>>23705393>That's what melodrama actually means in the modern senseI have never heard anyone refer to melodrama in this fashion. Melodrama is a descriptor used mainly in the context of describing the intensity of an emotional response by a character. As a genre, melodrama is tied to that except descriptor, it has nothing to do with the editing or pacing of a series. Musical swells and manipulative backstory reveals are not indicative of a melodrama or even a drama, those are simple tools used by directors, they can happen in a horror or comedy show too. Making the audience feel something is the goal of many of these series, if it's done well enough I see no reason to fault anyone for using them. Thinking that you need to dismiss a piece of media as "manipulative" and thus "contrived" and thus "inferior" is far more pretentious than my tastes. Shigatsu made me feel something, yes it was simple and blatant, but it works and I have no guilt in admitting that I am susceptible to tried and true filmmaking practices in order to elicit emotion. 3-Gatsu did not make me feel nearly as much because I failed to empathize with it's main characters and conflict, their thought processes do not align with my own. I admit a possible bias in relatability because I also was a highly skilled piano player who was driven away from playing by my overly strict parents and years later a cheery blonde violin girl did bring back my passion for music momentarily when I played accompaniment for her before she vanished.