AOI HOUSE (Week 170-180) - "Series Finale"

[Adam Arnold]

Aoi House In Love!: Episode 14, Page #21 - "Series Finale: Part 19" + Aoi Notes: 10/08/2008

[quarteni]

Long time no gomanga.com forum post! I'm back (sort-a)...! XP

Wow... You keep mentioning my post... I'm honored! Was it really that good...? Either way - It really was a good book!

It just seemed like a square peg in a round hole to me. :/

It technically was a square peg (horror/sci fi) in a round (semi-real world) hole.
Even though it didn't fit in the same "realm" it was still true, in a sense, to what Aoi House is famous for! Diet Pepsi and PEZ served you well! X3

Or at least that's what I think... ,,=w=,,

EDIT:
Also, thank you so much for posting the flash animation files! XD

[gidoran]

I actually gotta agree with the reviewer on this one. In one fell swoop, Aoi House easily went from my favorite title on Gomanga to the least. The Great Con Caper was fine - I didn't love it, but I didn't have any problems following the storyline either.
But the Silent Hill arc didn't make one lick of sense to me. While I was reading it, I had no idea what was going on at all - even NOW I don't. And to be honest, I have no interest in going back and rereading it an attempt TO figure it out. It killed the series for me. Gone where the nicely handled characters moments, the possible romantics between cast members, and the type of jokes switched as well. Inside of the characters being funny, or funny (overt) references, we get lots of odd stuff. Octopus showing up out of no where? A cow-headed girl? Elle gets a halbred? Eh? Ice cream?

The rest of the comic was a good read.

I can help but wonder though - if Aoi House is an online comic FIRST, why not keep doing Aoi House and just not release it? Or, if the option is made available down the line, release it then? I mean, I can't see a reason to out-and-out END Aoi House in the webcomic format. I'm sure the main page could be used for other titles, but Aoi House has a devoted fan base already. People LIKE it. I'd say, keep Aoi around in web format and don't end it. Too late for the final book, yeah, but I hate to see a good series good.

[Adam Arnold]

Aoi House In Love!: Episode 14, Page #22 - "Series Finale: Part 20" + Aoi Notes: 10/10/2008

[gidoran]

Thanks for the reply Adam. I didn't even think about the fact that unlike most webcomics (which are self-sufficient labors of love generally) that the crew behind Aoi House got paid. Totally skipped my mind. To that end, and from your creative standpoint, I can see why Aoi is finishing up.

From reading your previous Aoi Notes, I understood the deal behind the Silent Hill arc. Just didn't work for me and that happens. I still enjoyed the rest of Aoi, so I'll just remember the good times.

Still makes me sad though. : / Like many people, I wanted to see Alex and Elle hook up.

[StrateryB]

I do agree with that reviewer, "Aoi House: In Love" seemed like a whole different story, but I understand where Adam's coming from. It was better to finish Aoi House before it got canceled.

[Zerodaimu]

Maybe it's partially because I like going against the crowd, but seeing as how we're getting lots of commentary here, I figured I'd add a little bit of my thoughts for my man Adam here. Starting off, I didn't like the Silent Hill thing even though I got a lot of the references- even by the standards of a cracked up slap-stick love comedy, it was inane and frankly a little useless. I got some chuckles, but on the whole I think it diverged a little too much from quasi-realism established before that point. That said, it was still entertaining, just <i>very</i> pointless.

Now to my real point... I frankly <i>loved</i> the way this is ending, and the piss on the hat of all these people that say they dislike it, particularly for some trite reasoning of preferring Elle/Alex to Alex/Morgan, which was resolved a bloody volume ago. Now, I'm not going to say I was totally satisfied with the resolution (I was in Morgan and Alex's case, but Elle's actions early in this fourth book were almost but not quite as forced as say Bella's in <i>Breaking Dawn</i> in relation to Jacob) but it was resolved. What I was satisfied with is this snap-shot deal, and I need to give some props for the fact that it allures to what I wanted to see from Elle. It just makes <i>sense</i> and it's cute.

This ending <i>ruined</i> the series? Yeah, it might've if you consider this snap-shot ending, which I'd argue is my favorite part of this series, is somewhat more serious and a lot more cool than the other stuff in it. In that respect, it diverged a little from the slap-stick to feel more like life, and I feel the result payed off.

[Peregrin]

Zero's wall of text

This. Although I have to say, I lost interest with the series after the first two volumes. I mean, I'm all for fan references in thinks like doujinshi or parody works, etc. but I felt that a lot of the references didn't have enough to stand on their own. Like the Silent Hill thing. I don't know anything about Silent Hill. I wouldn't expect the average reader to, either, considering that the genre of this series is rather different than that of Silent Hill. With this being the case, the Silent Hill arc should have been able to stand on its own as an entertaining diversion with an added bonus of being one big homage to another series. However, I felt lost and out of touch while reading it and thus felt that it was contrived. The ending, thankfully, is a return to what drew me to the series in the first place. I think the main problem with the ending only occurs with avid shippers of Alex x whoever. Which is a stupid reason not to like it.

[Adam Arnold]

Aoi House In Love!: Episode 14, Page #23 - "Series Finale: Part 21" + Aoi Notes: 10/12/2008

[Adam Arnold]

Aoi House In Love!: Episode 14, Page #24 - "Series Finale: Part 22" + Aoi Notes: 10/15/2008