Speaking based on what i heard from Hibike S1 only. But apparently the novel was even gayer than the anime (when Kumiko hug Reina, she was sniffing on her hair and trace her bra back strap and such) . BUT it also was balanced out by doses of het (she was very concious with what-his-face name, Shuichi?). So Kumiko always in that somewhat bi status that the author can run it off as adolescence.
KyoAni, while tone down the gayness a bit, actually almost removed the entire het altogether. So we ended up having a fairly gay anime (S1) instead
I saw people quoting some things from the book and seriously, it doesn't look any different than any het anime does when a girl finds other pretty. I have no read the book itself, though, and I don't plan to, but every translated portion I read (that should be a proof about how gay the novel was) really wasn't much. Others things to note is that the first arc in the novel isn't about Reina at all. And she goes home everyday with Shuichi.
The reason to cut Shuichi romance makes sense (not wanting making a shoujo romance in an anime highly targeted to male audience), but all the bait was unnecessary. Worse, from interviews, this bait probably started with the own Yamada. All that scene in the top of the mountain was her idea. Although the director looks like he's okay with yuri shipping (he made chuu2) and the writer writes Love Live, so... Again, the original author never said anything about adolescence, she never needed to, because people only saw it as yuri after the anime.
I don't even like KumiRei pairing. I would be happy with a yuri end, but seriously, all this ship has going is that beautifully directed scene at the top of the hill. Aside from that, their interactions are always just a step to Reina's crush. And seriously, Reina is a empty character. First season was about her, so she had some relevance. But now, while Kumiko is doing all sorts of things... I just remember Reina being useless and irrelevant this season.
The sad thing is that the last two arcs were great, but KyoAni choose to close everything with another boring arc about Reina's crush that no one cares. That's theirs worst sin this season, imo.
And if they want bait yuri, they could switch Reina for Asuka and it would be way better
PS: KyoAni better don't screw up my yuri dragon maid anime!!!
Considering the complains about Hibike is being too faithful to the source work where we didn't want it to be, I don't think we need to worry about that.
last edited at Dec 16, 2016 10:31AM