Impossible to effectively show in the anime without it getting clunky.
Battle Action Harem Highschool Side Character Quest (No SV, you are the Waifu)
- Thread starter Avalanche
- Start date
- Original
Impossible to effectively show in the anime without it getting clunky.
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Considering how much meta is going on the thread and how much people give Koujirou shit for being "the protagonist", a lot of people.
Personally, I keep it in mind and it was one of the aspects that intrigued me when I started following this quest, but I don't let it affect my decisions.
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
Considering it's what brought me here in the first place, it's relatively important to me.
I think it's kinda interesting.
The story has two layers. There's this layer where the story is real to the characters in its own universe, and there's this layer where the story is an anime. We don't really see the second layer, but we know it's there (from word of author) and people use it for omakes.
I've always been fascinated by metafiction,and while I think it should really be kept out of Anna's narrative, the existence of the metafiction in the background makes this quest just a bit more interesting.
It's gross and distorts the narrative. I think, luckily, it's fallen off a fair bit, but the earlier discussions where it seemed every character development for Anna or every plot development revolved around what that meant for Kojirou and the meta-anime really put me off this quest (and to a certain extent, Kojirou - as it is, I now think of the meta anime as FFXII: Kojirou is Vaan and the viewpoint character, but the actual meat of the story and protagonist is Anna / Ashe's.). Avalanche's writing was good enough that I came back to read the story posts, but you could safely ignore the thread for months and never lose anything.
Other than that, I've really enjoyed reading about Anna's interactions with the Instructors and trying out the various electives and meeting the 2nd and 3rd years. Getting out into the world and having the building mission was fascinating and one of my favorite scenes thus far. I'd be up for another non-combat building mission if it comes up. Seems like Anna really enjoyed it.
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
Worth noting that char relevance points were noted to become much harder to obtain after we hit 12 (main-cast member), so voting with them in mind is very unlikely to prematurely end the quest.
- Location
- UTC -6
I'd expect a low relevance would see Anna deployed to the African front, where she would been seen again later just to be Worf'd by the S-Class Type Zero. Even if Anna would find it appealing to sacrifice herself to save others it's not what I would like see her accomplish.
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
Yeah, I know.
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Ah, sorry, the way you worded it made me think you had forgotten.
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
'S alright.
Dark Abstraction
Infrequent Participant
- Location
- United States
Mmm, maxing character relevance does earn a spin-off, my mistake. Still not something I want though. It's the easiest win condition to get, and getting any win condition automatically and immediately ends the quest and prompts the epilogue. And it goes by "show season", so if we get Relevance 20 by the end of Season 1 of the anime, we don't get to experience the second or third seasons.
So Character Relevance still remains the least interesting or desirable part of this quest for me.
Eh, personally kind of interested in the Character Relevance dealie. As mentioned it is an interesting wrinkle to it all. That said, and going by what Avalanche has stated about increasing it going forward, I don't think it's a bad thing to aim for if only because I can't imagine Hitting 20 without ALSO having saved the world. I don't know if anyone has the previous points for reference, but I suspect 18-20 basically mark Anna as the main character.
In the anime meta then, basically what this would say is that the first season or half season focuses on Koujirou and company with Anna slowly working her way in. Initially it looks like one of those, wasted setting on harem genre nonsense, where even as a fan of the genre it's rarely done anywhere approaching well and mixing it with a setting like this actively ruins both really. Only then Anna starts to gain more and more importance and more central acts and arcs to the plot line, ending with it being a story of HER being the main character who actually saves the world.
Koujirou's there mechanically solely to get everyone introduced to the setting and maybe die tragically/exist as a counterpoint to Anna, assuming he remains a major character and doesn't die early on To give Anna the sads. I'd expect additional wrinkles to his personality to arise as the story shifts from His and his gal pals story to Anna's story, because being a doofy harem protag just doesn't really work unless his purpose is more of a lighten the mood kind of dealie.
Getting off track. I personally see relevance as an important thing, and I think it does make for some interesting reading here, given the additional twist it has on the quest. I'm also not terribly concerned with it, because unless it just starts warping up the ranks at the speed of plot I don't think the concern of it hitting 20 anytime soon is even a real concern to worry about.
Though I still want to see her interact more with the current main cast. I want to see her interact with everyone more to be honest, but that's just because I genuinely enjoy the cast anyway.
In the anime meta then, basically what this would say is that the first season or half season focuses on Koujirou and company with Anna slowly working her way in. Initially it looks like one of those, wasted setting on harem genre nonsense, where even as a fan of the genre it's rarely done anywhere approaching well and mixing it with a setting like this actively ruins both really. Only then Anna starts to gain more and more importance and more central acts and arcs to the plot line, ending with it being a story of HER being the main character who actually saves the world.
Koujirou's there mechanically solely to get everyone introduced to the setting and maybe die tragically/exist as a counterpoint to Anna, assuming he remains a major character and doesn't die early on To give Anna the sads. I'd expect additional wrinkles to his personality to arise as the story shifts from His and his gal pals story to Anna's story, because being a doofy harem protag just doesn't really work unless his purpose is more of a lighten the mood kind of dealie.
Getting off track. I personally see relevance as an important thing, and I think it does make for some interesting reading here, given the additional twist it has on the quest. I'm also not terribly concerned with it, because unless it just starts warping up the ranks at the speed of plot I don't think the concern of it hitting 20 anytime soon is even a real concern to worry about.
Though I still want to see her interact more with the current main cast. I want to see her interact with everyone more to be honest, but that's just because I genuinely enjoy the cast anyway.
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
Or he could be the love interest later, who knows.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
- Location
- Leeds
I'm not talking about spelling it out for the audience. How about this.
"Hi, Setsuna. How did your match go."
"I won of course. You'd know if any of you had shown up."
"Sorry, Koujirou needed the support more than you did."
There, three lines of dialogue, the audience can now infer that the matches were simultaneous and use vocal cues to recognise that Anna commented both.
If you want to expand it
"Hey Anna. Thank you for commentating my match, but please don't do it again."
Here we have a background character chiming in with a comedy moment that also reinforces the suggestions that Anna commented every match.
- Location
- My own little world...
With respect, how many Quests can you think of that actually make it all the way to completion? We're barely half-way into Season 1 and we've reached the point of 6 months between posts. I know our great author and QM is trying his hardest, but that long of a break is still rarely a good sign for a creative project. So while I'd personally love to get as much as we can out of this, I would still rather see the quest have some real resolution than try to drag things out as long as possible in the hope that Avalanche has the time and desire to indefinitely spit out +10k updates for our entertainment.
Besides, if Avalanche really is still interested in this project by the time we achieve victory, whose to say that when we get our spinoff he won't just create Anna Quest, where we control her as a main character in a plot that actually centers around her? The whole point of a spinoff is that there's a new story to be told...
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Or it could be an origin story, or showing things from Anna's perspective, aka this Quest.
I like the meta anime thing. It was fascinating when it started and still is. It is also makes an effective tool against certain SV plans. Like without it I do not doubt that the vote to tell everyone in the flights Anna's backstory over a meal in the cafeteria would have won. Adding an overarching story and narrative that voters have to keep in mind has made the quest much more enjoyable.
- Location
- Mountains and rivers
I agree with you completely.
Honestly, the meta anime part is what drew me in at first. It seemed like a nice jibe at terrible harem anime (of the previously mentioned "Oh God, why is this setting wasted on this?" variety).
Then we got more of Anna.
At first, I was relatively fine with the idea of Anna ending up with Koujirou followed by the epilogue, but as time passed, that ending lost all of its appeal to me. Or rather, it was completely overshadowed by Anna's wonderfully intricate character and backstory, coupled with the worldbuilding (basically Remnant, but we have a technique that may gain eternal victory).
Meanwhile, Koujirou was busy being a bland protagonist.
Oh, I recognize that he's better than most harem MCs, but there's no way I would root for him ending up with Anna.
Because he's only exceptional by harem protagonist standards.
It's like someone trying to write a story that ships Shinji and Sakura in my view.
So try comparing Trafalgar Square to the entirety of England and that's my answer for the main girl ending.
You ever have one of those moments where you almost HOPE the QM takes an idea from someone's post?
Specifically the one where Anna hears that Alaska was invaded on day one.
Because that would be some grade A fridge horror, if they reference it without flat out saying it like they did there. The viewers wouldn't know Anna's details. If it was something that came up in Episode 2 as part of a history lesson, and then 20 episodes later we see Anna's childhood - Where they see a pre-war town develop as described.
Brrrrr.
Specifically the one where Anna hears that Alaska was invaded on day one.
Because that would be some grade A fridge horror, if they reference it without flat out saying it like they did there. The viewers wouldn't know Anna's details. If it was something that came up in Episode 2 as part of a history lesson, and then 20 episodes later we see Anna's childhood - Where they see a pre-war town develop as described.
Brrrrr.