#without even acknowledging how bad it is that Hori did this to another female character

[problemswithbooks]

At least there’s still Mt. Lady, possibly HK’s best female Pro Hero.

Yeah, she's sadly the best we got. He managed to give her a mini arc about learning to work with others, and not be fame obsessed. I think from what little we've seen she's a decent character. But at the end of the day she gets less screen time then other side characters, like BJ. Plus, Kamui Woods got into the top 10 for his work during the Kamino Raid, but Mount Lady did just as much as he did, and didn't get that kind of boost. Woods doesn't even get a much depth as Mount Lady does, so that's kind of a weird choice in my opinion.

The thing is, I just find most of the fandom's reaction to Star and her poor treatment kind of disheartening. It's fine if people don't like her--she's not really given much depth to be liked for much more then her design and Quirk. And she is beating up a character people really like. But it's kind of frustrating to see posts about how awesome it is that Shig is gon'na kill her and it's what she deserves, while totally ignoring or even defending Hori's choice to introduce another female character as fodder for a male character to defeat in 4.5 chapters.

Like, I'm not saying Hori is a raging misogynist. All I'm saying is that due to being raised in a sexist society (which is pretty much everywhere) he has internal biases, which effect how he chooses to write and treat his female characters. This isn't even a solely male problem, there have been countless studies that show as soon as people know the gender of a baby--even before it's born, how they talk about it and perceive it change. Women aren't exempt form this, and I've seen this kind of sexist bias in books written by women.

So, it's a little weird when to see people say he's not being sexist, when it's so clear that he is. Star was never going to win--I knew that from the beginning and that was always my problem with his decision to make her a woman. At some point it seemed like she was going to be male, but he changed his mind--probably because he didn't enjoy drawing a man as much as a woman. I don't think he thought through the implications of changing the gender of the character or how it highlighted a pretty big problem in his writing--that he uses female characters as disposable objects that are nice to look at while they last.

A lot of his female characters could be replaced with a sexy lamp with a laser beam and not much would change. Like if this was a no-Quirk story, Star could be replaced with the the Tiamat Missile and AfO/Shig could steal it. All Star was there to do was to give Shig a free powerup and make him even more scary for the final fight. Lady Nagant could have been replaced by a voice recorder or video tape that info dumped the HPSC's crimes. Neither of these characters were necessary and that in and of it's self is an issue. They're there to look pretty and be sidelined or fridged for a male character's growth.

It was bad when he did it with Nagant, and it's bad now too. Yet, because Star was beating up a character they liked, a lot of people are saying she's a bitch, making fun of her and saying she deserved it--ignoring the fact she's not real so she can't make her own choices and was handcrafted by a male author who continues to use his adult female characters as punching bags. And it's just kind of depressing.

[arkus-rhapsode]

MHA Chapter 315 Discussion-An Almost Great Conclusion, But Misses It’s Mark

Hi guys, Rhapsode here and it’s time for another MHA discussion. I haven’t really done one in a while, but after reading 315, I had a lot of thoughts I was working through. And before I start I want to say, I do not think this chapter is overtly bad. I think there’s a lot of good ideas to it, and overall nothing objectively bad. However, as the climax to this Deku vs Lady Nagant fight, I felt it didn’t quite hit its mark (pun not intended).

If you want my brief opinion of this current arc of “solo Deku”, I actually enjoy it quite a bit. I’m happy Horikoshi refocused on Deku after such a long war arc. As well as Deku FINALLY be proactive in his hero duties. No longer on the rails of the school setting. And I have especially enjoyed his current fight with Lady Nagant.

In terms of sheer action, it’s got a tried and true set up of a sniper battle, but then adds to it by taking the fight into the air. The action is hectic in all the right ways with the unpredictable bullets cutting up Deku as he dodges them with Danger Sense. As well as the introduction to a new quirk of OFA.

But where this fight really shines is Nagant and her origin. Lady Nagant was hero assigned to maintain the illusion of order by getting rid of potential threats and heroes up to no good for the Hero Safety Commission. Until being told to kill in the name of improving society and any of her activities being covered up finally weighed on her and she killed the then president of the Commission and placed in Tartarus. While she’s only hunting down Deku because she’s assigned to, she says that even if AFO wants to rule the world, it’d be more transparent than a return to the status quo.

It’s honestly a great reveal as it finally puts out in the open the actual corruption in the system that’s hinted at, but was never really delved into. But now it also finally has Deku confront the problems of the status quo that he’s grown up in. This isn’t an ideological battle like with Stain on the definition of hero or reaching people who have fallen through the cracks of society like Gentle. This is real flaws with the system that people have had faith in from the mouth of someone who has done their dirty work.

It’s something I think a lot of people have wanted to see. And I’m glad Horikoshi finally did dive into it the structural problems of hero society.

So how does this all get resolved in 315? How does all this end? Well after Lady Nagant targets Overhaul and shoots at him to make the situation harder for Deku to focus, Deku without hesitation goes into trying to save Overhaul (despite knowing Overhaul is a villain), Deku homages All Might and then shatters Nagant’s arm, and finally Deku makes an observation that Nagant wasn’t really going to hit Overhaul and that if she seeing the darkness of society, she knows where to expose it as she still has the heart of a hero. Nagant should join Deku.

But then AFO activates an explosive power right as Nagant is coming around. The blast fries her as Hawks arrives and we’re left on the cliffhanger of “is she going to survive.”

Now after reading this, my feelings have been… mixed. Let me get out this out of the way there is nothing with this chapter I disagree with: I have no problem with Deku making an emotional appeal to Nagant, I have no problem with AFO acting like a heel, and I have no problem with Nagant not being fully evil and never intending to kill. I know that last one has upset some people, but given Nagant’s backstory of killing innocent people for others because they told her so is the reason she fell off her path in the first place. So it makes sense she never intended on killing anyone.

And I know some people have nitpicked how it’s the female villain who isn’t fully evil, but that honestly doesn’t matter to me. As narratively, this arc started with the attack by Muscular and Deku couldn’t reach him. So it’d make sense to potentially end this mini arc on an example of Deku reaching and reforming a villain. It also helps that Nagant has actual layers to her motivation that could actually allow her to be swayed away.

Now my real issue with this chapter is honestly a problem that I was afraid Hori would do after he introduced just how messed up the Commissions back dealings, it’s that Deku doesn’t really take any concrete stance on what should be done about this status quo. Instead, Deku focuses more on telling Nagant she is a real hero and he ultimately wins her over after showing how much a real hero he is.

While Nagant uses the term “fake”, “sham”, and “phony” when discussing heroes and hero society, it doesn’t address the bigger issue. Namely that she feels this way because of the corrupt and unheroic things the Commission has done to maintain faith in it. Deku offers no actual answer to the very real and very hard question she poses.

And his only real response is this:

(I’m being generous as there can be something lost in translation here and it’s a bit on the flowery side )

While Deku did acknowledge this world isn’t Black and white and he’s saying she can expose corruption if she works with them, he dodges actually offering a solution to her concerns about the status quo. Instead more time is devoted to the same kind of “I will save anyone” appeal he always does.

And while one could argue Nagant’s only on the side of AFO because his reign would keep the Commission from having the power they did, even if she doesn’t fully believe in him. She still poses why being ruled by AFO has its appeal to her and Deku doesn’t actually counter that. No pointing out the obvious anarchy that could result from this or how AFO uses even the people he claims to love like Shigaraki. Deku doesn’t rebuff anything and once again passes the tough decisions onto other people. With Hawks appearance here at the end and his baggage about killing Twice, I can very easily see cleaning up the commission as becoming his motivation going forward. Once again resolving Deku of actually needing to make hard calls or form stances.

This is compounded by the fact AFO just blows Nagant up. It really doesn’t matter if you rebuff anything that AFO has said or offered to convince Nagant to join you, there’s no way she’d work with him after he attempts to kill her. Which feels like it undercuts this conversation about morally gray society.

Look we all know that AFO is evil. The audience knows and this is absolutely what he would do, but if you’re trying to give all of the illusion that we’re finally confronting issues with society and bringing this up and why we would get people loyal to AFO or people like the liberators or people like stain. And trying to sway someone away, then just having him nuke them for having a change of opinion. then it undercuts any actual ambiguity of a clash built on addressing moral grayness. Which I feel is always been one of the strengths of MHA.

I was not expecting Deku to have a thesis on how he plans to dismantle the shady parts of society. Or go full Eren Yeager and become his own revolutionary. But when confronted by a villain who isn’t like Shigaraki or Toga or Twice, who fell through the cracks in the system and needed a safety net like Deku wants to be, Nagant was a part of the system. The corruption of society runs deep in her motivation and Deku doesn’t really address it beyond acknowledging its flaws. And yet his actions of “true heroism” are enough to sway her. It just feels incomplete. There is a brief line that you can interpret of him wanting to clean up the system, but it feels way too short for a moment like this. Deku being confronted by all the darkness of a system he admires should cause him to make some kind of stance.

And no, I’m not going to speculate on if Lady Nagant is actually dead and this will finally forced Deku to take a firmer stance or what have you. I do want to keep these discussions at least relative to when they are released and in this moment the thing that wins over Nagant is the same “save everyone”/“inspiration by example” Deku usually does. Which doesn’t feel as satisfying a conclusion as it could be.

Not helped by a good chunk of this chapter being taken up by explaining all the bits and bobs of OFA’s power system and finally explaining what exactly his third quirk does. This feels like padding when I wanted the space could’ve been used for character dialogue or a continuation of their conversation about the status quo.

I do want to repeat though that there is nothing outwardly bad with this chapter. There is no real objective failure in the writing. It’s just a case of, “ this could be stronger.” And that’s the frustrating part.

Tl;dr there’s a lot of things that are good about this chapter from a technical and narrative level. The natural progression of characters and the switching of allegiance makes sense.  however it’s just all shy of really living up to a lot of the stuff it sets up about society and going back to the status quo. As Deku doesn’t seem to have any real concrete stance beyond his usual.

And because a lot of the things around it are very good it makes it a lot more noticeable when it doesn’t quite stick the landing. Not helped by what feels like nothing more than padding with the explanation of quirk ability instead of character introspection about this very legit and difficult revelation. There is nothing outwardly bad, it’s one of those cases of something that could be an 8-9/10 ends up more as a 5-6/10.

That’s my opinion at least. But I am extremely interested in seeing where Hori goes with this. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

[vulpiximisa]

here is a post of Why I Like Nanamaru Sanbatsu which may or may not also be a Reasons Why You Should Watch Nanamaru Sanbatsu but it’s not made with the intent of persuasion and more of me just gushing over things because this isn’t spoiler friendly

1) Niche Sport

I’m not a stranger to “Sport but it doesn’t involve Ball or Sweat”. That’s a lie, the players sweat a lot in Chihayafuru. The fact that Sasaijma (and then another character in the later chapters in the manga) refer to Karuta is a reason enough to pick up the series. Hikaru no Go was one of my earlier sports anime as well. It’s not like I was a fan of Go or Karuta either but the way the characters wholeheartedly loved what they were doing (and competitively), it made me love it as well. The same definitely goes for Quiz Bowl. While the two I listed were something I completely had no clue how the rules go, Quiz Bowl is a bit more obvious so it’s easier to get into.

(kinda hate these promo pics because there looks like so many fcking charas but really you just need to remember like 5 of them)

2) Nerdy Protag in a Sports anime

Actually coming from YowaPeda, Crunchyroll recommended this amongst other things. YowaPeda did the trope a lot better, given that you’d never associate an Otaku with Biking while a Bookworm being associated with Quiz Bowl does not seem unheard of. But the idea of a nerdy protagonist in a competitive sport was still an allure. 

And oops, I think Koshiyama is a cutie so there’s a huge bias towards that. The fact that Horie Shun who voices Enta Jinnai from Sarazanmai voices Koshiyama Shiki gave me a laugh and he actually fits his role very well. Further emphasizes his cuteness without Enta’s weird gay crush lol

3) Ishikawa Kaito

I’m not above watching anime for seiyuu reasons alone but I actually went in blind with this series and to my surprise one of my favs was in it. I’d known Kaito mostly for Kageyama Tobio first, but he’s gone through so many other roles that I enjoy (Kaki from Pokemon SM, Iida from BokuHero, Mimura Subaru from 2.43) and I’ve watched a lot of seiyuu events/radios with him so I’m just a big fan of him in general. Dunno if I should have just merged this point with the next but-

4) Mikuriya Chisato

Kaito has The Range and can do whatever role he wants (I’m most impressed by his role as Alan from BNA) but I think I have a weakness for when he’s slightly an asshole. Mikuriya gave off the generic rival trope, which he kind of is. I got some Subaru vibes from him as well. I don’t know if he’s canonically handsome, but yes I think he’s very good looking for an anime character. Plus the fact that he’s The Cool Guy but is participating in such a sport as Quiz Bowl. AND the moe gap that is his feminine sounding first name and the possibility that he might also actually be an otaku is 👌👌👌👌

My friend had tagged something with him as “Chazz Princeton with a haircut” and while Not Entirely, he is the “We are not friends, we are rivals but I interact and help you enough that we are practically friends but i will continue to deny it” and I love that trope. The way he’s so not interested in Gorls or Nonsense reminds me of Manga Manjoume, though nowhere as serious because he is not above nonsense himself.

5) Fukami Mari

The moment she was introduced, I had very low expectations for her. Of course she is the one that drags Koshiyama into the Quiz Bowl world BUT she doesn’t fall into the trope of “Female is very good at The Thing, BUT Newbie Male MC does it better than her almost immediately”. I’m so glad for that because as you go on with the series, she is very much an entire character and not just a female support cast. 

She loves Quiz Bowl but she’s not the best or even very good at it. Her childhood friend from another school (which I was 75% betting that it was going to be a male and a potential love interest) turned out to be a female friend. Instead of “cat fight”, they are still very amicable towards each other and support each other but also acknowledge each other as rivals. The fact that Yuki had only started Quiz Bowl because of Mari but liked it enough to continue on by herself, I think that’s really great. 

The anime doesn’t get to it, but she confronts her brother about why he quit Quiz Bowl and challenges him. She has her own goals and ambitions and you see her working on it. She also has her strengths and weaknesses and is a vital addition to the Buzou Quiz Team. Fukami Mari is A Good Girl and I won’t tolerate any slander towards her. The way the beginning of the series sexuallizes her via putting her and Koshiyama into generic anime situations is so uncomfortable but I’m glad they move past that later.

Also since their group isn’t technically a Club (?) Mari isn’t just Female Manager. A plus to Quiz Bowl being Co-Ed sport.

6) Quiz Questions

I like trivia. It’s a little harder to guess the questions along with the anime because you’d have to pause all the time and half the time the contestants are going to buzz in early before you hear the entire question. Unfortunately, unless you actually are a fan of random knowledge or a huge nerd, the questions might actually be hard as well. I literally only knew about 3 questions asked in the entire series and its the anime/manga related ones lol. Still, I enjoyed seeing the characters draw their conclusions and to know what each character’s strong and weak points were. (Mikuriya using Math to calculate the Day of the Week from the past was 😚👌)

7) Side Characters

The first one I’m thinking is obviously Sonohara Akira. The moment of his first appearance, I had a hunch that it wasn’t exactly as it looked. He’s a little schemer but he has his own code of ethics, so he’s not all that bad. (Also hes A Gamer, so Relatable.) The fact that he’s related to Sonohara of Asagaoka makes it all the more interesting because they're’ so different. The way everyone reacts to him is so interesting because he doesn’t take it seriously while everyone else does. My favorite interactions with him aside from the Akiba Squad are the ones with Ookura. (I actually prefer to ship them over Niina/Akira lol)

Sasajima, mysterious Quiz Master with a past related to Fukami’s brother, who used to go to the Prestigious Quiz King School. Character wise, he doesn’t seem interesting but I love his idea of what a Quiz Bowl should be. My favorite parts of a series is when they love the thing they do, and that having fun is what is the most important. Of course you have to be fairly good at the thing first to be able to enjoy yourself freely but he never brags and is a supportive senpai.

Jinko. She’s cute. That’s good enough for me lol. I guess her Electronics Thing is also pretty cool. I like seeing the Sasajimas interact.

8) Ship

Okay, well, its obvious where I fall here. I don’t remember the last time I’ve watched such a generic sport series with a one on one protag vs rival. I’m not above shipping the “obvious/main” ship, as SasuNaru and Edgewright are some of my ships. However I didn’t ship Akira/Hikaru and I don’t ship KageHina but I do ship something like Manjoume/Judai and if asked MakoHaru vs RinHaru, I’d pick the latter, so it might just be a matter of tastes and I won’t fall immediately into every “rival” ship.

So why would I ship Mikuriya/Koshiyama? Because I love it when the Cool Guy falls for the Nerd and EXTRA POINTS if the Cool Guy is also secretly a nerd too. When I mean secretly a nerd, I don’t mean Mikuriya being on quiz bowl but that he might be a closet Otaku. (ImaSaka is everything about this trope.) 

Anyway, they are the main two rivals in the series, so of course they acknowledge each other. Koshiyama took it so dramatically but in the past, nobody cared about his presence, let alone think that he’s a Threat. Mikuriya is a Hot Shot and thinks he’s better than everyone but this newb with potential beat him one time (unofficially) so he’s automatically curious. 

Even though it is Hot Blooded Competition, Mikuriya always seems to encourage and cheer Koshiyama on (in his own rival-y way of course) whenever he feels down about not being strong enough to compete with him. (When they were lining up for the Third round at Asagaoka) Even when Koshiyama lost, after Mikuriya had a huge handicap, Mikuriya tells him he’ll take him on anytime. The fact that he wants to do Quiz Bowl with (against) him, is practically Sports Anime confession. “I won’t wait for you, Git Gud” “Okay I will Git Gud so we can fight again” *Fist Bump* What are you guys doing.

It might just be the art style but there is a copious amount of blushing happening every time the two interact. Also that height difference!! Mikuriya is 172 while Koshiyama is 153, I fucking love it. 

Uhhhh that’s about it. I would like to gush more but there’s only a few chapters of the manga that’s been fan translated and it’s not even half of what’s actually out there. (I think the manga is complete by now?) There’s only one anime season of the series, and I doubt there’s going to be more so RIP me.

[dabistits]

ok there’s some discussion on that post about mitsuki so i thought i’d just expand on my general thoughts wrt her and all the other characters. because, like, i don’t actually think characters like twice, midnight, aizawa, all might, gran torino, best jeanist (god why are there so many) and SO ON really need to be “called out” or anything. i was more annoyed with the hypocrisy and comparative leniency that male characters like aizawa get when they do slapstick-y things, but if a woman makes a ~problematic~ joke that the author thinks is funny, they get blacklisted to hell and back. anyways

to be clear, i do think these actions like smacking katsuki or pulling on shinsou’s scarf fall within the realm of slapstick comedy. for all that hori can be criticized for, i think he makes it very clear when violence is supposed to matter and when it doesn’t. whether or not violence should be played for laughs, and whether slapstick humor should exist is another discussion, and i think it’s one best reserved for discussing at the real world level, rather than isolating specific characters and deciding whether punching someone for laughs makes them an acceptable character to stan or not.

at any rate, i think hori has made it clear that he doesn’t think aizawa or best jeanist are bullying the students. i think he’s also been fairly clear that he doesn’t intend for that scene in the bakugou household to be read as abuse. and i, personally, am completely fine with accepting this, because once you start going down the rabbit hole of ‘who has done something they need to be called out for?’ you end up with... jirou punching sero out. katsuki shocking kaminari into his whey~ state. all the boys and teachers letting mineta do whatever.

and to be very straight with it, i just... don’t care. i don’t care about scrutinizing every character when they do something for ~comedy.~ aside from mineta, whose entire actual character revolves around harassing the girls, it has no bearing on their normal portrayal. no one continues to express real worry that aizawa is going to hit them or even that midnight is going to be inappropriate. it’s neatly confined into one segment, and then the scene moves on. it’s not meant to seriously color our perception of those characters.

on the other hand, i think it’s the serious stuff which is meant to be taken at face-value that’s much more harmful. like the weird sexualization of the teenaged girls without any joking commentary, the possibly semi-autobiographical projection onto enjizz and the desperate attempts to make readers sympathize with him, the complete lack of acknowledgment towards female abuse victims, the way hori might be navigating marginalization and villainy as correlation. i would much rather talk about those things than how best jeanist was mean to katsuki.

it’s not that people aren’t allowed to be uncomfortable with these characters, to not want to see them or see support of them, etc. it’s not that these conversations aren’t important, because there is comedy that can be dangerous! transphobic and transmisogynistic gags are bad. sexual harassment gags are bad. but is all slapstick bad? or just certain kinds? i can definitely see how it can translate into irl harm, but i’m not inclined to say people have to agree with me or have to treat it as a major pressing issue.

especially since the way we deal with this convo in fandom is really unproductive. we’re picking out individual characters and individual actions to critique, when the problem with slapstick lies with the work as a whole. so why isolate each character from the context (the humor of the series overall) just to pick at specific incidents? why is listing the sins of individual fictional characters more important than just... letting the characters be and actually expanding your critique to the work as a whole?

and i accept that some people will take personal issue with things that those characters have done! esp characters like mitsuki who are particularly fraught! but at some point we’re just going to have to concede that one person’s interpretation and opinion of severity isn’t going to be everyone else’s, and we should probably try to be okay with that. in more ambiguous topics like these, there’s really not going to be an easy right or wrong answer, and the larger picture is lost when you’re trying to convince people that a specific character is Bad for doing something canon did not mean to make serious at all.