I was not prepared to have a happy ending in the least). It took a long time before I even remotely cared about, "But he left for a long time??" because for me all there was was, "BUT HE'S ALIVE. AND THAT MEANS ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE NOW." So, that was me XD

haha, yes, I also got extremely worried about Nezumi by episode 10, one of the reasons I spoiled myself willingly and just read the last parts in every way I could find. XD

I must admit I've never been able to watch the last episode completely. I kinda skipped through the part with safu (because that's like my favorite part in "le novel"(up untill now) and I noticed they didn't keep the dialogue there.

(I also mostly skipped the revive scene, except for the nezumi crying part, and the breakdown of no. 6....XD)

I hadn't read the novels when I first watched the end of the anime. I actually wasn't into the fandom at all yet, because I was sort of actively trying to avoid being spoiled. (I realize now that this was perhaps silly, since everything would have made a LOT more sense had I known more of the story :P) But yeah, I was actually confused at first as to why people were so upset, because honestly, with the ending as it's prepared in the anime, I don't think I really got that Nezumi was gone gone at the end. XD;; I don't know if I would have, either, had I not immediately read a bunch of fan reactions, and then promptly read all the novel summaries myself so that I knew what everyone was going on about. ;) So yeah, my very first reaction was of confusion, mostly, about pretty much everything that happened in that last episode.

And then after I read the novel summaries, I was really, really sad once I realized the implication was that Nezumi was gone, perhaps for many years, at which point I proceeded to read a ton of fix-it fic. ;)

I didn't like "le tornado's" because no.6 was brought down by it's people in the novels. The conecpt that humans have power if they work together against society, and can basically do anything if they really want to, is something I greatly value. That's why when they pulled the "god will make it all alright in one swift movement card" , I was quite disappointed.

Besides that, I wish they would've kept nezumi crying over shion leaving after the kiss. It would've been simple and believable to do so, it wouldn't really have taken up that much extra time and the emotional impact is huge. I still don't get why they left it out.

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