#ginta suoh

[ashesandhackles]

I love it when writers subvert your expectations from a scene

I am going to put my extensive shoujo reading teenage years to good use and talk about elements and writing choices I like.

So, today I talk about Marmalade Boy and a couple from the series that honestly deserves more love - Ginta and Arimi. (As usual, I wasn't invested in the main couple, but they are alright in the manga. I heard they are intolerable in the anime ).

Scene begins here: Ginta and Arimi have been growing closer throughout the manga and they have been hanging out. Ginta contemplates telling Arimi his feelings.

He makes up his mind and being the genki boy he is... It comes out this way.

And the mangaka takes the scene in a HILARIOUS direction.

Oh, Arimi. More self assured and confident girls in media pls. Most shoujo mangas (and let's face it, the YA market as well) have girls with little to no self esteem as leads. Teenage is a very heightened time where there is confusion about so many things - identity, place in world, sexuality, world that your parents shape vs what your friends shape. It is possibly easier to project yourself onto a more "I can't believe they like me" kind of leads. A sentiment that is captured in that One Direction song "you don't know you are beautiful, that's what makes you beautiful" (lol wtf).

Anyway, moving on. Arimi not only saying that she knows Ginta likes her, but cheerfully tells him that it shows in his behaviour.

And this funny scene moves into a very sweet, tender place.

Arimi has come off from a very intense, unrequited first love. And she talks about what she feels around Ginta is not "heart racing" like she did with her first love. But there is also no "anxiety, despair and tears". "I feel safe, cherished. The feeling that I can be a gentle girl. "

Adorable.

Manga: Marmalade Boy by Wataru Yoshizumi.

[bluryphoton]

Ginta Suoh [Marmalade Boy]

[emotionally-attached-protag]

Ginta Suoh, King of Second Hand Embarrassment

[emotionally-attached-protag]

I like how Ginta is growing as a character.