Still needs more editing, viewer discretion advised
"Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front." - Pixar's 22 rules of story telling
I'm starting to find a number of anime that really nail their opening act and then completely crumble down afterwards. What really sucks is a lot of these shows have some of the most engaging premises I have seen. Why do they fail?
I'll be talking about a couple of shows: Kotoura-san, Bunny girl Senpai, and Oresuki. There's more of course but I'll add them when I find them.
A lot of these shows have a great initial concept. Oresuki subverts cliche romcom moments and gives some troupes more awareness than they would otherwise have. Kotoura life gets a fresh start but she is haunted by her past and her powers. Bunny Girl Senpai has enjoyable banter between it's main duo.
But you'll notice that the writing declines after the first light novel. While the authors do have a great initial inspiration, they only have enough ideas to last a single novel and must complete the inspiration's arc to end the first book. These authors are immediately throwing away the most compelling elements of their plot.
And I think this is because they only have that initial inspiration. They didn't think of an ending for the story too, only a beginning. It works fine for the first novel and the problem of how to end the series is pushed away to the next novel and the next.
But this creates the lack in focus these shows see after their initial arc. The writer already concluded the best elements from the premise and now they have nowhere to aim the story. So they meander. Oresuki and Bunny Girl Senpai add a ton of new characters that aren't particularly memorable and are not involved in anything near as compelling as the first arc. Oresuki is probably one of the worst offenders as it turns from a parody of harem romcom into an actual harem romcom, shooting it's original message in the foot. Kotoura gets involved in a mystery case.
But what I think is the worst about this all is that I don't think the authors necessarily care. One binding concept through all of them is that the leading male protagonist is similar or generic; more self-insert with generic or common traits than unique character. These authors aren't necessarily setting out to create a great plot, they may just be trying to write an escapism with as passable an effort as possible.
There are a couple options I can think of for fixing stories like this. The first is to extend and further detail the original inspiration. Bunny Girl Senpai could give more time between it's main duo to be together, do more things, learn more about each other, etc. Oresuki could definitely have slowed a bit and had more antics. Kotoura's problems could create more obstacles for the cast to solve and her progress could have been slowed and better shown.
The second is to write a real end. This one is harder since you essentially have to top the opening. Bunny Girl Senpai could have a larger arc with MC trying to (and noticeably progressing) discover the source of the adolescence disease.
The final is to simply cut. If the story works well short, don't extend it past what works.
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