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Overthinking Anime Again
Aug. 8th, 2012 08:51 pmUsually, when I join a new fandom, I educate myself about it.
Tales of Symphonia has a direct sequel? Better play it!
Slayers has scanlated manga? Let me read them!
Negima comes in awesome manga and two anime flavours? Have at it with glee!
This is not the case with new anime+ fandom Tears To Tiara.
(Because it hurts my heart.)
I’m not touching the game, not with a six-and-a-half-foot pole. Because I’m not into eroge and I’m not putting up with that shit just to get a more nuanced view of the plot and characters.
And that makes me rage so hard.
Why does everything have to be ruined by sex? Why?!
Can it at least not be automatically ruined by sex, if it must be included? I read the TV Tropes page, and am really repulsed by how much the events and characters revolve around giving Arawn sex.
Like. He’s not even that hot. Dude.
(And nobody’s informed me of gay options, even though it is WAY obvious that he has better chemistry with all the male characters thank you very much.)
Maybe that’s the problem- the real problem with eroge as I see it is that the relationships are so rarely developed, and especially in a satisfying way. The player has to be tricked into thinking that there is a worthy emotional connection. And to me, it seems that it would just be better to make the characters want less of an emotional connection, because my disbelief can’t be suspended to the degree it needs to for that shit to fly. Either make the characters experience things that make their relationships as high-stakes as we’re meant to believe they are, or just… make them types of people who don’t need a huge emotional connection.
Same goes for harem anime.
Maybe it’s part of the moe girl archetype that I don’t quite get? Devotion and openness being handed on a platter to characters who haven’t really worked for it, just because someone pressed their buttons right. It seems boring to me, but not only that it’s just offensively easy! Such a ‘writer-said-so’ cop-out!
In Harvest Moon, which legit is my most extensive experience with dating sim games because I can’t put up with anything else, even if you give the right gifts it still takes time as well as items and heart events to marry someone. And even if it doesn't take much real time, the games have very clearly stated amounts of time that pass, days and years and years. (Also there is no sex.)
And especially in harem anime, this is just kicked to the damn curb. If I had a buck for every accidental or unwanted engagement-type thing I’ve seen in anime, I could get a new wig already! And it’s only rarely explored- that’s just about always up to the fandom to do (Kyou Kara Maou is a great example in several ways; and Ranma 1/2 has the revolutionary idea of the fiancees not wanting each other initially in the show itself, bless its face, which offers the chance for the show itself to share a variety of moments in the development). If the series is unable to attract the kind of fanbase needed to unlock its potential, then it should have been done differently.
In harem anime, people attach themselves to the main character regardless of whether or not there is any real reason to. There is sometimes a superficial reason, like “he saved me” or “only I can defeat you” or “I wanna tap that”, but more often than not there’s little reason at all aside from the writers making them join the party, and even less rarely an in-character or story-relevant reason for suddenly hanging out with the protagonist.
That indicates a status of plot device, not character! And it’s just rare that someone gets to expand on that status and upgrade to relateable or interesting character (as happens to varying degrees in aforementioned rom-com fighting series Ranma 1/2).
Since I keep harping on Ranma 1/2, let me take a moment to analyse the way it approaches harem anime (bear with me). I’ve never read the manga, by the way, so correct me where I’m wrong.
It’s a pretty old series, manga and anime both. Given that, it’s not susceptible to a lot of present-day tropes that have taken hold culturally.
Ranma 1/2 starts off with the now-cliched unwanted and unknown childhood engagement between martial arts experts-in-training Akane and Ranma- ostensibly because of their fathers’ friendship, though that concept is rebuffed as the series goes on. Akane, while not a classic man-hater ala St Lobelia Academy, definitely doesn’t think as highly of males in general (and, had Ranma not changed back, probably would have been kind of okay with the marriage. I ship that, by the way, because Akane had the most chemistry with him in that situation).
Akane and Ranma are both opposed to the idea of an arranged marriage, and come into their relationship with the expectation that they will not consummate it. Akane already has and continues to have suitors pursuing her, for her headstrong personality, for her amazing martial arts skills, and probably for her good looks as well. Ranma also has a variety of alternate matches, ranging from new flames to Akane’s enemies to people that his father sold his future to in order to make up debts.
One more thing: Ranma’s under a curse that makes him turn into a woman under certain circumstances. So someone who’s fighting him one minute might be pursuing him the next, and vice versa, which obviously multiplies his potential matches.
Both of the main protagonists, while ultimately ending up with each other, are offered multiple alternative romances, and it is for this reason that I use it as an example of harem anime- because each of them builds up a full harem of pursuers.
Here’s where it stops fitting the description: their harems are, in a stunning turn of events, built from the people that find them attractive, rather than the motherly type and the lolita and the bottle fairy and the sexually repressed kuudere and the unnecessarily violent tsundere and the domestic yamato nadeshiko and the obnoxious kawaiikko and the clumsy apologetic dojikko and…… yeah.
You see the difference? A harem comedy is essentially a domestic comedy, where the entertainment value relies on watching everyone interact because of their different personalities. And the entertainment is drawn from watching everyone’s personalities (or boobs/lack thereof in FAR TOO many cases) try to interact with the main character. (The main character, if you haven’t figured out, is typically male.)
While Ranma 1/2 also bills itself as a fighting anime, the fighting is used for comedy just as often as anything else, and is in fact less realistic than the romance on many occasions.
Many harem shows have a background plot to them. Zero No Tsukaima has aristocratic politicking and racism against elves and in fact a war that takes away a main character as a soldier for an entire season. Demon King / Daimaoh is about a guy who wants to avert his destiny of destruction and become a high priest of righteousness while struggling with enemies at his magic school. Tears To Tiara is about how the Gallic wars represent a wider rebellion of humanity against unjust creators, with an emphasis on making your destiny what you want it to be and rising above yourself for your people and humanity.
Can you tell any of this?
No.
You can’t tell any of this, because Saito likes breasts too much and has no tact and is an idiot. Or whatever-his-name-is likes butts and has no tact and is an idiot. Or Arawn is an accidental sex magnet who enjoys himself too much and can’t put his foot down and focus.
Maybe my real problem is how often intriguing fantasy-world politics are interrupted by sexy hijinks.
Mahou Sensei Negima is another example of doing a harem series right, because it manages to follow story threads and backstory to their resolution while informing the reader, so it doesn’t get interrupted.
Because it’s interesting, the girls all develop well as characters away from Negi, the relationship antics don’t interfere with the plot or worldbuilding, and there’s like comparatively zero emphasis on breasts (though the pantsu problem leaves something to be desired and not in a hot way).
Maybe, most importantly, because the character archetypes aren’t dating archetypes, they’re character role archetypes (warrior, lady knight, circus girl, ojou, vampiress, robot who develops emotion, straight man of the group who criticises the antics, white priestess, witch, sorceress, artist, book-lover).
I know that Negima developed the way it did by accident, because the mangaka wanted to make a magical boy series but the executives wanted another hit harem comedy. And I still think that it’s the best of both worlds, and a great example.
Perhaps it tells us that harem series need to be the secondary genre (as that’s what it became and is why it was successful).
If Familiar of Zero was primarily a fantasy-action series, I wouldn’t be interviewing people who felt alienated by the gratuitous fanservice- I would be interviewing people who were pleased with the way the show answered questions about magic and muggles and Guiche’s time away and Tabitha’s entire backstory, and also thought that Saito’s choice between Louise and Siesta was interesting to develop.
If Tears To Tiara was primarily a fantasy-action series, and just flat-out erased the needless harem characters/engagements/emphasis on sexy or moe appeal…
It would be my favourite series of anything ever. Literally speaking.
And I would have no trouble expanding my understanding of the universe.
And I would champion it. Everywhere.
…I guess that’s my full range of thoughts on the matter. My full range of rants at the moment.
Any thoughts? How can I develop my views more clearly? Disagreements?
Tales of Symphonia has a direct sequel? Better play it!
Slayers has scanlated manga? Let me read them!
Negima comes in awesome manga and two anime flavours? Have at it with glee!
This is not the case with new anime+ fandom Tears To Tiara.
(Because it hurts my heart.)
I’m not touching the game, not with a six-and-a-half-foot pole. Because I’m not into eroge and I’m not putting up with that shit just to get a more nuanced view of the plot and characters.
And that makes me rage so hard.
Why does everything have to be ruined by sex? Why?!
Can it at least not be automatically ruined by sex, if it must be included? I read the TV Tropes page, and am really repulsed by how much the events and characters revolve around giving Arawn sex.
Like. He’s not even that hot. Dude.
(And nobody’s informed me of gay options, even though it is WAY obvious that he has better chemistry with all the male characters thank you very much.)
Maybe that’s the problem- the real problem with eroge as I see it is that the relationships are so rarely developed, and especially in a satisfying way. The player has to be tricked into thinking that there is a worthy emotional connection. And to me, it seems that it would just be better to make the characters want less of an emotional connection, because my disbelief can’t be suspended to the degree it needs to for that shit to fly. Either make the characters experience things that make their relationships as high-stakes as we’re meant to believe they are, or just… make them types of people who don’t need a huge emotional connection.
Same goes for harem anime.
Maybe it’s part of the moe girl archetype that I don’t quite get? Devotion and openness being handed on a platter to characters who haven’t really worked for it, just because someone pressed their buttons right. It seems boring to me, but not only that it’s just offensively easy! Such a ‘writer-said-so’ cop-out!
In Harvest Moon, which legit is my most extensive experience with dating sim games because I can’t put up with anything else, even if you give the right gifts it still takes time as well as items and heart events to marry someone. And even if it doesn't take much real time, the games have very clearly stated amounts of time that pass, days and years and years. (Also there is no sex.)
And especially in harem anime, this is just kicked to the damn curb. If I had a buck for every accidental or unwanted engagement-type thing I’ve seen in anime, I could get a new wig already! And it’s only rarely explored- that’s just about always up to the fandom to do (Kyou Kara Maou is a great example in several ways; and Ranma 1/2 has the revolutionary idea of the fiancees not wanting each other initially in the show itself, bless its face, which offers the chance for the show itself to share a variety of moments in the development). If the series is unable to attract the kind of fanbase needed to unlock its potential, then it should have been done differently.
In harem anime, people attach themselves to the main character regardless of whether or not there is any real reason to. There is sometimes a superficial reason, like “he saved me” or “only I can defeat you” or “I wanna tap that”, but more often than not there’s little reason at all aside from the writers making them join the party, and even less rarely an in-character or story-relevant reason for suddenly hanging out with the protagonist.
That indicates a status of plot device, not character! And it’s just rare that someone gets to expand on that status and upgrade to relateable or interesting character (as happens to varying degrees in aforementioned rom-com fighting series Ranma 1/2).
Since I keep harping on Ranma 1/2, let me take a moment to analyse the way it approaches harem anime (bear with me). I’ve never read the manga, by the way, so correct me where I’m wrong.
It’s a pretty old series, manga and anime both. Given that, it’s not susceptible to a lot of present-day tropes that have taken hold culturally.
Ranma 1/2 starts off with the now-cliched unwanted and unknown childhood engagement between martial arts experts-in-training Akane and Ranma- ostensibly because of their fathers’ friendship, though that concept is rebuffed as the series goes on. Akane, while not a classic man-hater ala St Lobelia Academy, definitely doesn’t think as highly of males in general (and, had Ranma not changed back, probably would have been kind of okay with the marriage. I ship that, by the way, because Akane had the most chemistry with him in that situation).
Akane and Ranma are both opposed to the idea of an arranged marriage, and come into their relationship with the expectation that they will not consummate it. Akane already has and continues to have suitors pursuing her, for her headstrong personality, for her amazing martial arts skills, and probably for her good looks as well. Ranma also has a variety of alternate matches, ranging from new flames to Akane’s enemies to people that his father sold his future to in order to make up debts.
One more thing: Ranma’s under a curse that makes him turn into a woman under certain circumstances. So someone who’s fighting him one minute might be pursuing him the next, and vice versa, which obviously multiplies his potential matches.
Both of the main protagonists, while ultimately ending up with each other, are offered multiple alternative romances, and it is for this reason that I use it as an example of harem anime- because each of them builds up a full harem of pursuers.
Here’s where it stops fitting the description: their harems are, in a stunning turn of events, built from the people that find them attractive, rather than the motherly type and the lolita and the bottle fairy and the sexually repressed kuudere and the unnecessarily violent tsundere and the domestic yamato nadeshiko and the obnoxious kawaiikko and the clumsy apologetic dojikko and…… yeah.
You see the difference? A harem comedy is essentially a domestic comedy, where the entertainment value relies on watching everyone interact because of their different personalities. And the entertainment is drawn from watching everyone’s personalities (or boobs/lack thereof in FAR TOO many cases) try to interact with the main character. (The main character, if you haven’t figured out, is typically male.)
While Ranma 1/2 also bills itself as a fighting anime, the fighting is used for comedy just as often as anything else, and is in fact less realistic than the romance on many occasions.
Many harem shows have a background plot to them. Zero No Tsukaima has aristocratic politicking and racism against elves and in fact a war that takes away a main character as a soldier for an entire season. Demon King / Daimaoh is about a guy who wants to avert his destiny of destruction and become a high priest of righteousness while struggling with enemies at his magic school. Tears To Tiara is about how the Gallic wars represent a wider rebellion of humanity against unjust creators, with an emphasis on making your destiny what you want it to be and rising above yourself for your people and humanity.
Can you tell any of this?
No.
You can’t tell any of this, because Saito likes breasts too much and has no tact and is an idiot. Or whatever-his-name-is likes butts and has no tact and is an idiot. Or Arawn is an accidental sex magnet who enjoys himself too much and can’t put his foot down and focus.
Maybe my real problem is how often intriguing fantasy-world politics are interrupted by sexy hijinks.
Mahou Sensei Negima is another example of doing a harem series right, because it manages to follow story threads and backstory to their resolution while informing the reader, so it doesn’t get interrupted.
Because it’s interesting, the girls all develop well as characters away from Negi, the relationship antics don’t interfere with the plot or worldbuilding, and there’s like comparatively zero emphasis on breasts (though the pantsu problem leaves something to be desired and not in a hot way).
Maybe, most importantly, because the character archetypes aren’t dating archetypes, they’re character role archetypes (warrior, lady knight, circus girl, ojou, vampiress, robot who develops emotion, straight man of the group who criticises the antics, white priestess, witch, sorceress, artist, book-lover).
I know that Negima developed the way it did by accident, because the mangaka wanted to make a magical boy series but the executives wanted another hit harem comedy. And I still think that it’s the best of both worlds, and a great example.
Perhaps it tells us that harem series need to be the secondary genre (as that’s what it became and is why it was successful).
If Familiar of Zero was primarily a fantasy-action series, I wouldn’t be interviewing people who felt alienated by the gratuitous fanservice- I would be interviewing people who were pleased with the way the show answered questions about magic and muggles and Guiche’s time away and Tabitha’s entire backstory, and also thought that Saito’s choice between Louise and Siesta was interesting to develop.
If Tears To Tiara was primarily a fantasy-action series, and just flat-out erased the needless harem characters/engagements/emphasis on sexy or moe appeal…
It would be my favourite series of anything ever. Literally speaking.
And I would have no trouble expanding my understanding of the universe.
And I would champion it. Everywhere.
…I guess that’s my full range of thoughts on the matter. My full range of rants at the moment.
Any thoughts? How can I develop my views more clearly? Disagreements?
