Feel like the premise for your steampunk romance anime is too interesting and original? Follow these steps to guarantee that the presentation will make it boring and uninspired instead!
(A/N: Some spoilers are discussed in this post. It is also intended to be read with heavy amounts of sarcasm.)
1. Establish a really cool setting and then do nothing with it. Your characters are living on a giant floating island in search of the end of the world? Focus on their anime school life instead! They'll be passing through parts of the world and may encounter tribes that are only discussed in myth? Do not discuss or establish those myths! The whole expedition is actually a way to send people into political exile? That's far too interesting a topic, have a beach episode instead!
2. Set up your romance plot by having the characters fall into water and be half-naked around each other. Bonus points will be awarded if they fall on each other while half-naked. Have them act really awkward and say cliche things to each other instead of establishing actual chemistry. Who would want to have nuanced romance in their anime, especially when it's the main plotline?
3. Have everyone freak out over foreign food, like curry. Nevermind wondering how this food could exist in this universe. Nothing is better than foreign food. Nothing.
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| (눈_눈) Are you kidding me |
5. Have one character that just stands around looking angry, contributing nothing. Is his perceived angst relevant to the plot? Who knows!
6. Give your main characters tragic backstories that fuel interesting motivations, but don't have them act on those in the present. A character might be a prince who wants to exact revenge from a religious leader, but he doesn't have time for that! There's food to moon over! Also, be sure to not clarify what exactly caused this tragic backstory event. There was a revolution against the old monarchy? Over what? Who cares!
7. Did we mention how great ramen is yet?
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| If this isn't a death flag, then I need to get my anime cliche meter re-adjusted |
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| The face of a man enamored with ramen |
10. Should your show address cliffhangers? I think you meant TIME TO MAKE MORE RAMEN
TL;DR: There are some cool ideas in here, but there's so much bland anime school stuff that's been done hundreds of times before that I can't bring myself to care anymore. And if I have to listen to another character talk about how mind-blowingly awesome ramen is, I will flip tables. If you're still watching this for the brief moments of steampunk, please watch the first Last Exile instead, it's a much better use of your time.
Images from Crunchyroll.com.
