Bokutachi no Remake / Remake Our Life!

[neflight86]

Lot to unpack here, in our surprise most controversial show of the season.

Even when a consequence has finally showed up, Tsurayuki still spends half of the scene saying how fucking great Kyouya is.

Agreed; there's no need to continue to lay it on this thick when that dialogue could have spent more time explaining the harm his overbearing direction caused instead and sell that to the viewer instead of how awesome Kyouya is...

Kyouya isn't just doing a director's job at this point. He was actively squelching all of their creativity to meet the deadline. Telling Shino to not do her own style of art that she knew would evoke a stronger emotion. Telling Nanako to rehash someone else's work and just be derivative. But no, they don't even fight back, and Kawasegawa or her sister aren't even there to tell him off. Aki and Nanako's hints were too subdued, because how dare they question the 'genius' who has saved them so many times so far in school? Even the self-satisfied thought Kyouya had "I'm glad we decided to do things my way. It was the right decision." What an intensely unlikeable guy. Who writes a business proposal to his housemates on a collaborative project then gently guilt-trips them into agreeing to it?

I'm shaky here. I understand he put his foot down, and the creatives had to compromise, but it was in service to meeting an all or nothing deadline that predicated the entire worth of the project. Art without compromise is more typical of hobby grade dabbling than commercial pursuits, though these youth may not be equipped to accept that yet. I figure it would be good for them to understand early on that following every little distraction will get them nowhere fast. I'm with Mfauli in that I think the intention of helping out Tsurayuki trumps this unforeseen mental damage.

Because he slowly deviated into thinking that he was so important that he help people who never needed him in the first place. He wanted to collaborate, but instead he ended up undermining all of their confidence.

At what point did he think he was so important? When he put competing the project on time over the whims of the others? As the story presents it, their disorganized methods would not have completed the project without someone being the 'bad guy' and making tough decisions about what was feasible or not. I never really got him thinking that he was some savior to them- I thought he was trying to help his friend pay for school.

No wonder he's a failure in the original timeline. He blames everything else and his "lack of opportunity" when his personal efforts aren't enough, and when he's given free reign with all the talent helping him he could ask for, he lacks the capacity to relinquish even an iota of that control. Lack of determination on the forward end, lack of humility on the redo.

He was mopey after losing his job... I've been that way too, on occasion, but I'm not in a TV show broadcasting my self thoughts for the world to judge. We all have bad times, and honestly, its not like he was suicidal or anything. I just don't see his conviction (or lack thereof) in the short amount of time we've been curated to see as being built up enough to take to heart like you are. I take this more as backdrop stuff than legitimate plot relevant character analysis.

This is always his problem, always been his problem, and will always be his problem unless he finally learns something from this future jump.

Something goes wrong, and he just gives up and collapses.

He needs to recognize it is his attitude, not his available opportunities, regrets, and "luck."

I don't understand. What does not giving up and collapsing look like? He lost his job and went home while he presumably planned out the next steps in his life. Then he was transported back in time to try again, unbeknownst to him. Far as I can tell, he was in a mild state of grieving. Is that too much to allow?

Maybe there is some author insert and wish fulfillment here or the like, but I can't hold it against the character himself who was sent back in time against his will and knowledge. To not expect him to try to make change when presented with a prime opportunity to do so would be very odd, indeed.

He needs to recognize it is his attitude, not his available opportunities, regrets, and "luck."

He was extremely lucky in his original timeline. How often do you get cross-functional knowledge in a job that you switched to because you hated your original career? How often do you lose a job and get a new dream job a month later because you met a hot woman manager on a footbridge? How often do you rapidly work your way up from a clerical job to a management coordination position?

What you describe here doesn't seem like luck aside from the initial meet up. He worked his way into the skillset he has like anyone else. People change jobs all the time, and working your way up is a part of that. People at the Kasegawa's company respected his contributions and he didn't really have any glaring weaknesses other than a lack of control (project got cancelled by higher ups). I don't think his attitude was the problem.

The point is: People make choices. Kyouya didn't actively manipulate them. He just happened to be there and tried to do the best within the school regimen. Neither did he try to sabotage anyone nor use his knowledge to catch himself a cute gf. It just happened.

Pretty much agreed.

Kyouya has done damage to at least two of them. Directly. He knows he manipulated them into doing it his way, thinking it was the right thing to do. His dialogue revealed it when he's walking with the studio with Nanako and pink-haired Loli-God. You're also forgetting that Kawasegawa's sister directly warned him not to do what he ended up doing with the game, when he had exerted control over one of their group projects. There's a balance point, that's what editors do, etc. It's a collaborative effort. "If the production side stops trying, then that means that the whole project is doomed...No one outranks anyone else."

Kyouya single-handedly got all three of them to stop trying at their specialties in order to meet the schedule. And he did it in a way where he was commanding the whole project.

...

Nah...Kyouya flat out lies to her face with his 'I know what I'm doing' tone he's been using with his housemates for months now. She pushes back for a second, and even directly states that he might be having reservations because of the schedule. He double-down on the lie that he thinks she should only focus on facial expressions and backs it up with some storyboarding bullshit. Implying that the way Shinoaki works and her ideas are wrong. Focus on the waifu, not the superior overall composition where the readers get a visual clue to the protagonist's mindset. "I think your idea is interesting, but this one is better, what do you say?"

"Interesting" being universal business code speak for, "your idea is stupid."

He's railroading her into an admittedly inferior idea, and negatively impacting her instincts.

I don't think that can be applied to a specialty project like this with a clearly non-artistic goal: to make money by a deadline. In a non-crunch environment, I think there is more room for playing nice and following creative collaboration. There has to be rank/heiarchy or we have five individual projects that may or may not mesh together.

Isn't getting people to try new things outside their specialties a good thing in a school environment? Wouldn't that help them develop lateral skills and prepare them to be flexible in the future? No one was at gunpoint; any could have quit at any time, but they respected his time lord wizdom to get the project done which they had no plan to do elsewise.

As for Shonoaki, he already has been made aware by Kasegawa to tip-toe around the girls until this project was settled to not further disrupt their ability to work with his unlimited stud works, so I understand why he didn't want to get into a detailed explanation of how, while her idea would improve the product, it most likely would not impact the sales of the product, which is why this misery crunch is taking place. If anything, it could make the deadline get missed and make their effort all for nothing. Knowing her kind personality, that truth bomb could have made her depressed. If her instincts were that fragile as to be stunted by a single remark, she's got some more growing to do.

- He wanted to go back because his own life was "a failure." He wanted the opportunity to work with and collaborate with the Platinum Generation Trio, so he wouldn't have to face the failures of his current life, or so he thought.
- He says this episode, 'These are the correct actions to take. This must be the real reason why I was sent back here, to help them.'

Then he realizes after he destroyed Tsurayuki's career with his meddling and borrowed competence in everything, that none of them had really needed him in the first place. They were all extremely successful in that normal timeline without his involvement or "aid."

The want for a crutch sent him back in time. His own true capabilities as of 2016 snapped those crutches. He keeps missing the lessons he was sent back to learn (and I mean school lessons, not the moral ones Loli-God is teaching him now that he's ruined the one thing he wanted).

I can see how that line could sound like self-importance, but if his intent is at-all humble, he could have adopted the mindset of a helpful time-cherub supporting people he admires. He doesn't count himself among them as far as I can tell.

I can't argue they were already successful at present, but I would probably be excited to work with people I admired as well. Was he not supposed to approach them even though he wound up in the same dorm?

I've never heard of 'borrowed competence' in that context, lol. That's a pretty backhanded way to say 'preserved memories'. But meddling? Was he supposed to just let Tsurayuki quit school just because he's afraid of a butterfly effect? He has no way to know if any of this is playing out like it did in the original timeline, so he took action to get a result he thought would be better. No malicious intent. This was an accident at worst.

In 2018, Kyouya has already ruined everything. That's the purpose of Loli-God sending him even further from where he started. To see the truth of it. There's some good things, but as I've speculated, probably far more that Kyouya will ultimately dislike even more.

If this happens in the coming episodes, that will certainly do much for your case against Kyouya, as I'm not sold on his moral degeneracy or awful attitude quite yet...

The Platinum Generation didn't need help. Kyouya deluded himself into thinking they did. His "help" did the opposite. He realized it when Tsurayuki told him he was going to drop out.

...

There's a difference between helping and coddling, and something Kyouya never learned, because all his competence in the 2006 time is unearned. He's cheating with future skills and knowledge that he's learned over a decade. Mentoring is different, giving people a chance to fail on their own. Kyouya has been directing all of them exactly how to work.

It's anime, so I should take what is said at face value, but Tsurayuki wouldn't be the first teenager to say something, mean it, and then not mean it later. If he loves writing enough to fight his family over it, he will probably still continue writing somehow.

I suppose they did not need his help, but they sure looked like they might, given the circumstances. I don't see how his past self memories are un-earned if he also has the traumatic memories wo go with them. He's an imposter teenager, I get that, but he is still a student at this school, so I figure he can be allowed a mistake or two. I'm also not sold on the idea of the merit of letting people 'fail on their own'. Firstly, this was a timed project with monetary consequences, and secondly, letting someone fail seems counterproductive in and of itself, even if the goal is to prepare them for the future. Is it a 'building character' kind of thing you are referring to?

If he was so competent at so many aspects of the business when he worked at the Black Company making games, and he knew Kawasegawa somehow had a personal connection to three people in the Platinum Generation...why did he go back home again to wallow in a pity party rather than ask Kawasegawa if he could have a chance to work on a smaller scale project with her friends? The two of them were already hanging out for dinners after hours.

For all we know, his permanent position was never solidified and he was let go, or the Trio felt betrayed by the company pulling the plug on the game and severed ties with Kasegawa. Time passed off camera where things could have happened. I can think of a few reasons, but I don't meant to try to pick apart your (good) question.

Well, this has gotten long, and has made for good discussion, so I look forward to seeing what will happen next on our future perfect?