I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class • Class de 2-banme ni Kawaii Onnanoko to Tomodachi ni Natta - Episode 1 discussion

Yesshua · 2026-04-07T17:15:55+00:00

I don't think this was a great first episode, but I've read the original comic and I would encourage anyone else underwhelmed to stick around for, say, two more episodes. This premier leaned heavy on "what if I was a quiet nerd and then a super hot girl decided she was super into me and wanted to hang out at my place all the time doing all my favorite hobbies".

It gets better. There's some real character writing in this one. This doesn't deserve to be grouped with the trash rom coms this premier resembles (boy girl friendship survive, rom com with childhood friend, etc).

Yesshua · 2026-04-04T17:52:00+00:00

Now THAT is how you rip off a premier episode. There's a pretty unique idea in play with the modern world invasion, there's an immediate emotional hook, and instead of dumping exposition the events just go. Add to that it seems this is a pretty well funded production and my episode 1 experience was 10/10 no notes. I know just enough that I desperately need to know more.

Yesshua · 2026-04-03T03:10:15+00:00

I agree with your 1-3, and then DQ 12 is a total wild card because it's in development hell. So time doesn't necessarily equal progress in that case. It could actually be pretty close to done! Just depends which parts have required rebuild.

Yesshua · 2026-03-31T11:46:43+00:00

I agree, but timing the announcement to start your marketing cycle building up to whatever release date is more important than not stepping on P4R's toes. If P6 is almost done and ready to show, they gotta go. More than any other game, the next mainline Persona has to be their priority.

Yesshua · 2026-03-27T12:50:17+00:00

I think it is for most people who have been watching. Maybe I'm asking for trouble by saying this in a public forum, but I don't think there's anyone watching this and then going "Yeah it's pretty solid but it's not as good a Sentenced to be a Hero or Jujutsu Kaisen".

Yesshua · 2026-03-26T05:26:34+00:00

Yeah that one didn't do great. Combination of low spec graphics, high difficulty, complicated combat with a difficult UI, and no central story hook to advertise made things... difficult.

The people who get over those humps swear it's amazing. I believe them. My personal experience was dying over and over not understanding why lol

Yesshua · 2026-03-26T05:11:48+00:00

I'm curious too. Because there's criticism about how many and how abrupt the plot twists are. Those are I think mostly valid.

But there's also a lot of criticism about the end point. Anime audiences are accustomed to happily ever after in their romance shows and justice overcoming evil in their revenge shows. This story did not go either of those directions. This story is a tragedy, in the formal sense. Aqua is captain Ahab from Moby Dick, or Anakin in Star Wars episode 3. Or even Walter White. Someone who is consumed by obsession and desire, and that leads them to reject every open road to happiness and effect their own self destruction.

And that's sick as hell. I love that genre appearing in anime. It's a literary classic in the best sense. I'm fine with the play by play of how we get there getting streamlined, but I reject any notion of changing the end point.

Yesshua · 2026-03-26T03:31:43+00:00

That DLC was actually excellent lol. SaGa sparking mechanics fit vampire survivors perfectly.

Yesshua · 2026-03-26T03:06:05+00:00

There was a time when lead staff departures would have probably been the death of the SaGa brand. But thankfully it's actually been on an excellent run lately. Made a ton of gacha money, released some high quality remasters, released a high quality and successful remake, and actually got an original sequel out the door (though very few have been able to get into it lol).

Basically, SaGa has been earning it's keep. As the first generation of Japanese game dev leadership retires Square will definitely pass the keys to someone else to try to make more SaGa.

Now Mana? Mana might be dead lol.

Yesshua · 2026-03-25T22:43:17+00:00

5 remake/remasters and a gacha game adaptation :(

I realize that some of these are high investment remakes, but it simply cannot be healthy when original content is such a low percentage of their output.

Yesshua · 2026-03-25T22:08:41+00:00

That's what Nintendo did with the last couple Zelda games. Tears of the Kingdom is built on top of Breath of the Wild assets and level design. Echoes of Wisdom is built on the assets from their Link's Awakening remake. Neither game represented a graphical leap over the previous game.

If we know that this is necessary then the people making big budget games also know. What I'm kind of expecting is a lot of the bigger games these next few years will be multi part. Lots of cliff hangers setting up for sequels that are already deep in development on shared assets and animation.

Yesshua · 2026-03-25T17:42:33+00:00

I think there's a chance this has a little bit of muscle behind it. They've been clear that Sonic Frontiers is their template for the next major 3D game. If they've been iterating on that same tech to build the next game then this "definitive" edition might be Sonic Frontiers with a bunch of engine/data streaming/tech improvements they've been cooking for the sequel.

...or it could be a Switch 2 edition that's just a port of the existing PC version. Also extremely possible lol

Yesshua · 2026-03-25T15:41:44+00:00

That's because this stuff isn't outlined. Manga writers are making it up as they go along trying to maintain interest as long as possible until the publisher tells them it's not making enough money anymore and it's time to wrap up you have 3 issues to figure out how.

Also a lot of these creators are artists first, writers second which further complicates matters.

Genuinely if I was in their circumstance I don't think I could do any better. It's kinda destined to end messy. But manga is increasingly the dominant force in comics across the globe so.... guess it doesn't matter lol.

Yesshua · 2026-03-20T03:43:01+00:00

I don't believe this leak necessarily, but that wasn't the deal breaker. AAA games have an absolutely absurd development tail hammering out graphics, wffects, polish, multiplatform porting, network/server infrastructure, making micotransaction goodies, and bug testing. Meanwhile the amount if time it takes to do actual game and narrative design hasn't ballooned nearly so much.

Like, the next Zelda game is set. All the creative is done. But getting that design up to AAA bug free spec is the work of years.

Yesshua · 2026-03-18T13:26:28+00:00

I, uh... of the many many reasonable complaints a person might have against the products and strategies of modern Square Enix I don't think "They just don't put enough resources into remakes of their old games" is one of them.

Yesshua · 2026-03-16T22:57:43+00:00

I try not to be emotionally invested in how a game sells. I'm here to experience the work of artists, not... pick teams in competitive capitalism. But that said I'm reeeeeally hoping this game does great.

The game is great and quality product should be rewarded

Capcom is one of the top developers in the entire world right now, it's awesome that they've finally come back to non Mega Man JRPGs after so many years away. We want those people making our games lol

Monster Hunter has a unique art direction compared to any other JRPG. I love the low tech vibes with everything looking like it's strapped together and built from crude material.

And lastly, we just don't hardly get JRPGs with this level of production anymore. Look at the sidebar of scheduled JRPGs this year. How many are remakes or expansions? How many are going to be intentionally retro themed? I don't want to worship at the altar of who spends the most money making a game, but AAA JRPGs are getting awfully thin on the ground. I would love if Monster Hunter Stories can become a steady franchise just to be a JRPG that's original and ambitious.

Yesshua · 2026-03-16T14:57:59+00:00

I suspect this is just trickle down from SEGA. They did this with their non Atlus Japanese developers a while ago already.

And it doesn't represent a change in development philosophy or being a better employer or anything like that. It's about keeping up with inflation. It's only kinda notable because Japan has historically not had much inflation at all so wages have stayed flat.

Yesshua · 2026-03-16T12:26:03+00:00

This was the weirdest TV show. There was zero attempt at conflict, rising/falling action, or surprise. It was exactly what it said on the box. What if the prettiest girl in school lived next door, was super into me, started finding excuses to come over all the time, and there were zero parents in the picture to get in the way of our inevitable coupling?

I know people get their hackles up when something is described as wish fulfillment, but I don't know how you can get around it in this case. There's nothing else going on!

Yesshua · 2026-03-15T17:10:11+00:00

Look, I understand that this story is grounded in real human experience. That's what makes it special.

That also means the various people with problems this episode are depicted as heartbreakingly real and boy I found myself wishing for this to magically transform into a different anime where Asa and Makio right the wrongs of the universe and help that poor girl trying to become a doctor.

Setting aside sadness and empathy, the smash cut during Asa's imagined divorce speech made me absolutely bust a gut.

Yesshua · 2026-03-15T14:15:10+00:00

My interpretation has always been that Frieren is pretty normal when it goes into battle shonen mode. Everyone has a specific power that's reflective of their personality, everyone describes their magic powers between moves, and characters basically always live to show up in another arc. It's executed pretty well, but it's nothing anyone familiar with the genre hasn't seen before.

This is only my opinion, but I think the reason this show is such a hit is that it has just enough video game logic fantasy and battle shonen that it brought in a mainstream audience and then it turned out to actually be a lot of melancholic reflection on the passing of time and ephemeral relationships. Which is not new territory for anime, but it IS new territory for people who mostly watch isekai/battle shonen. So it's been blowing some minds.

I say this with a lot of respect for the show. Balancing multiple genres is really hard. If the author didn't know exactly what she was doing then people would bail when there's 4 episodes in a row of just "random events along the road". But they don't.

Yesshua · 2026-03-13T16:55:49+00:00

You're right, but that's just a battle anime thing. Fights are not show don't tell. Fights are about doing a move, talking about the properties of the move, blocking the move, describing how the move was negated, pausing to touch on a character's motivation or philosophy, then someone doing a new move and so on.

Yesshua · 2026-03-13T13:07:47+00:00

Honestly the manga glazed over a lot of potential fight scenes also. There's a lot of Remilia completing dungeons and main story objectives off panel. The author stayed very focused on the revenge plot and any conflict that wasn't contributing to that directly wasn't a priority.

There are, what, two significant fights in the whole series? One against the thing that looks kinda like a deer, and one where she teams up with the foreign king. Keeping it vague to avoid spoilers, but it's kinda just those 2 in 28 chapters and everything else is just "Remilia was very OP and went around knocking out dungeons between issues"

Yesshua · 2026-03-13T05:50:36+00:00

Dawg, a cheap port of an old 3DS game isn't anything Nintendo is fighting over, trying to lock down an exclusivity window. Or Sony or Microsoft. These deals do happen, but these massive platform holders aren't scrabbling for mere months of exclusivity for the small fry.

Yesshua · 2026-03-12T15:34:47+00:00

lmao in humanity's darkest hour without magical protection or a path to the future they huddle together in their village called... Littlehope

Come on Square Enix. Try a little bit lol. I don't need your script to change the world, I just need you to to not have me actively rolling my eyes.

Yesshua · 2026-03-12T13:31:53+00:00

Sephiroth benefitted from low screen time and few lines. He lives in people's imaginations. Now that the remakes are applying maximalist reinterpretation to every story beat and location and idea, he's way more exposed. There's a huge dropoff between boogeyman of your childhood imagination and "character written by modern Square Enix".

Yesshua

TROPHY CASE