Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan/Headscratchers

Why do the Ouendan never smile? I'm sure it's some cultural thing, but I don't get it. Why do the cheer squad never look cheerful? Actually, scratch that - why do the cheer squad never look cheerful unless the world was just destroyed? The only time the stoic trio put on a happy face is in the game over of both games' final episode.
- The girls are quite cheerful. Well, except for Anna (the blonde).
- Because smiling is not Manly enough. Or, alternate answer: because Ouendan Is Serious Business.
- Too much Hot Blood. Smiling is optional in Hot Blood.
- From what I've observed, it seems the Oendans role is to drum up team spirit/pride, which similar to drawing up national spirit/pride is damn serious business like another troper pointed out.
- Well, a few people smile once apart from the final game over. The Yuuhi squad smile during the Hot Springs Episode, Hayato during the beginning of Real Life Real Heart, and Shinta smiles in the second unlockable picture.
Spinners, spin tables, spin markers, whatever. They bug the hell out of me because I can't do them. If I can hit nearly every note with a solid 300, then I should be able to beat the level, but no. Here's a spinner, kiss half your health goodbye. A rhythm game should be about rhythm, not about how fast you can draw circles. The final hard level, for me, is not about catching the beat of the song, it's about rebuilding as much health as possible before the next spinner chops it off. This damn gimmick is the only thing preventing these games from being perfect 10s as far as I'm concerned.
- The final level of the first game is by far the worst extreme across the entire series. Four, count 'em, four spinners in a row, each more demanding than the last.
- That's the reason why I have never been able to beat that level after all these years, but I've been able to beat Jumpin' Jack Flash and Sekai wa Sore o Ai to Yobun Daze on the same difficulty.
- You know, I've never actually understood that particular complaint, because I've never actually had any real trouble with spinners.
  - Can't draw circles fast enough, so you lose a "rhytm game". Quotation marks added for emphasis.
  - Without rhythm, you wouldn't be able to play the game at all. I think of spinners like sliders, just for more emphasis at parts of the songs. The game wouldn't be the same without them. TBH, the only trouble I have with them is in The Anthem in EBA.
    - Not entirely sure what that first sentence meant. The main problem with spinners is that they have nothing to do with rhythm at all. You're not trying to match any part of the background music, just draw circles as fast as humanly possible.
- For what it's worth, ThisTroper has figured out how to do spinners every level every time without holding the pen to the screen too hard, and still hates them. (The trick it to keep your index finger on top of the pen... er... the rest is impossible to explain in text).
  - No, the trick is to play Pokemon Ranger and try to repeatedly get the toughest-to-catch Pokemon as fast as you possibly can. If you don't learn how to make circles as inhumanly fast as possible, you're not trying to catch the right Pokemon.
- I think the reason they are in the game is because just tapping and sliding isn't hot blooded enough, so you have TO SHOW HOW MANLY AND FULL OF SPIRIT YOU ARE BY SPINNING IT AT INHUMAN SPEEDS WHILE YELLING UWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
- Unfortunately, they're a bit of Creator's Pets as well, as the game director has admitted lo liking them. If a sequel comes out to this series or EBA, be very prepared.
I've been wondering... Why won't anyone work on the wiki?
- It's on Wikia. 'Nuff said.