19
Binged two longer series last week.
First, I finally watched one of the series I'd been saving because I already knew it was good - Oshi no Ko. And yes, it really is as good as its reputation says. It's an odd series though, because it's very well done and engaging all along the way - particularly the characters - but if you pull all the way back from the details and just look at the basic premise, I don't think it holds up all that well. It's all just a bit too contrived. Still very good though, and really, I'd probably watch it just for Kana.
Then, looking for something completely different, I finally watched Toradora, which was... weird. It started off well enough. It moved slowly, but the characters were all interesting and I could see them growing, albeit slowly. But then starting immediately after Taiga's fight with the President, it went badly sideways. They obviously changed it up dramatically then - it even got a new OP and ED. But more to the point, it went from slowly and steadily developing the characters to just heaving some seemingly random bit of dissociated plot in the general direction of the audience, then not even bothering to resolve anything before rushing on to the next random bit of dissociated plot. So it just became incoherent and ultimately unsatisfying - instead of a steady progression of character growth, it was just a jumble of sudden and inexplicable changes. Shame too - I was impressed up until then.
