What’s it about? Koyuki Seri does his best to hold in his natural snark, but some people make it really hard. One of those people is his classmate, Hanadori, who is so disruptive with his severe case of chuunibyou that the entire class’s grades have dropped! To make matters worse, Hanadori has latched hard onto Koyuki. What’s a snarky boy to do?
Hey, remember Outburst Dreamer Boys? That comedy that took a group of incredibly silly dorks and made them super sweet and likable, with the deadpan Mizuki as the reluctant straight man? A Destructive God Sits Next to Me is a lot like that, but way less fun!
I’m trying to put my finger on exactly what it is that makes this show so much less enjoyable than last season’s underappreciated gem (seriously, go watch it if you haven’t!). Right now, the closest thing that I can figure is Koyuki himself.
Have you ever met someone who called themselves “fluent in sarcasm”? Of course you have, you’re on the internet after all. Koyuki reminds me a lot of those guys—he always has some kind of smartass remark. He bitches about chuunibyou, but he also bitches about, say, a girl in his friend’s class saying that she worries that everyone hates her. He has no tact or kindness, and just thinks of himself as telling it like it is.
I’m pretty sure we’re not supposed to sympathize with him. He has no friends in his class, and gets hoisted by his own smug sense of superiority multiple times. I just can’t fathom why Hanadori has latched onto him, when it’s so obvious that Koyuki can barely stand him. There are people out there who have a quality to them that make others want to gain their friendship, but they usually have some kind of social power. Why put so much energy into trying to befriend a falsely superior jackass who can barely stand the sight of you?
The other issue is that chuunibyou comedies are dangerously close to being overplayed, and Destructive God follows far too close on the heels of one of the most sweetly loving ones I’ve seen. Part of the appeal is that, despite their childishness, chuunibyou are harmless. They bring themselves joy with their goofy, playful delusions. Those around them may roll their eyes, but ultimately it makes no difference.
Hanadori, on the other hand, does cause harm with his act. He’s a big enough distraction to the class that they have the lowest grades in the whole school, but gets decently high marks himself. He delays class by bringing in a puppy and dousing himself in water to make himself look more pathetic while begging to keep it. Maybe it’s just because my own point of view as a teacher, but I didn’t find it cute; I wanted to throttle him.
To be honest, I can see exactly one audience for this to appeal to: the hardcore fujoshi. Hanadori’s puppy-like attachment to Seri, who himself is drawn to look more-or-less like a catboy, is ship-bait, nothing more and nothing less. The opening and ending animations preview that there’s going to be a lot of similarly adorable boys with different chuunibyou delusions.
And you know, if that’s your scene, that’s fine! No one here is going to judge you for it, least of all me. But that alone isn’t enough to keep me around.
A Destructive God Sits Next to Me does nothing but tread the same ground as previous, better shows with fewer funny jokes and meaner writing. I’d rather rewatch Outburst Dreamer Boys again
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