"Otaku Pandering"

[Maypews]

A fairly common criticism that I've heard of the Science Adventure franchise is that it tries to pander to a certain audience. As time has went on I find myself disagreeing with this; or at least, often disagreeing with how the argument is framed.

I certainly won't dispute that the series knows it's audience and tries to appeal to them; that is very much the case. Though I don't think this is a bad thing as the best art tends to be that which does not necessarily have the most mass appeal. In my opinion, when an artistic work attempts to appeal to everybody it will ultimately have to water down it's message. While a larger amount of people may enjoy the work, this enjoyment will often be superficial and not as deep-reaching as something which knows what it wants to do and says "To hell with pleasing everyone!", regardless of how controversial it may become.

When someone complains about pop culture references in entertainment, the argument tends to amount to it supposedly having being done in an insincere manner in order to add a sort of superficial enjoyment to the piece. To their credit, referencing current trends or culture often does comes off as forced and shoehorned in. This is usually a function of the fact that the writers doing the referencing have no real appreciation for the subject matter.

However, I truly do not believe this to be the case at all when it comes to the way that Science Adventure portrays both otaku and internet culture. As someone who has a decent bit of internet history at this point and who also very regularly browses old websites and sites inspired by them, the series really does a fantastic job in it's portrayal of what it covers. Characters like Takumi Nishijou simply could not exist if the writers hadn't been there before.

Even beyond the novelty and benefit of having such a unique setting, it further helps to make the story more immersive too. When the own reader finds the world and characters relatable in a way which makes it seem as though they could be your friends, it helps to amplify the emotional impact and resonance of both the message and events of the story.

In a way, you could expand this to visual novels as a whole. While most other visual novels do not cover the exact same topics that I mentioned, it is precisely because of the long buildup periods and slice of life segments that they can be so impactful. The "boring" parts where we get to know the characters give VNs a unique appeal, one that many will not understand. But for those who do, it makes the experience all the more poignant.

For a visual novel to be excellent, it must first excel at making you care about the characters. The SciADV series' usage of this so-called "pandering" is a massive part of what hooks many of us in, and it is a big part of what gives the series such a unique flavour compared to anything else out there.