#kelsey liveblogs friends

[daisyachain]

I really think the ‘worst timing’ Futaba talks about is just who got there first. Touma looms over every part of AnF from start to finish whether he needs to or not. Even in vol 5 where Taichi’s last reason to think about him is cut off (Futaba no longer thinks she likes him, everyone forgot the accident, Akito is officially not his crush)—especially in vol 5-6—the POV can’t stop picking him out of corners or catching his eye from afar. Taichi’s obsessed with him for good or ill from the first page and whatever form those feelings take from resentment or jealousy and back again, Touma just happened to be there first

[daisyachain]

Trying to look at fan stories (comic, fic, illustrations with a loose plot) for Mob makes me feel like I’ve gone insane. Ritsu and Teru canonically like each other. They’re canonically friends. Not only are they friends, but they hang out when Mob isn’t around and Ritsu calls Teru by his nickname. Every single piece of work out there with a sitcom feud between them is an act of gaslighting

[daisyachain]

Abe was meant to be the shadowy Fleet Admiral of the Imperial Galactic Dominion or whatever except for the happy accident of fate that he was born in the 20th century and signed up for baseball

[daisyachain]

[throws dart at wheel] Gon losing his arm is a representation of [follow-up throw] his severing of his relationship with Killua [nails top of board] instead of his following in Kite’s path. The significance of Killua healing Gon’s arm and then leaving [puts hand over eyes] is that Gon’s journey in the Chimera Ant arc is of fully abandoning Killua without realizing that Killua is his own left hand (or right hand if we go by the loss), and failing to win without Killua to bail him out. Killua getting Nanika to heal him means that Gon’s arm healing is Killua restoring himself to Gon’s side, and then Killua’s departure is him telling Gon to start operating as a whole and complete being without him.

[daisyachain]

I like that Kou knows he likes Mitsuba but the problem is he can’t come to terms with being (metaphorically and literally) bisexual, and Mitsuba knows he’s gay but the problem is he can’t come to terms with getting attached to a kid who is alive (applies to Mi-tsu-ba), an exorcist destined to hunt him down (also Mi-tsu-ba), and also a total square (both)

[daisyachain]

There’s something so beautiful about how cringissimo Ikalgo is compared to Killua the coolest. Exactly what he needed as a friend.

[daisyachain]

another fine addition to my collection

[daisyachain]

Having caught up to the translated chapters I could find on The Three Manga Websites. Why does everyone talk about Yuri Espoir as if it’s a romance anthology and not a thriller /horror

[daisyachain]

subtext in this chapter breaking my gauge

[daisyachain]

Male authors cannot and will never stop writing the character archetype of The Attractive Charismatic Politically Radical Man is in Love With Me [cough] I Mean My Protagonist But I [cough] I Mean He Doesn’t Like Him Back Because He’s Not Gay. Why Would He Be Gay. Does He Look Gay. Does This Seem Gay to You.

[daisyachain]

I’m interested in seeing where Hikaru goes without expectation. It’s done a super solid setup that hasn’t had any one aspect that hooked me, there’s no big anvil hanging over that I’m expecting to drop.

So it’s not necessarily a request or need I have that ‘Hikaru’ end the story as an agreed-upon separate entity. I still think it’s clear from the story so far that ‘Hikaru’ isn’t a replacement for Hikaru or even a metaphor for Hikaru undergoing some big transformative personal moment (coming of age or whatever). He’s not Hikaru. He’s not even not-Hikaru. His relationship with Yoshiki isn’t at all like Yoshiki’s relationship with Hikaru. It doesn’t make any sense for him to replace Hikaru, and I don’t want the series to end with Yoshiki reconciling with the truth of ‘Hikaru’s presence and deciding to make do. Or if it does, I want it to stay clear that he’s accepting something totally different (‘Hikaru’ isn’t even an imperfect substitute for Hikaru. He’s just another new guy that Yoshiki has met). There was one brief moment where Hikaru and ‘Hikaru’ talked and that’s the truth of the story

[daisyachain]

haruna and akimaru childhood sweethearts compulsively married earthshattering loveless resentful undivorce because it’s the 1950s and they can’t just leave this mess of a relationship

[daisyachain]

Unrequited love subplots can add interesting and/or compelling drama to a story, but when added on to a romance they straddle the line between boring and annoying. In a romance the main pairing’s supremacy is a foregone conclusion. Even in a reverse/harem situation you can usually tell which is the love interest and which are the spares. Having some loose end character mooning over an MC means you’re wasting story time on a dynamic destined to go nowhere, contribute nothing, leave one side character banging against a blank wall of disinterest forever.

Not so Blue Flag. Whatever the hell else is going on, the unrequited love dynamic sure isn’t one-sided. Though it differs in tenor both characters involved have an immensely important and shifting relationship to each other. It’s not a case of one character being locked hopelessly in the designated loser slot; ending aside, Taichi contributes as much to the dynamic as Touma. There’s a charge between them. There’s something that each of them seeks in the other to resolve. The unrequited aspect of it doesn’t drag Touma’s character down because he’s written well as a person with hopes and aspirations that have nothing to do with, let’s face it, a dumb indulgence on his part. Despite the label of Romance the romance isn’t a be-all end-all, and the unrequited love subplot becomes interesting by asking: well if the love isn’t what’s requited, what is requited between them?

[daisyachain]

Shadows House is so much fun because you start with the characters out with their government assigned co-dependent pair. The relationships between these pairs are about as toxic as you’d expect out of a bunch of well-meaning 12-year-olds. Then the emancipated kiddos break free of it! They strike out for independence, for personhood, for separation from their assigned hierarchies.

Only, sometimes in the rush to throw off the poisonous mistreatment of the Mansion, they forget that a relationship is simply a relationship. Their assigned pairs weren’t bad pairs because they were assigned. There is in fact a new kind of freedom to be found in choosing a love for the people you have to spend time with. The characters who treat their relationship as a given because it was given to them suffer, the characters who push each other away are drawn back together, the characters who intentionally strengthen their bonds prosper.

[daisyachain]

Askeladd as a sort of reverse Flint. Based or baseless?

[daisyachain]

The Kominato Kyoudai are just the one oasis of ‘wow fucked up’ in the blissfully flat, pat world of Daiya. Kuramochi, chasing Ryousuke because he’s still desperate for some kind of belonging and Ryousuke has a very clear rubric for his to get in his good graces. Haruichi chasing Kuramochi not because he wants to be friends, rather, because getting close to him is getting close to Ryou by proxy. Kuramochi befriending Haruichi but deliberately keeping him at a distance because that way he can enforce the special-ness of his relationship with Ryou (not by making it any closer, but by stopping another one from getting as close). Ryou ignoring Haruichi in person while ignoring Kuramochi by text, being closer to Haruichi and friendlier with Kuramochi, watching over Haruichi but trusting Kuramochi. Ryou just plays his two underlings against each other and doesn’t even feel satisfied with the results.