the original was an ok anime the plot was poorly developed and the bad guys were subpar but the relationship was solid. There was this will they-won´t they feeling about them , there was some hints of himeko being in love wih chikane but since chikane didn´t have the raw strenght nor the mecha (like souma) it felt like she was being left behind despite her efforts to support himeko .So the end was a rollercoaester of emotions
without the context the characters feel a bit empy and now that their relationship seems to be set in stone the story feels kind of boring
I actually decided to watch the anime after all, and I'd say I pretty much agree with you. The original was still quite lacking in terms of plot, the villains were indeed completely unconvincing, it really didn't need a "long lost brother" (like, seriously...?) and, heck, even if I liked mecha (which I don't), the battles were excruciatingly repetitive. But the relationship between the main leads felt way more real in that one, I think. Also, I kinda enjoyed the whole love triangle with Souma. Even though triangles aren't my thing, and Souma annoyed the hell out of me with all his shouting, I felt that it kinda worked and gave greater justification for Chikane's angst and denial.
I love Chikane and Himeko but I wish the author didn’t just solely rely on the fact that we(some of us not all) love the two girls from the original anime. The plot, the progression, the character development is just not there. This could be so much better than it is.
That's the feeling I got too: before watching the original, I just couldn't get a feel for the characters, it was as though the author was expecting me to already know them. And now I can clearly see how they decided to remove a lot of the crap that had been crammed into the original (mecha), only there doesn't seem to be anything left. Also, changing the perspective to Chikane was a fresh idea on its own, since it's not often we get the cool black-haired girl's perspective, rather than the bubbly useless light-haired one's, but this unfortunately removed the benefit of being the protagonist from Himeko, thus reducing her to simply being bubbly and useless....
Is the diary a ploy to convince Chikane to kill Himeko in order to fulfill their purpose and serve as an inversion of THAT scene/plan in Kannazuki?
That does seem very plausible. Though, on the matter of THAT scene, may I say, why the heck was Chikane simply excused after doing something like that?! Yes, obviously Himeko also liked her, and I get that the writer probably just wanted to have the plot twist of the plot twist with "oh, she wasn't actually evil, she just needed to make Himeko hate her", which... no.
PS. Sorry for writing an essay
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