Kou and Hajime are probably the only ones who don't know by now... And maybe Nene

last edited at Jun 29, 2019 4:41PM

Aoba as senpai is cute hahahaha
Like I said in MD Momiji and Aoba could be a thing if Momiji wasn't married already and Aoba didn't had a preference to show her "real" self to Hifumi ... she's EVIL D:

Leaving Hajime out of the action for now is a good choice imo XP

Is it me, or is this series just not very interesting anymore?

Seriously, I can’t remember—what exactly is the main thing we’re supposed to be caring about here?

Cute girls making cute games and evil Aoba

I just feel like I’m waiting for the interesting ones to come back from Europe.

I don’t mean to be a pain about it. But at one time this series really did feel like it had more going on than just Cute Girls Doing More-Or-Less Random Cute Things.

It’s not like I long for the days of endless disputes in the forum about whether Eagle Jump was or wasn’t using cutting-edge game-industry development best-practices.

But there was, if I’m not mistaken, the sense that something was at stake in the storylines besides whether one or another of the characters had a sad or not.

..................
I swear, at one point while reading this chapter I said, quote "Aoba... What do you think you're doing?... Cheating on Hifumi?"
I let one of my ships for this manga get in the way, I'm so sorry!

Kou is a really great character with lots of presence so it was a risk to let her go, similar to what happened in Gurren Lagan when Kamina wasn't around, it pushes the other characters to become stronger but I know that just like with Gurren, it takes time for the series to recover from that loss.

Also from what I saw in the raws there won't be more emo/angry moments in the horizon.

I love that series, but frankly, I never really see going beyong cute girl doing cute games, Kou or no Kou.
And really, that's pretty much all I expect from this serie. The whole pseudo drama with Momiji getting to be the chara designer ? That felt way too forced in my opinion. Aoba or even Yuu should have gotten that one. All it proved to me was that Hajime is crap at making decisions.

Yeah,I don't really like what the author is doing with this recent arc(s), it seems like they're trying to shake things up and make things more interesting, but i feel it's doing the opposite.

I don't want to outright hate on Momiji, but i think her character and her insert into the story is a big area of contention. When she was intro'd, it felt like her character solely existed to make Aoba feel insecure and doubt herself. I just feel like that, and adding a 'rivalry' between them was a pretty poor choice for a story that is primarily upbeat and positive.

Yeah...these latest chapters feel like wading through mud

Yeah...these latest chapters feel like wading through mud

Yeah, mostly skipped through them. Last one was okay, I really prefer volume 1+2

Yeah...these latest chapters feel like wading through mud

Yeah, mostly skipped through them. Last one was okay, I really prefer volume 1+2

The series has been very "meh" for me ever since Momiji and Narumi were introduced. They feel like mash-ups of some other characters and they haven really had time to develop. They also have taken away screen time from other characters/relationships and their developments

But then Aoba won't have anything to do XP another way to learn is to teach... I was saying in Mangadex ( and they were much happier to receive an update than here) that having Aoba act like a senpai helps for growth, after all SHE IS the main character.
I'm sure that... If there's a third game, Aoba is gonna win the character design and that could be her peak performance arc...... unless Kou comes back stronger than ever lo/

AH!! There's also Nene trying to make games from scratch, remember? who knows, they could start from 0 just them making indie games together o.o) that would be nice too.

Here's some improvements I would make:
Add some small drama to season 1

Stop right here, there no need to add drama unnecessarily.

Introduce Naru in season 1 and make her a inherently nice person (She can be one of Umiko's aides or whatever)

Except Naru is a nice person after the whole code war. She is just insecure because it's her last chance to do what she love before going back to the inn and there no need to introduce that much of new employees in the first season.

Remove Momo completely from the story

As much as i think the current situation is partially her fault, no. Momo was needed to give Aoba some rival after Kou's depart to France.

Yun wins the design competition on her first try

That may the only point i agree on.

Yun tries to climb up the corporate ladder because she wants to be able to take better care of her little siblings

I don't think it's related at all. We never see Yun struggle one bit with her siblings so no.

There roughly one or 2 points i can agree on. All the others made no sense at all.

AH!! There's also Nene trying to make games from scratch, remember? who knows, they could start from 0 just them making indie games together o.o) that would be nice too.

Yeah no, in my opinion they could have ended after Kou's depart for France. I know the dodgeball project is just a side project so it's not too much risk for them but god that start horribly. Choose Hajime's project with no experience, ok why not but don't help her to choose the characters designs was stupid. It feel like Kou going to France is a bad move so far, Eagle seem to struggle .

last edited at Jul 16, 2019 8:21PM

@Serenata:
Aoba maturing is fine; that’s been implicit in the series from the beginning. I just don’t get a strong sense of where she’s supposed to be less strong as a designer and what’s happening to test that and potentially improve it.

One thing (among several) that Kou was good for was actually talking to Aoba and clarifying what was going on and what she needed to address. That’s why I was asking, “what are the stakes of this arc supposed to be?” It just seems like kind of a muddle now when before it wasn’t.

last edited at Jul 16, 2019 8:17PM

We could make Yun's motivations in this arc more impactful and interesting by giving it personal and financial stakes.

Given how her desk and dresses look so fancy, i highly doubt she had any financial issues or it will had been pointed out sooner

What other points do you disagree with?

I think i talk about the one i was not agree on

Replace the Naru not reviewing her code drama with Naru accidentally falling asleep during crunch time due to being too stressed out and Nene has to encourage her to finish coding.

I don't see why it's a bad thing. It made realise to Naru she is not alone in the programmation team and Nene is for helping her and is not a rival.

Season 1 could have very easily been replaced with a high school club and nothing would really change.

Expect JK don't release videos games. In season 1, Aoba just start to work and come in the middle of the process so what drama they could possibly had ? Aoba is a newbie and need to learn basis.

that there was so little drama to the point where all the characters felt like little children and the show was totally unrelatable.

Then people need to stop watch SoL CGDCT. Why little drama is bad thing at all ? Because it feel unrealistic that a video game encounter no problems ?Then spoiler, it's already unrealistic that a team is made of only women and most mangas are unrealistics in itself. There no need to have a lot of drama to make it interesting.

For example: being frustrated with the newbie because she's too slow to learn.

What the hell ? Unless it was a big studio, nobody will had yell at Aoba to be slow. Her work could have been handle by someone else.

Many people were bored by the lack of drama in season 1 and thought the show was wasting its potential.

Then people need to freaking read the manga before. They ain't gonna put drama in anime when there is none in the original source.

Hell, even Love Live! (which is an anime set in a high school club) had more conflict than New Game! season 1.

But that not even the same set-up, you can't compare a little game developping studio with no problem with a group of JK Idols trying to save a school, that's not realistic.

I already told my personnal point of view but i will say it again : Kou going to France was a good end in itself, there were no need to continue it. I may have think that both Naru and Momo weren't needed but i now think they're good because they made the team grow in maturity.

last edited at Jul 16, 2019 9:58PM

Because Love live is about the drama, competition and hardship xP
Feels like you want to turn New Game! into Shirobako (a great anime about making anime) but Shirobako is drama and comedy and New game is Slice of life and comedy with just a touch of drama at the end of each arc ... Plus this is published by Kirara (focused on Moe and slice of life) so your suggestion might be good but it wouldn't be New Game anymore, new game was never meant to be taken so seriously.

last edited at Jul 16, 2019 10:05PM

Adaptations have to be judged on their own terms. Being faithful to the source material doesn't excuse bad writing.

What, you can't blame the anime for the manga's fault. Unless they had pulled a Yuri Kuma Arashi and made a totally different anime and manga, there were no way they could add drama on season 1.

I'm not saying there needed to be a lot of drama, just a suitable amount of it.

But there were a little of it,it was mostly Aoba trying to get her mark in the team.Like Serenata said, the manga don't start off to be drama heavy so it was a given the anime won't have it either.

The author obviously takes his art seriously and wanted his work to be critically successful.

Why did the drama in season 2 will made season 1 bad ? The story progress so it's a given that there will be new problems, especially when it's Aoba first A to Z game and not coming in a 70% finished game.

Here's an idea: if you want to write a story that you think is better, then do it. Let the author do what they want with THEIR story. Also, the yuri goggles were hardly needed this chapter (84).

@AvantApres
You seem to think your point about drama is being misunderstood. I don't think it is. You seem to be implying that New Game, a light-hearted Slice-of-life anime/manga needs drama to be considered good for some reason. If that is not what you are implying, consider rephrasing your point. If it is, then maybe don't go looking for drama themes in SoL anime/manga. You're not gonna find a lot.

(Also, I don't think you're going to find a lot of people agreeing with you, considering that the addition of drama seems to be what a number of people are citing as the reason they're losing interest.)

A personal opinion (Blastaar) isn't an argument/fact you can use to represent the general view... what if I find someone saying that they still like the manga now, would that change your mind? He FEELS a SENSE of SOMETHING, that's pretty vague to prove a point by the way (and sorry for simplifying), you can agree with him and that's fine but that's pretty much all there's to it.

Also... Just for the sake of discussing, adding drama to season 2 is easy when people are already familiar with the characters and they reach a high point such as game Release! and I don't consider Hifumin struggling to communicate as drama by the way, is just a struggle, something they have to deal with as character for growth.
Adding drama right from the start makes it awkward, you just have to make your characters interesting and a good story to keep people engaging until you reach a point where things get more serious... And that was season 2, season 1 was like an introduction.

And yes the last two conflicts were handled very poorly but that was discussed like... for 40 pages if not more so I won't go there again.

Okayyy dang there's lot more text here than the last time I hopped in here...

Well my opinions on why I feel like this latest arc is dragging on is because I think it's lacking what I enjoyed in the earlier parts- a lot of jokes about corporate work life, that even people who don't work in the gaming industry can relate to. I think I just miss the relatability of this series, that I feel was completely lost when Momiji won the competition. I mean it was dragging a bit before that, but it was still fun seeing Yun and Hajime finally move up in the company.

Yeah the argument has been made before that this manga isn't the least bit realistic, but to me it was as realistic as it could be for a SoL CGDCT manga until a freakin intern won the contest and became head character designer....I dunno, it just takes 1 thing to break you out of the universe and that was it for me.

@AvantApres

"If New Game! didn't need conflicts to be good, then why did the author add drama?"

There seems to be a confusion around 'drama' and 'conflict'; conflict is ok, and they were present in season one...In fact you pointed out several instances in one of your posts.
Like:

Do you think the Aoba vs Kou arc was well handled and good drama? If all the conflicts were all written naturally and coherently like that, then what would your opinion of the story be?

I hesitate to refer to it as 'drama', but yes, I thought the Aoba vs Kou bit was good, and resulted in positive character growth for both of them, and represented Aoba becoming more of a professional. Even if it seemed weird that a newbie like Aoba won over Kou, there was better motivivation behind the decision, in that the boss-lady feeling like Kou was stagnating. In comparison, the recent contest had a lot less motivation behind the outcome. Momiji didn't seem to have a good reason to win the contest over the two other (more experienced?) artists. And the last 20 or so pages of comments cover that, so I'll stop there.

I guess my main point is that the drama/conflict in season one is different from season two, because in season one, the conflicts came up more naturally(usually), and were generally resolved more easily, often in favor of the characters with more motivation, I.e Aoba winning over Kou because she was specifically motivated to do her best. Where as in season two, the drama around Momiji seemed pointed at making Aoba question/doubt herself, and didn't seem necessary. Then the competition comes along, and it seems like Yun has the most motivation behind winning and Momiji has the least, yet Momiji wins and there doesn't seem to be a particularly good reason.

tl; dr : in general, the conflicts in New Game were almost always resolved favorably through/for character motivation. I.e, Aoba beat Kou because she was determined. But then suddenly, in season two, there are conflicts (or at least one big one) where the outcome seemingly has nothing to do with the characters individual motivations, and it represents an unnecessary shift from the tone that was consistent throughout the rest of the story.

(P.S. I'm not sure how much sense this post makes, but meh, it's early, maybe I'll fix it later)

Edit: Apparently my memory of when events took place is off, so when I say 'season 1', just replace that with 'before Momiji was added', i guess.

last edited at Jul 17, 2019 10:25AM

I have no idea why the issue is being structured around the supposed presence or absence of “drama” or “conflict”—you can have an interesting conflict over picking a restaurant for the office party or deciding whether to leave accidental panty shots in a finished game.

My problem with most of the post-Kou series is focus—precisely what plot or character issues are we supposed to actually care about, and why? Which relationships among which characters are at issue and why?

As it is, my main point of interest is wondering how Rin and Kou are getting on.

EDIT: Oh, BTW, I could give a shit about the anime—I’m a manga reader.

last edited at Jul 17, 2019 9:16AM