Omake not working for me

[Sabyr]

I dunno about you guys, but the new omake just isn't doing it for me.

You know, in spite of all the complaining I do, I actually try really hard to like MT, in whatever form it's coming in this week. I look forward to the story comics. I'll even tolerate the SGD in spite of it being a "one trick pony" for years now.

Some of the omake are OK too. I really didn't like a lot of things about Haibane Renmai, but had to begrudgingly admit that Circuity was an interesting "mood piece", particularly in its longer form from the book. Grand Theft Colo was a bit stupid, but at least it was funny. I wasn't mad keen on UnMod but it definitely made nice use of its sci-fi (dare I say "cyberpunk") setting and it was somewhat foreshadowing of Yuki's new role.

But this latest one? .... Not happening, dude.

It bears asking the question, can this sort of thing be overdone? Sure, one or two of these "character out of context" vignettes can be amusing, or even original and interesting. But when it's done all the time (ie after every chapter) it starts to wear thin on us long-time readers.

I'm also getting a little sick of the caricatures of the characters that appear in these things. Haven't we seen enough of the tired, cliched Largo-who-shoots-stuff, or arm-breaker-Erika, or shy-awkward-secretly-psychopathic-Piro, etc, etc. These characters have developed more depth in the main MT story and progressed far beyond the simple, obvious traits we associated with them 5 years back. But in the omake they revert back to a "yuk-yuk, har-de-har" version of themselves in some sort of attempt at dumb humour.

Is Fred trying to cater to the lowest-common-denominator part of his audience?

I've seen Clannad (and liked it a lot) but not Full Metal Panic. Perhaps it's not my kind of story (though I usually like a good sci-fi/action show, even with comedy if it's not TOO dumb). Perhaps the attempt to fit MT characters into a crossover between two different shows is a little too ambitious. For me, it just doesn't seem to work.

Reading the MT forums, it seems like the usual crowd of fanboys are gushing all over this omake. Is it just me then, that doesn't like it? Personally, I'd prefer we stopped wasting time on dead-end filler and got back to the real story. Anyone else?

[NightStrife]

My impression of the omake was that it's suffering from the same problems that the main MT is. Specifically, that it's dragging too much and not going anywhere. A good omake would be a fairly short, but very tight, story, or just a string of gags. This is ambling too much (like MT), and as such isn't a really good 'break' from the comic. It's the comic, but different characters and a different situation. Like you said, if that's what he's doing, it might be best for him to just get on with the actual comic instead of dragging that out even longer.

[Sabyr]

And this is the shortened version, apparently.

[motokochan]

Haven't we seen enough of the tired, cliched Largo-who-shoots-stuff, or arm-breaker-Erika, or shy-awkward-secretly-psychopathic-Piro, etc, etc.

I dunno, I kinda like the "shy-awkward-secretly-psychopathic-Piro" as a change from the "shy-awkward-not-so-secretly-self-effacing-Piro".

Is Fred trying to cater to the lowest-common-denominator part of his audience?

Nah. I think it is more he is trying to be a bit more light-hearted as a break from the depresso-mode that the main story is usually in.

Reading the MT forums, it seems like the usual crowd of fanboys are gushing all over this omake. Is it just me then, that doesn't like it? Personally, I'd prefer we stopped wasting time on dead-end filler and got back to the real story. Anyone else?

I think you answered your question there. They are fanbois(and grrls). They would love a steaming pile of feces if Fred decided to do a DPD of it. They'd probably even praise the shading work on it.

I don't mind a small break from the main story, but it should be short and quick for just a bit of a breather. Two weeks (six pages) max.

[NightStrife]

Okay, so now it's "over" (hopefully), does anyone have any different thoughts seeing it 'completed'? I generally still have the same impression of it -- it tried to do too much, ambled through it, got caught on time and shoved things together with no context or resolution seemingly just for the sake of getting it all out there.

However, I browsed through the MDT for [1140], and was rather surprised by all the "Oooh, it was all Ping's dream! Now the whole omake makes sense! Wait, no it doesn't, there's all these holes in that interpretation and it still makes absolutely no sense. But it's super awesome now! Best omake ever, Fred!"

Apparently pulling the "it's all a dream" cliche makes everything better, because then it doesn't have to make any sense or be explained at all. It instantly becomes some deep psychological exploration that, if you don't get it, is because you are incapable of understanding how superbly intellectual it is.

(Also, people are decrying the "nay-sayers of the Seraphim's sisters arc" for ruining something that could have become just as awesome as this omake -_-)

[Rapierman]

For me, the whole damn thing seems confusing...even if it was a dream of some sort.  Early on, it seemed normal.  After that, it just went off the deep end and made no sense whatsoever.

Is this Fred on crack coccaine or LSD?  "Remember, kiddies, just say no to drugs."  :-/  >wacko<

[Sabyr]

Is this Fred on crack coccaine or LSD?

Definitely LSD. It's renowned for this kind of hallucination that really doesn't make sense but seems cool at the time.