Some observations on Mako, Makorra and Masami from Legend of Korra

I don’t understand the weird hatred that some people have for Mako. It makes no sense to me for people to be profiling Mako against ex-boyfriends who have abused them. Understandably, Mako has flaws but he has never been an abusive character, neither to Asami nor Korra. Treating Mako as a paragon of the perfect boyfriend is reducing his character. Mako is not meant to always be a perfect boyfriend; he is meant to be a perfect love. Which Mako actually succeeds in doing. Mako is  a character: three dimensionally, he isn’t only supposed to be only be a love interest and that what made his and Korra’s relationship so interesting. They were both characters in their own right trying to make it work. And it succeeds and succeeds on many levels.

I think people are not addressing something that is extremely important. Korra and Mako are not “perfect” boyfriend and girlfriend. Not in the traditional sense anyway. Mako was made to mature before his adulthood so he has certain needs and styles of showing affection that is pretty non-generic. In fact, Korra, due to growing up mostly alone, is not really indoctrinated to popular social cues in the dating game herself. This allows an esoteric dialogue between them. One must not always look at a character as a reflection of themselves or what they would do. It can’t really be valid because of differing circumstances. I mean, Korra didn’t plan to kiss Mako beforehand neither did Mako plan prematurely to return her kiss in a full-fledged way. It happened for other circumstances.

The relationship had some mature circumstances thrown at it. It isn’t fully a  standard teen romance and that is why Makorra shined. For example, Mako said it made “more sense” to be with Asami. This attitude clearly showed that like many people Mako thought that dating Asami would be prudent because Asami is, ironically, the “perfect girlfriend.” Asami is the person you can’t really be gut-wrenchingly honest with, if you are a person like Mako, because Asami behaved like a socialite. Mako aspires to be like her: content, confident and secure. However, you will notice that Mako easily opens up to Korra because Korra and Mako challenge each other and can easily be comfortable with each other. This may be intimidating at first to a person in Mako’s position who has faced so many hardships in life that reservation has become second skin and instinct to him at first.  Then when Korra got kidnapped Mako realised what was really important was Korra and that confidence, security and contentment would easily follow if he is honest with himself.

Mako’s “crimes” against Asami are also something that young people, of all genders and sexes, accidentally do, it is not innately an evil trait that makes him inevitably  a cheating low-life. Despite Book 2 I saw Makorra as  a real substantial relationship that had real complex issues involved in it. That is why I loved it. Mako evaluated Korra’s actions and Korra evaluated his which is what true loves  actually happen to do. You evaluate to make them better; the best they can be. Mako, as Korra, had some real true complications. Raiko cornered Mako into confessing about Korra but this was not really exacerbated by him from the get-go not finding Korra’s United Forces recruitment a prudent idea. Mako was essentially right. We know with experiences with Aang that Katara was his natural council and that he did less than wise things too out of being rather emotionally hyperactive or too invested. Katara was not always agreeing with Aang, in fact, in one of the most important journeys of Katara’s life Aang refused to join saying that she should forgive her mother’s murderer. Of course, I loved Zutara better because I think Zuko may understand Katara in some cases better but after much thought I must say that Aang was wiser here. Yes, Katara didn’t forgive the man but she couldn’t kill him either. Killing isn’t in Katara’s nature and Aang instinctively knew that. Like Mako instinctively understood that in her zeal to fix things as the avatar Korra forgets about repercussions about her actions. This was the first thing that happened in Republic City when she arrived. Korra went overboard with the Triple Threats making Lin question her tactics.

Where Aang does not engage in action and can pretty much be passive in his avatar duties (while more prudent in his interpersonal relationships) Korra is the antithesis. Katara gave advice to Aang to be more an engaged avatar while Mako gives advice to Korra to not be an overzealous one. I think both relationship types matter and both are full realised characters in their own right due to be able to do something like that. Mako and Katara are not merely cheerleaders. They have the capacity to understand and judge things via a rubric of their own values and ideas which are consistent with the avatars they know but they do think a bit more ahead at times.

In relation with Asami, she is the perfect girlfriend, as in socially she is. She does all the socially right things.  But she doesn’t really know people deeply or innately enough to have a bond with them. I mean you will notice Asami is generally nice to everyone like in a way it was Mako’s reservation to everyone just opposite tandem. But she doesn’t really ask Mako much things or even Korra. Like she never does ask what Korra did when she was away all these years even when in the garden having tea and she never asks Mako in the carriage what it must have been like to be alone and fend for himself. She, just reaffirms her own feelings, says she feels safe with Mako and then later with Korra says that  she would be unhappy if she didn’t come back after the last battle. Asami has this flaw but it was focused a lot more on Book 1 and by Book 4 well she isn’t really focused on much so it became a bit relegated but it’s still there.

So, Mako is not intrinsically a bad character. I think he has been give a bad hand and is always trying to play it well. I really respect a character who struggles through homelessness, poverty, bureaucracy, prejudices (due to his past criminal history), frustrations at being a good detective and not being able to play things out well and still care about people, care and empathize about the ones he loves and also work hard to become a more competent detective and person. Mako isn’t the socially perfect boyfriend: Mako is an all-around individual.

 

 

Written a lot about this — Korra and Korrasami with Makorra

I  actually posted a lot about this on Tumblr as fans are well, indignant or disappointed. Many are fans who are gay or who intensely love or ship gay pairings were offended by Bryan’s statement of “hetero-lens” due to its widespread spectrum implicit in the arena of homophobia. I, on the other hand, thought the comment was meh to  me because it didn’t really  feel I was in that category. This reviewer who has spent the majority of 2014 being indoctrinated into queer or even heteronormative homosexuality to the point that TPAB actually thought that all I watch is otome or queer animes is pretty much salient with the fact that I am/never was homophobic. I enjoyed some of the pairings in the otome show, saw potency in them and actually critiqued the execution of those shows.

I even wrote one of the longest reviews on this blog on critiquing and also praising Sekaiichi Hatsukoi which is a gay anime which pulled no punches.  I really liked Queen’s Blade which is a lesbian anime, though a bit directed towards guys, had all the lesbianism, no holds barred, in its glory for the whole series. I loved Maria Watches Over Us which is a lesbian anime directed towards girls. I loved Cardcaptor Sakura and thought that Tomoyo loving Sakura or even Touya loving Yukito to be very well handled. I wanted Touya ending up with his teacher not because she was female but because I liked teacher-student pairings at that time but really hated the other character liking her teacher and marrying him after her high-school graduation though it was a totally heterosexual pairing. Because though it was not illegal it wasn’t to me tastefully written. I actually like Domoki liking Watanuki in xxxHolic and don’t like those other girls who fancy/like Watanuki aside Yuko Ichihara. And even that after layers of interactions and understandings comes about.  One of my favourite anime, also directed towards girls is Revolutionary Girl Utena which shows Utena and Anthy as bisexual characters and mostly lesbians, full frontal, in the animated movie retelling Adolescence Apocalypse.

So, this opinion and article will articulate most of my feelings on the series and also on the pairings that survived. It will be long, span paragraphs and I decided after half-writing it I should also push this through some pages so please bear with me. Thank you if you read all throughout the way  and Thank you for reading a bit. Honestly, this article took a long time to write — I was exposed to more material, got tired and procrastinated or cogitated a bit more. Yet I wanted this to be a comprehensive read of what I thought about Korra the series, the character and also Korrasami and Makorra. I will put briefly that I had higher hopes for the series but they were not met and as you will see this is more than any shipping or anything else.

It has to do with how  TLA was handled and how LOK was handled: both  are different shows and may deal with different things but have some core elements. It is the same way  you might judge a reboot or even the different installments  of the Final Fantasy series. It  was mostly how  LOK was written independently in itself. How  it  was budget cut a lot by both Nick and how Bryke had many problems with Nick that eventual made this an internet only show that was also facing cancellations. So much so that Book 3 and Book 4 followed one after the other. Also, though  I personally have nothing against Bryke I do think as writers and creators who were facing a lot of pressure that they did do some mistakes and mess up. Also Nick initially did not like that Korra was a girl and wanted her to be a guy because the Aang formula was pretty much potent still and in these series people  for some stupid marketing reason and cultural biases want the main protagonist being a male and not female.

The TLA team was larger, had more writers and obviously many discussions amongst Bryke and those other people so many more ideas and expansions of concepts  were apparently plausible  and executed. Bryke originally wanted Toph and Azula to be guys and also wanted a love triangle between Katara, Aang and Toph so obviously that idea was scrapped by many  others pitching in their ideas. Asami was initially also meant to be a villain I wouldn’t have minded if that happened because I think Spysami is pretty more interesting than thinly written Korrasami. Or, she may have been a double agent that would  have proved volumes about her dexterity in general. Makorra was, as I read from Tumblr,  described as the perfect pairing by Bryke themselves and how Korra and Mako were right for each other and “soulmates” — so I think Bryke’s Korrasami was done almost like a last minute thing. In fact, I don’t think they did away with Makorra either which is telling in the  finale episode. I think they were confused at what to do really and thought that keeping both pairings open but focusing a bit more on Korrasami was the only thing they could do to “salvage”  the series because before this finale  many people had heavily, explicitly, inexorably critiqued Legend of Korra both critics and fans alike.  So, LOK had a lot of problems since Book 1 that had  to do and nothing to do with Makorra and pairings and stuff.

I won’t  lie that I fast-forwarded to  the last scene in LOK to see what happens because by this time I was kinda bored and wanted to know what happens to Korra and by Book 3 and 4 the hints of Makorra were pretty high I wanted to see if they patch up, after some time of course because  some time even passed for Kataraang to happen. I was impressed with the spirit portal which became like the equatorial region of their world and that was awesome.I loved the  last scene music and ambience but the pairing made me very unhappy because it was just too rushed and scatterbrained to be a beautiful buildup.

So to continue, though some fans of Makorra are homophobic; most of us  aren’t. This is due to the fact we come to this show after years of watching anime shows from its infancy dealing with heteronormativity, queer sexualities (both straight and gay), performativity, and also the construction/reconstruction of identities. So, as most of us  are in our late teens and twenties or even forties we are already nonplussed by homosexuality rather accepting it wholeheartedly as a romantic-sexual outcome. We have relegated our “hetero-lens” a long time ago even before The Legend of Korra or The Legend of Aang/The Last Airbender premiered. I have criticised Korra on numerous occasions and none of them were solely on ships. As listed below:

Legend of Korra, Book 3: “Change”  Criticism

Korra Season 3 Comes to An End

I am not partial. I have enjoyed gay pairings and straight pairings with equal zeal. I am not infected with “hetero-lens” — also I have accused Korrasami of a “hetero-lens” too. That one is that of heteronormativity. As a friend of mine stated gender or a critique of gender was not established in Korra. Korra is, as Anime Live Reactions put it eloquently, stereotyped as a strong woman/person of colour becoming bisexual and lesbian to validate her strong, “tomboy” existence. Asami’s sexuality has always been a game. She is a doll, a feminine debacle, and having Korra, a masculine, pair up with her reinforces a heteronormative way of looking at things. It essentialises that the  avatar spirit is  a “male” spirit with or without past lives because Wan, the first avatar, pretty much is shown to be in a relationship with Raava, a female spirit.  Lesbianism, gayness or even straight-on  heterosexuality is not about binary images but heteronormativity and performativity does reduce it to such.

Korra cannot be alone or be in a heterosexual relationship because that also incinerates the  heteronormative way of looking at heterosexual relationships. Makorra ending in a bad note now encapsulates and also mediates on the fixation that strong men and women cannot mix. This stereotype is nothing new. If Mako and Korra could end better we would not point fingers at this rather Bolin and Korra’s chaotic end was foreseen on a lack of attraction on Korra’s part and even Bolin does not date Eska due to her domineering and inhospitable personality. Korra and Bolin are strong and do have chemistry but they end amicably, on good terms, there is hardly any name-calling and finger-pointing between them. Bolin does not  ever bring up that Korra broke his heart by kissing her brother nor that he wanted Korra to apologise much because they went through things that allowed forgiveness and friendship to happen. Ironically, even Bolin and Eska’s breakup  and later encounter seemed both comic but also reasonable and realistic. It was apparent that they both have considerably, without a doubt moved on. The way Mako and Korra interact are still as lovers even by the end of Book  4  breakup or no breakup  they just do, both context and subtext affirms it as a romance with mutually concerted feelings — it’s pretty confusing.

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2015 Ghost in the Shell Film’s 1st Teaser Previews Animation – News – Anime News Network

Yup, Ghost in the Shell is coming back again this year. Last year they did a loose retelling of The Stand Alone Complex series or even the series in general with Ghost in The Shell: Arise which actively explored Makoto’s army history and the beginning of Public Security Section 9 which is the paramilitary operations that handle tough to crack down cases, and also functions a bit differently than police or army.  It is  a median of sorts in a world where armed forces are as extreme as the terrorism or criminals they fight.

Arise episodes were long, as in feature length movie length, and reintroduced concepts from all the media related to the series.  Arise was additionally noted to reintroduce Makoto’s original look from the ’95 (or ’96) movie with basic front bangs (not the  curved ones) and a younger major.  Her clothes also mimic the original movie but had some of the glossiness of The Stand Alone Complex series minus the overtly exotic or outre sexual look. Her original look is still pretty popular due to its classical imprint and  it looks like it will be continued in the 2015 “retelling” of sorts of the original Ghost in the Shell. It is to mark 25 years of this innovative and philosophical anime that made it an international phenomenon with its still unique concepts of humanity, cybernetics, personhood and identity.

I am totally psyched to see this movie 😀

(Below is the Anime News Network article)

(picture from Ain’t it Cool News  http://www.aintitcool.com/node/69962)

2015 Ghost in the Shell Film’s 1st Teaser Previews Animation – News – Anime News Network.

 

Legend of Korra Book 4: ‘Day of the Colossus/ The Last Stand Review

With all the  Korrasami and what not tags being interjected I  decided I had pretty much had it with Legend of Korra. I was disappointed from Book 3 though I was suspect from the beginning. The way they treated Mako and Boilin was deplorable the way they treated Makorra was horrendous and then how  they progressed Korra’s character was deplorable. All of these things were pretty stupid and so  sexist (both for men and women) All I can say that I hope fanfictions come about that end these at the  very end is one of the only partly unbiased write-ups I had read. 

You can celebrate any ship and not celebrating it is not homophobic unless you actively declare that gay couples are bad or something — I don’t do that what I must state here is that this is preposterous and the perpetrators of bad writing and scapegoating a same-sex canon but also annoyingly allowing Makorra to continue is pretty much a bad move. I literally was like WTF? Guess what even I did see the signs I also saw signs of Borra. I saw Boilin like Korra a lot but Korra did not choose Boilin because Boilin is someone Korra can’t be personal with — Mako even till the end was a person Korra could rely on in battle and also in well psychological positions. Asami goes and helps gives Korra support as a cheerleader but she hardly does things to help her much. I mean even if Korrasami happened give it more than just her bring Korra tea (which is a good improvement i respect I admit that and also love, both platonic and romantic, because in Book 1 when Mako wants to give  Korra tea she  seethes and say bol it himself). Yet it is not so strong enough as Mako keeps on professing love to actually get going. I just feel no one cared about both relationships. As someone said online it is pseudo-lesbian though she was happy because no relationship straight and gay can happen with just flirtations ill scripted and nothing pretty much well fleshed. Many people would say that as it is a gay-ship it needed cover but even Katara and Aang had stronger non-verbal ways of romancing that people may not have  deemed cool enough for a coupling.  The potential was there but it was not nicely done as even subtle Makorra. In fact I wasn’t even thinking Makorra (though at first I loved them) when the first times Korra looked at the stadium and Mako looked at the island dotingly but that was a good nonverbal gesture they actually well made good use of. All I can say it’s not groundbreaking, it’s actually pretty gender normative and totally unfair to Asami.

All Korra can say is that she dated all the people on Team Avatar what a bunch of crap  

Not to mention that she is dating the ex of her ex and what more is that Asami cannot also get out of this viscous love triangle and choose her own road. Pretty much pathetic.

Some thoughts:

It’s something official for me that Avatar people cannot for the life of them write satisfying romantic endings. First, they  somewhat rushed Aang/Katara relationship then they hinted strong at Korrasami but also hinted Makorra. What I want to say is that none of this isgroundbreaking at all for anywhere. Please don’t flame hear me out. They just did to extend a novelty. They did this to make bandwagon people happy. Korra and Asami are so friendly with each other they have less chemistry than Korra did with Boilin.  Also, by doing this they essentially showed how the avatar spirit is more or less a “male” spirit.

This sort of thing is frequent in yaoi literature. Korra is a girl and if she is bisexual marvelous but by accentuating the differences between Asami as a “girly-girl” looking person and Korra as a more masculine person they pretty much made the whole relationship heteronormative as usual. If Korra ended up with Kuvira eventually I would have appreciated that even as they are each others’ equals. So is Mako and Korra to many extent. They made Asami pretty much soft and feminine  like 90% of the time to complement Korra’s “masculinity” but they also wanted some space for Makorra. I would have respected this relationship more if it was even eventually developed with Jinora as she became older. Because the sort of understanding Jinora had with Korra and Korra had with Mako is pretty elementary in any relationship.

Also, by showing they migrated to  the spirit world was also indicative to that “yin | yang” feminine and masculine presence in a heteronormative stance. They won’t ever show Mako as a “feminine” though at many points this season he is and Korra is “masculine”. I realized that it is also pretty cruel to suggest that strong woman can’t be anything aside bi or lesbian — this is pretty common in mainstream culture. Strong men are either made so macho that you have to think them as totally straight and strong women are shown to be either gay or bi or something. Both of these procedures are quite conforming to mainstream tactics.

I love Shoujo-ai and Shounen-ai couples when they make sense. In fact, one of my favouritecouples is Anthy and Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena, both are girls. What I loved about them is that they broke away from their heteronormative practices to be the “one” for each other. In the end, Utena was not a masculine person or feminine person neither was Anthy.

The Korrasami ending was just like Ginny/Harry in Harry Potter — it was poorly executed had no flair and was shoved right at us.  This pairing was non-existent and had no bearing until the end as well. Asami hardly knows Korra and they hardly know each other other than friends so I found this relationship so thin.  Can I accept it? If it develops more I can but I just don’t see as romantic. Also, it’s just too predictable. It was a cop-out. You know if Emma from Once Upon a Time ended up with Regina that would be more pretty because to me it is a good relationship and also because they have had more actual revelations with each other. This was just lazily written. Also there was no natural chemistry even when Korra and Asami were sitting together at the end and talking about life together.

The only pretty part was how they looked at each other in the end. I seriously still thought that was an over-exaggeration.

Yet this is not to offend Korrasami fans.  In fact though I liked Makorra I will be honest — if they executed Korrasami better and dropped all those heteronormative markers like they did with an anime like Revolutionary Girl Utena I would be very, very , very happy. But they totally messed it up. Also, I had a feeling that after Book  3 they wanted a new male character to  be Korra;ss love interest it was kinda showy of that but then decided on Korrasami at the end. It pretty much looked like that.

This is just me showing how Korrasami made no sense.  It was literally just a deux ex machina that Bryke put at the end because he had to make fans happy some way.

Yup, Avatar series  can’t write good love stories.

I wrote this  and I know it is important concerning how biased and well sequestered all LOK ship fandoms are:

 

Why shipping violently is bad

I can see that there is a  collective immaturity or even ferocity in shipping in LOK that was not so prominent in TLA and not so prominent in many fandoms. I think this is also due to ages of people participating and also ages of the shows. I mean Naruto came to an end but many fans were not rabid about their disappointments nor were they gloating. It was show that  stayed around for a long time.

Makorra fans are acting too  angry, understandably, but still very badly executed. Korrasami fans  are using this to validate themselves, be mean to Makorra fans and basically annotate every Korra/Asami scene into Korrasami which even Borra and Makorra fans  can’t do because  there was good development at times so no need.

This culture of ships and shipwrecking is very toxic. I mean do not just like a fandom ‘cause it;s  cute like it because it has substance, Like other fandoms that are not your OTP also for that think on it and don’t hate easily. I can see that many shippers are young people and also as this LOK is younger and had lesser episodes than TLA people in scarcity of time, episodes, space and writing decide to exaggerate or expunge things.

Please be respectful. Makorra and Korrasami are pretty much both canon.  Korrasami is about to happen (or not fully) and Makorra happened and might continue (or never again) both even in the end Korra showed signs of both interest in Mako and also in Asami. Maybe, as she is exploring herself she wants to see who she can fall in love with truly as her OTP.

No need to say a pairing validates you or not because I think if you are gay or straight your relationships are better than how both these ships were written. Also look at Korra and Mako and Asami as characters independent of these relationships.

I also wrote this:

I think Korrasami is also a revenge of Bryk against studio and Nickelodeon. It just feels like they wanted to say “fuck you” to the studios that always tore apart their ideas, made them cancel, made them fire crew members, make them cut out things. I do not know if the Korrasami kissing alternative ending is the original endings but apparently that was changed. In all honestly Bryke is killing two birds with one stone: making fans happy and also giving a hell lot of trouble with those studios. This make good sense as they cannot work on Avatar soon and I think it is also because of those suidio problems mostly. I feel bad for whatever Avatar endured. Korrasami assuages the pain for them in a way but it also shows how all their creativity to even make both Makorra a bit work better and Korrasami a bit written better was thwarted. What problems LOK had to face.

I saw others also comment:

tsubakies:

destroy the idea that female characters need to be punished in order to receive character development.

destroy the idea that the only way female characters can become better people is if they go through nothing but pain and suffering in their lives.

(via seekingserenity126)

 

vvivaa:

honestly I’ve clearly offended a lot of people, but I’m not sorry. No matter how you look at this, this was bad writing, bad writing for makorra, bad writing for korrasami, bad writing just in general for korra and all these characters, and this is how the show ended. I’ve been here since 2012 defending this show throughout all the crap and now there’s nothing left so, especially knowing they changed the ending….yeah I’m going to be upset.

(via seekingserenity126)

But I  guess what I also disliked was anonymous someone pretty much not getting stuff that I had clearly written:

Anonymous asked:

So a masculine girl is not actually a girl by what you’re saying. Yes the masculine female/feminine female thing is a stereotype but there’s actual couples like that, saying that stuff is hetereonormative is just hilarious

etheraxis:

Not many.  Not so standardized as the mainstream way of looking at it. It is heteronormative. By making Asami pretty much a bimbo throughout the series and Korra a jock is heteronormative be it a straight or gay representation. They didn’t do that with Aang and Katara. Katara is a very balanced person and so is Aang. Also they have both similarity and differences.. Guess what they are both benders, both spiritually inclined elements (air and water) both at the end stronger people with each other and also independently. You do not see this with Korra and Asami it recycles the same bogus trifle that Mako and Korra was accused of sprouting. Just some sentimental hugs. Asami is not integral to Korra’s development as an Avatar as much as Mako was in Books 1, 2 and even 3. Nor was she there so much before Book 4 in the development of her personhood. It is a very badly executed relationship like Makorra. They just want people of the young generation who never knew mainstream homoerotica squeal over this. It is stupid to think people are that simplistic. Once I remember that a guy commented how a villain of Final Fantasy X-2’s dress was so hot and a girl commented that it makes her look like a herpes infected hooker. As a stereotypical response he said that maybe as she is  a girl so she is saying that. Then that girl said that she was bisexual girl and implying so she knows female sexiness. Korrasami should have been better written if it was to be canon. Not mitigated into something typically expected. A girl with muscles, masculine girl, is usually depicted to be queer for all the wrong reasons just like an effeminate man is. These are tropes that persist so nothing innovative was done with Korra. She as a “male” spirit bounded with a female spirit.  If it was better written I would have no complaints. I wanted Katara to end up with Zuko but easily accepted her with Aang because they were not lazy, they wrote very well how a crush became a love. This is lazy writing.  You like it that’s great I would have loved it if they didn’t put in mainsteam cultural biases of how same-sex couples are like.

I don’t hate Korrasami. I hate how all relationships was written in LOK. It was stupid.  A canon lesbian relationship needs to be beautifully written not so “oh I hug you and you hug back” — Asami was pretty much a effeminate bimbo. I hated how  they wrote her. Here best action scenes were in Book 1 and 2 then went downhill. Korrasami the way it was written is the stereotypical way of writing or looking at female/female relationship with one “masculine” and “feminine”. Korra may have told her insecurities to Asami but this was not stressed (or developed) what was stressed is that Korra is looked at as a “man”. People cannot write any relationship nowadays without a heteronormative circuit be it straight or gay. That is what got to me. I would have loved Korrasami if it was not so rushed and written with the same care as Kataraang was written. It was written badly. I am happy if you shipped them because I am always happy if a shipper’s couple becomes canon regardless of it was mine or not. But it was a cop-out as in how it was written. Because of that they also  did not completly extinguish Makorra. Mako and Korra still have chemistry. Mako loves Korra still (she does too) and possibly is thinking of courting her in future. Which is kind of sad. That they don’t know what to write. This sort of bullshit is not new think of Cloud from FF7 and you get the same results  Korrasami  should have more intricately written because if it is to be the canon relationship the writers should show it better.

Anonymous asked:

how butt mad are u right now lmao

Apparently, not as much as you. Firstly, speak properly. By being so thoroughly aggressive you allow discussions to go nowhere.  You can tell me what you love about Korrasami aside the generic “cute” slogan. Secondly,  stop being overly sarcastic with people who do not agree with you. There is nothing “wrong” about a pairing like Korrasami if it was beautifully executed. It was not. It was a cop-out even at this point if  she dated Boilin that would be a cop-out too. If she dated Mako it would partially be a cop-out but Mako has been changing as Boilin. So yeah in the end none of the relationships were balanced. It was lazy storywriting.

It is pretty obvious that that was attempts at bullying but it is true what I said. You want  a strong same-sex couple then make Kuvira available  even from Book 3 and you get this better.  Or write Asami better and then we can appreciate it more. Asami was supposed to be a villain first, then she is a hero but still  compared to Sokka and even Suki pretty badly developed and she is basically just a socialite who wears clothes and acts nice.

I don’t know  for sure if the kiss ending was the original but apparently the original ending was changed and I think it was either Korra going off by herself or with Mako but to make fans  happy these conclusive matter was dashed and to keep spectacles alive.

All the materials  above are from tumblr.  All I can say is that I thought about them a lot before coming to that conclusion. Korrasami, the way it was depicted, was a gender normative, heteronormative way of looking at a same-sex  relationship  that conforms to  the very gender roles that  we assign males and females. Korra is pretty much the yang male spirit and the effeminate Asami is the yin  female in  the crudest of forms.

Just pitiful and so upsetting.

 

Legend of Korra Book 4: ‘Day of the Colossus/ The Last Stand Review.

 

DRAMAtical Murder cursory stance

I just saw the end of DRAMAtical Murder the TV series based on the yaoi game of the same name. If those of who don’t know DRAMAtical Murder (DM for short) is also produced by the same creators who made Togainu no Chi, Sweet Pool and the lesser know semi-furry themed yaoi game Lamento — yeah, it is made by the distinguished boys’ love producer NiTro+CHiraL. This post does have spoilers as most of my posts. Spoilers on DM and also other Nitro-CHiraL stuff.

(Ok I started writing this like some days ago but posted it now)

DRAMAtical Murder is the second time their series was made into an anime. And yeah, it was an improvement if Togainu no Chi. Not that I had the same complaints as the fans of TGNNC that it was not fair to the game, in my opinion, it was a good adaptation of a game that uses points of character elimination (as in character death) to actually progress with story.  I am not really going to talk about DRAMAtical Murder in full in this post because a) I need pictures and b) I will make an in-depth review of the whole series and c) I will do an episode by episode review as well as I watched attentively the whole series.

Chiral is the artist who helps write, I assumed, most of the original framework for these yaoi stories and she does a great enough job. NiTro+CHiraL is known for his deep and riveting storytelling and DRAMAtical Murder was no exception. I will not lie I do want more layers in the story but given it is a yaoi visually based game with routes involved I do applaud its integrity to make somewhat impressionable stories if not altogether remembering. Its premises are always something that can twist the ordinary but not so overly shoujo or shounen; it has its own directory of both powers, minutiae of everyday life and a cast of characters that will pervade or not.

The problem of adapting is that it is by the book. Some people hate when loyalty to a medium is severed. I myself complain at times of the same thing. Yet the medium is not a novel. It is a route based game so certain deviations are put as in an anime adaptation you will see all the routes somehow balance one another. The storyline is almost verbatim to what people had experienced in the different routes in the game (minus of course NiTro+CHiraL’s infamous bad endings which are graphically violent, bloody and disturbing to say the least really scary shit). I feel that to fans it is a good treat of seeing their beloved characters in motion and doing things without that multiple choice menu meaning someone else is doing the actions for them and as it is animated it now has cinematic pace. Yet my nagging feeling is that is it always necessary?

Togainu no Chi had an ending that actually carried on the story a bit. People hated it because there was no conclusive coupling. I actually applauded there wasn’t because the decision would be too sudden and too misplaced: though they hinted some Rin/Akira tension mostly because of all the routes that was in my opinion and even on a good pace the best ending of them all but I am not complaining because I am satisfied because that was not conclusive either. And it was also deviated from Rin’s route. So, there was no real coupling and it just focused on Akira’s growth as a person. It was a bit dark and murky but given the circumstances I preferred it the way it was. Of course, people hated it. I for one was happy seeing Akira realizing his destiny at stopping Shiki and just going for it. Shiki himself, like some Voldemort character, has accepted Akira as his rival, though Nano was always his obsession rather than rival. It made sense to me as the series was more or less based on Akira just realizing what and who he is and going on from there.

DRAMAticak Murder follows the same themes only different storytelling and other minor or major differences. Firstly, you will immediately notice that its art and animation is not dark and gothic inducing as TGNNC and that it has brighter colours. It is more based on internet, web, digital applications and interfaces so it also has a neon tint and timncture in colouring. Also it does not have character elimination much. It actually allows any character to become more ruthless rather than just die of your choices or presented circumstances of said choices. So if your route character becomes evil you either suffer or become as debased as him so in that way the bad endings has a darker flare than TGNNC but I guess because of the way it is presented it was somewhat tolerable to me though it is as dark and twisted as TGNNC. If you have a good ending what I enjoyed is I think many other characters can move on with their lives too. I am happy that this is not self centered. I mean why should the main character be so valuable as to always affect others so exponentially. And because it has less character elimination you feel overall happy getting a good ending.

DRAMtical Murder TV series or anime was a more heavy experience than Togainu no Chi the anime. This was both good and bad but mostly it is good. TGNNC was a bit lacking in story narrative that is okay because it was NiTro+CHiraL’s first work so it can have a few scratches here and there. Watching TGNNC felt ok, but it was a very loose and elastic experience. You feel that there are plus points but that this anime needs more to be 12 episodes long and it isn’t. Rather I was more interested in seeing how Akira and Shiki settle scores in the end. That was my feeling for it; I have mixed feelings. With DM those were not so much there. They imp-roved on their story execution and each epiosde was loaded. Yes, for a 12 epiosde anime arc I will say loaded. It can do better but what it did was not so bad. It focused on Aoba Seragaki and also on the emotional turmoils and formations of the other characters a bit too. Each episode after epiosde six felt like a mini route or mini arc on helping both Aoba and a character that has a route and that is pretty good. This sort iof execution was missing in Togainu no Chi anime because well TGNNU was a bit more difficult to arc and branch as character selection in game that led to routes were I think pretty sudden death too. Though some trhings in DM may remain a mystery it is not so nagging. The anime covered pretty much all the bases.

Each character was given ample enough time for a 12 episode arc; each character had someone else they hated or disliked or even pursued which was detailed. There was no one really wanting because if you see the series in one go even you will notice that it gave every major and some minor event in DRAMAtical Murder the game credence and attention. That is a good feat for a 12 episode anime arc that played around with a yaoi game that had many routes. There were both slice of life activities, both character arcs and details about the main plot. The series is character driven more. It is not shounen or shoujo that each thing is easily cured by a fight or interaction so they did focus on some messy things and some communication/ In shounen you have elaborate fights, in shoujo you have elaborate interactions in DM you can a equal pacing of talking and some reveals. Some may say that makes DM boring and they might not like it. I understand this. It is not a regular anime. It is yaoi based anime that left all the sex and sweat off. Except for some tame shounen-ai moments you get nada and I appreciate that too. The anime is not aimed to be yaoi. It is meant to please fans, attract new viewers and probably just mix some ingredients together. If it was yaoi you would find it in the hentai section.

The minor characters in the anime are still minor characters here. One of the mot crucial minor characters here is Sei Seragaki. Sei’s existence is pretty much tied up to Aoba realizing some stuff for himself and he is mostly used as a plot device. I actually mention Sei because Sei is a character I really love. I think even the two fuckers Virus and Trip are given more exposition in the original game (if you get bad routes) than Sei. Sei is both a noble and a very good natured character. He wants the best for his younger twin brother Aoba and wants his end as he has suffered a lot and now wants freedom from it. Because his physical state is so bad he knows he will not survive thus asks Aoba to use his scrap of destruction (he had the scrap of creation) to destroy him. This is where I wanted severely for NiTro+CHiraL to deviate from the original script and just go ahead and keep Sei alive. Ren can do something else to keep on living so it is important to me that Sei should have been given a second chance at life. Instead, they followed it to much on the script only deviating that Virus and Trip (because I think in the original it was not) calls Aoba to inform him that Sei is in the hospital after a year has passed from the Endgame. I mean it took Ren  a year to live in his new body as Sei has told him to use his but if Sei was so damaged I think it would have been suitable that his body die out. I know the soul can triumph where the body can’t and now Ren is no longer Aoba but a soul independent I think he can somehow get a new body. I am thoroughly displeased at Sei’s death as to me he was the best innocent there was; though he says he is responsible for helping Toue Konzerin for long I do believe he was always treated as a lab rat thus he is more a victim always than an perpetrator.

Sei’s death is very unsatisfactory to me. In Togainu no Chi many characters die due to your choices and though many find it sad I accepted it as a narrative route strategy . With Sei my acceptance is mired with vexation at best, it is quite thin. To kill of a character that may have potential for other things is surely very pathetic. It doesn’t fit either structurally or artistically with the entire story. In the end Aoba evolves himself and his power a lot. He becomes able to do both what he was designed to do and also pick up Sei’s quality (as Ren projected himself into an ALLMATE puppy). Ren then, not as Aoba’s consciousness anymore or Aoba anymore, due to the grand scheme of things became his own entity. So, in the end there is a lot happening to Aoba and people around him. Sei is not given a chance to evolve though his character is such that because of possibly neural pathways he shared with Aoba (as their hair was connected as birth making them conjoined to a degree) he may have a natural telepathic link with him. To ensure his death was final he decided to tell Aoba to destroy that link so that he can ensure that after his physical body dies nothing fragmentary even has a chance to stay behind. I find Sei interesting so I did not value his character profile as some moody guy who just wants to make his death final. It is stupid and quite arbitrary for him considering there can be more done for him.

In the end, DRAMAtical Murder is enjoyable. It is something if put more thought into can actually expand bigger. But no one really want to do that. So, it just became a copy of the game add hoc which is somewhat frustrating. I do think this yaoi or otome or harem franchises should grow a pair and evolve themselves. Tenchi Muyo did it long ago and I was so pleased that in Tenchi Muyo in Love 2 there was a form of conclusion or even aftersense. I think these animes need more screen time, more substantial writing, more everything…I could actually see some if not many rhyme battles happening in DM, many more plot twists, many more antagonists and a lot of even traveling other places but not they are happy with just adapting with the same formula as game. I won’t lie there were times I fan girl squealed and there were moments I liked but I do want more substance in my anime.

 

Ghost In The Shell ♠ Stand Alone Complex [Tempo Builder]

Image via Wikipedia

At the moment watching sparsely/intrinsically the masterpiece Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex

The Ghost In The Shell is MASHALLAH one of the best anime MASTERPIECES that I watched. It is philosophical, intellectual, engaging, action oriented and preferable fiction of the day. I watched it in my adolescent years and it has been one fabulous ride throughout. It never disappoints as it melds awesome stunts with cool psycohological mind bombs!

A guarantee win for anyone loving complex and simple flux — aka plot with substance and action for purpose!

The Cultural Studies Term Paper

ENG 331: Cultural Studies

My seventh semester – which is now – has this subject. I had been planning from last year to take this course. This obviously has good reasons:

• It is a great expansive course that includes the aspects of what composites culture – the different facets such as postmodern’s famous slogan – “I shop therefore I exist”
• It was going to be taught by our department chairperson Ms Firdous Azim whose books are also taught at Oxford. I did courses with her before and she is one of the elite. No wonder she is the department head
• I always wanted to write about anime academically. What affects culture? What aspect of culture is an important phenomenon?

If anime is not a grand cultural phenomenon I don’t know what is ^_^ Though Ms Azim doesn’t take the class anymore because she wanted to hand over the course to a visiting faculty (she was one of our department’s teachers but has gone abroad to work on cultural studies) my term paper remains the same. I am still focused on anime.

Of course now it is the end of the semester and I will finally be writing the paper. I must use the theories I learned to extract information out of those anime and show how they apply themselves to the viewers and society in general. This is really an exciting task and I have chosen the animes I’m going to explore.

Now, I’m not doing the usual anime – not Dragonball series or the Naruto one or the Pokémon one or even Bleach. To me they are mainstream anime – popular and interesting and really engaging but I’m not really their fan. I was a fan of Dragonball Z and still am to some extents but as I got older (I started watching it when I was fourteen) I grew kind of bored of it. There was nothing new in Dragonball Z except maybe a new foe. Though I did laugh at Mr satan’s cowardice (giggle when I remember it now) and loved the battles.  Also, as I am from Bangladesh you don’t know how long it took India and Pakistan’s Cartoon Network to actually show this one show. It started in 2002 then it stopped mid Frieza saga then it started again in 2006 or 2007 – all that time they were just repeating from the beginning to that battle with Frieza! Obviously, I lost the tempo but I also thought it was all action oriented – character dimensions were kind of limited. But Frieza still remains a favourite villain, as Bugs Bunny would say “Diminutive isn’t he?” but really deadly. (Ok, this is SPOILER INFORMATION but I think Frieza is a predecessor to Salem from Full Metal Alchemist that diminutive sadist)

Though I might have to make a contrast on both these considered mainstream anime and the animes I am doing I do have a distinction. The animes I am going to discuss are popular but just not with everyone. In fact one of them has a very limited fan following. The truth is that these animes are not only visually appealing but philosophically, psychologically and socially stimulating. My thesis topic is “The Anime Subculture: The Oppositional Look” basically I might change it to “An Alternative Axis” later on as I have also discuss (as my teacher told) how anime is a subculture in general. These anime explore aspects of  the human psyche and of human decadence, redux and ascension.

Thus the animes I’m going to explore are:

• Paradise Kiss – not really a dynamic fantasy shoujo manga but it is quite different from other shoujos. It is a slice of life manga where the protagonist grows stronger. Unlike helpless shoujo heroines Yukari is assertive – she may have been passive before but changes throughout the series. She does not like people misbehaving with her nor does she accept her own boyfriend’s eccentricities when they affect her negatively. It is uniquely presented – despite following shoujo’s tradition of lush, vibrant colours and fashionable characters it does not dwell superficially on them but encourages both insight and empathy. You might hate some characters or some of their characteristics  but perfection is not a tool of reality and this is what this manga beautifully illustrates.
• Hot Gimmick. Teacher’s Pet and Bitter Virgin – Hot Gimmick is a manga I love to hate as you have seen in my previous post. Though some say it is not a slice of life manga due to its horrid details I disagree. Due to its insufferable romanticizing of horrendous acts it is slice of life as it imitates Harlequin novels and Mills and Boon romance trash. Its settings and origins were beautiful, its storytelling was addictive however; it failed to establish what it set out to do: cure the adversity and set a decent romance. As Wikipedia expertly stated that “it shows the normalization of an abusive relationship” without any redeeming qualities whatsoever. It sets out to pacify, nurture and develop the characters but in the end succeeds at doing none of these things. It attempts to be reasonable but it fails to do so. Thus I am using it as a contrast to Paradise Kiss in the sense of Gender and Sexuality – are the women and men who are good natured always passive idiots? Are abusive spouses/partners meant to overlooked at being intensely romantic? I am also looking at Teacher’s Pet where Miki Aihara shows how a woman can fall in love with her rapist just for sex (no reasonable reason given) and accepts abuse from her boyfriend who is  not her rapist but gets to play ball with her too. I’m using this to contrast too. What is the mangaka attempting to prove?
  Bitter Virgin on the other hand does not cloud the psychological repercussions of emotional, sexual and physical abuse. It also may have Shoujo traditional passive females and femme fatales but it does see the heroine as a masochistic-dysfunctional entity (sans any reason even masochism has deep psychological reasons: boys and girls do not simply become masochistic for their hearts telling them or they have a rush of hormones. The gratification gratifies on other deeper levels). It shows the protagonists attempting to act out, protect, develop and fall in love via nurturing and understanding thus it succeeds in doing that. Maybe not introducing greatly independent philosophies of sexuality and psychology in individual decision but greatly allows psychological aftermath of rape victim.

• Ghost In The Shell – the accessibilities of this anime is phenomenal: spiritual, psychological, emotional, political, philosophical, medical, and digital and you can’t totally put it in the standard taxonomy of anime.  It showed identity-crisis entering a whole new axis when the inner universe (Origa’s theme ^_^) is virtually an interconnected cosmos of knowledge and information via brain-space and via body-swapping. The token of this anime is not merely the graphic illustrations of the making of cyborgs and dolls but also the pioneering aspects of the medium (anime) to enter the vortex of the postmodern. The makings of the cyber world and the inner world fuses in so many volumes, layers and vessels that separation, homogeneous, heterogeneous and alienation all become hard to distinguish or hard to make definitions of. Matoko Kusanagi, the protagonist is her own antagonistic vehicle but also her own transportation of being her own saviour. An excellent anime – Allah Almighty bless Shirow Masamune!

• Revolutionary Girl Utena – need I say more of this postmodernist masterpiece? Aside from the accolades it deserves for being a shoujo milestone it is also, to quote HigevsOtaku, a canon for those who need to inaugurate themselves into the spherical diversities of anime. Its artwork is exquisite, its imagery crisp and the story devices delicious to the tongue and earnestly devoured. Never have I been so engrossed in an anime that I felt greatly concurring with a person who said that Revolutionary Girl Utena should be a novel and we would read it in University/College. The beautiful protagonists Utena and Anthy and their strife to achieve liberation through societal standards of sexes and genders and proper citizenship – their rebellion in dressing unique and staying indifferent to what people consider normal. The role reversals of prince, princess and witch is also fantastic – no definitions are absolute in these titles and manipulation and/or transformations are inevitable truths. The psychological traumas, fluxes, logic and emotions that  motivate these characters despite their ugliness or their beauty are aesthetical models of truth and realism. Aesthetical does not always equate fiction or imaginary but rather versatility in composition and direction.  Masterpieces of masterpieces – Allah Almighty bless Chiho Saito and Kunihiko Ikuhara!

Well those are the reasons why I am covering those anime – I wanted to cover more but there was no time. Actually my visual powerpoint presentation didn’t go so well due to some facts:

• There were too many students this time in this course so we were allowed 10 minutes maximum. Everyone exceeded this, naturally, as a  3000-5000  term paper cannot easily be condensed in 10 minutes especially when Ms Azim herself stated (she was one of the guest judges) that we all had diverse topics to speak on.

• Not everyone is an anime fan like me in fact those who do watch anime still haven’t watched these titles (I asked someone about these titles and she was only familiar at this time with Naruto) so my teacher kept on telling me to introduce the animes. So, a large portion of my time went on that.

• Basically, I am also following a lot of theories to support my ideas thus it is hard for me to condense those theories as well.

• Ms Azim gave me suggestions but said that it seemed that my paper began at the end of the presentation (:P  *_*) But the truth was that it was hard to chop down the contents I was exploring. So Ms Azim went like “So what?” even if anime prevails as such how does it affect society? But I tried answering again her questions. Basically, our TA told me that I should have kept on referencing to the theories but in a limited time frame that is hard to do.

So, yeah I might talk about those other animes as references; they are:

• Jigoku Shoujo/ Hell Girl – this anime’s first season may have had a linear style of storytelling with the “cause and effect” approach but it gains popularity and applause due to exploring the reasons why people envy, hate, get confused and eventually want vengeance in the form of sending someone to hell. It is not typically Shoujo as some of the materials present are dark and disturbing including abuse, incest and paedophilia.

• Full Metal Alchemist – Michel Foucault conversation called The Eye of Power with Michelle Pierrot and Jean-Pierre Barou can be put into application in this anime. The forces that wield power also wield knowledge be it the ones who are seeking the secrets of alchemy, or seeking resolutions for the aftermath of a violent war or even seeking the very philosopher’s stone of truth. The humans, homunculi, ghosts and philosophers stones are the four pillars of power and they will fight for either supremacy or freedom.

• Death Note – isn’t is obvious ^_^? The Eye of Power works here as well – Kira and the people against this human believing himself to be a deity. Is the deity always in control? No. Are the humans without the power of the note sans power? No. The roles are reversed many a times and the evolution of the characters is fascinating.

• Angel Sanctuary – Angels and Demons: who are the pure? Truly man Kaori Yuki is one beautiful storyteller that captures the psyche immediately and creates shoujo that transcends cute girls and hot boyfriends. How would you feel if you were the reincarnation of a female angel though you are boy? How would you feel if you were in love with your own sister? How would you feel if Heaven and Hell were waging a war to gain you in their favour? If this postmodern I don’t know what is.

Ok, well this is my current update for my term paper. As it was related to anime and my love for it I thought I should post it here. Though, I think this is my longest post yet 😛 ^_^

Well, I guess Ciao for now guys ^_^

Hot Gimmick Criticism 1 ( Hot Gimmick – Excuses, Excuses Excuses – Pretty stuff are Boy Candy and No Plot)

For those of you who loved “Hot Gimmick” my question is very straightforward:

Why?

Why is it that you like this manga?

Please, give me a good, coherent answer to this question. Not answers such as Ryoki is so romantic and all the bishies are so cute for that is is just mainly considering the nature of the artwork.

Also, if your answer is that you can relate to the story then please state how and how Ryoki is the epitome of the romantic boyfriend?

Sure, perfect ideals of romance sucks. Hell flowers and candies are not going to stimulate everyone but verbally calling someone “idiot” and “stupid” all the time gets boring.

I am also looking at the interests of sadomasochists, masochists and sadists and I know that almost everyone nowadays has some of their tendencies. But even erotic stories as such include dynamics besides such boring repetitive name calling.

As I am not sadomasochistic or a sadist or a masochist I cannot enjoy the idea of my lover prancing around with “a greater than Thou” attitude or worse “a greater than God” statement and not even correcting his idiotic God complex. To see Kira from Death Note is inarguably fascination – to see his sadistic side is beautiful because the mangaka doesn’t excuse it as a reasonable romance nor an agreeable behaviour. In fact, supporting Light Yagami is not considered criminal because he began with a naïve nobility on justice. He decides to clean up the world but the psychological aspects are conflicted and we are introduced to this detail.

There is depth beyond depth in that manga. Kira twists and tangles incidences and manipulates his lover-girlfriend-psuedo-girlfriend Misa and helper Kiyomi (who is also a lover but not the central one). One can admire Light but hate him too. The manga Death Note may belongs to a different genre but easily does an expose on the characters be them dumb or smart, radical or neutral.

Does Hot Gimmick do that?

The heroine’s passivity was not something she herself desired but came out of compulsion. Also her alleged “boyfriend” comes forth via compulsion. Personal views aside (as one commenter once spoke in another site that we minus personal beliefs and be objective) the love-angle of such a relationship could only bloom with circumstances changing. This change is not only the verbal statements of Ryoki saying that he wants Hatsumi’s love but that he proves he does.

People are different. People do not change. True. Then why does Hatsumi believe that her so-called fiance will change after marriage? She desires better from him. She desires him true but desires the good side of him that Ryoki manages to show at times.

This story would have been successful if more emotive and psychological aspects were explored. The mangaka clearly wants to do this but fails miserably. Ryoki’s behaviour which was aimed at empathy and sympathy gets lost along the way within a formula in wanting to stand out as unique.

As one wise friend of mine said that unique or difference for the sake of being different has no value completely. Ryoki is not truly a unique character but Azusa, Shinogu and Subaru are.

What is the mangaka trying to say that if you abuse and if you are pretty and academically intelligent you can get away with everything?

Seems to me that Ryoki does entirely that.

Hatsumi does the same. Just because you were bossed around all your life and had no boyfriend does not mean your moment of independence comes via choosing your first boyfriend despite the wishes of others with only the reasons that your heart is decided.

People make mistakes. To err is human. Thus those consequential apparatuses make the manga which decided to be strong issued and deep become hollower than a dry well in a desert.

Hatsumi and Ryoki need not change as in make a complete 360 but they could portray themselves as more matured beings. To go through all those things without learning anything is an evidence to show that both are weak and both are not strong enough as the mangaka wanted them to be portrayed.

Ryoki changes slightly but even this slight seems non-existent. If one believes that he will gradually change then his partner must exhibit qualities to help him do so. She does not.

The truth: their pairing is a Deux Ex Machina and nothing can change that.

The argument “that its only fiction” can only be permissible if the mangaka illustrated the phenomenon surrounding her characters with more dynamics and capability. There are glaring holes in this otherwise beautifully constructed origin. Thus the manga fails. Sure it has some great subplots and gives some entertainment but it fails.

I expected more and truly thought the manga in the end gave excuses such as:

1.Abuse equals “love”
2.The beautiful boy must end up with a dumb girl
3.Beauty pardons you of all your crimes
4.Intelligence is not a factor to be considered
5.If intelligence is considered then it is as superficial as academic capability
6.Abusive personalities must be pardoned as they have “reasons”
7.Protagonist must be so altruistic that she can prostitute herself if need be
8.Antagonists and antagonistic actions are resolved via “understanding”
9.Growth is superfluous thus unnecessary
10.Emotional issues and psychological introspection are never needed in love and/or any other situations.

I truly did like the story initially hoping it would give some great insights. There are are some great twists but it is not a great manga. A great manga would dig deeper into the issues it challenges itself to involve not end up as some harlequin trash or mills and boon nightmare.

I still want to cheer for Ryoki and Hatsumi if their storylines were changed and greatly delved into. I wanted to cheer for them but their behaviours and actions proved to me that their “love” is not worth it.

“Escaflowne” had a love-story, “Death Note” had a love-story even if it was one-sided and irrational it gave some reasons, “Honey Hunt” has some reasons and even “Bitter Virgin” has great reasons and that is also an imperfect love story but “Hot Gimmick” fails colossally and cannot redeem itself.

It becomes trash. And surprisingly, despite some of its good potentials and addictive holds leaves me on the fence. Cannot satisfy anyone even without a personal attachment except a few who has not dug deeper besides Ryoki getting “hurt” and his good looks.

So, I’m sorry Miki Aihara you have great ideas but must have a pathological low self-esteem. Ironic – you are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.

Can you nurture your awesome talents? This comes from a person who loves your artwork and wishes that your talents were mine. This comes from a person who wants to be your fan.

Best Shoujo manga yet: “Revolutionary Girl Utena” by Chiho Saito.

(Originally Posted On The Manga Fox Forum on the Hot Gimmick section)