#and one of the things he loves about adachi is his imperfection and how it releases him (kurosawa) from the need to be perfect

[coquelicoq]

"i've always wanted to be surrounded by your things" okay mr. sap machine but i know your secret other reason is that you did the math and realized that aneki isn't gonna want to crash at your place if you live in your boyfriend's studio lol

[bengiyo]

Cherry Magic Anime Ep 9 Stray Thoughts

Last week I got all my life as Kurosawa and Adachi had their first kiss at work when Adachi revealed his powers to Kurosawa. Kurosawa misunderstood Adachi's interactions with Tsuge, who was there to volunteer with Minato to help Adachi and told Adachi about his feelings for Minato. Kurosawa, being the simp he is, took this revelation in stride and realized Adachi was trying to respond to his feelings, so they kissed with very satisfying audio.

We can pick up from the kiss! I won't complain!

So glad for both recent versions of Cherry Magic making it clear that Adachi/Achi is into Kurosawa.

I like the way the Minato and Rokkaku stuff is going in this one. I like how Tsuge's older perspective is being used with him trying to help them resolve their gap.

I really love Tsuge so much in every iteration.

Aww, Minato thinks of Tsuge as a dad. I hope this turns into a kink.

Oh, interesting. Adachi got noticed by management and they thought he'd be an ideal choice for an away mission because they think he's single. This is actually super reasonable.

Yes, Kurosawa, use his powers to flirt with him.

Really glad that this is a job offer for a transfer they're making and not an order. It's legitimately a promotion in recognition of Adachi's work.

Stay focused, Adachi! You're gonna miss your date!

I know if I got tickets to see my favorite band I would be very disappointed, but I would still go.

I like that Kurosawa expresses frustration that Adachi doesn't seem to trust him with a decision that affects both of them.

Damn, that's a good stopping point. Kurosawa walking away after telling Adachi he has to tell him what he's thinking. Don't let me down next week, Adachi. We only have three episodes left.

I continue to like how imperfect this version of the cast. I don't mind how quickly some things resolve because the emotions between the characters feel right. I'm also enjoying the different timing of some moments. I'm hoping we get to see Fujisaki next week.

[lesbian-empress-nero]

“It’s simple, keijisan.”

Adachi was barely listening to the lesson Izanami was giving him, if he was being honest.

With her hair tied up and a smile on her sickly-looking face, she was nothing short of stunning. And she clung to him like he has saved her life.

She constantly called him her ‘beloved’, was surprisingly protective over him- she was even the one to suggest staying at his apartment that foggy night so long ago.

And now here they were. She was teaching him how to sew a button back onto an old coat of his and he wasn’t able to focus because of how she looked.

“Are you listening, keijisan?”

Izanami startled him out of his thoughts with a sharp jab to the arm with the needle.

He recoiled in pain, glaring at her weakly. He couldn’t stay mad at her. He used to pride himself on how long he could hold a grudge- but now he couldn’t stay mad for more than a few minutes before he came back to her like a mutt.

“Pay attention. This is important ” Izanami huffed, resuming her lesson- and once again, Adachi found himself distracted by her. How easily she carried herself, the way she spoke with her hands, her hands-

Her fingers were long and slender, graceful with a sewing needle yet rough and calloused from working at the gas station.

She was beautiful, Adachi thought, though beauriful wasn’t half of it. She was certainly pretty, yes, but there were little imperfections that simply added to her beauty. Imperfections that he knew would never be found on Mayumi Yamano. Frizzy hair that she loved having braided, chapped lips from her constantly chewing on them, calloused hands from working the gas station singlehandedly. Tired scarlet eyes that gleamed with life and joy.

She was imperfect and beautiful in a way he wouldn’t have associated with a goddess- yet here was one in front of him, imperfect and beautiful and his.

That was another thing Adachi had had to learn with time. She was as much his as he was hers.

Her loyalties lay with him under bone-white sheets on a Western style bed that sagged under their weight. Her loyalties stood with him as he smoked a cigarette and watched Inaba sleep. Her loyalties sat with him during her smoke break, talking about anything and everything. Her loyalties were with him.

“Keijisan! If you aren’t going to pay attention, I’ll let you figure it out on your own!”

Izanami’s indignant voice broke his thoughts.

“Sorry. I was thinking about you. You're very distracting, you know.”

Izanami smiled, rising up slightly to plant a kiss on his lips.

“Focus, keijisan. Alright? I’ll give you a hundred kisses if you focus.”

With the promise of affection in store, Adachi listened to his beloved’s lesson on re-sewing buttons.

THE BONE WHITE SHEETS ON A WESTERN STYLE BED MENTION

YOUR HONOR ADACHI IS HEAD OVER DAMN HEELS IN LOVE WITH THIS FUCKER AT A GAS STATION!!!! CANT EVEN GO A SECOND WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT HER! i love the idea that izanami has normal human imperfections. like she's not a god who can't be wounded. shes so prebby.......

[tobeornottotc]

Cherry Magic Ep 11: The problem with  Self Deprecation

You had two choices Adachi. But you didn’t hope to see a chance the second one.

It’s painful because Adachi has always thought that this was going to happen that’s why he was so scared the whole time before he and Kurosawa got together. And it’s painful and heartbreaking. Basically Adachi fell into self despair, he went back to his old thoughts that all he is, is a burden and not worth it, that he wasn’t deserving of someone like Kurosawa’s love, affection and attention. All he wanted was to prove to himself he was worth it. But once he got rejected by that woman for his designs he worked on himself, it felt like he was right; all that hard work, attention, affection Kurosawa showed him was wasted on someone like him, after everything Kurosawa did for him he still without magic couldn’t do something to show him he was worth the effort. That’s why he spiraled into self hate and anxiety again. He went back to his old self, the one that fought so hard to let Kurosawa in. 

Remember from episode 6 his biggest reason for why he had anxiety this whole time; he doesn’t want to be seen as heavy. This is the reason why we had all those episodes of angst because he knew once he got with Kurosawa there will be a time he disappointed him or was to heavy/ burden to him. And that’s what he felt this episode coupled with impostor syndrome, guilt about not being enough for Kurosawa who just is such a perfect person who deserves someone like that, not being on the level people want him to be. How can he believe in himself when he doesn’t even see any reason to, every single reason he started to get better was because of Kurosawa and Magic well that’s what he thinks. He didn’t even understand that his idea was his before he read that woman’s mind, that the reason he gave her was actually what his purpose was at the start; he said the same thing to Kurosawa in episode 10; he made the emojis to focus on emotions of people, but the magic made him stop thinking about his own skills and he saw himself as a cheater.

It’s just so painful. In the end he accepted what he always knew one day he and Kurosawa will have to break up because he was worthless, imperfect and heavy. He took the first choice without even trying to hope for another way to not lose Kurosawa. He did not try to fight for what they had because he had gone into such a well of self hate and doubt and anxiety again he’d regressed so much this episode because of his worries about the magic, about losing it. The reason was because of Tsuge.

The episode starts of with Tsuge showing what happens without the magic being misunderstood and dealing with miscommunication, Adachi saw that he would end up like Tsuge just blaming himself and not being what Or giving what Kurosawa wanted from him without the magic. Adachi believed he was going to fail without the magic and so he told Kurosawa his fears and once Kurosawa gave him an out, he took it refusing to look back because he expected Kurosawa to do so. He didn’t even understand that Kurosawa was giving him a choice so he stops being the one causing a burden to Adachi🙄

If Adachi was feeling worthless and heavy to Kurosawa this episode, Kurosawa was even worse, his thoughts were trying to find ways to make Adachi calm down and believe in himself but he realised his presence was doing the opposite: it was making Adachi think he was worthless. He was failing Adachi. That’s why he gave Adachi the out in guise of a choice he probably hoped Adachi would stay and fight like he always did when he read his mind and tell him it’s wrong but Adachi immediately agreed and left him broken. Also from the beginning he first met Adachi all Kurosawa has been trying to do was make him feel like he made him feel 7 years ago, he wanted him to see how great he was, how comforting he was, how healing he was, he wanted to do all that for Adachi, so the realisation that being with him was doing the opposite, he tried to give Adachi a way out. 

But Adachi was feeling the same way; a burden to him instead. It’s funny how again Kurosawa and Adachi’s need to please people is the reason for why they broke up, the need to be each other’s perfect person instead of just being themselves, Adachi found no confidence in just being without the magic and Kurosawa felt like he was more of an obstacle each time he was being himself he wanted to be more to Adachi, he wanted to be his support, his number one, his help because Adachi did so to him 7 years ago because of this he also wanted to please Adachi, so much he realised the only way to do so was to free him from the comparison to him and being with him with those thoughts. Kurosawa has always thought him being perfect was like a burden, but in a different way people wanted so much from him and objectified him but Adachi saw his perfection the opposite, instead of it making Adachi want to be with him, it made Adachi feel not good enough to be him. His perfection became a different kind of burden. 

And it just sucks because it’s miscommunication as always but this time, the magic instead of always healing; it is being the cause to break their bond,  which is ironic if you think about how these two got together. I don’t know what to say, all I know is Adachi needs to become brave and learn to trust and love himself. He should see what he is to people without the magic, it’s not the magic that made Kurosawa fall for him, it was him being himself, he was the person who saved Kurosawa 7 years ago, he was the one that came up with that idea for the emojis and it was praised, he was the one who stood up for Tsuge and told him to be brave without magic, it’s all so important that he notices that he’s helpful and he’s kind and he’s okay just being himself without magic.

It’s okay to fail once but you can try again, it’s okay to be awkward and weird and have anxiety with people because you can be your self and people will notice your light and your helping heart. It’s okay to be heavy sometimes with the person you love, if they’re right for you (RIGHT FOR YOU AS IN You DONT HAVE TO CHANGE FOR THEM TO BE RIGHT FOR YOU) they’ll understand and be your comfort and help. You deserve someone like Kurosawa because as much as he does for you, you do the same for him, you proved it 7 years ago. You proved it last episode as well when you told him to just be himself and took away his burdens of trying to please you. You made Kurosawa feel just comfortable, being his true self. Because you see him in a different way than others. That’s why he chose you.  

That's all you have to do Adachi . You had two choices but you refused to wait for the hope of the second, you refused to do the one thing ;Kurosawa wanted from you the whole episode to trust your self and believe in your abilities. You took the easy way out and broke both Kurosawa and your self esteem even further. You took the easy way out when you’ve been fighting all episodes to be brave and trust your heart and your self. You forgot that you don’t want to see Kurosawa hurt and sad. You forgot how much Kurosawa needed you not because of magic but because of you.

That’s the problem with Self hate and trying to please others. It convinces you that you are not enough, that you’re not worth it, that you break all you touch but really the damage is you actually not giving your self a chance. You think that without you people would thrive when really its because you left and gave up that the person declined. 

It’s not easy to trust our selves with anxiety and self deprecation, it’s not easy to see what we do for others. But when someone comes into your life worth showing up for, then you have to stop hiding and thinking the world is never going to be yours, you have to be brave and fight for the right to have that person by your side. And hopefully Adachi will learn that next week. 

No one is perfect but by taking a leap of faith, and trusting that by being our truest selves, our weakest self, our broken  self, that we still deserve love, and happiness, that’s when we become whole and find our answer and safe space and real true love. 

[popsiclemania]

My 2020 in K dramas (+1 J drama)

I began watching k-dramas in 2018 but I’ve never watched as many shows, Korean or otherwise, as I have in this one. 2020 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I think what helps me really enjoy this over Bollywood+Malayalam+ American pop culture I grew up with is that a smirk on the wrong character’s face doesn’t make me seethe with rage and want to burn everything down. It’s not like growing up with SRK on screen and then having SRK wannabes leave you with lifelong trauma in reality. I can just move on. It’s removed enough from my everyday life but still familiar in a generic Asian family way. Does that make sense? It’s not perfect and it’s not free of its own harmful stereotypes and narratives, but there’s enough of the good stuff to make you stick around. This year I fell in love with Nana, Kim Hye Soo, Han Yeri, Park Eun bin, Ahn Eun jin, Kim Bum, Kim Yong ji, Flower Boy’s Go Dok Mi and Search:WWW’s Bae Tami. Cancelled Ji Chang wook (bye). Desperately missed Kim Jae Wook. Had thoughts on Hwang In Yeop, which were mostly heart eyes. Discovered J dramas and fell in love with Cherry Magic’s Adachi.

My year-in-review below:

LOVED

Into The Ring - I am so glad I saved this for a rainy day because it’s exactly the kind of upright citizen shenanigans my unemployed ass needed at the end of the year.

Goo Se Ra thinks the govt should work for the people but that doesn’t mean her own moral compass always points north. Her purpose is to make steady money, and I love seeing her go hard to survive and cobble together what she needs. The thing that really works for me is that she wants to be good, but she isn’t always. And you get to see her be disappointed, upset, embarrassed and hurt from being publicly kicked in the gut as she navigates a job where she appears, on the surface, to be a supremely confident, self-serving, accidental politician. What you see as her naiveté is mostly just her being a regular person in an environment dictated by backhand deals and rich people politics. She gets hit again and again, and you see what it does to her sense of worth to get back up again, how she grapples with her self. And through all this the show is funny?! Se Ra is what writers of manic pixie characters think they are doing and not doing at all. Love her friends, and Jang Hye-jin is *chef’s kiss*!

Hyena - Kim Hye Soo’s Jung Geum Ja is perhaps Se Ra’s older and darker contemporary.  Geum Ja is a survivor and will get what she wants and where she wants to, however many hells she has to cross. She’s single-minded about her success, ruthless and has no qualms about bending morals to get the outcome she needs. She’ll never compromise on who she is or justify how she lives, can build people up and also tear them down, but she also knows care and kindness.

I turned to Signal for more Kim Hye Soo but was disappointed in how the first few episodes seemed to shortchange her. May try again in 2021.

(Highly recommend @saltr0se​’s  fic series which just GETS Geum Ja so well. Fic writers are the best)

Search: WWW (Finished in 2020) - It took me half a year to finish this. I started watching Search in Oct 2019 and raced through the first 6 episodes because I couldn’t take my eyes off the rollercoaster of Bae Tami’s life. And then I had to take a break because it was a little too close to the frenetic pace of my own industry. As @drivingsideways wrote, a lot of Search is premised around ‘patriarchy? who dat?’, which is why watching its politics play out is so fascinating.  It’s also deliciously turmoil-y to watch a very clear-sighted, weathered Tami put on rose-tinted glasses for her romance and then frequently peer over them to evaluate whether it could actually meld into her life.

Catch The Ghost - Kim Seonho oozes charm and perhaps Startup was a showcase of how effectively he can be a typical male lead. But Catch is exactly not that. Go Jiseok and Yoo Ryeong have moulded their lives around to meet their most desperate wishes in life and in the process also left parts of themselves untended. There is guilt, pain and need. Now guess who will tend to whose wounds? Their dynamic is electric even when the central mystery flags towards the last few episodes of the show. I really hope Moon Geun Young is doing well and gets more amazing roles soon. She is so good here.

(Highly recommend @melonatures​‘s fic for putting that sizzling on-screen chemistry into words. HOW?!) Cherry Magic - Stories about painfully awkward people are my jam and Eiji Akaso gets Adachi’s shy, nervy energy so right. Cherry Magic is straight up just 12 hours of 🥺🥺🥺. 

Stranger/Secret Forest - I’ve been devouring the entirety of Agatha Christie’s work this year after Stranger reminded me how comforting murder mysteries can be. I love Bae Doona. I also love characters who don’t get social norms, not always because they are out to flout them but because that’s just not how their mind/brain works. (have to watch S2)

Flower Boy Next Door -  Honestly, the opening scene introducing Park Shin Hye’s character Go Deok Mi sold me on this immediately. An introverted, penny pinching copy editor living alone and working from home thanks to extreme social anxiety? Love. All the side characters are a lot of fun and I’ve never loved Kim Seulgi and Go Kyung Pyo more. It’s a warm show, slowly rounding off the sharp edges of every character.

JUST FUN

The Spies Who Loved Me -  It’s been a year of disappointing rom-coms and Spies kind of quietly turned it around for me. I want to be the fly on Yoo In Na’s wall as she figures how to play her characters. I’ve only seen her in 3 roles but somehow she always manages to be in character arcs that don’t short change her. Spies could’ve been and sometimes is the regular heterosexual fare, but In Na ups the ante over and over again, coming out on top as the smartest person in the room.

ENJOYED WITH *RESERVATIONS*

I have to watch A Piece Of Your Mind again because I don’t understand how Jung Hae In and Chae Soo bin built SO MUCH warmth and crackling chemistry with barely a kiss. I was iffy about how the whole AI thing started off and the tortured musician plotline (angsty male artists will forever be an eyeroll for me).

Park Min Young is a queen who never disappoints and When The Weather Is Nice is everything you want in a winter romance. My reservation was in how they explore so much of domestic abuse and the complex ways its traumatised the women in this family. I’m ok with the characters having imperfect ways of processing and understanding the violence, I welcome it. I’m not ok with the show dancing around whether the pivotal crime was justified/ self defence (it was).

A lot of dramas did this. I loved Han Yeri and Choo Ja Hyun in My Unfamiliar Family, I didn’t like the free pass the show gave their dad’s abusive character. 

Hwang Jung Eum’s comedy style is generally not my thing but she was pretty great in Mystic Pop-UP Bar. But I’m side-eyeing the sanctity surrounding motherhood. Maybe I should read more about babies and Korean folklore.

Hospital Playlist was my comfort watch through June and July. I think its wholesomeness and non-plot writing came at a good time for me. But I noticed then that the throughline for all main characters was moral superiority and hence what I then saw as *wholesomeness*. It’s kind of what makes it a grating rewatch in parts. Plus the real life of misogyny of Yoo Yeon Seok makes me want to push his angelic catholic character off a cliff. (For context, i was raised catholic). I want to continue loving Chae Song Hwa, and for that the showrunners need to stop cornering her with overbearing romantic interests (let that woman breathe! she literally ran away to another city!) 

Hospital is good at creating moments of comfort, so much so that I went to watch Reply 1988 after it, but had to drop it coz I couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’ll come back to it next year.

Once Again is what I call joint family propaganda. What it does well is lay bare the mechanics of living in a society that prizes the heterosexual family structure, the loops you have to jump through to hide when you break its rules and what happens when you are found out. I love the characters, their fights, their frustrations. I just don’t love the validation of joint families. (context: i grew up in an oppressive joint family lol). In my au, Nahee and Gyujin don’t get married again or immediately have children, but take the long route to figuring out how to love the person the other is. Gahee is openly dating Hyo shin and her parents have to figure out how to process her success and her romance. Young dal and Ok boon have to learn to stop dictating their children’s lives.  Joon sun runs his company from home, so his wife Hyun kyung can work on what she wants. Choyeon, Joori and Ga-yeon go back to being flamboyant AF and the market learns to not judge. Gyujin and Jaesok have to actually work on the relationship with their mother and what sent her into depression. Just a lot of learning involved.

Just Between Lovers was a nice watch, i just don’t get how Kang doo and Ha Moon So’s relationship will survive his constantly simmering anger. 

Crash Landing on You was so much fun until the main romance turned angsty, but it gave us North Korean soldier shenanigans and the epic romance of Seo Dan and Alberto Gu that we needed more of.

Tale of The Nine Tailed is probably what Goblin wished it was. I, however, will never be over Lee Rang. (Also, when can gods stop meeting their love interests as babies? Asking for my sanity)

I literally ignored everything in Oh My Ghost except Park Bo Young and Kim Seulgi and it was amazing. 

NOPE

Goblin, Dinner Mate, Oh My Baby and My Secret Romance were a whole lot of NO, NAHI, ILLAAA. 

I loved hate-watching The King:Eternal Monarch with the rest of k drama tumblr but someone please take away Kim Eun-sook’s access to gigantic budgets and all-star casts.

It was painful to watch Do You Like Brahms squander away its potential but I’m glad to be introduced to Park Eun bin. Age of Youth is next on watchlist.

More than Friends to me is only Ahn Eun jin. Someone give her amazing lead roles asap.

Why did Record of Youth do that to Park So Dam and her clothes? Just why

WANTED TO WATCH, BUT COULDN’T BECAUSE *INTENSE* 

World Of The Married, It’s Okay Not To Be Okay, Sweet Home, Extracurricular, Penthouse, Flower of Evil, Lie After Lie

WILL WATCH NEXT YEAR

SF8, Stove League, Birth Care Centre but I’ll start the new year with School Nurse Files coz it looks very good.

[a-student-out-of-time]

//That's called a Mary Sue. And speaking of that, is there any other character in the Danganronpa canon you considered one aside from Chiaki?

//Hoo boy. That’s a term I think is really misapplied to a lotof situations. I never actually said Chiaki’s a Mary Sue, andthat’s because I don’t think any incarnation of her is one.

//”Mary Sue” is such an overused and yet misunderstood conceptthat people  use. And oftentimes, it gets thrown around becauseit feels like it adds validity to criticism that I feel is franklyunearned. The reason for that is because Sueness isn’t acharacter problem, but symptomatic of a bigger writing problem.

//See, a lot of people think Sues are just unrealisticallyoverpowered, have no serious flaws, every person in the storyloves them no matter what they do, etc. but you can use thosetropes well with some quality writing and apply those to pretty muchany protagonist character from anime or superhero stories, butusually they don’t get called Mary Sues or Gary Stus or whatever.

//No, what really defines Sueness is that they warp the reality ofthe story around them. A character can be at the center of a story,but a Mary Sue warps the story so the entire universe revolvesaround them, whether it’s showing how great they are, how evilthey are, how much their life sucks, etc. That’s fundamentallywhat makes a Mary Sue or Gary Stu what they are: they’re at thecenter of everything and everything has to be about them insome way, shape, or form.

//Supporting casts, villains, side characters, plot, themes, allof it revolves around what the Sue does. All morals are defined aswhat the Sue thinks is right. All situations are resolved because ofwhat the Sue does. It’s all about them. Nothing else matters,nothing else exists.

//Now let’s look at Human Chiaki. She starts off as a quietgamer girl who originally didn’t have friends, but managed to getcloser to her classmates and bring everybody together throughher love of games. She opens up, has a great time with them, andbecomes their de facto leader, and also gets a lot of friendshipscenes with Hajime. All of which become poignantly tragic when shedies and everyone falls into despair.

//That’s it, really. That’s not a Mary Sue, that’s just afairly flat character. And really, you can make the same argumentabout everyone in Class 77: they’re side characters in a storythat should be about them. And even when theytalk about how great she is, not everything revolves around Chiaki.Hell, she’s not even around in a few episodes of despair side andthere’s plenty of moments when nobody talks about her.

//That’s one of the things that bugs me when people complainabout DR3. Hajime didn’t choose to become Izurujust to impress Chiaki, she was a small part of his ever-growinglist of insecurities. She didn’t solve every single issue inClass 77, she didn’t stop Junko, she couldn’t save anyone, andmost critically, she actually did kinda assist ingetting everyone to fall into despair by encouraging themto save Chisa. That lead them right into that trap.

//Human Chiaki isn’t a Mary Sue, she’s a nice girl leader typesadly suffering from a serious case of underdevelopment  Andit’s disappointing that people jump to “mary sue”to explain why, when really the issue is that she wasn’t givenmuch to do along with everyone else. DR3 Despair Sidereally revolves around Chisa, Ryota, and Junko.

//I actually liked Chisa, so I don’t have too many complaintsabout her other than disappointment in how her character arc ended.

//Ryota bugs me because he was created just to be the explanationfor how all this happened and they pour on all this angst and sadnessto make you feel for him when we literally didn’t know him untilthis anime existed. And honestly, if the anime didn’t spend somuch time trying to make us feel bad for him and dropped the stupidbrainwashing, I’d probably be more sympathetic. I at least applaudthem for going with him actually creating the brainwashing anime andit was completely his own fault.

//And that brings me to Junko. She’s really the closest to a Suein this situation, and frankly a lot of DR. It always has to comeback around to her, her schemes, her plans, her boredom, hermanipulation, her pulling the strings in some way, shape, or form.And DR3 really is the worst example of it, where she gets awaywith her plans completely unimpeded. Yet was too lazy to actually doanything, so went with “lol brainwashing.”

//The fact that the DR fandom has “It was really Junko allalong” and that they actually reference that fact in V3 is proofthat this franchise has a serious issue with revolving the situationaround a character that...frankly bores and annoys the hell out ofme.

//Junko just isn’t an interesting enough character in my opinionto hold this status as total and complete mastermind of everything.Not even in SDR2, which I actually really liked. It’shonestly everything that happens around her and because of herthat I find far more interesting. She sets into motion so much coolstuff and it’s really the people motivated to these things by heractions that make DR interesting.

//She’s supposed to be this profoundly intelligent manipulativemastermind, and I applaud Kodaka for not giving her a backstory asan excuse, but let me ask this: do we ever actually see heruse any manipulation techniques? Do we see her successfully turn orconvince anyone on screen? Do we see her successfully playing puppetmaster? Not really.

//The most we get are people saying she did or it happeninglargely off-screen. And what she does on screen in DR3 is just usingsomeone else’s creations and skills to achieve her own goals.Beyond that, most of what we get is her rambling about despair overand over to the point that it stops sounding like a word. Herattempts at manipulation always felt hollow to me, and maybe it’sbecause I’ve heard a ton of villain speeches before, but I wascompletely unphazed by all of her pseudophilosophical ramblings.

//That’s not just a dig at her. Characters that only everwhine about how life is boring, without meaning, imperfect, too hard,or whatever always annoy me. And especially when their logic forwhat they’re doing boils down to petty childishness andself-centered entitlement. I could write an essay about how muchI despise Adachi from Person 4 and completely fail to get why so manypeople love him, but that’d be getting off topic.

//Point is, based on the definition I provided, Junko is far moreof a Mary Sue than Chiaki is and the issues with DR3 go beyondcharacterization and extend more to having too little time towork with everything they have and devoting it to thewrong elements.  DR3 feels like a fist draft that was madeinto a final product.

//And also, that’s not me saying you shouldn’t like Junko. Ifyou like her and think she’s a compelling villain, go for it. Morepower to you. I’m not one to tell you which characters you can andcan’t like, I’m just explaining my opinion.

//I’d also prefer if people stop tossing around “marysue” like it’s a shortcut to criticism without analyzing what itactually means. It’s less of a character problem and more of anoverall writing problem. Your story should not be an eventhorizon bent around the singularity of a single character.