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Dandelion: Wishes Brought to You (Otome analysis)

Dandelion: Wishes Brought to You is a Korean otome game where you play as Heejung, a college schoolgirl who one night finds three rabbits and two cats left in her room by a mysterious voice. After caring for them for about two in-game months, they suddenly all turn into men. They tell Heejung that they’re playing a game created by a mysterious gamemaster and that they come from another world. She is then faced with taking care of the three rabbits (from left to right, Jiwoo, Jieun, and Jihae) and two cats (left to right, Jiyeon and Jisoo). Throughout the game, you must balance Heejung’s stat blocks: femininity, beauty, art skill, stress, and pressure. Activities within her apartment increase or decrease certain combinations of stats, so the player must keep an eye on all of her effects along with romancing characters. Each day consists of an activity for Heejung, after which the day ends. 

An interesting aside, a sprite of Heejung is always visible in the bottom left corner of the screen. Her model is fairly plain, but her facial expressions change based on the situation at hand, which I’ve heard is sometimes not the case in other dating sims where the character the player embodies serves more as a placeholder for any girl (usually) and is fairly nondescript. Heejung, on the other hand, has a moderately fleshed-out backstory. 

Each of the animals (both in animal form and human form) exhibits particular behaviors that correlate to common personality tropes found in slice-of-life media and dating sims. Jiwoo is the resident tsundere: he likes Heejung, but instead of communicating this directly, verbally abuses her. This is much more endearing as an animal than as a human. Jieun is a little-brother type who is shy, soft spoken, and tends to stick close to Jihae. Jihae, in contrast, is the older brother type who is level-headed, mature, and caring. He is shown to care for Jieun. Jiyeon is an excitable and sweet type who openly cares for Heejung. And finally, Jisoo is a classic yandere. He does not hide his pursuit of Heejung and is not afraid to fight with the other love interests for her affections. 

I don’t play dating games. They are not for me, so I employed one of my friends (referred to now as E) to help. Only after about 3 hours of gameplay were we able to get to the point where the characters become romancable (you are unable to romance them in animal form for obvious reasons). As expected, some of the personality traits that were somewhat cute and tolerable in animal form became very annoying; namely, Jiwoo’s tsundere tendencies. Neither E nor I was comfortable romancing a little brother or big brother type, so we ignored Jieun and Jihae. And Jiyeon seemed a little too aggressive for our liking. We set our sights on Jiyeon’s route because he seemed the most normal out of the five. We managed to make progress with Jiyeon, turn him into a human, and were greeted with this:

However, this is where we ran into a problem: we kept getting the bad endings. If you diversify Heejung’s attention too much, you receive what my friend (who has played the game and whom I will refer to as R) tells me is known in the fandom as the “fried chicken ending.” These bad endings are when our boy-next-door acquaintance from the art club suddenly confesses to Heejung and proposes that he support the two of us with money from his family’s fried chicken business. You are forced to reload a save. 

E and I played and replayed several times, each time receiving different variations of the “fried chicken ending.” Unfortunately, we were not able to finish this route. However, this does prompt an interesting analysis of this game: it is seemingly incorrect to play casually, the player must be quick and sure in their decision of which guy to pursue, otherwise be doomed to 6+ bad endings. While you typically have a lot of agency in dating sims, the player is actively punished for supposedly choosing the wrong playstyle. 

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Vincenzo (Drama analysis)

Vincenzo or 빈센조 is a 2021 drama with 20 episodes, each an hour and twenty minutes long. I will provide an overly simplistic summary because of how intricate this show is and because I do not want to give spoilers. The story follows Vincenzo Cassano, an Italian mob lawyer or consigliere, who became like a son to the head of an Italian mob family. Vincenzo had to flee Italy after the mob boss died, and those in the family threatened to kill him in favor of the boss’s biological son. Years prior, Vincenzo had helped a few men hide gold bars worth billions of Won under a plaza in Korea. On the run and one of the only surviving individuals who knew about the gold under Geumga Plaza, Vincenzo arrives in Seoul, Korea, to retrieve the gold and vanish. Unfortunately for him, the gold cannot be accessed without demolishing the building, thereby alerting the residents who live in the plaza to its existence and Vincenzo’s criminal connections. Additionally, a large pharmaceutical corporation, Babel, has recently set its sights on Geumga Plaza for a high-rise office building. If Babel were to follow through with their plans, the building would be razed, and the gold would be discovered. Vincenzo is forced to work with the residents, as well as lawyers Hong Yoo-chan and his daughter Hong Cha-young, to defend the plaza (and the gold) from Babel. Along the way, Vincenzo becomes closer to both lawyers, as well as each unique and quirky tenant of the building. In the end, Vincenzo and the team thwart Babel, retrieve the gold, and Vincenzo is able to disappear like he intended. 

The target audience for Vincenzo is likely young adult women. The synopsis may attract those who are into the “I can fix him” type of male character, but considering that Vincenzo is clean-cut in his appearance, successful, attractive, and is wickedly smart, the fact that he is associated with the mob gets slightly overshadowed. The point of a consigliere is to use the rules of the law to circumnavigate those same rules for a criminal’s benefit, so Vincenzo is rarely seen losing his temper or being physically violent. Vincenzo would also appeal to those who like to see strong, independent women like Cha-young thwarting plans and looking good while doing it. Cha-young is a fully developed character. She is not presented as a placeholder person–a shell of a female character–only there to serve the main male character. She is strong, independent, and very smart. She helps Vincenzo build a legal case against Babel time and time again, and navigate the Korean legal system due to the fact that he does not have legal credentials in Korea. Her motivation for doing so is that her father, Hong Yoo-chan, another lawyer, was killed by a Babel employee, lawyer Choi Myung-hee, for daring to defend the tenants of Geumga Plaza. In a harrowing scene, while finally meeting over drinks to discuss evidence of Babel killing their scientists who developed dangerous drugs, Hong Yoo-chan and Vincenzo get hit by a truck, killing Yoo-chan (truck-kun strikes again). Cha-young is pivotal in the takedown of Babel, and not only successfully avenges her father’s killing, but also discovers a “guillotine file” that contains evidence of all criminal activity of major businesses across Korea. Through teamwork, she and Vincenzo defend the data and eventually make the information public, exposing major corporations and bringing about good change as a result. 

Overall, this drama was refreshing to someone who does not often watch dramas. I am not generally intrigued by romance, so the fact that the main two characters, Vincenzo and Cha-young, do not “get together” in the expected sense felt fresh. While they do kiss and eventually express their feelings for each other in the show, the end feels more realistic because Vincenzo leaves Korea for good and does not abandon his original plans. From my understanding and limited experience, Kdramas are usually focused on romance between characters, whereas Vincenzo feels more well-rounded than other dramas that have been described to me.

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WISH YOU: 나의 마음속 너의 멜로디 (BL Analysis)

WISH YOU: 나의 마음속 너의 멜로디 came out in 2022 and follows the love story of two musicians. Yoon Sang Yi is a record label intern who plays piano and sings in his spare time. When all the possible talent fails to interest his boss, he suggests a local musician, Kang In Soo, who posts videos of himself playing his own songs. The audience gets the impression that, aside from appreciating In Soo’s musical talent, Sang Yi is also crushing on In Soo. Come In Soo’s audition with the record company, he blows the executives' expectations out of the water and gets signed. Sang Yi is assigned to look after In Soo, and they move in together. We learn soon that In Soo’s father, who owns the record company, pressured him into working for the company as a businessman, rather than pursuing his love of music. This creates issues for In Soo when the company Sang Yi works for threatens to drop In Soo because of his father’s disapproval. This leads to a dramatic turn where In Soo runs away from the studio, and Sang Yi has to scour the city to find him. The audience even sees a startling scene where it appears that In Soo just straight up walks into the ocean. Ultimately, Sang Yi and In Soo come back together and perform the duet on the rooftop surrounded by friends, where they shared their first kiss. 

Some critiques of this drama/BL include audience members feeling that the story was too rushed or that the characters weren’t developed as much as they would have liked. I think this may come down to the type of media this was. The movie’s run time is 2 hours, which is long for a movie, but a relatively short amount of time to set up characters. It takes time to set expectations, character motivations, and a conflict that impacts the audience, and resolve the conflict in a way that seems natural and satisfying. 

The drama (which I watched as a movie on Netflix but was also shown as an 8-episode TV series) is short and sweet, with a small amount of angst but a happy ending. The target audience is likely young adult women. The fantasy of seeing two people fall in love with each other with no societal pressures from being of different genders may be refreshing for viewers. Additionally, Kdramas (which this is also), I believe, are mainly aimed at young adult women. Both individuals exhibit what we have discussed and identified as soft masculinity.

Soft masculinity is distinct from Western masculinity as it allows men to show more emotional vulnerability than what is expected of men in the West. Both main characters show this emotional vulnerability toward each other, which leads to the two becoming closer and falling for each other. However, boys will be boys, and the major conflict does happen because of each of their failures to communicate their thoughts. 

Finally, this drama heavily relies on music as a plot device and a draw for viewers. One of the songs even made it onto my Spotify Wrapped. For instance, Sang Yi harmonizes with a recording of In Soo’s original song in a beautiful and sentimental scene, which shows how enamored Sang Yi has become. It is the same song that the two sing in the ending scene of the drama, representing that Sang Yi has finally caught the attention of In Soo and that together, they can create something even greater.

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Infantilization of East Asians

In the third chapter, “Korean Romance for Wholesomeness and Racism?: The Transcultural Reception of the Reality Dating Show Single’s Inferno” of the book Korean Pop Culture beyond Asia: Race and Reception, Woori Han analyzes the international reception of the Korean reality dating show Single’s Inferno. In the West, the show was received very well, with many audiences commending the show and, by extension, Korean culture for not focusing on sex and lust between contestants, which is prevalent in Western dating shows. We discussed in class when this appreciation of non-sexual romance and intimacy goes too far into infantilization, especially when we think about how East Asians and perceived in the West. As an East Asian person, I have seen countless instances of East Asian men (namely Kpop idols) being babied by fans on the internet, and it rubs me the wrong way. Fans of any media are capable of projecting an air of helplessness onto these celebrities, both Western and Eastern, which denies that these celebrities are fully developed and mature adults. 

This phenomenon could be explained by Western fans misattributing East Asian men’s softer masculinities to a childlike state, and overall misunderstanding cultural differences. However, what this often devolves into is the incorrect assumption that East Asians are incapable of expressing sexuality and desire and have childlike innocence. This becomes divisive among fans when East Asians do show their desire, with some denying their sexuality. Han also addresses a particular example of when infantilization comes into contact with demonstrations of overbearing or non-consensual desire. Apparently, on Single’s Inferno there was a contestant, Sehoon, who made repeated courting attempts despite the subject denying his advances multiple times. Some fans explained this behavior as a cultural difference: pursuit and perseverance could be seen as manly or flattering. Others called his behavior creepy and borderline sexual harassment. In the case of Sehoon, the chapter acknowledges that in the Western feminist eye, he was acting extremely strange, even menacing, but also recognizes that there is a difference in courting expectations within Korea and the West, as well as the male role in attraction. This is not to say, of course, that the pursuit of a person against their explicit wishes is ever okay, but is there not a grey area here when it comes to cultural differences? This is the discussion that sparked among fans globally. 

This reading made me wonder when it is appropriate to impose your own cultural expectations on another’s actions from a different culture. Generally, I do not believe that just because an action is foreign to someone, they should be justified in judging another person for it unless it harms another person. This is especially the case when the party who disapproves of a behavior goes about it with an air of cultural superiority. When it comes to Western values evaluating Eastern behavior, from my perspective, it imitates imperialism.

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Black American Cultural Appropriation in Asia

Author Crystal S. Anderson asserts, "However, to accuse K-pop artists of this kind of appropriation casts Koreans in the role of White people within a distinctly US racial context when talking about transnational Korean media," in chapter 1 “The Road to Fandom: Joy and Black “fans” in kpop” in Korean Pop Culture beyond Asia: Race and Recepion. This is in reference to Korean pop culture, which often incorporates Black American dance moves and styles into its work. There seems to be a grey area because while directly copying aspects of Black culture without regard or acknowledgement of its origins is highly problematic, especially when you are in the global public eye as a celebrity, it may not be completely fair in every situation to East Asians to claim that they knowingly appropriated American Black culture. 

I found a slideshow of photos on 小红书 of a person putting makeup on. The base layer of makeup did not match the person's skin tone and was noticeably darker than their hands and neck. A comment under the photos (in English and presumably American due to the influx of Americans of 小红书 after the TikTok ban scare) asked if this person was not doing blackface. The responses (in Chinese) generally boiled down to no. Their reasoning was that China does not have the history with Black people, slavery, and Black cultural appropriation that many countries founded on colonization like America have, and therefore, culturally, it is not blackface. Moreover, it was not done with the intent to mock, nor was the makeup intentionally done to make fun of a particular style of makeup associated with Black people. That is not to say that an action done with pure intent cannot have negative consequences, but in that regard, I agree with the article that it may be limiting to judge East Asians’ actions that originate from Black American culture by our US standards. 

However, I think that there is an important distinction between individuals posting individually on accounts with a few hundred followers and industry-built celebrities. I think that it's not always a case of "they're adults in an international industry, they should know better," because internalization and understanding of racism in another country should not necessarily be expected, but rather "they should act with respect for all persons because they decided to be internationally known." I feel that in some cases, situations of idols or celebrities in general perpetuating hurtful stereotypes could have been avoided by having empathy in mind and analyzing where actions come from instead of blindly copying. Moreover, a lot of times, celebrities have entire teams that heavily curate their images, which ideally should take into consideration if dances or outfits could be seen as cultural appropriation. And most importantly, if something slips through the cracks, the idols acknowledge their mistake, understand the repercussions of their actions that are seen globally, and strive to do better in the future. It only hurts everyone if someone decides to double down or play down the repercussions. 

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It's giving yellow fever

In the book Korean pop culture beyond Asia: race and reception, edited by David C Oh and Benjamin M Han, in chapter 7 “I was probably Korean in a previous life: Transracial Jokes and Fantasies of Hallyu Fans,” Author Irina Lyan discusses the phenomenon of non-Korean fans joking about being “Korean in another life” or “being half Korean.” This reminded me of a different (and I would claim equally) problematic phenomenon referred to as “race change to another/Asian” or RCTA. I became aware of this through TikTok a few years ago, circa 2021. Those who identify with this RCTA status claim to transition to another racial identity. Individuals would post “update” pictures of themselves through their “transition,” showing that through lifestyle changes (which I cannot even begin to guess the nature of), their skin color has begun to shift as well as their physical features. People in this community would share their “transitions” with others also in this group who supported them, and thus, the encouragement motivated these people to continue, often despite repeated disapproval of POC. 

As I have stated before, I (and many other POC) find this deeply disturbing, objectifying, frustrating, and mocking. In many cases, the individual cherry picks what they believe to be the "aesthetic" aspects of a culture or ethnic group and ignores unattractive qualities. It irks me especially when White Americans strive to appear generically Asian for social gain or profit and then are able to go about much of their lives with full white privilege. Dismissing the racism that many Asian people in America experience (especially since the pandemic) is explicitly harmful and often provides non-POC a sense of absolution in their passive participation in a society that favors White citizens. That’s the model minority effect. In class, we also brought up the phenomenon of “Asian fishers,” or those who use makeup and mannerisms to appear, perhaps ambiguously Asian. While Asian fishers generally do not self-identify as Asian fishers, the effect is much the same as RCTA people. In both instances, a person is essentially wearing a costume of an ethnicity that is not their own. When the individual is able to shed that persona at the end of the day and continue with White societal privileges, it undermines and discounts the real issues that POC face systemically. 

I can only speculate as to why someone would want to adopt a persona of a minoritized group. I believe that some of us have cynically attributed this to those individuals having a victim complex of some sort. I think that in rare cases, that may hold an ounce of truth, but perhaps our classmate’s idea that White Americans often feel a disconnect with any particular culture, and therefore seek that sense of communication, is more accurate. 

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Friendships in Shōjo

Let’s Make a Mug Too (yakunara mug cup mo) is a 2021 shōjo anime that follows Himeno Toyokawa, a high school-aged girl who moves with her father back to her deceased mother’s hometown of Tajimi City in Gifu prefecture. She quickly becomes involved with the school pottery club after discovering that her mother was a pottery legend. Himeno develops her artistic method of stylized utilitarian forms throughout the anime and season one ends with her entering a project in an art show. The viewers learn basic things about pottery and ceramics along with Himeno as well as a healthy dose of Japanese culture like the historical importance of traditional Japanese Mino ceramic ware for the region, and the significance of ceramic kappa statues littered around the town. The first season has ten episodes but 20 videos in total because each episode of the show is interspersed with the four main voice actors traveling around Tajimi City in Gifu prefecture and experiencing how the town influenced the show. 

Kappa statue from the anime: (much cuter than the usual depictions) 

The anime utilizes many common tropes for non-fantasy, slice-of-life stories such as relationship conflicts between friends, learning emotional vulnerability in young characters, self-discovery, and familial strain. Himeno mourns her mother but is able to connect with her by learning the art of ceramics and developing friendships through the ceramics club. While in many ways the story follows traditional shōjo characterizations and storylines to a tee, one thing stood out to me: there is no romance. There is no male best friend, no annoying male classmate who may have a crush on one of the main female characters, truly nothing. The only important male character is Himeno’s father. While researching common themes in shōjo, it became apparent to me how prominent romance is in popular shōjo. I suppose this makes sense considering that the demographic for shōjo is teenage girls and romance sells well but is this anime missing something without romance? I would argue absolutely not. 

So if romance is such a keystone in the shōjo genre and our discussions in class, why did I choose this particular anime to analyze? It makes it very difficult to consider similarities between our discussions in class and this piece of media. Honestly, I wanted to exemplify a less popular aspect of the shōjo genre: purely platonic love. Moreover, it forced me to ask why romance in shōjo is connected in a seemingly inexplicable way. If cross-culturally we think of romance being a main appeal to young girls and we direct media of innocent romance towards young girls, are we not in a way narrowing our expectations of young girls’ interests (and consequently excluding what young boys may be interested in)? I think we may all agree that young girls are not only interested in romance! Let’s Make a Mug Too is a perfect example, then, of a piece of media that is cute, funny, not too serious, and does not focus on romantic relationships. 

Most importantly, there is no detriment to the plotline (I feel) because there is no romance. Not all young people like to watch an angsty or awkward or sweet crush that pushes a character further in the story. Sometimes it’s not about romantic love and I think that is beautiful.

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Personal Opinions of Oscar François de Jarjayes

When I started reading The Rose of Versailles Oscar’s character was immediately intriguing. First of all, I was already very familiar with popular characterizations of Marie Antoinette so the original characters like Oscar, Rosalie and Andre stood out to me. I was able to generally predict where the story arcs for the characters based on real historical figures were going, but the fate of these original characters were a complete mystery. 

I would like to focus on Oscar’s gender representation in The Rose of Versailles. Her upbringing was such an intriguing aspect of the story for many reasons. The fact that her father raised her to fulfill a traditionally male social role (there could be an entire debate on how valid or not his reasons were) brought this quite intriguing idea that physical attributes don’t have to set the constraints for who someone could be in their life. I think that many of us wish this was the case. To me, Oscar’s personal and professional successes in this story–having a position of power over men and an object of desire for women–show an idealistic world where the idea of rigidly gendered professions could be demolished and where one’s biological sex has little bearing on a person’s opportunities in life. 

Despite Oscar’s confidence in her profession and social position, I do not think that Oscar’s gender identity is very rigid–meaning that Oscar is able to express her gender identity relatively fluidly. There are defninitely literary benefits to having a female character be most comfortable fitting in the typical male gender roles, but a common trend is when they are confronted with any aspect of femininity they reject it fullheartedly which nowadays we would see as perhaps annoying and “pick me” behavior. Oscar’s character is unique in this way–that when she was faced with having to get in touch with her more feminine side by wearing a dress and jewelry, there was little internal conflict for Oscar. Moreover, it felt that her decision did not undermine her character’s social strength as the captain of the royal guard. She never corrected her female admirors when they misgendered her and I saw her as being largely apathetic to others’ perceptions of her gender identity. This was extremely refreshing, considering that this manga came out in the 70s. 

Now for my critiques. I will admit that I was sad to see her fall into a “typically feminine” role where she briefly dressed appropriately for her gender and pursued a man she was interested in and when she slept with her male childhood friend, but I suppose this is what true (modern) feminism would be–the complete freedom to be authentically oneself in pursuit of what makes a person happy. Whether that would be adhering to typical gender norms, subverting them, or switching between whenever someone feels like it. While I would have liked to see an asexual transmasc (or simply a woman acting within masculine stereotypes), that may not have been possible considering the political climate in the 70s and in Japan. All I can do is learn to appreciate what this work and character was for its time, and hope to see exactly the representation I want in other places.