The sympathy flashback just doesn't work here. It really just doesn't function as a literary device without a build up or emotional attachment.
It doesn't work so well because this is how all these stories go:
All yukkuri are happy, nice, and kind. Eat Sing Sleep Insert (whatever is going to kill them) here (human, animal, weather, factory workers) Some of them die, some of them live. Hope! Some of them get away! Nope! All of them die, including the most-determined one who loses hope and gives up. Obligatory flashback to their happy lives, falling in love, having children.. The end. No survivors.
I never thought i would say this but this is really sad.
They tried so hard to overcome a terrible situation and almost succeeded but in the end they still failed.
Kinda reminds me my own life, actually.
Didn't feel it. Yukkuri minded their own business and died while wanting to live. Just like the other 50 million stories about yukkuri who minded their own business and then died while wanting to live. It was utterly un-unique in every way except for specific happenstances.
Should one feel sympathy? Maybe. Do we? No. Because we're so utterly desensitized to the same story being told with different yukkuri for the last 4 years.
This story doesn't work anymore. It just doesn't. The dead horse has been beaten into a fine paste and ground into the dirt, and then beaten some more. These stories don't work and will never work again until something different happens because we the audience just don't care anymore.
It doesn't work so well because this is how all these stories go:
All yukkuri are happy, nice, and kind. Eat Sing Sleep Insert (whatever is going to kill them) here (human, animal, weather, factory workers) Some of them die, some of them live. Hope! Some of them get away! Nope! All of them die, including the most-determined one who loses hope and gives up. Obligatory flashback to their happy lives, falling in love, having children.. The end. No survivors.
Pretty formulaic, to the point where it's thoroughly overused. I enjoy stories that break the mould.
Didn't feel it. Yukkuri minded their own business and died while wanting to live. Just like the other 50 million stories about yukkuri who minded their own business and then died while wanting to live. It was utterly un-unique in every way except for specific happenstances.
Should one feel sympathy? Maybe. Do we? No. Because we're so utterly desensitized to the same story being told with different yukkuri for the last 4 years.
This story doesn't work anymore. It just doesn't. The dead horse has been beaten into a fine paste and ground into the dirt, and then beaten some more. These stories don't work and will never work again until something different happens because we the audience just don't care anymore.
Pretty much what I said.
It should stop ending on the death, skip them all dying, and make this the -start- of the story, instead of the end.
We get it. Nature hates yukkuri. Let's see them succeed once in a while.