I bet all of us have this situation where we are thinking to answer someone in a particular way but when we open the mouth, a different answer came out instead. I think that’s pretty realistic.

Anyway! I’ve been watching Bokura ga Ita recently and I certainly think it is the most ‘realistic’ anime I’ve ever seen and that almost creepy sense that I know people who could do these things (particularly among the male characters) turns the fairly simple story into something incredibly engaging.

Admittedly this kind of realism is reserved for romance series or romance plots in other genres and I think outside of this realism often gets blurred with character continuity but my mind is wandering again. I’ll end by saying that the simple storyline mixed with the complex characters in Bokura ga Ita was an interesting and refreshing change from the likes of (the competent) Toradora which feels like another series repeating themes and characters with some kind of shallow gimmick.

I think what BeLe said is very true and important. Eroge conversions almost always suffer the same problem: In non-intertwined paths in the game, the lead character tends to decisively and exclusively go after a girl, who eventually falls for him. In the anime version, which is trying to include as many girls as possible, these mutually exclusive paths make the male lead look like an indecisive wuss (or even worse, a multi-timer). Only for a select few games which are DESIGNED around the drama and conflict between the girls (think KimiNozo), this fundamental problem generally can’t be resolved in a satisfactory way.

Therefore, I have developed a bit of a tolerance for this kind of problem. As long as each seperate path can be rationalized, I’m fine. Without this kind of carte blanche, I’d say it’s nearly impossible to watch harem shows

That said, I’d certainly add White Album to the list of the “realistic” shows. Technically they’re going to great lengths to make the anime match the 80es – see the phones, the cars etc. Also, I see no problem in any of the characters or the relationships depicted… if anything, I see some eerie reflections of parts of my former personal life in certain aspects.

@gaguri: Pathos as a means to measure ‘realism’? Sounds great to me. Perception might even be a more accurate way of measuring ‘realism’, as opposed to simply ‘what happens in real life’, especially events you can’t really sympathize with.

@carbon: Well “asshole” is subjective, and for me Touya’s like a “laid back asshole” or something lol. The passive NICE GUY, who messes things up by going with the flow and NOT DOING what he ought to be doing. and Mana’s great! More like, the only character I like out of the other WA girls now.

@Kabitzin: there’s nothing wrong with being unrealistic so long as the series doesn’t take itself seriously. And for some reason AkaSaka came into mind lol. I’m pretty critical about relationship development, sometimes too critical for my own good

@moritheil: There’s a certain fulfillment and enlightenment to gain once you’re able to articulate your thought about something you used to not understand, and sometimes, all it takes is to see things from the eyes of another person, which is why I find the awesome feedback from you guys to be a lot of help

@Senna: Here’s to hoping we’ll get to see the explanations later? Or we can always speculate and poke fun at the show at its expense. As for the drama club, well Misaki’s lameness is the one to blame there. She’s too hung-up with her “tragic past” or whatever guilt and can’t make herself quit the drama club. Or that she’s too stupidly prideful to quit on her dreams~ I do think there are Misakis in real life though, unfortunately.

@issa-sa: hybrid realistic and unrealistic, yes! I’d like to think Yayoi is brewing some EVIL PLAN behind all this.

@Crusader: no SANE woman would fall for Touya, that is. It’s not surprising that he attracts the likes of Misaki his kindred spirit, for example, the type of person who could conveniently use him as a means of ‘escape’. Desperate women who have screws lose might just hang on to someone like Touya too.

@Minnie: thank you for the kind words, but you’d have the commentators for their epic comments to thank for that!

Oddly enough, it seems that I couldn’t care any less about realistic way of life of Touya presented in White Album, lol. The magnet-like characteristic of the lame harem lead will always be a point of contention among people, and as unthinkable as it is that all the girls flock to Touya, I try not to let it get to me and continue to hope that we’ll get to see the answer to this, sooner or later?

The realistic romance shows in your list seems like the cream of the crop, IMO :3

@Ryan: Reality is a very complicated subject matter, as I have now realized, and we can spend so much time arguing over what really is “real” and what’s not, when it all boils down to how we perceive things as such.

The thing thats buggy is perhaps a state of cognitive dissonance we experience because it looks genuine and authentic, but comes off with as much taste as the typical chart-topping rap lyric about cash, hoes, and drugs.

lol, how so true

Personally, in my life, this sort of shit can and has happened (no I haven’t had a harem with idols), and it’s because of these coinciding special interest parties; the girls want something. Thankfully, I’ve never encountered such an idiot/ass as large as Touya, but it’s not the male driver which makes WA or situations like this that do happen “unrealistic”… just because something happens in reality doesn’t make it real. (reality tv for instance)

The ‘problem’ may be how they’re all overlapped over one another coming off as slightly haphazard and thus ‘unrealistic’ to a certain extent – sure one can have many of these ‘encounters’ in the course of a lifetime, but all at once?

I like this, because the issue isn’t realism anymore, it’s having details contrived so these things happen. It occurs in reality as well, and it has to, since there is hardly any way such occurrences would happen naturally.

WA is very forced, and it seemingly has the same plot parade of a hentai title. The thing thats buggy is perhaps a state of cognitive dissonance we experience because it looks genuine and authentic, but comes off with as much taste as the typical chart-topping rap lyric about cash, hoes, and drugs.

lol