2025.9.24
Context: Kakkou no Iinazuke
Season 2
I forgot why I enjoyed this show in the first place - maybe I was just happy to see any deviations of the arranged marriage trope from the setup established by Nisekoi
(though still somewhat of a solid standard in my opinion), but the ending for this season is very unsatisfactory to me - the logic of the dad's behavioral pattern is hard to explain, and the introduction of this mysterious brother character at this point really seems like it's just the publishing house forcing the author juicing a piece of not-that-juicy-in-the-first-place orange to the point of breaking down and sifting the zest. This big brother character - what the hell is his business here?? Throughout the end I was stuck at this loop of going back and forth between "he exists" and "he doesn't exist the fiancée girl was just mistook the main guy for a big brother", but at the end he showed up so I guess he's real? And why does the rich dad deny his existence? Is it because he somehow found out his sister wasn't really his sister (the main premise of the show was the main guy and the fianceé girl got swapped as babies at the hospital) thus he asked his dad for marriage so the rich dad had to banish him from the family?? Would there ever be a season 3???
As I've said before the one big problem about harem shows is that someone's going to get hurt no matter what if you attempt to resolve it unless you put polygamy onto the table as a legally (and/or emotionally) viable option. I haven't read the original material (if there is one) but I can imagine the trajectory from there would be to solve the issue about the big brother first and then a consolidation arc where the fiancée girl would be the chosen one and everyone else would hurt but still stick around, which would give us a third season at most (it's not getting a movie). I doubt it'll be as enjoyable from here...