Today’s dishonor goes to H2O: Footprints in the Sand.
This show does a lot to try and make you feel sad. One of the main characters, Hayami, is bullied so much and so harshly by all of the characters in the village, child, adult or otherwise, that it’s insane. She also has a tragic backstory ™, is an orphan (I think?) because of it, and is severely psychologically damaged by her situation.
Hirose, the main character in this dramatic harem, is blind, became blind through psychological trauma in his tragic backstory ™ in which his mother commits suicide right in front of him. He gets better but then there’s a tragic plot twist that reveals he never was better. He becomes emotionally broken and basically becomes a walking vegetable. Then he gets better. The love of his life kills herself in a manner identical to how his mother killed herself, all to….cure his…blindness….and then…he gets better….and…..she…gets…better?
Hinata has a tragic backstory ™ with her grandfather being a horrible bastard. Her life and identity aren’t even really hers – they were thrust upon her by her grandfather who basically ‘killed’ her off in order to have her take the place of the person who really died.
Otoha has a tragic backstory ™ Long story short –
Even people not in the H2O circle (Hinata, Hayami (interchangeable Hirose) and Otoha, get it?) have tragic backstories like Yui whose grandfather died because Hayami’s family refused to give him medical treatment because Yui’s family was poor.
….Did I mention this is based off of an H-game? That’s probably important. Who wants to try to get turned on while wading through a sea of tragedy and horrible circumstances? There are no hentai scenes or anything close here, so you’re just left with an overly dramatic harem anime that is unabashedly sad.
Thing is, even though I enjoyed most of the show well enough, barring the last three episodes, I never felt sad. There were a couple decent heartwarming moments, but sad? No. Not once.
I don’t know if I was just numb to it very quickly or if they were obviously doing their best to make everything as tragic as possible from the get-go while still having an unrealistically happy ending where damn near everything is fixed so I just felt like….Have you ever seen something that is obviously overly dramatic and sad to the point where your reaction is more ‘wow, what the hell?’ than it is sadness?
It’s hard for me to have a legitimately sad response to all of this soap-opera-esque tragedy. And it just snowballs as the series goes concludes until the snowball gets hit by a train.
Read my original review for the full stupid insanity of the last three episode of the series, but trust me, it’s just sad event after sad event.
And I still don’t feel remotely sad. If anything, I got pretty angry and confused as the series ended simply because I couldn’t believe the stupidity of it all.
Sad, however, no. They’re just trying way too hard.
The Anime Madhouse 
I can completely understand not being sad here. I haven’t watched the show, but all of the tragic backstories would probably numb anyone. Maybe numb isn’t the right word, but it’s hard to accept tragedy after tragedy after tragedy before you start to wonder what’s next. By that point, you’re expecting it so it doesn’t seem as bad.
But wow, why is killing yourself the way to cure blindness?
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“But wow, why is killing yourself the way to cure blindness?”
Okay, buckle up. Let’s take a ride through Stupid Street. Major spoilers, by the way.
Hirose is blind at the start of the story because of a past trauma. When he was a child, his mother seemingly committed suicide right in front of him by jumping in front of a train. Ever since then, he’s felt like his mother never loved him and that she abandoned him. A chance run-in with the girl Otoha seemingly restores his sight for much of the series. (Don’t ask. I don’t even know.)
Later in the series, he is told that she committed suicide because of Hayami’s family pressuring her into marrying into their family even though she had a husband and son at this point. Even though Hirose witnessed the whole thing and this event is what caused him to go blind in the first place, he somehow never noticed that his mother was saving him and not hopping in front of a train of her own volition.
After having a breakdown about the stuff involving Hayami’s family and Hirose’s mother, it’s revealed that he never regained his sight. He had…somehow…fooled himself into thinking he had and….somehow managed to go on with life believing he could see when he couldn’t? I was never able to make heads or tails of this.
In addition to losing his sight….again…or at least realizing he never had it back, Hirose enters into a severely delusional state and needs to be cared for.
Hayami takes the role since Hirose now seems to be under the delusion that Hayami is his mother and that he’s a child….for some reason. They live out in the city for several months being supported by money from Hirose’s uncle and Hayami’s paper route job.
Then we learn that Hirose’s mother didn’t commit suicide. According to Hayami, who somehow knows this because the writers said so (There is literally no way she could’ve known this – unless she’s just lying), she actually died to trying to save Hirose from a train since he was trying to get his ball that was bouncing across the tracks.
One day, Hayami randomly decides to prove to Hirose that his mother loved him and died trying to save him……………………………by throwing herself in front of a train and committing suicide.
“See Your mom didn’t commit suicide and abandon you. I’ll prove it by committing suicide and abandoning you.”
As if that logic doesn’t make your brain want to shrivel up and die enough, I reiterate, HIROSE IS BLIND. Even if we inject logic into this stupidity, Hirose wouldn’t be able to see it anyway. She was banking entirely on him gaining his sight back from the sounds of the train alone so he could see her kill herself just in time.
And, logically, he should’ve lost his sight immediately afterward again because he just witnessed basically the same trauma that made him go blind to begin with – only this time the person in question really was committing suicide.
I think they were going for ‘wow, Hirose’s in a bad way. We need something massively dramatic and tragic to top the show off and bring Hirose back to a good point.’ and then they hit themselves in the head with shovels for an hour, huffed a case of spray paint and went to their keyboards.
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“As if that logic doesn’t make your brain want to shrivel up and die enough, I reiterate, HIROSE IS BLIND. Even if we inject logic into this stupidity, Hirose wouldn’t be able to see it anyway. She was banking entirely on him gaining his sight back from the sounds of the train alone so he could see her kill herself just in time.”
I’m now picturing him sitting on a bench not noticing anything, while the whole saviour suicide is happening.
This is meant to be sad, but it sounds funny in a ridiculous, how is this even possible, kind of way. I’ve now added it to my tbw list. lol
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It’s even funnier if you imagine Hayami like some kid trying to get her parent’s attention.
“Hirose! Look! Watch me! Hirose! You’re not looking! Look! Hirose watch me! Hirose! Hirose! I’m gonna do it! Wat–oh wait you’re bli–*TRAIN*
Have fun with it. It’s pretty damn normal (albeit really dramatic) until the last three episodes. That’s when the train derails…..Hehehe…get it?….The train? Hehehe.
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