#superamatista

[eat-a-dicker]

well, on the surface level, yes, but i firmly believe rei is just an entitled young man.

he definitely is a lot more intelligent than we are ever lead to believe, it's just not something UY prioritizes. one of the first things about rei that we learn is not only does he not speak any earth languages, but he also prides himself on being the most conventionally attractive man in the cast.

rei chooses not to learn any earth languages because he already has a culture he fits into. he doesn't need to learn anything else besides what he knows because his good looks will let him coast by in life without a second thought.

he is urusei yatsura's narcissist. a man who only prioritizes what he knows and what he wants, and this is why his and lum's relationship fell apart. he is handsome, yes, but he also has a stark unwillingness to engage with anything unfamiliar due to his entitlement. the man is selfish and stuck in his ways because the society he came from never challenged him to learn and grow in meaningful ways.

urusei yatsura criticizes cishet male culture a lot and rei is the character who embodies toxic masculinity in UY to T.

this is also my biggest issue with rei and ran. ran isn't a one dimensional wife blob of a character, she's an abuse survivor who's only been chasing rei for extremely superficial reasons. her entire persona of being a sweet hyperfeminine girl is only there to deceive her enemies and hide from real emotional confrontation. interestingly enough, the only character in the series ran ever opens up to in a real, authentic way is lum herself.

ran and rei as the series ends, are paired together, but it's this extremely superficial depiction of what looks like a situation that's going to implode fast and hard when ran finally discovers that rei doesn't care about her in a real way, he only cares about what she can do for him. funnily enough, this is not how he feels about lum. rei ends the series just as in love with lum as he was at the start, which. kinda says a lot about him. there definitely was a lot of him we didn't see.

[tabby-shieldmaiden]

have you watched/read Chainsaw Man? main character is male (as in the title) but there are many important female characters you might like, such as Power and Quanxi c:

I don't think I have. I've certainly heard good things about Chainsaw Man though, so who knows. Maybe I will check it out someday!

[yumedoca]

"Manga Kosuke" shows up in the anime more than once, including several episodes and at least one of the ovas, I think once he even got dialogue albeit in a crowd and not important dialogue.

Similarly curly haired stormtrooper shows up several times too, like once the Stormtroopers are throwing a party for Lum and he's just there with them and Ataru. Maybe it was the storyline where Lum left the earth and gave Ataru a doll of herself.

I also believe one Urusei Yatsura video game for the original Gameboy featured Perm and Kosuke; humorously they were an edit of the same base sprite!

Hai again, hope you're doing great!!

Since these were all sent by the same anon, I figured it was best to answer them all together..

Firstly, relating to the first two asks, I'm aware of Kosuke's cameos in the anime, the wiki has stated which all episodes it is and I very much know the most obvious cameo he made which would be in the 'Goat and Cheese' OVA, aka my favourite of the OVAs after 'Inaba the Dream maker'. I also do think I've seen Megane pop up sometimes in the manga, albeit it's very rarely and it's really hard to miss, but I do remember spotting him for at least one or two cameos (didn't know about Chibi though, I'll keep an eye out next time). The video game fact is really cool though!! Onto the next few asks...

Actually, I'm pretty sure that Megane was actually the one who got most of Kosuke's roles, funnily enough, in the last Kosuke ask I answered, @superamatista said this as well..

..one example being in electric jungle, the one who joined AtaMenShino in saving Lum was Kosuke in the manga but in the anime it was Megane. The main and obvious reason for this is because in the manga, Kosuke is Ataru's closest friend, but in the anime, Megane is given that role instead (while still having the antagonistic side to him), so naturally a lot of his dialogue is given to Megane instead. It's been a while since I've binged the original anime all together, but I've watched a bunch of UY episodes from the original series a while back after reading the manga chapters for them since I was curious how the anime would've adapted those chapters and literally most (like around 80-90%) of the lines and role belonged to Megane, even if he has added original bits. Now that I think about it properly, I think the other three stormtroopers mostly get their lines from Hokuto and the other nameless boys in the class, mainly Chibi and Kakugari (but there might be a rare chance where they do get Kosuke's lines I don't really remember though). Perm's lines are a combo of the nameless boys and a little bit of Kosuke, while Megane's is mostly Kosuke. Of course, they have added original lines which would suit their character added to the dialogues as well. I feel like the cases where they don't give Megane Kosuke's role and give it to Perm instead, is either when Megane already had a large original role or when the role doesn't fit Megane's character. The best example of the latter is the double date AtaLum went with Kosuke and his girlfriend, while in the anime it was Perm and his (not really) girlfriend because Megane WOULD NOT ever go a date with another girl, he's too dedicated to Lum and I think they even lampshade this.

And yes, I am aware Kosuke (and Hokuto) were in the first chapter, and then they disappeared for a while and reappeared permanently in chapter 26 I think. As to why I think Perm and Kosuke are different (and why I like Kosuke more) is mostly based on opinion really. And I'll be honest now, I've never really cared much about the stormtroopers (so sorry anon but it's true), I don't hate them but I don't really love them all that much either, Megane is the only one I like and it's mostly because of Shigeru Chiba's performance (great guy). The stormtroopers to me is just 'Megane and the others' because it's literally mostly Megane and to me at least, the others are just the one dimensional members of his gang. Since they show them off as 'mostly Megane' because favouritism, it's only natural that I don't pay much attention to the others. The only thing I remember Perm doing is going on the double date and that's it. But it isn't like that for Kosuke! To me, Kosuke has a sort of charisma that all of Rumiko's characters have, even the nameless students of class 2-4. I feel like the stormtroopers don't have this specific charisma since they are mainly Oshii's characters, not Rumiko's. I get Kosuke may not be the most noticeable character, but once you start paying attention to him, you'll get to see what a great guy he is. He's silly and a goofball and a very friendly guy, a good friend to Ataru and even though he does simp over Lum a bit, he isn't stormtrooper level obsessed, he only really is against Ataru when he does or thinks he'll do something wrong (unless he's a part of his scheme lol). He's decently popular with girls, he has a girlfriend (which even Mendo and somewhat Ataru don't have) and has got chocolate from a junior on Valentine's Day and he seemed to be getting along well with the girls at Asuka's school as well. His horny level is on average since he has been shown to read porn mags and such but he doesn't disrespect or grope women in real like like Ataru does. On his date with his girlfriend, they wore matching clothing and he seems forgiving of the fact that she's a huge eater and that she's a burden on his wallet, showing he does really love her (I distinctly remember Perm in the anime version stating he'll throw his girl off a cliff or something for Lum but I'm not sure if it's a real scene or not, I can't remember). Kosuke is one of the biggest menaces in the class with Ataru and Mendo, and teams up with Ataru and on rarer cases Mendo too to take Onsen down. And Kosuke just have a lot of moments I remember, the time where he was indirectly the cause for AtaLum to fall for the other (Megane did this in the anime), the time when he and Ataru and Mendo got drunk at school late at night, the time he got kidnapped by Mendo's giant octopus, all the times Kosuke and Ataru whack the shit out of Onsen and his little comedic remarks which feel much funnier in the manga than when said in the anime cuz the anime exaggerates the bigger jokes causing the smaller ones to fall flat (the jokes in the manga remain in a good balance and most of the jokes are around the same level of funny) Kosuke just has a lot to him which Perm doesn't have because only some of these things were either mostly reserved for Megane or split among the other stormtroopers or if you are talking about friendship, the stormtroopers together are much worse friends to Ataru than Kosuke. And like that, I disagree with the Perm is much more complex than Kosuke bit too. The manga omakes literally have an entire huge analysis on Kosuke (which makes me love him even more) and that's says a lot.

I think if I had paid more attention to Perm and the other two, maybe I can get more things to be interested about? But I feel like the average viewer would pay the most attention to Megane and just regard the others as extras. And I'm so sorry if any part made it sound as if I was insulting them cuz I didn't mean to and was only stating how they seemed to me personally. And it's cool if anon or anyone really, loves the stormtroopers or Perm over Kosuke, whatever it is, I know how it is to love small underrated characters and we're all different and have our own perspectives and that's what makes us unique, and in the end, we are fans of the same series.

Considering I've answered five asks at once, I am going to declare that this topic is closed (I'm sorry, I have other stuff to do). Microsoft Word says that this entire post is over a page long so do me a favor and reblog this if you love Kosuke :)

[ladyloveandjustice]

I've been thinking about what makes a character “relatable” and that made me think about how Fullmetal Alchemist is always praised for its female characters (and I agree, they're great!) but I don’t know if any of them could be considered “relatable”. Do you think any of them are? Besides Sheska

I actually think the reason I connected to Winry so much back when I read the manga was because I do relate to her quite a bit. Her geeky passion for automail reminded me of my own passions (and that why I’m scared that I feel so disconnected from my passion lately, off topic...), and I think what I especially related to was that her struggle revolved around feeling helpless. Around feeling she could do nothing more than wait and be locked out of the loop. It’s a struggle that comes up for me quite a lot, and I think it’s a struggle a lot of people share. It’s hard and scary, feeling like you’re powerless. It’s hard to endure tragedy and keep getting up every day. Winry didn’t have a life that was wrapped up in the bigger action scenes, and helped people in ways that weren’t always noticed, and a lot of times she felt like she didn’t make a difference, and I think that’s a big reason why I connected with her. Plus there was the fact she was very emotionally driven, and cried easily, and so on. I’m not like her in a lot of other ways, but there was something expressed with her character that resonated strongly with me (especially at that time) otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to ramble about her so much.

I dunno if that’s the specific kind of “relatable” you’re talking about, but those are my two cents. If I do strongly connect with characters, I often do have some kind of common ground with them, even if they’re not like me in a lot of other ways. I would agree characters like Izumi or Olivier could be hard to relate to, but I can also see people relating to like, May’s goofiness when it comes to love or Riza’s self loathing.  

[gabzilla-z]

superamatista: Tamao's crush wasn't even reciprocated. Poor girl

fandom was never nice to shy girls with crushes on the main character, especially back then

tbh her future self turning into an Anna clone that ends up caring for the son of her old crush and the girl he married felt written by somebody who hated her

truly a fate worse than death shipping wise, what is this? Vampire Knight?

flaydowsk: Who was the incest ship? Horohoro and sister?

Yoh was shipped with Hao, his evil twin/ancestor reincarnation

[jageunyeoujari]

what's the twink aesthetic? because I've seen pretty much every somewhat attractive thin guy with no facial hair (or very little...) get called "twink" regardless of age or sexuality XD

(...this is a joke ljfhfgh) (junkrat is not a twink)

FOR REAL, ppl misuse twink all the time to the point it’s meaningless but it’s a young, thin, hairless, & relatively attractive gay man w a boyish face. kpop idols are mostly all like that bc that’s appealing to their demographic of mostly young women (but obviously it’s not actually intentionally gay as an industry which is why i said it’s a twink aesthetic tho).

but yeah, online it gets referred to any man tho..... imagine saying soldier 76 or mahershala ali are twinks (real examples)

[gxldencity]

lol about the Hades/Homestuck thing because I did NOT make that connection at all, I keep seeing him as "hot dude!" and every other character as really hot people XD

hkasafsd exactly lmao

[thankskenpenders]

not to be rude but, how do you write a good m/f romantic relationship? Not “what NOT to do/bad examples”, I mean good examples. Because I’ve seen a LOT of people who say they dislike straight romance that’s “too unrealistically happy all the time and has no drama”, but then all the other problematic tropes appear.

I don’t think a couple needs to be happy ALL the time, but I do think showing them actually enjoying each other’s company and being supportive of each other is a huge step that many writers miss. In their quest for drama, some writers take “well they can’t ALWAYS be happy, there needs to be CONFLICT” and create couples who are almost never happy

If you do want drama, though, it’s good to actually think about what the SOURCE of the drama is. Many writers seek to create conflict between the two lovers, which isn’t INHERENTLY bad, but often manifests as constant bickering, childish love triangles, cheating, drama caused by simple misunderstandings that should have been resolved quickly, or–in the worst cast scenarios–unintended depictions of emotional abuse

Here are just a few other options to make things dramatic: Maybe some life circumstances or external conflict are keeping the couple from getting as close as they’d like. Maybe they start out as enemies, but start to realize that they have good chemistry and a lot in common and set aside their differences. Maybe they’re worried that they’re starting to grow apart. Maybe one or both parties is actively striving to be a better person for the sake of the relationship. It could be an INTERNAL conflict for one party, rather than a conflict between the two of them. Maybe they’ve known each other for a long time, and they’re only just now realizing that they like each other and dealing with the ramifications of that. Maybe unforeseen circumstances bring them together. Maybe one party discovers something about the other that complicates their relationship

Or, hell, the drama doesn’t even have to center on the relationship if it isn’t specifically a romance story. You can have the couple go through any number of conflicts caused by external forces, and show how they try to get through it together

There are lots of options, really! It’s just that we see the same few stories retold so many times in popular genre stories and sitcoms and whatnot that they start to clog up our minds. And hell, even a good number of those tropes I listed earlier aren’t total trash, they’re just overused and often poorly written

If you want some examples of stories with straight romance that I actually like, here are a few: The Good Place, which has several romantic subplots and shows that love triangles can actually be tolerable if the characters just talk it out like ADULTS instead of trying to stab each other in the back. Eureka Seven, which is maybe my favorite anime ever, focuses on a teen love story where the characters both strive to be better people for each other, and it also has mechs with hoverboards and great music. The recently released Spider-Man: Far From Home made Peter and MJ just precious–and hell, I liked their older counterparts in the PS4 game, too. The Secret of Monkey Island was one of the earliest games to subvert the damsel in distress love interest trope. And Cucumber Quest has a sweet fairytale romance subplot with Carrot and Princess Parfait (and also a bunch of lesbians)

And hell, on the subject of Sonic, he and Sally are pretty good together in most episodes of SatAM

[bogleech]

there's a recent manga that you might enjoy, called Heaven's Design Team, an edutainment for adults (lol kinda) of human-looking supernatural beings who create animals the way designers and artists work on commissions. Scientfically accurate but not from a historical POV (it's a comedy), it even includes sources at the end of every chapter. Also there's a cute goth lady who loves "gross" animals, a snarky fashionable trans lady, and the reminder of how truly weird koalas are.

Oh this does look like a top-notch concept from just the first page I saw on google

[mononokehunters]

7,8

7. Something that makes your character happy

Genuine human compassion. Seeing people be kind to each other, just because they care, makes Kusu really really happy. An older sister treating her brother, neighbors helping each other clean up after a storm, a woman taking in a stray cat. All the little direct things people can do to be kind. It's a sign that it's possible for people to learn and grow and maybe his tenure in this position won't last forever, as unlikely as it is.

Other than that a fresh bowl of ramen is a close second.

Hyper is easy to please, he's happiest when he's out and being the center of attention with friends.

He'll settle for ramen too tho XD

8. Something that makes them laugh

Not much. You may get a chuckle out of Kusu at bitter irony. He sees way too much of it and at some point you just have to laugh. So, gallows humor basically. A well placed pun might get a snort out of him too.

Hyper would get a huge kick out of Japanese comedy duos.

[skyhopedango]

superamatista replied to your photo: So these are the candidates for AnimeJapan’s...

I diagree about Ponytail Shota because if Boku no P**o is still a meme, it’ll most likely become one as well. The rest? Agreed, esp. Spy x Family, which only has 20 chapters currently so it’s only a matter of time

I suppose you could be right, although it’s worth noting that BnP’s memetic value comes from the fact that it’s actual... how to say this without Tumblr flagging this post... that it’s meant to accompany and aid certain acts that people, in this case, men, do to relieve certain urges (BnP being targeted squarely at dudes, while I’d say Ponytail Shota kind of straddles the line), however it has a setting that many people not familiar with this particular niche wouldn’t associate with that kind of content. So it’s easy... well, I guess, used to be easy, to trick unsuspecting people into watching it and then lol at their reactions. Ponytail Shota however is most definitely not that sort of content, it’s just a garden variety “oniichan has heartwarming adventures and also very very inappropriate romantic tension with his innocent imouto/cousin who adores him” thing except with a shota, and what with the title you can’t even trick people into thinking it’s not what it says it is. Or so I would think, but then I’m not a 4chan meme hero so what do I know. :D

...and here’s my post taking BnP and Ponytail Shota a lot more seriously than even their creators have taken them! :D

As for Spy x Family, yes, I also think it’s just a matter of time/amount of content. It’s totally getting an anime sooner or later.

[forthegothicheroine]

one picture from a pamphlet of the infamous witch-hunter Matthew Hopkins shows several witch familiars, most of them in animal form, with their respective names. All I could think is 1)why do you hate single women living with pets and 2) these familiars would make a great team of magical beasts

Familiars always look so cute in movies, even when they’re supposed to be scary.

[tabby-shieldmaiden]

hey there, I saw your post on female characters you like and I wanted to ask, which examples do you know of girls who sleep around and are heroes and "action girls with varying amounts of fangirl and/or sisterly energy to balance them out"? I just don't know of specific examples but I definitely CAN think of cool older ladies, stripperrific heroines with personalities and feral little girls ^.^

Well, for girls who sleep around I can think of a couple of examples. Those being Panty Anarchy from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, and Jolyne Kujo from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Admittedly there aren’t a large number of these types which I can think of, but I think I put them in my post because I liked them very much, because thinking about it they’re still a pretty rare breed.

As for the fangirl/sisterly energy types. Well, there’s quite a number. But two examples I always think of for fangirl are Ruby Rose from RWBY, being a cool scythe welder who’s also a weapons fangirl, and Carol Kincaid (especially in her younger days) from OKKO. I love, love, love it when warrior types really like being a warrior. As for sisterly, also from RWBY the person who comes to mind is Ruby’s older sister Yang Xiao Long. But in general, I think cool older sister types show up fairly often, at least in my experience.

Thanks for asking by the way, I’m always up for infodumping and discussions around female characters. Hope you have a nice day.

[incorrectfmaquotes]

Envy, about shapeshifting: I gotta say, it took me a long time to get used to - the hanging bits.

Lust: Gross.

Envy: Oh, get your mind out of the gutter, Lust. I was talking about my testicles.

[ladyloveandjustice]

with the Fruots Basket reboot, the same arguments there were over 10 years ago re-emerged, on how the seres is sexist and regressive with gender roles and how it normalizes and romanticizes abuse. I'm also seeing the same old criticisms on how "ALL shoujo manga in general is Bad because it's misogynist and teaches girls outdated gender norms and to forgive abuse". I disagree, but it worries me how common those things are in shoujo. Other than Utena, not many series subvert or avoid them

Most manga from FB’s era is likely to have some Shit in it, and while I do think the Shit is worth discussing, acting like it’s some huge shocker a manga from the late 90s doesn’t get an a plus on gender politics or that this makes the series garbage with no positive elements is, uh. I do remember the Shit vaguely, but there’s also good and touching aspects that are worth celebrating. Nuance! it exists!

yeah the common patterns of abuse apologism in shoujo overall got a good article recently, its good to discuss! but, as the very article points out, shonen isn’t any better broadly when it comes to how a lot of series normalize abuse, sexual harassment/assault, regressive gender roles. It’s just since romance isn’t a main focus and they tend to do it as (harmful) comedy ppl are more willing to forgive. (also bc of misogyny buuut. )

The article above also pointed out Ore Monogatari and Kimi ni Todoke as examples of healthy romances in shoujo (and Ore Monogatari aggressively calls out victim blaming). I think you’ll actually find a good amount of shoujo that can subvert or interrogate tropes wrt gender roles, abuse and relationships. And definitely quite a few that simply avoid those elements. I can make a list one day, but don’t feel like it rn. the shoujo classification is vvvveeeeerrrry wide. 

Instead of saying shoujo is bad, try to ask them to say “all manga created by Japanese women for girls is bad as well as all anime aimed at girls”. If they’re comfortable saying that, just give up on them, they’re pretty clearly racist/misogynist.

[gabzilla-z]

superamatista replied to your post: As someone who hates the ending but loves the rest...

was the shipping wars THAT bad?? I wasn’t in the fandom but I do remember the hate Ana received. Looking back she was a great character

Tamao got a lot of hate, and while Anna was very popular, there was HUGE amounts of “die for our ship” directed at almost every female character, from all sides

then there was the incest ship being one of the most popular ones... so yeah