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Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

It's been really interesting seeing how you've reacted to this four-part introduction arc for Kitaoka. This was Toshiki Inoue's first crack at writing Ryuki, so I guess it's only appropriate your opinions on it sound exactly like your opinions on a lot of Agito. Putting his work on Kuuga aside for a second, I think it becomes really apparent whenever you talk about him just how much his biggest strength and weakness as a writer are the same thing: how much he loves his extremes.

I guess I already talked about this a bit in the Agito thread too (double surgery!), but I feel like I'm starting to get a great grasp on why Inoue has the mixed reputation he does, and why I'm generally a bit more lenient on the guy than most. You know, it's like, Shinji being a complete buffoon or Yui getting constantly nagged by her aunt? Not the show's best material. Kitaoka being a comically huge jerk, and having the audacity to end the arc with him blowing everyone to bits, leaving Kobayashi to pick up the pieces the next week? There's just no way I can hate that.

For me the issue with Inoue isn't extremism. My problem has always been that, especially from Faiz onwards, Inoue loves melodrama. He thrives on cheap pathos and inter-character drama, but he's not very good at it. That's why you get the over-reliance on scumbag, sociopathic antiheroes and simple misunderstandings that spiral out of control because characters refuse to have conversations with each other.