天下制覇

Why are all Yamadas weird?

Impressions:

On one hand, I feel like whoever made this has a much better grasp of what actual humor is. On the other hand, it feels a lot like doing a comedy routine about a mass shooting. It doesn't matter how good you are at working the crowd or writing jokes when the subject matter is just plain uncomfortable. Here we have a emo kid who imagines himself murdering all his classmates while fondling a boxcutter, imagining an entire relationship with the airhead he's stalking, who is constantly coming to her aid and rescue, making him not a dangerous stalker, but her secret selfless awkward hero. It's not disturbing, it's adorable. Apparently.

And that's where I'm split, because aside from the random closeups on her chest so you can see it jiggle, it is one of the better presented "awkward boy meets manic pixie girl" things. His awkwardness is at least a sufficiently different flavor from usual, and the murder fantasies drop out quite fast to instead change to dressing like he came straight from Hot Topic. It also flows well, not lingering too long on any one situation, though I do think a more connected story would've been better. I think the difference for me here is that he's trying to be better and do the right thing, even while acknowledging that he's messed up in the head and making his whole relationship with her up. I feel like it'd have worked a lot better without the opening thirty seconds. Let him just be a silly goth/emo/vamp poser, pining for an absolute imbecile because he's a kid with a crush, not harboring straight up murder fantasies.