#md3 watches welcome to the ballroom

[mysticdragon3md3]

Welcome to the Ballroom ep1

In which I go from really liking the show, to getting very confused by character inconsistency for the sake of the genre’s typical story progression/pace. o~o?

I like this show!  ^o^  The protagonist is super relatable and adorable!  Sengoku-san had me laughing soon into the episode!  ("Excuse to get close to girls"?  C'mon man.  LOL)  And I'm intrigued by Shizuku's situation.  If she's so dedicated to dance that she's protective of it vs people who don't take it seriously, but the teachers think she hasn't decided on any life path yet, then why is she keeping her passion for dancing a secret?  Are her parents ashamed of her dancing?  How is she going to the dance studio so often without them knowing?  Do her parents actually permit her to dance, but expect to her grow out of it as a career?  o.o?????  

And is it just me, or do Fujita and Shizuku remind anyone else of Haikyuu's Hinata and Shimizu?  They've all got such similar character designs!  Even Shizuku's name is smilar to Haikyuu's Shimizu Kiyoko!  ^o^  Well, I who didn't see that coming?  The manga industry does ride trends.  When Bleach became popular Otomen and lots of other series came out with smiliarly designed characters.  Suddenly, all the female mentor characters were no nonsense bad asses with short, dark hair, just like Rukia Kuchiki.  And the entire Shonen genre had become so trendy through Bleach, Naruto, and Death Note, that even Shojo manga-ka were being told by their editors to make a "Shonen series".  Even Watase Yuu, whose series are "all girly all the time" suddenly had a male protagonist series.  That was crazy.  (Especially since the male protagonists still had all the stereotypically "girly" problems.)  And most of all, Soul Eater homaged all 3, Bleach, Naruto, and Death Note.  The manga/anime/Japanese videogame industries ride trends.  I seriously doubt Persona 5 would have had a volleyball character, if Haikyuu hadn't made the sport so popular.  And that's not to mention all the articles I've read about the sudden interest in practicing swordplay, among women in Japan, after Touken Ranbu became popular.  And let's not forget the rekijo (female history geeks) were mostly spurred by manga/anime set in the Sengoku Era.  Anyway, it might be fun to imagine a Hinata type of character in this predictably romantic character set-up.  

There's something weird about this direction in the 2nd half of the episode.  I had really liked it so far.  But that imagery of Fujita being impressed by the dance competition DVD was really jarring.  Now that I think about it, I don't think there was any other imagery that surreal, so far yet in the episode.  I know it's meant to really sell the impact of pro dancing on Fujita, but it was mostly just odd.  The episode so far, hadn't eased me into that much surrealism.  So far, the episode had portrayed all the emotions with very realistic, yet very effective use of minutia, detail, and subtlety.  But that revelation moment's jarring oddness was too distracting to take seriously.  

And now this scene with Fujita saying he wants to sign up for dance lessons, even though he's _thinking_ with absolute certainty, "I can't do this"?  The juxtaposition is too odd.  I feel like the camera work is changing to contrast the Fujita asking for lessons and the Fujita rattling off a list of very realistic reasons why I CAN'T take lessons, to make them seem like 2 different people...But when has this character showed that dichotomy so far during his character set-up?  There was that one moment when he glared at the bullies, but it was very small and very quickly covered up by his submissive personality.  This is just too much contrast at once!  Another jarring contradiction.  

I don't want to be jarred out of this series though.  Everything from the character design to the animation, says that this series will carry a tone of subtlety, a recognition of the significance of the little things...Everything I love about the "slice of life" genre.  But unless that genre sets up very early and very often that it can switch back and forth between squishy chibis and serious scenes, it's all too much to take during the last third of the introductory episode.  I mean, look at all the lines defining each character's eyes and facial expressions!  The sakuga for every pointed toe on the dance floor!  This is the kind of thing that usually gets left in the manga, but doesn't get translated into an anime adaptation.  *o*  Everything about the line work, the lighting, the music (or lack of), the solidly drawn characters with such realistic volume and weight, the set-ups of the scenes are all just so realistic, that when this show does surreal imagery or unbelievable character actions...it just feels unrelated to everything that's been set up so far.  I'm really confused.  ~_~  

I don't know...this is really weird.  I know that the "reluctant teacher" is a time-honored trope since the story of the Daruma's disciple...But is it really fitting to set up this adversity to the protagonist's spirit, when the episode hasn't satisfactorily set-up a determined will for the protagonist?  I don't feel invested in Fujita persisting in The Box, or even dancing in general.  Usually in sports anime, the protagonist's introduction at least establishes his determination, so that during the training, we're cheering for him.  But even Fujita doesn't know what he really wants.  How can we?  Sure, there's been those sequences of him impressed by dance, but there have been a lot MORE scenes of him feeling wishy-washy and not even *that* determined to find something to be passionate about.  The amount of screentime spent on portraying something matters; it determines the emotional impact.  He was doing more sulking than exploring options.  He followed Shizuku to the dance studio _by accident_.  He was just wandering, directionless, and only slightly curious about her.  In fact, the most passionate I've seen Fujita during his initial introduction, was when he saw Shizuku also hadn't decided on her career form in the teacher's office.  He just liked that he had a comrade in his directionless indecision.  I feel like Fujita is motivated more by that fear of being alone at the bottom, more than a fascination with dance---even after that surreal impressed sequence.  

But I understand.  The entire premise of this series is that the protagonist needs to find something to be passionate about.  That dictates that he start out as a character who is listless and directionless.  But did the episode have to spend so much time establishing that listlessness, that it's hard to believe he's suddenly passionate about something, when the episode came to that?  If this were a more typical sports anime about "a protagonist who gets into ballroom dancing because he wants to find *something* to be passionate about", I feel like the protagonist would more typically have been the enthusiastic type, running around, trying anything and everything, for a place to belong.  His lack of passion wouldn't have been a problem, but finding an outlet for that passion would have been the conflict to resolve.  But I see that this series was trying to be different.  By not giving Fujita an inherent drive for anything, despite not knowing what to direct that determination towards, his character arc becomes more focused on finding passion, rather than finding an expression for passion.  Still, maybe that sports manga cliche, became a cliche, because it's just so effective.  ^^;  

I mean, the story *needed* Fujita to start his dancing lessons, so it essentially turned him into someone else, during that scene where he asked to join the dance studio. Someone who would definitely set him on the path into dance. Shouldn't the series have drawn that out longer, so it would have been more believable for him to start dancing?  But, no.  You can just see where the first chapter of the manga was about to end, and they needed to get the plot rolling, ending on that cliffhanger of him being accepting into classes, so readers would look forward to him tackling challenges.  That's just how the weekly manga is structured.  Every week, new first chapters of new manga series are all competing to get a spot in the next month's issue, to continue on as a series.  

Maybe the set-up of this series would have been better served emphasizing portrayals of the joy Fujita should feel at finding any passion or direction in life.  There should have been a series of little struggles and tiny, mundane discoveries of finding a passion---Maybe even spending time defining multiple interpretations of what Passion is.  And you can't tell me that this series wouldn't know how to portray the minute, subtle, everyday things.  That's what it's been doing with every animation of its characters faces and even taking the time to shadow the unique curves of individual characters' facial features.  And this series's tone has been "slice of life" overall, THE genre for portraying the significance in every tiny moment.  If this series had established Fujita by a series of little moments of direction/passion which bring him great joy, then it would have built up to the moment when Dance impressed him.  

Right now I'm not sure why *THIS* character should garner my investment in *THIS* task.  I like this character, but I'm not so sure dancing should be his direction in life.  And yet the story is already moving along, assuming we're already invested.  Please don't do this to me, show.  I already like this character.  Yuri on Ice did the same thing to me, empathizing with the protagonist but losing me on the sport in question.  This can't happen AGAIN so soon.  ~.~;  At least Yuri on Ice kept me invested in the "character study" side of the story.  But who is this Fujita?  Is he the same Fujita that was introduced at the beginning of this episode?  Has the story given me adequate reason to believe in this drastic change in his personality or at least his actions?  I'm just really confused.  

I mean, normally I love these moments when the sports anime protagonist pushes through a wall through sheer determination, but this is Fujita we're talking about?  Where would that determination even come from?  I don't understand how he's such a different---completely different character all of a sudden.  Sure, you can say because he's so impressed by dancing and he's finally found something he wants to be passionate about.  But a jarring, surreal sequence that felt like someone had changed the channel to another series, then a scene where Fujita's actions were COMPLETELY OPPOSITE from what he was thinking AND what he had been narrating all the way up to that point, aren't enough to sell me.  It wasn't effective.  Not emotionally, not logically.  It was someone else.  Who is this???  

I mean the only way this series might get by now, is if Fujita turns out to be some sort of prodigy, like Yui from K-on.  Someone who can keep progressing and performing the thematic activity of the series, even without any logical resolve and determination.  The problem is that Fujita is male.  And that makes him a "Shonen genre" protagonist.  They always have to have that "manly" determination and resolve.  ...But I just don't buy why he's having resolve about dancing.  I just don't buy it yet.  I mean, I love watching it, I love watching these type of "determination pushing through adversity" scenes, that's why I love the Shonen genre.  But there's some real dissonance going on there.  @_@???  

But damn, the direction of this series, when it comes to individual movements is great!  ^o^  

I mean, I love these training cliches, sports anime cliches, and plucky shonen protagonist cliches---I love these themes of determination---but...Does it really fit?  I mean, I paused the episode to get some tea, and when I came back, the training scene with The Box reads well, in and of itself.  But is increasing the effectiveness of a scene by divorcing it from everything else that's been established since the beginning of the episode, of this series, really considered "effective" (storytelling)?  Even Sengoku-san has made a sudden change from altruistic, happy-go-lucky, admirable "manly" guy to abrasive, "reluctant mentor".  This series has some serious character-consistency issues.  o~o  

Maybe this story assumes too much.  It assumes that the viewer is from a culture where there is constant pressure from a young age, to already know your path in life.  Even by junior high, Fujita's grade level, having a completely blank career form is already very late and very concerning.  As discussed in a Mother's Basement video essay about My Hero Academia (https://youtu.be/LmRfmJqE0kM), the pressure of choosing career early in life and the weight of indecision is a visceral, every day, concern in every Japanese youngster's life, from may age 11 to onwards and forever.   I'm sure most Japanese don't need a story to "prove" to them why they should care so much about this character's concern for direction in life.  With the Japanese audience's real life background, they're probably already impatient for him to find his passion and rooting for every second Fujita inches closer towards a passion.  But I'm American.  A story needs to sell those themes to me, needs to make me care, needs to be emotionally effective in establishing those assumptions, so I will be invested in the rest of the story, that his built on those assumptions.  

I'm sorry.  I really like Fujita, Welcome to the Ballroom is beautifully animated and art directed, and I want to look forward to continuing this series.  But I'm kind of indifferent.  *sigh*  

I'm probably still going to get Fujita's Nendoroid though.